Geniza Lab

Letters of the gaʾon of Baghdad Shemuʾel b. ʿEli. See description under Yevr. III B 1131, and see ENA 4011.74.

Letter from Natan b. Avraham, probably in Damietta, to Natanel b. Ravah, in Fustat. In Hebrew. Dating: Probably Spring 1038 CE. Natan is on his way to Palestine; his next stop will be Tinnīs. He refers to economic and family crises. He underwent bloodletting on Friday and received visitors in the home of his host Ḥusayn b. ʿAllān instead of going to synagogue on Shabbat. On verso there is an unrelated liturgical text (added at a later date). (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter addressed to Abu al-Fakhr al-Saadya from Zechariah b. Hayyim in Palermo (‘al-madina’) concerning commercial matters; dated September 1172. (S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Friedman, India Book, 97, 99) EMS

Letter from the Karaite Natan b. Yiṣḥaq, Jerusalem, to his teacher Shelomo b. David b. al-'Arishi, Fustat, approximately 1050.

Note describing that money for cheese had not arrived, and may be lost on both sides. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer mentions Minyat Zifta; urges the recipient not to delay with something; mentions the wālī, the qāḍī and the mushrif; mentions a letter from the Nagid; says he will arrive in place of his letter as soon as he can; urges the recipient to bring a petition before the wālī of Damietta (רפע תוקיע); and offers congrulations for the holidays. The letter is addressed to Abu Isḥāq Ibrahīm.

Recto: About seventeen Hebrew verses, likely from a superscription of a letter, in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Verso: Treatise ending on the patience of the pious ( צבר אלצאלחין ). (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Letter describing the claims of the writer's brother-in-law on the half of a house that was sold by the mother to her daughter, the writer's wife. Join by Oded Zinger. For a detailed edition and analysis, see Zinger (2018), "'One Hour He Is a Christian and the Next He Is a Muslim!' A Family Dispute from the Cairo Geniza." Note that Goitein in at least one place mistakenly cites T-S 8J20.26 as T-S 8J20.16 (Med Soc 2:393, 612). He may also discuss this document (Med Soc 3:179, 464; EMS).

Letter from Marduk b. Musa from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. In the handwriting of Avraham b. Farah, August 10, 1046. Information about ships that arrive from Mahdiyya. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 764-766, #529). VMR

Letter from Yūsuf b. Faraḥ al-Qābisī, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. The writer is about to travel to Fustat and he asks Nahray to secure an apartment for him and to lock it. As long as the apartment is clean, he doesn't care where it is or how much it costs (r8–11). The reason Yūsuf has not yet traveled is that he has been staying in Alexandria with his brother, Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ, who is sick with fever and chills (v7–8: wajiʿ bi-bard wa-ḥummā, which seems preferable to Gil's reading of wajaʿ kabīr wa-ḥummā). "This has increased my preoccupation on top of what I already had." (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #511.) VMR. ASE.

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham to Abū Zikrī Kohen. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Apart from the address, only two other pieces are preserved: the first line of the letter ("The letter of your noble excellence arrived, and it was the happiest letter that arrived...."), and the last two words of the margin of recto: "in Ghulayfiqa," i.e., the seaport in the Tihāma region of Yemen just south of al-Ḥudayda. ASE. AA.

Letter from Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ, Alexandria, to Yosef b. Eli, Fez. 6 November 1056. Discusses goods arriving from al-Andalus, Italy and the Maghrib; mentions cotton, fruit, textiles, oil and honey.

Letter from Mevorakh b. Natan ha-haver containing congratulations to Passover for Shelomo ha-Rofe and "the sons of the generous Yeshua" (Hebrew: "Benei Yeshua Ha-Nadiv"). Verso: The sons contributed to the Holy City, and are congratulated at their father’s life span (“old age”). (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR and EMS

The document begins with four faint lines from the end of a text concerning a halakhic problem and ends with the expression ישע רב , characteristic of Shelomo ben Yehuda. The remaining seven lines of text, in a different hand, constitute a letter dealing with the status of orphans and contain a noteworthy interpretation of Babylonian Talmud Baba Metsia 70a and Arakhim 229. (Hebrew Bible Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, Vol. 1, ed. M.C Davis and H. Knopf, 259-60) EMS Verso: Leviticus 8:9-11, 8:4-6, with the name Yosef in a different hand in the margin. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a certain Efrayim concerning consignments of wheat and sums of money, written in a very polite form with many Hebrew phrases, among them biblical citations such as Deuteronomy 26:11. (Information from CUDL) See also Goitein's index card.

Fragment of a letter from Perahya Yiju to Abu al-Fakhr Ibn al-Amshati. Written in al-Mahalla, ca. 1161-72.

See PGPID 2064 for description and tags. Frenkel's transcription is here, Goitein's there.

Letter from Alexandria to Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment: Bottom half only. Dating: There are reports of men seized for forced labor to dig a ditch around the city. Goitein and Frenkel both suggest that this reference can date the document to 1219 CE, during the fifth crusade. The crusaders besieged Damietta from May 1218 until November 2019 when they finally took it. Evidently, people feared that Alexandria would be next. (See also T-S 16.286, a letter from Alexandria dated 21 October 1219.) This letter reports on the state of the city: "The city is in a dire state because of the digging of the ditch. The city is locked up, and forced labor is imposed upon the population." The writer then gives a detailed report about the medical condition and treatment of a woman who had been injured in an unrelated accident, then discusses some small errands, then an important family affair, and concludes with greetings to at least fifteen persons. Two postscripts are added. "As to Abū l-ʿAlā'—when I arrived, I found the city locked up; no male person could appear in the streets, because he would be taken to the [digging of the] ditch. That's why I was unable to meet him. As to the malḥafa [a blanket serving also as outer garment], the bazaars are locked and no one sells and buys. I am telling you this that you should not think that I am neglectful of your affairs." Regarding the injury of Yumn: "When coming home, I found Yumn—on whom the door fell—in a serious condition. She has been ill for forty days. At the time she was impure and remained in that state; thus all the other members of the household became impure together with her. Only God knows how the situation is; she cries so much that I forget my own tribulations. However, if God wills, she has good prospect for recovery. Her leg is in a case (tābūt) especially made for her. A Christian doctor (ʿarel) treats her and I was told that he did not take any money for her treatment. He at that time was treating the wounded (al-majārīḥ). I did not find any bandage (or plaster/dressing) of palm fibers (marham al-nakhlī) in the house and could not move her; for she cannot get up or sit; she bends forward only a little (qad ittajaha qalīl). Her foot and leg are swollen (manfūkh)." Information and translations from Goitein, Med Soc, V, 56, and note cards #27138–39. This date-palm plaster is recommended for treating wounds and abscesses in the medieval medical literature—a Google search of مرهم نخلي will lead to citations in works by the Andalusians Aḥmad b. ʿIsā al-Hāshimī (d. 1077) and Ibn Zuhr (d. 1162). For Ibn Zuhr, its consistency is like that of honey, and threads are dipped in it before being used to wick fluid out of a wound. Thus, perhaps it is a substance deriving from the date itself, rather than from the palm-fibers. The solution might also be found in Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.22, recto, text block c (PGPID 2724), which may be a recipe for מרהם נכלי. Note also that "ittajaha" in the context of injury or illness most often means "improved" (rather than "bend"), and sick people are often described as "having improved a little" even if they are still in critical condition. The hand of the letter resembles that of T-S 16.272, written by an Alexandrian judge. ASE.

Letter fragment of supplication to a Gaon, probably from Jerusalem or Ramla, the eleventh century.

Letter from Yosef b. Peraḥya to an unidentified addressee or addressees (the address is too faded to read). Possibly addressed to a group of pietists. In Hebrew (for the biblical quotations and opening blessings) and Judaeo-Arabic (for the body and the address). Only the upper part of recto is preserved, and all the content here is formulaic. (Information from Goitein's index cards and CUDL.) EMS