Geniza Lab

Letter from a member of the Ibn Nufayʿ family, in Malīj, to Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Almost none of the content is preserved except the sender's apology for the poor quality (or size?) of the paper, which was the best he could obtain in Malīj.

Letter addressed to a mother. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably Mamluk-era. The sender was happy to learn that Farajallāh is well. Mentions Umm Yaʿqūb, Umm Mūsā, and the wife of Yaʿqūb. Asks for the addressee's prayers. (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Letter from Alexandria to the family of Yeshuʿa b. Sahl in Fusṭāṭ. (Yeshuʿa b. Sahl might actually be the sender.) Mentions: "the wheat.... If you saw your sister, you would not recognize her... from the female slave, she threatens her with the judge (al-qāḍī) and the barracks (al-ḥujra)... three times, and her heart is not at peace... the thing which you said you sent with Fuḍayl has not arrived... do not deprive us of the maintenance (al-mawna)...." May mention legal actions. Umm ʿImrān sends greetings. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Umm Sālim, probably in Fustat, to her sister Umm Salāma, in the house of al-Ḥemdat b. Pinḥas, in New Cairo (based on ENA NS 2.11). In Judaeo-Arabic. Opens with expressions of longing; "Every day I mention you, every moment, every minute." She is worried about her son Sālim who has traveled to Byzantium. Mentions Muʿammar Ibn al-Jāzfīnī (or al-Ghāzfīnī). (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, sometimes rhyming. In which the sender asks the addressee to send him a quarter raṭl of agaricum (ghārīqūn) that ‘the perfumer’ owes him, also sending greetings to Rabbenu Peraḥya.

Letter from Yefet b. ʿE[li] the cantor Ibn al-Jāzfīnī to the dignitary Moshe b. Ghulayb ha-Kohen. The sender wishes to get a position in Alexandria, Fustat, or Cairo. He mentions his pain for the death of "the lily" (אלשושנה) of Abū Isḥāq (a daughter?), and how he offered condolences by saying that "the owner of the deposit (=God) has retrieved it." He reports that Abū l-Surūr has traveled to Aden. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter from a file of Avraham Maimonides' court. NH Recto: Letter from a divorcee, the wife of Manṣūr, to the Nagid, asking him to intervene because her ex-husband has taken their child, and to forbid her ex-husband to remarry before he has paid the dues owed to her from her marriage contract. Verso: Postscript or possibly an addendum written while forwarding the letter, in a different hand, mainly in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in which a man from Tlemcen, Algeria, who had not heard from his brother in Egypt 'for years,' reports that both the country and the family were flourishing, that he had two sons, and his deceased sister two sons and a grown up daughter. Asks who is the current Head of the yeshiva and says he would like to write him a letter. Dated ca. 1050. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 239). Address, top of the page, straight line, same direction as main text.

Letter from Ḥasan b. Muʾammal, Ramla, to Abu Nasr the cockeyed, Fustat, September 1052.

Letter sent by a young weaver to a woman, probably his aunt, reporting that he is looking for a place to stay and for work. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter, beautifully written, by a woman married for 15 years addressed to Masliah, the head of the Jewish community in Egypt (1127-1138), complaining about neglect and asking him to intervene with her husband to grant her divorce and payment of her dues. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 186 and CUDL)

Letter dealing with a relationship between a Jewish boy and a Christian female slave.

Letter segment in the hand of Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Ramla, September or October 1052.

Request from Masliah b. Gaon to let R. Abu al-Rasa b. Rabana Yehuda ha-Ḥaver, to sing in the synagogue of the Palestinians (אלשאמיין), because of: a.) his noble descent by his father; b.) he's blind; and c.) he's poor. (Information from Goitein's index card). EMS and VMR

Letter about a banker, an honest man from a provincial town, who wasn't able to meet his obligations because his customers were remiss in their payments to him. He was brought before the head of the local police, flogged, tortured and put into prison. The writer asks the recipient, a notable, to extricate the man from this misery. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 248)

Letter, likely sent to Abū l-Majd Meir b. Yakhin, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 1216/17 CE (1528 Seleucid). The writer urges the addressee to come see his sister, who is very sick. She has a throbbing pain (ḍarabān) in her right hip; a burning pain in her heart; a nonhealing wound (the word looks like khalal) in her right thigh; and her tongue is dry. She prays to God that she will see the addressee's face before she dies. "When your [brother?] said to her, 'Let her take the rhubarb-barberry pastille and make it […] and hopefully it will abate,' my master, she said, 'I do not want any of this unless he obtains a prescription, and the prescribing physician prepares it for me and sends it.' This is deliverance, my master. They prescribed hiera oil (duhn al-iyārij) for her thigh, but it was not effective. What is killing her is the pain in her thigh. I do not need to urge you to come. If her condition becomes fatal, your mother will die next. She will never live after her. The best is for them to slake their yearning for you, and you will gain your mother’s prayers." The letter continues with an update on the addressee's brother Hilāl ('his condition is the same'); a description of a large funeral; something to do with the addressee's request for Masā'il Ḥullin and how he needs to be more specific; a long series of rebukes for the addressee's negligence in writing; and regards to various people. ASE.

Letter from S’hlan (?) to Abu Zakaria. Mid-11th century. Regarding a silk binding that a Spanish person gave the addressee with instructions who should receive it. The binding belonged to Abu al-Faraj Yisha’aya’s assistant. Abu Zakaria does not give it, because he thinks that it belongs to the writer, and the writer owes him money. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #768) VMR

Letter from Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq from Alexandria to his father in law, Seror (Surur) b. Ḥayyim b. Sabra in Fustat. Written a month after another letter: CUL Or.1080 J264 (Doc. #100 in Frenkel). He mentions pillaging in Maḥalla (the writer hopes that Abū l-Ḵayr Mubārak is safe), an epidemic (dever) in Fusṭāṭ and that the writer himself had been robbed. Also mentions Ibn Naḥum the cantor. Probably written in the 1060s. The scribe gives his name too: Musa b. Da'ud b. Ezra. Information from CUDL. ASE.

Note from Eli Ha-Mumhe b. Avraham to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Hagay, probably 1050.

Letter from Salama b. Nissim b. Ishaq al-Barki, from Busir, to Marduk b. Musa, Alexandria. Around 1055. Regarding money and goods that were delivered for the writer, from the Maghreb to Alexandria. Salama sends instructions what to send him to Busir, by Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti, what to sell in Alexandria, and what to keep there for the winter. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #644) VMR