Geniza Lab

Letter from Isma’il b. Ishaq al-Andalusi, Aleppo, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: mid-11th century. Details about sending letters. The writer is about to travel to Tyre. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #707) VMR

Letter concerning business affairs in which the writer describes ships that are about to leave port and references ‘al-ṭārma,’ a small cabin on Nile boats, along with garments that the addressee mentioned previously. He reports his intention to leave and asks the addressee for official letters. EMS. Join: Alan Elbaum.

Letter possibly sent to an aunt named Sitt al-Jamal. The writer complains about not hearing from the addressee for a long time and expresses yearnings.

Letter, expressing yearnings. Abu al-'Aziz and his brother Nasr are mentioned.

Secondary use: Note to Abū l-Faḍl b. Elʿazar. In Judaeo-Arabic. "You are neither a scholar nor a relative nor a friend of mine because of what you did!" Specifically, the sender is upset that the addressee did not come to see him off before he traveled, and he now invites him again in belligerent terms. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 34, where there is a full translation.)

Letter from Hayyim b. Immanuel b. Qayoma from Mahdiyya, probably to Yehuda b. Ismail al-Andalusi. Around 1055. Concerning a shipment of boswellia and clothes. The clothes got wet during the sailing. Also mentions pearls. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, pp. 274-276, #687). VMR

Letter fragment in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu.

Letter mentioning the recipient's deliverance from some disaster.

Business letter from Rahamim b. 'Imran in Tinnis to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dated ca. 1055.

Letter from Ibn Qaḍīb to Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū Saʿīd. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning business matters such as the sale of gum mastic, and mentioning people including Tamīm Ibn al-Zayyāt, Munajjā b. Abī l-[...], Abū Naṣr, Abū Yaʿqūb, and the fact that Shemuel is arriving in Fusṭāṭ. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) Needs further examination.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy, Fustat. Around 1080. Regarding several shipments of goods. Details about payments and supplies that the writer sends to Musa’s family in Alexandria. Mentions Mevorakh b. Se’adya the Nagid, about helping orphans. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #437) VMR

Letter from a man in Fustat to his brother, a silk weaver, who has fled to Aswan to escape the capitation tax collectors. He assures his brother that he can return since the capitation tax had been paid for the whole family.

Letter from the wife of Baṣīr the bell-maker (al-jalājilī) to the Nagid David, asking him to help return her husband, who was living in a Sufi community, to his family and to the Jewish faith. She also asks for medicine for her child. "Our Lord has promised the little one a medicine for the ear, for he suffers from it. There is no harm in trying it out, seeing that even the barber is playing with it without experience. May God have mercy!." "[This very night.]" (Information from CUDL)

Letter from the Karaite congregation of Alexandria to the leader of their community, complaining about the helplessness and dissolution of the community. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 365) Reused for Arabic accounts with Coptic numerals (see PGPID 35173).

Letter in which the writer remarks that he was pleased to learn that the recipient, who had not written in a while, was well and promises to keep writing if his letters are reciprocated. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 294, 588)

Verso: Letter in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: Ca. 1026 CE. Referring to a speech made by Abū Isḥāq (Avraham b. Sahlān), a member of the Babylonian yeshiva, concerning the eclipse of the exclusive juridical authority of the Palestinian yeshiva (i.e. the authority of Efrayim b. Šemarya). (Information from Gil and CUDL)

Letter regarding business from Yaḥyā b. Mūsā al-Majjānī, probably in Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim (c. 1045 CE). On verso is the continuation of the letter and a (draft of a) letter in a different hand and ink, mentioning Abū Zechariah b. Menashshe and expressing the hope that [...] b. Abū Ibrahim al-Iskandarānī, who travelled from Barqa, is fine.

Letter from Farah b. Yusuf sending condolences for the death of a relative of the addressee and also discussing business. (Information from Gil)

Letter addressed to R. Yiṣḥaq by way of Binyamin ha-Zaqen. In Judaeo-Arabic. Repeating a request that a cantor leave the capital for the writer's village in order to conduct prayers there and promising that the cantor will be able to return immediately afterwards. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Beginning and address of a letter from Tahor b. Avraham to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zechariah. (Information from Goitein's index cards)