Geniza Lab

Letter addressed to R. Peraḥya ha-Rav ha-Gadol. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Maybe Ayyubid or Mamluk-era based on the hand and formulae, but this should be confirmed. The letter is extremely deferential. The sender thanks Sitt Ḍiyāʾ for inviting the children to come stay with her and uses the rest of the letter to explain why they were unable to do so and to profusely apologize for declining the invitation. The main explanation is given in r14–18 and v4–6, but it is tricky to understand. "What prevented them from coming, God knows, is the fear for the deliverance (khalāṣ; childbirth? recovery from illness?) of the women, as they have not yet met with anybody and have not gone down to the synagogue. The ones who warned them about this were their family and the 'father' and master Waliyy al-Dawla, who warned them not to go down, fearing lest.... When this occurred (=the invitation from Sitt Ḍiyāʾ), the master Waliyy al-Dawla sent and cautioned them against the words (=gossip) of people about them, and they refrained for that reason." It seems that "the women" (al-nisāʾ) are the same as the "children" (al-ṣighār) who were invited by Sitt Ḍiyāʾ. Maybe they are pregnant (or sick?), and the news isn't public yet. ASE

Letter affectionately addressed to "qurrat ʿaynī" Abū ʿAlī Ḥusayn b. Yahūdā. Only the address, in Arabic script, is preserved. The rest of the fragment is filled with Hebrew literary text. The name of the sender should be legible.

Letter in Arabic in which a teacher reports to "my lord the Kohen" that the boy Mūsā had come to school after having absented himself for some days. However when he was asked to revise the Bible reading he swore he would never read more than one time and when the teacher asked him to repeat, he ran away. The teacher ran after and shouted at him, but he would not return. The teacher now asks the addressee's help. "If he does not revise it four or five times, he will not memorize it." Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from someone, probably in Barqa, to his (or her?) "father" the judge Mūsā b. ʿImrān al-Ḥibr (=the ḥaver). In Arabic script. The sender reports that he arrived in Barqa safely. He explains why he is unable to return by ship (mā wajadtu ṭarīq fa-masakūnī al-ṣibyān(?)). There may be a siege in the addressee's location (fa-lammā samiʿtu akhbārkum annakum muḥāṣarīn...) There is a woman who is preoccupied (mashghūla). The addressee is to send some goods. On verso there are a few lines of what may be accounts in Arabic script (mentions 10 dinars). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in Arabic script. Fragment (lower part only). Dating: Maybe Ayyubid-era, based on typical names and titles, but this is a guess. The alifs and lāms and ابيs are especially stylized, with long loops to the the right of the vertical stroke. Where this fragment begins, the sender is greeting two people (ادام الله عزهما). Mentions: "the time of his travel to Damascus" (وقت سيره الى دمشق); someone named Ṣāfī(?); Abū Zikrī; al-Shaykh al-Afḍal; greetings to Abū l-ʿAlāʾ; to [...]; to Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf; to Abū ʿAlī Ismāʿīl; and to Abū l-Faraj al-Maqdisī. Needs further examination to understand the substance of the letter. On verso there is an Aramaic targum of Jeremiah 1:17–19. (Information in part from FGP.)

Letter in Ottoman Turkish addressed to Maʿallim Salmūn in Alexandria from Sulaymān Bostancı[?] dating from the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. There is some damage to the sender's signature but if this reading of his title is correct, this may be a letter sent from Istanbul by a member of the Imperial Guard / Bostancı corps. This seems plausible given that the letter mentions at least four other members of the Ottoman military– Sinān Ağa, Qāsim Ağa, ʿİssa Ağa, and Meḥmed Aǧa. These state functionaries, are occasionally referenced as such i.e. "Sinān Ağa ṣaḥib-i devlet / protector of the state" (l. 8). One other business partner is mentioned in line four, a certain Maʿallam İsḥāk. Much of the letter's contents are related to payments and other correspondence between those referenced. The verso bears two ink stamps and an address on the upper fold, which suggests that this letter was likely sent and received by the recipient Muʿallim Salmūn. MCD.

Letter in calligraphic Arabic script. The sender's name probably appears at upper left. He is writing from Jerusalem (al-Quds al-Mubārak, 6 lines from the bottom). The addressee is a woman (sittī al-karīma(?)). Possibly a letter of thanks, but might be a petition for further help. Includes a quotation from the Hebrew Bible (including Proverbs 13:19, תאוה נהיה תערב לנפש) transcribed into Arabic script (on which basis Khan identified the sender and addressee as Qaraites). In the margins and between the lines of recto and on verso there are Hebrew pen trials including biblical verses, and a few words in Arabic script copied from the text of the letter. Needs further examination for content. Cited in the literature only in two articles by Khan, where he refers to its existence but does not discuss its content.

Verso (original use): Two distinct Arabic-script documents glued together as a substrate for Hebrew biblical verses (the secondary use). The upper fragment is a piece of an (official?) account or receipt. The lower, much larger fragment is a letter of appeal for charity addressed to a dignitary (al-rayyis al-jalīl). After a long, rhymed introduction, the sender complains of poverty and nakedness. AA. ASE.

Letter from an unknown writer, in Damascus, to Abū l-Ḥasan, in Aleppo. In Arabic script. The writer reports that his brother Ismāʿīl arrived in Acre, and they traveled together to Damascus, where they spent the holidays in the house of Hilāl. If they hear good news from Aleppo, they will travel to Aleppo, but until now the news from Aleppo has been bad (lines 7 and 13), and they are thriving in Damascus. The distance between Damascus and Aleppo is 20 days' travel. Mentions Ibn Mufaḍḍal. The next three lines have to do with the honey that the writer had deposited with Abū l-Ḥasan. It is not clear what he wants. He indicates that he wants to collect either the honey or its price (fa-innī muṭālibuka bihi). He also writes that he intended for the addressee to hide it (an tastatira bihi), and if the addressee was unable to do so (wa-inna min ḥaythu an lā waqaʿa satruhu), the writer will not grant him a credit for it (mā aḥtasibu laka minhu). He urges the addressee to look after the boy until the writer and Hilāl can come and get him or until they can send somebody to get him. They have been delayed on account of "the fear of the water"—of the rainy season? Hilāl sends regards to his father and paternal aunt and her sons. A postscript was then added stating that the Rūmī (Byzantine) died. (Information from Ṣabīḥ ʿAodeh, "Eleventh Century Arabic Letters of Jewish Merchants from the Cairo Geniza" (PhD diss., Tel Aviv University, 1992.) ASE.

Possibly a letter, copy of a letter, or some sort of narrative. In Arabic script. The layout is most consistent with a literary text, and there are distinct sections with headers in larger script. Looks tantalizing, but it is difficult to figure out what it's about. Needs further examination.

Letter from Natan b. Khalaf to Abū l-Faraj Ismāʿīl b. ʿEzra and ʿEzra b. Ismāʿīl. Either the sender or the addressees are in Fustat. In Arabic script, with one line in Judaeo-Arabic on verso (part of the address?). Dating: Probably 11th century. Written on parchment. Fragment (upper part only). Mentions shipments of flax and probably several other goods. Needs further examination. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter(s) of appeal for charity. Likely drafts. In Arabic script. The one on recto is addressed to Abū Manṣūr and the one on verso is addressed to al-Rayyis.

Letter in Arabic script. Written on parchment. Probably a mercantile letter of the 11th century. Very faded and difficult to read. Needs examination.

Verso: Letter from Abū [...] to Abū l-Ḥasan. In Arabic script. The sender tells the addressee to give the bearer, Durrī al-Qarītī (the same man from the legal document on recto), 10 irdabbs of wheat.

Informal note from Abū Naṣr to Menaḥem. In Arabic script. It seems that the sender is urgently ordering medicinal powder for dysentery (safūf al-zaḥīr) and other materia medica "for we need them."

Possibly a letter (needs examination)

Letter addressed to Sitt Ghazāl, in Fustat. In Arabic script. The writer reports on his bad fortune since parting from the addressee(s) ("we went out naked and hungry. . . and I had no resort. . . and I saw no alternative to traveling"). He visited Sālim, who had divorced his wife who had borne him a daughter, and who did not give her even a little bit of support. The rest of the letter should be legible with effort. Complete; 20 lines on recto, 12 lines on verso, plus address. Information from Goitein's note card.

Business letter from Ṭayyib b. Majjānī to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAwda b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAwda. In Arabic script. Dating: Second half of the 11th century. Sabih Aodeh calls it a draft but does not explain his reasoning. The letter is quite damaged. There is a prolonged opening conveying longing for the addressee, and perhaps condolences ("In all of His judgments there is justice"). The writer reports that the price of olive oil is 20 ratls for 1 dinar. Bearers: Al-Muḥsin b. Ibrahīm al-Miṣrī al-Anṣārī(??); al-Ḥusayn b. Najā [al-Anṣārī]. The latter (along with Tāhir b. Najā, likely his brother) is known from several other Geniza letters, e.g., ENA 1822a.6 (Gil, Palestine, III, #493). See Aodeh's footnote for further references. The document was reused for Hebrew biblical/liturgical text. Same cluster: CUL Or.1080 5.5, T-S NS 327.11, and T-S Ar.38.91.

Business letter in Arabic script from Nissim b. Efrayim to his son Efrayim in Fustat, mentioning his pain at not having received letters from his son, difficulty in purchasing Khalaq textiles; and mentioning Ḥalabī (Aleppo) textiles.

Business letter. In Arabic script. Mentions cotton and its sale (القطن وبيعه); describes how one trader weighed it out very carefully, because its price is high. On verso, "send the response of this letter to Bilbays(?) with your news and condition." The remainder of the goods are not selling (sāʾir al-baḍāʾiʿ... wāqifa). The sender has done something with 450 (what unit?) of indigo. The sender repeats that cotton is very expensive, and "[...] the crop of this year, for a tremendous, extraordinary heat came (fa-qad jāhu ḥarr ʿaẓīm fadhdh aʿẓam al-[...]." Needs further examination.