Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Wide space between the lines. The writer is a tax farmer (or perhaps the agent/wakīl of one) in a rural area with cattle and water wheels and wood. He seems to be complaining about how little of the ḍamān proceeds he got to keep and how much work it is to supervise the cowherds and waterwheel users and get them to pay up. But there is a lot of technical language that requires further examination. "By the covenant! I had no resort but to drink with some qāḍī named Abū ʿAbdallāh and some uncircumcised (Christian) tax collector. The drinking was for a profitable thing they had proposed, not on account of any idleness of mine. They said..." In the margin he mentions Rabbenu, possibly the Nagid, and asks for a favor for a relative of his. On verso there are many very deferential phrases and a cryptic passage about insulting people and people's wives and things that can't be repeated in letters to the likes of the addressee. On verso there is also Hebrew liturgical text.

Letter addressed to Naḥum b. Sulaymān al-Iskandarānī, in Fustat. The writer is unidentified. In Judaeo-Arabic. The addressee's letter concerning the house arrived with Mūsā. But the writer met with the addressee's father and brother and with Ismāʿīl and determined that the addressee was mistaken about something. The writer is interested in the turban and the Venetian khirqa and mentions a maqṭaʿ cloth as well. The ambergris that Abū l-Rabīʿ brought has not sold yet, which means his capital is currently tied up in it. The writer has sent pearls with the bearer Masʿūd, and the addressee should look out for him and exchange with Masʿūd the ambergris that he will tell him about. ASE

Probably non-Geniza. Letter from Yaʿaqov Ḥayy b. Avraham Mondolfo. Dated: 15 Adar 5454 AM, which is 1694 CE. This looks like a draft or writing practice -- there are interlinear corrections as well as citations in the right margin for the biblical verses alluded to.

Probably non-Geniza. Address of a letter in the hand of Yaʿaqov Ḥayy Mondolfo that mentions פישיבה (פישיברי?) (with a Latin-script transliteration) and also London. Re: scribe, see Bodl. MS heb. e 105/53 and Bodl. MS heb. e 105/55. This may even be the address of the letter in Bodl. MS heb. e 105/53.

Probably non-Geniza. Letter from Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq G[allico?], in Jerusalem, to Yaʿaqov Ḥayy b. Avraham Mondolfo, in Siena. Dating: slightly after Adar 5454 AM, which is 1694 CE.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Only the ending is preserved. Greetings to Zekharya and Berakhot and to the addressee's wife. (So possibly addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge? His two sons were Zekharya and Berakhot.) The bearer of the letter is Khalūf al-Nafūsī, who had mentioned to the writer that he had קציבאת in Fustat. The addressee is asked to help him find a buyer. Khalūf is also bringing the 'khirqa' for the girl.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Written on vellum spanning two leaves (and three pages) that already contained literary text in Hebrew. The first page of the letter is on a blank verso and the ending of the letter takes up the lower margin of both recto and verso of the second leaf. Describes the wretched state of the writer and the children and how nobody has been charitable toward them. The writer urges the addressee not to distance himself from them, and also asks for a maqṭaʿ (cloth). (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Letter from a woman, in Qayrawān, to a benefactor, unknown location. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century. The beginning is missing. Her children have nothing to eat or wear, and they have 'exposed themselves' (inkashafnā), that is, become dependent on public charity. "But do not suppose that [in] Qayrawān that they have compassion and give. By no means do they do this! They give to those whom they know." The wife of ʿAṭā' gave them only a couple measly garments, and when they put them on their bodies, they felt chills. She and her children all have an ear illness. The addressee evidently left 5 dinars for her with Farḥūn, although she has not yet been able to get her hands on it. When she does, she will have the community (or just her children?) bless his name every Shabbat. ASE

Letter from an unidentified man, in Fustat, to his brother al-Musāfir al-Kattānī ('the traveling flax-merchant'), in Aṭfīḥ. The writer urges the addressee to come back soon. He reports that the ṣāḥib al-ʿasl (owner of the honey) arrived but the writer managed to get rid of him by making a vow and saying something about his brother. Regards from Ṣadaq b. al-Ṭāqī, Abū Naṣr, Faḍā'il, and Ḥasūn.

A bashful pauper informs the judge Rabbi Eliyyahu b. Zechariah who was in charge of public charity, that he had not eaten anything for two days and that he dared to address the judge only because he was in a state of extreme need. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 466; X, p.88)

Informal note (with a legal purpose) in the hand of Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef Kohen addressed to a judge called 'Rabbenu ha-Rav.' In Judaeo-Arabic. Abū Zikrī reports that as he was passing by the hospital (māristān) he saw a young man (al-ṣabiyy) delivering a court summons in the hand of al-Nezer (=Natan b. Shemuel) to his legal rival Abū Saʿīd b. Qaṭṭūs. Abū Saʿīd refused to obey unless an official court messenger (rasūl) delivered the summons. Abū Zikrī butted in and told Abū Saʿid to comply, and Abū Saʿīd said he would do so. But shortly afterward, the young man caught up with Abū Zikrī and told him that Abū Saʿid didn't comply. On verso there are a few words in Arabic script (and possibly more than a few words—they are currently covered by a sheet of paper). (Information from Goitein's notes and from Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Letter from a woman named Qamr, in Jerusalem, to her brother Moshe Farikh (פריך), in Fustat/Cairo. Dating: Likely early 17th century, based on A. David's identifications of some of the names.

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Netanel ha-Levi, probably in Qalyūb, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Sunday, 2 Shevaṭ (1451 Seleucid) = 24 December 1139 CE. Written nine days after Yeḥezqel's preceding letter (IV, 59). He reports that he arrived safely, probably to Qalyub, and that he took care of the things mentioned in certificate IV, 59 and also in the subsequent documents, such as his sale of khazz silk and a payment to Abū Yiṣḥaq. At the end of the letter he greets his son Abū l-Fakhr, who was staying with Ḥalfon in Alexandria. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq to Egypt. Aden, ca. 1130-39.

Letter from the office of Yehoshuaʿ Nagid (d. 1355) (in Cairo) to the community of Fustat about a conflict between two butchers who had caused trouble for the complainant, one Muwaffaq, and ordering them to return to the customary arrangement whereby one worked three days and the other, the other three days. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 424)

A traveling cantor asks the nagid Mevorakh for a gift toward the holidays after a package containing his good clothing had fallen into the Nile (MS 2:569n25). Complains, "I have nothing beautiful with which to celebrate the feast” (MS 4:156): mā lī mā uʿayyid bihi ʿalā ḥalī. "The Arabic word for "beautiful," ḥalī, refers mostly to female ornaments. The Hebrew vowel segol (three dots), put beneath the ḥ of ḥalī, was pronounced (and is still pronounced so by Yemenites) as a short a in Arabic” (Med. Soc. 4:397n43). (Information from Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society, references above; see also Cohen, JSG, 261, 263, 297, 363. Rustow, Lost Archive, ch. 14, nn. 37, 39 and 40 gives the shelfmark incorrectly as 95/69.)

Letter from [...] b. Avraham to Ṣadaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. The writer had previously sent a letter with Ibn Bunyām that had gone unanswered. In the present letter, among other matters, he asks the addressee to purchase for him a good copy of Hilkhot ha-Rif (al-Fāsī). The handwriting switches halfway through this letter. The handwriting of the upper half resembles that of Seʿadya b. Avraham (see T-S 13J18.4), and the handwriting of the lower half resembles that of Abū Saʿd b. Avraham (see DK 230.2), but rigorous identification will require further examination. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Yahya b. Eli Kohen Fasi, from Fustat, to Abu al-Ifrah Arus (Avraham) b. Yosef, Alexandria. Around 1080. Yahya, probably Yosef’s younger brother, deals with trading lacquer, and asks Arus to handle three shipments of lacquer that he bought in Alexandria. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #406) VMR

Letter from Khalaf b. Isḥāq to someone whose name includes Shemaʿya, sent to the house of Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf b. al-Qudsī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Mainly concerning business matters, including the silk trade. Mentions Damietta and then "all the Jews are turning to the government" (v6). ASE

Letter, Somewhat cryptic. "As for what you mentioned about the istiʿmāl and the musakhkhināt (warming drugs?) and the [...], and as the 'season' (of illnesses?) is here, I will do that, and may God cure. As for the condition of Abū l-Manṣūr al-Qūṣī. . . ." ASE