Geniza Lab

Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Small fragment. The sender urges his mother or one of his siblings to come out to him. There is a small fragment of the response from his father Abū Sahl Levi on verso (or this is the original letter and Moshe's is the response).

Letter of condolence/grief upon the death of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Dating: ca. 1195 CE (the precise date of death is not known). In Judaeo-Arabic. Full of expressions of agony and praises for Sar Shalom's greatness. Same handwriting as T-S Ar.36.77. ASE

Letter from a certain Abū l-Faḍl to his maternal cousin in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. He urges her to make a pilgrimage to the Land of Israel and visit its holy sites. Abū l-Faḍl hopes not only that she will perform the pilgrimage and visit him, but, apparently, also that she will marry him and that together they will spend the rest of their lives in the land of Israel. (Information from Zinger's edition.)

Probably part of a letter. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner). Opens with a complaint about the difficulty of life. Then, "I leased her qāʿa and I lived..." On verso probably writing exercises. (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: letter from the 16th century, mentioning the names Abraham Ibn Ṣūr, Reuben the Babylonian, Abraham Nuniʾel (נוניאל), Faraj Allah the proselyte, and Yequtiʾel. Verso: an abbreviated blessing for the bearer of the letter and an abbreviated curse for whoever may intercept it and open it without permission. (Information from CUDL)

Possibly a letter or note. (Information from CUDL)

Complete letter of the 15th or later centuries, with a ב״ה in the top margin. It mentions Shemuʾel Jerbi (the sender?), and two others, David and Shalom. There is a reference to ברהם אל פורטוגיש. (Information from CUDL)

Small fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions a physician (al-ḥakīm) and gives business instructions.

Letter from Menashshe b. Shemuel, possibly in Damietta, to Abū l-Barakāt b. Ṣadaqa, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1153–56 CE, since T-S 10K20.1 is a synagogue calendar for those years which mentions the same Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa and Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ḥashīsh who are mentioned in this letter. The sender expresses his sympathy for some distressing event and makes excuses for why he hasn't been writing. He sends regards to a Kohen and to Abū Saʿd. He has heard that Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ḥashīsh is planning to come to Damietta to collect the gold owed to him. He is annoyed about this, apparently because he planned to come to Fustat and pay. He concludes with greetings for the addressee's father-in-law (right margin) and to Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa (upper margin). (But note that this Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa is not the addressee's father, since that Ṣadaqa is dead.) On verso, at 180 degrees to the address, there is a list of about a dozen names in Arabic script, e.g., Bū Isḥāq Maʿālī, Abu l-Faḍl, [...] al-ʿAṭṭār, Bū l-Munā, Yūsuf. Some family relations are given. Significance unclear. AA. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. May be the handwriting of Abū Sahl Levi and addressed to his son Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Not a great deal of content is preserved, except that he is talking about the capitation tax (al-jāliya) and refers to inflation (ghalā) and "the burning of Fustat" (ḥarīq Miṣr). (So perhaps shortly after 1168 CE? See T-S NS J174 and citations there.) The addressee's mother and siblings send their greetings.

Complete letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a family member in Fustat. He sent 23 dirhams with the bearer and gives instructions for its disposal. The recipient is to buy lemons (?) for one dirham and give them to the Rayyis Abu Zikri (the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi?!). He also orders white paper for 3/4 dirham. Of the remaining 21 1/4, Baqa' Ibn al-Sab' gets 20. Apparently Moshe also has some money with the recipient, which he then adds to the remaining 1 1/4. Mahfuz is to get some. 'Imran Ibn al-Dajani gets some. All of these people are to give receipts. The recipient is to tell Moshe's paternal uncle Tahir that he got for him from Abu l-Ḥasan the partner of Salim 13 dirhams after great difficulty, and he is willing to send them. "As for the maqamah that you sent me, it is mine and in my own handwriting. And tell Abu Sa'd [...]." He could plausibly be referring to DK 173, an autobiographical maqamah in his own hand. ASE.

Upper fragment of a letter sent by a merchant from al-Mahdiyya to Abu Zikri Yahya b. al-Majjani. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 693)

Letter/petition concerning a legal case. In Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to a dignitary. The case has to do with Abū l-ʿIzz and a partnership, possibly in raw sugar (qand). Probably too fragmentary to make out many of the details. The number 77 is mentioned.

Letter or petition from a group of people in Fustat. Headed by a biblical verse, then the rest is in Judaeo-Arabic. "We the undersigned of this document (hādha l-manshūr) who live in Fustat... our knowledge that the worship of God the exalted in the... Israel in what happened before... and it came about (?? nusija) from us—due to our great sins—... the action, and we found in it readiness (? taʾahhub) and demoralization (? inkisār qalb)." Might be a draft, since it does not appear to continue underneath this line. The content is intriguing but the context and dating are unclear.

A late JA private letter to Mordechai b. ‘Ajla

Letter from Abū l-Munā b. Yaʿaqov, unknown location, to an unidentified addressee, presumably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Same writer as T-S AS 167.24; may be an indirect join. The sender says that he is unable to leave the children for some reason. He reports that the Zanzibari ship (אלמרכב אלזנגברי) has not yet arrived. Mufaḍḍal is on that ship. The sender suspects that it might be in Mirbāṭ (in present-day Oman). The sender offers to receive and hold on to any letters intended for Muḥsin. "As for the female slave (al-waṣīfa), we have not found anything"—it is not clear if they are looking to purchase a slave or if they are looking for one who has run away. Mentions someone named Munajjā in the margin. Very little of the text is preserved on verso. Mentions tar (qiṭrān). Greetings to the addressee's son Sulaymān. The final two lines are a complaint about the sender's condition (loneliness and ḍīq al-ṣadr ('constriction of the chest')). AA. ASE.

Small fragment from a letter by Yehoshu’a ha-Nagid (date: 14th century) to Abu al-Faraj the beadle.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Very faded. May mention Fez.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Might be from a provincial teacher. "...that which we were hoping for from benefiting the children... on Passover... he brought a teacher with him from Fustat named Ibn [...]... did not heed his words... returning your son to this... what I expected from them... I have sent you (pl.) (letters) from Manṣūr(a?)... (and) from Damīra... (and I have not received a) response, please send me a letter informing me... in Minyat Ghamr, for they said to me, 'Stay... they will make arrangements for you'... (if [...]) I will stay with them, and if not I will enter (Fustat)...." Might also mention al-Maḥalla in l. 2.