Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Verso: Halakhic text on creeping things (שרצים / شراصيم) in Hebrew and in Arabic script interspersed with Hebrew.

Letter on vellum to Ali Abi Sulayman (? this description and transcription belong to a different fragment).

Leaf from a court ledger. On recto: Testimony of compliance with an order issued by the head of the Jews, Netanʾel ha-Levi. Dated: First third of Shevaṭ 1471 Seleucid, which is 1160 CE. To wit: Manṣūr al-Dhabbāḥ, a ritual slaughterer and cantor, was brought before the court and instructed to behave properly, to be nice to people, not to argue with those who tease him in the presence of gentiles, and to follow the usual laws of slaughtering. He promised to obey these instructions. (Information in part from Goitein, Mediterranean Society. II, p. 225.)

Letter from Yom Ṭov and Shelomo Kastiel (? קשתיאל) to family members including a mother. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, perhaps 15th or 16th century. Needs examination

Letter from Rachel b. Avraham Zussman, in Jerusalem, to Yaʿaqov Katz, in Venice. In Yiddish. Dated: 16 Heshvan 5327 AM, which is November 1566 CE. Sent via Rachel's son Moshe in Cairo, who evidently never forwarded it to Venice.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Mentions "I have a friend named ʿUmar." Verso: Letter in Arabic script in a different hand. Mentions "your friend in Cairo" and regards to various people such as Hājj [...].

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Quite faded. Mentions that all slaughtering in Damsīs has been put on hold; asks the addressee to obtain a fatwā in response to some query; mentions Ibn al-Munajjim; mentions an illness.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq in Aden to Avraham Ibn Yiju in Jurbattan (Srikandapuram), dated August 1147. The letter contains information on their commercial transactions. The hole in lines 40-41 was already there in the time of writing.

Letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions acquiring a muʿtaṣimī (a wooden tray with small compartments, named after the Abbasid Caliph al-Muʿtaṣim) from Bū ʿAbdallāh and pawning it with Bū Sahl ʿAṭiyya b. Binyām for thirty dirhams; dealings with a qāḍī; Ibn Sughmār; a letter for Umm Bū ʿAlī that arrived; the writer's anxiety ("I am drunk with cares"); the writer's difficult financial circumstances.

Letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated 2 Nisan 1551 Seleucid (1240 CE). The writer seems to be asking the addressee to assist a certain man against his wife (inṣāfuhu min zawjatihi). If the man and his wife cannot reach an agreement, the man should deliver the writer's letter that is in his possession to the military governor (? al-wālī al-ḥarb) of Ashmūm. If they do reach an agreement, that letter should not be delivered.

Letter from an emissary of the Yeshiva, in Fustat to Yosef ha-Kohen Av Bet Din b. Shelomo Gaon, in Jerusalem. Dating: August 1053 CE. The letter contains sundry reports about the Palestinian and Iraqi synagogues and dealings with the notables of Fustat. Among these, Abū ʿAlī, the caretaker of the Palestinian synagogue, has taken ill, so he has neglected his duties, and the synagogue has fallen into disrepair.

Letter from ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen, in Jerusalem, to a ḥaver, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Mid-11th century. (Identification of the sender is based on his handwriting and idiosyncratic orthography.) Mentions correspondence with the Gaʾon, Shelomo, Mevorakh, and Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṭabīb (the physician). ASE

Letter of condolence in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, probably upon the death of the father of the addressee. Elegant prose and calligraphic script.

Letter from Shelomo b. Moshe al-Safāquṣī, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim.

Letter from Avraham b. David b. Sighmar, Fustat, probably to Daniel b. Azarya, Jerusalem. The beginning of June 1056. After the passing of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya, there were new problems to do with kosher butchering. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 746-748, #402) VMR

Letter from Ṣāliḥ b. Dā'ūd, in Tinnīs, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1055 CE. Regarding the debt and goods belonging to the late Abū l-Faraj Yaʿaqov b. Avraham b. ʿAllān. The money and goods belong to Mevasser, the writer’s brother. Also mentions clothes that the writer probably deals with their manufacture. Ṣāliḥ would have liked to come to Fustat and help with finding the will and accounts of the deceased, but he was prevented by the death of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Mawhūb and by his own illnesses. "As to the illnesses that have befallen me and their permanence, I ask God to accept my sufferings as an atonement and to grant me pardon. While writing these lines, I am unable to . . . the doctor comes to see me every day. I ask God to give me good health and to have mercy on me out of regard for the little ones with whom he has blessed me" (r19–22). Information from Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 345, and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #783. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Eli b. Amram in Fustat.

Letter from an unknown merchant from Alexandria, the beginning of the 11th century. The writer might be from the Tahirtis family, maybe Yishaq b. Barhun. Describes his deep disappointment from the business and it seems that a tragedy happened to his 16 years old son in law. He writes about prices and details about 15 ships that are on their way from the Maghreb to Alexandria. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #139) VMR

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi to Sar Shalom b. Ḥiyya (?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Very deferential. Almost the entirety of the letter consists of greetings and good wishes, and the writer says that he is constantly asking Abū Zikrī about the health of the addressee.

Letter to the community of Ṣahrajt. In Judaeo-Arabic. Appears to be a letter of recommendation for charity for a certain ʿAllūn, to enable him to travel to Fustat with his brother, but it is rather faded and needs further examination.