Geniza Lab

Letter from a father to a son. In Hebrew. Sent from an unknown location to Fustat/Cairo. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 16th century. People mentioned: Shalom b. Pinḥas; Avraham Dayyan; Yoḥanan; Sulaymān b. Qamra; "Doña Gemalya our neighbor"; Ḥayyim Bibas; Yiṣḥaq Neḥemias. The letter contains updates on various items of clothing, a commentary on the book of Job, and 500 levanim (white silver dirham, eventually known as akçe). In the postscript there is a message for the writer's wife (he bought her a shuqqa). This is a long and well-preserved letter; needs further examination.

Copies of two rhymed epistles by Yehuda ha-Levi to Shemuel b. Ḥananya the Nagid in Egypt. Explanatory headings are in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter describing the wanton destruction of a community and the ransoming of captives. It talks of Palestine (אר‫ץ הצבי‬) and Byzantium (אדום). (Information from CUDL)

Letter with various inquiries addressed to ‘our lord’, including a question about the birkat ḥatanim and about the customs of the meturgemanim with regard to the writing of the divine name with three yods. Datable to after the era of Maimonides, as reference is made to the Sefer Ahava (Mishne Tora). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Tyre to David b. Daniel, Fustat, probably 1092.

Letter by Israel Gaon b. Shemuel b. Hophni to an unknown community.

Two letters: one in Arabic by R. Hezkiah. Exilarch and Gaon, dated 1039/40 A.D.; the other in Hebrew, by the same R. Hezekiah to Yaʿaqov b. Amram Nagid in Qayrawan.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, concerning the prisoners taken on account of the debt of 900 dinars placed on the community of Jerusalem. He also laments his personal poverty. Approximately 1029. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yoshiyya Gaon to Efrayim b. Shemarya, in Fustat. The sender's name is partially preserved at the top of the letter, in a different hand to the body of the letter. Dating: Ca. 1020 CE. Written in Hebrew, with the address in both Arabic script and in Hebrew. Mentions another letter in Hebrew and a different letter in [Arabic, presumably]. Also mentions Ṭuviyya ha-Ḥaver. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter; Literary Fragment from a codex containing copies of the correspondence and poetry of Judah ha-Levi.

Letter of recommendation written by Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq, 'av bet dinsellekol yisra'el', for Yehoshuaʿ b. Eli and David b. Shemuel.

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-Mānī, in Constantinople, to his father-in-law Yosef al-Baghdādī, in Egypt. Dating: Probably first half of the 12th century, based on the probable mention of the same writer in T-S 13J21.17 (there referred to as Abū ʿAlī the son-in-law of the Ḥaver al-Baghdādī, the pancake-maker). In this letter, Abū ʿAlī recounts how he met his wife, Yosef's daughter, when they were both in captivity. He is trying to solve his financial problems by sending a power of attorney and accessing some of his inheritance. He refuses to accede to his father-in-law’s wishes and divorce his wife. (Information from CUDL and from Ben Outhwaite, “Byzantines in the Cairo Genizah,” in Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, ed. Nicholas de Lange, Julia Krivoruchko, and Cameron Boyd-Taylor.)

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef Ibn Ghiyāt, in Spain, to Ḥalfon b. Netanʾel ha-Levi. Dating: ca. 1138/39 CE. The letter mostly consists of pleasantries. Yiṣḥaq received Ḥalfon's letters "perfumed with myrrh and frankincense" (כתבך אלכראם מקוטרות מור ולבונה), praises Ḥalfon's nobility and generosity, and asks him when he plans to travel. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks for a copy of Saadya Gaon's tafsīr of Ezra and Daniel or his tafsīr of Proverbs and Job or one of his commentaries ("parārīsh") on the Torah. He doesn't want it to be like the tafsīr of Psalms, which was written in a lousy hand (ghaliq al-khaṭṭ). The addressee might borrow these books from a friend. The writer's wife and 'mawlā' (father?) send regards. There is a marginal note that ends "if _____, do not send me anything."

Opening of a letter from the yeshiva, probably fall 1053.

Letter sent from Jerusalem from Rachel b. Avraham Zussman of Prague, in Jerusalem, to her son Moshe, a scribe in Cairo. After opening the letter in Hebrew, Rachel switches to Yiddish. She refers to her desperate financial situation as well as a plague that has afflicted both Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. She also mentions that the situation in Safed (Ṣefat) has improved. Dated 1567 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Yiddish from Rachel b. Avraham of Prague in Jerusalem to her son Moshe in Cairo.

Letter from Shemuel b. Ḥofni to Shemarya b. Maṣliaḥ, probably the father of Efrayim b. Shemarya, the leader of the Palestinian Jewish community in Fustat in the first half of the 11th century. Only part of the introduction on recto and the address on verso have been preserved. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 156.)

Letter from the French rabbi Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov addressed to Ḥananel b. Shemuel. In Hebrew. Contains a rich account of communal controversy and highly unflattering descriptions of Eliyyahu the Judge. See also AIU VII.E.169.

Letter and panegyric from ʿEli b. ʿAmram the ḥaver to Shemuel ha-Nagid Ibn Naghrela of Granada. Dating: Before 1056 CE (the year of the death of Shemuel ha-Nagid). ʿEli writes that every Shabbat when the Torah scrolls are taken out of the ark, he adds to his prayers for Daniel b. ʿAzarya additional prayers for Shemuel ha-Nagid and his sons (Yehosef and Elyasaf). ʿEli mentions that this is his first time writing to Shemuel. It seems that the letter was occasioned by a donation received from Shemuel. (Information from Tova Beeri, "ʿEli He-Ḥaver ben ʿAmram: A Hebrew Poet in Eleventh Century Egypt" [Hebrew], Sefunot 8 (2003), 290–91.)