Geniza Lab

Nearly complete letter in Judaeo-Arabic to "my brother." Alludes to selling items in the Rif and reports that other goods have safely arrived. Many of the commodity names are obscure. Needs further examination.

Letter from Daniel Levi Mondolfo to Avraham Krispin. In Ladino. Dating: 18th or 19th century. The sender signs his name in both Hebrew script and Latin script. He discusses previous correspondence between his location and Fustat/Cairo. Mentions his brother-in-law Efrayim, Se. סיוואיגרו, and Se. טילקי. Today, Yisrael Nunes received a shipment of garments, and he will send what was ordered as soon as the items are unloaded from the ship, along with the tobacco. On verso there is the remnant of a seal (red wax?) and part of the address, of which only the word Rashīd (Rosetta) is preserved. ASE.

Letter, late, in Judaeo-Arabic from Yosef Yaʿveṣ to Ya'aqov Yaʿveṣ (or Yuʿbaṣ?). Information from Wagner, Linguistic Variety of Judaeo-Arabic, 24.

Letter in Ladino signed by David Levi Mondolfo, who may be identical with the relatively well-documented man of the same name who was born in Trieste in 1797 and died outside Treviso in 1864.

Recto: calligraphic text in Hebrew, with blessings to a group of people. Letter? Verso: short note in Arabic. Accounts? The word "dinar" and the number "four" appear several times.

Letter in Ladino from Reʾuven Miris or Mires and addressed to Avraham Krispin (Crespin) who on the address section is listed as being in "Mitzraim" (Cairo). In the heading this letter is dated 1787 CE (Iyyar [5]547). A wide array of numerical figures are expressed in silver medin coinage, which appears here though the abbreviation " מאיי ". The author also mentions having received a letter from Shmuel Hanan ("חנן" l. 14r) via Izmir. The Mediterranean sea itself is also mentioned in the phrase "אי סוברי לה מאר" (l. 12r). The verso appears to have been reused for numerical calculations. MCD.

Biblical verses. Conceivably from the opening of a letter.

Recto: fragment of a recommendation letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Eli ha-Ḥaver b. Amram, Fustat. The name of the person who is recommended is unknown but it seems he belonged to one of the Israeli Gaon families. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 688-689, Doc. #372) . VMR

Letter from Ṭayyib Ibn al-Majjānī to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿEzra b. Ismāʿīl (or ʿAwda b. Ismāʿīl according to Sabih Aodeh), in Fustat. In Arabic script. Same cluster: CUL Or.1080 5.5, T-S NS 327.11, and T-S Ar.38.91 (the latter two were published by Aodeh, who did not know about CUL Or.1080 5.5.) On verso there is also literary text in Hebrew. Needs further examination.

Letter in Hebrew (peppered with Arabic, Turkish, and Italian), addressed to two unnamed merchants (one the uncle of the writer), written almost certainly in Alexandria in the mid-16th-century. The writer reports on the violent reception of European ships in the port of Alexandria, acts taken in retaliation for the commandeering of an Egyptian merchant ship in Messina (Sicily). "This very morning the Cavus Bashi arrived and boarded the Venetian galleon that arrived from Crete ("Candia"). He took the sailors prisoner with their captain, and is now bringing them to Fustat/Cairo with 30 janissaries from the tower [their barracks in Alexandria?]. If Andrea di Orio had come with his ships, or Cicala the privateer (ha-sholel) with his ship, they would not have treated them thus." The Alexandrian authorities apparently cut the anchors of multiple other European ships and damaged the docks (? האסקאלה = escala, from Italian), causing frenzy and terror among the capains (patrones) to be separated from their ships which are now loose at sea. The writer insists that a Venetian ship coming from Crete and carrying the flag ("banderia") of San Marcos (called עון מארקו = Sin Marcos, to avoid using the word San) does not engage in acts of piracy and should not be treated thus. The reason is that ʿAlī Numayr al-Rashīdī arrived last week with a letter for the governor (sanjak), informing him that his ship had been commandeered in Messina, even after he had received a promise of safe passage (al-amān). The writer strongly suggests that the recipients approach the consul, who should write immediately to Messina and command ʿAli Numayr's ship to be restored, otherwise the Basha will know how to treat these Venetian prisoners, and the situation will be terrible for all further ships arriving from Messina. There are two or three Florentine captains who are now desperate to get out of Alexandria since their business is in Messina. However, the recipients should not repeat exactly what ʿAli Numayr said to the consul or to the other merchants, because he was lying. There was no promise of safe passage at all. Rather, the Muslims accidentally docked somewhere in the territory of Syracuse in the dead of night, thinking they were in al-Mahdiyya (Tunisia). When the bells (ha-campanacci) started ringing in the morning, they realized they were in a Christian port and scrambled to escape. Their ship foundered on some rocks, and they were taken captive by a few small boats from the tower of Syracuse. All this is known because a ship arrived in Alexandria with 20 Messinan prisoners, who recounted that the ship was taken in Syracuse, not Messina. The writer appeals to the recipients to act quickly to solve this problem and to send him word. He has detained two ships that were about to depart from Abu Qir for Crete, until he hears word, because he does not want word of these events to reach Europe and deter the usual trading ships from coming to Alexandria this year. The writer then transitions into business matters, mentioning intelligence he has received in a letter from Messer Giacomo and in a letter to someone named Aran. The addressees are to buy as much pepper as they can, for the ships coming from Livorno and Messina are not expected to have much. Likewise with ginger: the fresh ginger has all been sold in Europe, so the arriving ships are going to want more, but they will only want it fresh—it must not be rotten at all. The writer also mentions spices, flax, and skins. No ships from France are expected this year, but the ships from Livorno and Messina will purchase goods to send them on to France. "I have told you many times that Cassia fistula (khiyār shanbar) is in high demand in all of Europe, but you have not listened." The writer then mentions the addressee's partnership with Moshe b. Shoshan. Walnuts are in high demand in Venice. The writer has been dealing with a merchant from Ragusa (Dubrovnik) who tells him that after these events in Alexandria, even if he were to receive the weight of all his merchandise in gold, he would not come back to Alexandria, and no European merchant will want to come again after this; all those in Alexandria at present are intending to leave. This Ragusan intended to come and live there for 3 years, but he now plans to get out. The writer concludes by urging the addressees to act quickly, and to remember to buy up lots of fresh ginger and flax. Information mostly from Avraham David's edition and notes. ASE.

Letter from Yosef b. Kulayb, Ramla, to the gaonic pretender (here titled ra's al-mathība) Natan b. Avraham, probably in Tyre, May 1041. He reports the struggle between Natan b. Avraham's adherents and those of Shelomo b. Yehuda and the question of whether Yehuda the ḥazzān or Ibn ʿAlī or both should have taqdima. Information from Goitein's note card (#12248).

Business letter in Persian.

Letter from a woman named Archondou, in Alexandria, to her son Fuḍayl, in Fustat. Her main purpose in writing emerges at the end: she wants her son to come and fetch her, as she wants to go to Fustat. The woman's name, the use of a Greek word (τυλάριν, ?mattress, r12, 19), and the spelling of the proper names 'Archondou' (ארכודו) and 'Alexandria' (אלכסדריאן) all indicate a Greek-speaking milieu. Archondou expresses her sympathy for her son's eye disease, "from the day I heard that my eye has flowed and I have wept day and night without case" (r9–12). She too has an eye disease: "My eyes hurt very badly and I give three zuz every week to the doctor, and I cannot move from this place. If God is good to you, do me a favour and come quickly to fetch me out of here so that I do not die" (v10–14). Information from de Lange's edition. ASE.

Letter sent by Salama b. Asad the perfumer to Ismail the perfumer, accompanying a payment made to him and ordering eleven items, amongst which some uncommon ones. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 585, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the amirs Shibl al-Dawla (a man of the same title appears in F 1908.44I) and נאתץ(??) al-Dawla. Also mentions a man titled al-Pe'er; a peasant who covets the writer's mechandise that is "with him"; "ḥadrat al-wilāya" (the title of a wālī?).

Appeal for charity by the scholar Mawhūb b. Ḥalfōn ha-Ḥaver Ibn al-Bunduqī (“the son of the Venetian”). (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from a merchant in the Maghreb to his business partner in Fustat (might be a person from the Tahirti family). The beginning of the 11th century. Details about selling large quantity of flax and shipments of hundreds of dinars from the Maghreb to Egypt. Also mentions buying lead and other goods and details about the prices of different goods as indigo. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #137) VMR

Fragment of a letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda, probably to Sahlan b. Avraham, 1029.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified person in Fustat.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Fustat, 1034.