Geniza Lab

Letter from an unknown man. In Judaeo-Arabic, in a blocky hand and with אללה spelled אלי. He alludes to a terrible misfortune afflicting him. "If it were not for the dream which I had on the eve of the day of the betrayal—for I had lain down in [...] as God knows, and I saw a man telling me, 'Cast/throw yourself onto [...], by God and by the Torah, do not exceed what I tell you....' And if it were not for that, I would not have had the courage in it...." The continuation is too faded to read. Toward the bottom, 'the affair of Abū l-Maymūn' is mentioned. On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Short letter sent from Yosef b Avraham to Ismail b. Yaʿaqov al-Andalusi, mentioning that the writer sent textiles marked with his name, and asking Ismail to buy sandals and a scarf for the writer's son. Dating: ca. 1055. (Information from Gil, Kingdom)

Letter from a Qaraite probably of Persian origin. His location is unknown (perhaps Ramla or Fustat), as are the identity of the addressee and his location (perhaps Jerusalem). In Hebrew. Dating: First half of the 11th century. The letter opens with extensive good wishes for the addressee, including for his recovery from an illness. The sender is writing on Tuesday the 20th of Sivan "according to the observation of the new moon." Several months earlier, the addressee had asked him to go up to Jerusalem and meet with the (now deceased) Nasi.The sender had excused himself at that time by citing his difficult circumstances. He is writing the present letter to report on recent developments: Abū Naṣr David b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi (active ca. 1020–55) arrived; Mikhaʾel went to greet him, but the two of them quarreled. Someone said something about the sender being in Egypt (or Fustat), and someone said something about Abū Sulaymān David b. Bapshād. The continuation of the letter is missing. On verso there are seliḥot. (Information in part from Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, p. 154.)

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan from Jerusalem to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. September 8, 1060. Several financial issues between Israel and Nahray. Also mentions copying books and the writer asks for a shipment of cinnamon. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 139-143, #470). VMR

Verso (earlier side): Letter from Yaḥyā to a qāḍī. In Arabic script. Opens "aṣghar al-mamālīk [...] Yaḥyā yujaddidu khidmata sayyidinā l-qāḍī al-ajall al-awḥad al-qāʾim al-mutafakkir(?)...." Needs examination.

Letter from Salah b. Barhun al-Tahirti to Yosef b. Awkal and his sons Hillel and Binyamin (written 8.21.1008, received 11.1.1008), upper fragment only.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father Eliyyahu the Judge. In Arabic script, with isolated words and part of the address in Hebrew. Very little is preserved: only the first line, the address, and the last word in the right margin (al-ḍurūra / "distress" / "need").

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mnetions Abū l-Ṭāhir. Deals with business matters and mentions an exchange rate.

Letter from Avraham b. Sughmār, from Fustat, to Nahray b. Nissim, Alexandria. Nahray traveled to Alexandria and the writer is sorry that he did not say goodbye. Mentions one dinar that the writer owes a person, the son of a person Ibn Sabra and he asks Nahray to arrange its return. Also mentions b. al-Qafsi, who is Maymūn b. Khalfa. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #610) VMR

Letter sent from Jerusalem in later medieval times by a woman named Jamila, the widow of Yehuda, addressing two brothers-in-law in Cairo, explaining that she could not come with the last caravan since she had visitors from Damascus who had fled from the plague, but promising she would come with the next caravan. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 115)

Letter from Yehuda to Sulaymān and ʿAzīz. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Looks no earlier than 14th c, but this is a guess. Yehuda is spelled יהודא. The content is mostly faded or lost. The name [...] b. Yeshuʿa appears on verso; perhaps this is the address.

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon, from Tinnis, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1056. The writer just arrived in Tinnis and he is astonished to see the situation in the city: the trades have stopped and the city seems like it was destroyed. He asks a question about a shipment of linen and mentions buying wheat for his family. Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #595. VMR. Nissim also twice exhorts Nahray to look after his children, "the fire is in my heart due to their state. . . for you know their state," and to finish the business quickly for this reason. ASE.

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim. Offers details of ill-fated ships that were destroyed in a storm or met with the Byzantine navy. Of the ships that had been in al-Kanāʾis (a port in western Egypt), the only ones that had made it all the way to Alexandria were 7 ships of al-Ishfīlī, and one qārib apiece of Ibn Dayṣūr, Ibn Sindūr, Ibn al-Dajdāj, Ibn al-Jannānī and al-Jazūla — 12 in all. An unnamed enemy stopped one ship, and the others fled; and only 5 ships managed to set out on their way. Gil connects this with the 15 ships mentioned in T-S 8J27.2, his #447, and therefore understands this letter to imply that the ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ was among those that hadn't yet returned to Alexandria). Musa is preparing to go to Palestine; he asks Nahray for a letter of recommendation (this part translated in Udovitch, "Formalism and Informalism"). Also mentions the fayj, and a tax receipt for the khums related to a consignment of raisins. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, #448, and from ibid., vol. 1, sec. 315, fn) There is a companion letter to this one, T-S 8J27.2 (PGPID 2084); see there for further details of the same events.

Letter from Peraḥya b. Sahlān, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1055. Regarding the request that Nahray will deal with selling goods that the writer sent to Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #779) VMR

Letter from Natan b. Nahray b. Natan to Nahray b. Nissim.

Letter from Yaʿqūb b. Salmān al-Ḥarīrī, Tripoli (Lebanon), to Nahrāy b. Nissīm, Fusṭāṭ. Commodities mentioned are wheat, figs, and cotton. According to Goitein's estimate, this letter was written exactly seven weeks before the letter T-S 8j19.27, which would be approximately 458-459/1066 (Goitein, Letters from Medieval Jewish traders, pg. 46, footnote #2). This was the time when Egypt was ravaged by a massive famine (shidda ʿuzma) and traders were eager to secure whatever victuals they could procure for their families and friends; "You know the times we are in, do not delay, these are difficult times". YU

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim to Abu l-Khayr Musa b. Barhun, asking him, among other things, to retrieve his capitation tax receipt for the year 441. See also ENA 2805.14 on the same matter.

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham b. Bundār to Abū Zikrī Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Yosef. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. The first few lines of the letter, the margins, and the address (in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script) are preserved. The letter reports that Maḍmūn was engaged in the building or outfitting of jāshujiyāt (military transport ships). Specifically, he outfitted four of them for an attack on Zabīd. Yosef also reports on a military venture of Bilāl and the sultan by land 'in the area of the mountain' in which they took over many villages and excellent fortresses of their enemies, praise be to God. Al-Fawfalī (ʿAlī b. Manṣūr?) is mentioned. See also T-S 8J20.19 (same writer, same addressee). Information from Goitein's attached edition; Margariti, Aden, p. 159 and 285, n. 89; and India Book II (Maḍmūn), p. 42, n. 101.

Letter from Yehuda, unknown location, to Shalom, in Jerusalem. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 13th century, based on handwriting, overall appearance, and linguistic evidence. The sender asks the addressee not to allow Ṣadaqa to sell anything from the estate of the deceased 'mother' (i.e., the sender's daughter), which rightfully belonged to her two orphans, Avraham and Rebecca, and to whom the sender had conveyed all of his own rights in the inheritance. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 310, 495, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from the mother of Dā'ūd, in a provincial town, to her son Sulaymān al-Jamal, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. She complains about a lack of letters from him and reports that she is fasting and crying day and night. She had traveled with her daughter and son-in-law to her present location ("balad al-ghurba"). She would return on her own, but must stay with her daughter who is pregnant (muthqala). The writer urges her son to come and thereby "cool [the fire in] my liver." Her son-in-law had promised to bring her back to Fustat, but when the daughter became pregnant, he said that he would never go back to Fustat again. The writer cannot bear witnessing her daughter's suffering (nakālhā) at the hands of the second wife (ḍarrathā). Information from Friedman's edition. ASE.