Geniza Lab

Letter/petition from Moshe [...] to the "Nagid" [Shelo]mo. Begins in Hebrew, and transitions to Judaeo-Arabic. Probably this is a letter of appeal for charity or help. The bottom part of the letter is lost. Unclear who this Shelomo is.

Praises addressed to somebody in Hebrew. On verso, names someone titled השר היקר נגיד עם ייי צבאות: Yehuda b. David(?). Unclear who this is.

Large letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Names of sender and addressee are lost, but it may be possible to identify the sender's hand. Dating: Likely 11th century. Discusses selling a house; arrival of a ship; codices; someone called al-Qaṣṣār; a vessel (fuqqāʿa) and oil; Abū ʿImrān; bowls (zabādī). On verso, there are closing greetings and regards to Yisrael b. Khalīla Fāsī (perhaps the same Yisrael b. Khalīla who appears in ENA 1822a.55).

Letter from Yiṣḥaq ben Ṣūr. In Hebrew. Dating: Likely 16th century, based on hand, language, and surname (there is a well known Avraham ben Ṣūr from the 16th century). The sender is sick and hasn't yet left the house. He wants to buy a cask (birmīl) of possibly mercury (the word looks like זייבה, but the ה is longer than usual and could potentially be a ק, yielding zaybaq). (Information from A. David's edition via FGP.)

Letter from Yona ʿAdanī (=of Aden) to a certain Yosef. In Hebrew. Dating: 16th century. Yona is submitting business accounts (in Judaeo-Arabic) to be reviewed. He previously submitted accounts to Yehuda Castro and received a receipt from Yiṣḥaq ʿAdanī, but there is some issue to be resolved. (Information from A. David's (partial) edition via FGP.)

Business letter from Yaʿqūb b. Salāma (aka Yaʿaqov b. Shelomo) to his brother Shemuel b. Shelomo. The phrase "the Maghribī scribe" also appears in the address. Written in a mixture of Arabic (in Arabic script) and Judaeo-Arabic. The portion preserved here mainly contains formulaic expressions of longing and deference. Mentions someone called Sayf al-Dawla al-[...] al-Juyūshī; a profit of 8 3/4 dinars; and "the small ship" (al-qārib al-ṣaghīr), which Aodeh suggests is the ship of the ruler of Tyre Ibn Abī ʿAqīl, but does not explain why. (Information from Aodeh.)

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th century or early 12th century. Mentions Abū Kathīr; the sender was distressed to learn that the addressee received the money (al-danānīr) but not the belts (al-zanānir); he swears by all that he believes in that he has sworn in front of Jews and Muslims that Abū l-ʿIzz is the most trustworthy man who lives: "If I had 1,000 Maʿaddī dinars with him, it would be as if they were in my own chest and under my lock, may God avenge [...] if you say the opposite of what I believe." (Maʿaddī dinars are mentioned again on verso and also in ENA 4011.72 from 1100 CE; presumably they refer to dinars minted under the caliph Abū Tamīm Maʿaa al-Mustanṣir, who died in 1094 CE.) At the bottom of recto, the letter mentions a ḥaver and someone named Muḥammad al-Būnī. Almost all of the text on verso consists of detailed business accounting, with references to multiple types of currency.

Letter from Ṣāliḥ b. Mūsā to Nahray b. Nissim. Dating: ca. 1045 CE. The sender says that Ṣāʿid b. Shuʿayb ordered mats(?) from him, so he had them made, but then Masʿūd married Ṣāʿid's wife(?! Gil suggests divorcee, but maybe fiancee is meant), and now Ṣāʿid doesn't need them any more. The sender now offers the product to Nahray. The sender's brother-in-law Maymūn has sent some bitumen (qifār) with Abū l-Ṭayyib Ḥunayn. He regrets that there are no salt-cured small fish (ṣīr) in his location this year. (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #787.) VMR. ASE.

Fragment of a letter from Daniel b. ʿAzarya to ʿEli b. Amram, in Fustat. Daniel is expressing his support of ʿEli b. ʿAmram against people who disagree with him. Also words of condolences for a person who passed away. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 pp. 683–84, #369). VMR

Formal letter addressed to a dignitary with many titles, named [...] b. Sh[...]. In Hebrew. Dating: Perhaps 11th century. Very little of the content of the message is preserved. On verso there is Hebrew poetry.

Letter addressed to a certain Avraham or [...] b. Avraham. In Hebrew. Concerning communal matters. Mentions 4 silver pieces; reward for the addressee; and the pseudo-Talmudic aphorism "a community is not poor" (ואין ציבור עני). The sender's identification may be in the second-to-last line, but it is difficult to read. There is a motto וישע יקרב, perhaps followed by a date. On the aphorism, see Ron Kleinman, "'The Community is not Poor' — The Metamorphosis of a Halakhic Rule" (Hebrew), Sidra 20 (2005), 195–209. Kleinman identifies the first known occurrence of the phrase in the commentary on the Talmud of Barukh b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi, ca. 1100 CE (p. 199). On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragmentary (bottom part only). Part of the address is preserved, but it is probably illegible. The sender complains about receiving no news for 3 months. He/she asks for news and mentions a young woman (al-ṣabiyya) and something to do with "going out." Regards to the whole family and to the neighbors, and to Abū l-Faraj and his wife. There is also something to do with Eliyya and a dirham.

Letter from Shemuel b. Shānjī. Fragment (left side only). In Hebrew. Dating: 16th century (per Avraham David). The sender asks the addressee to buy him a silk ṭallit.

Letter from a certain Yehuda to a certain Elʿazar ("the Prince"). In Hebrew. Dating: Probably 15th–18th century, and this could likely be narrowed. The sender offers copious excuses about various things, makes learned references, and talks about books (e.g., the tractate Bava Meṣiʿa). At the bottom, at 180 degrees, there is a line of poetry about souls being bound together. Needs further examination.

Recto: Letter of appeal for charity from a Torah scholar. In Hebrew.

Fragment of a letter from Avraham the son of the Gaon probably to Efrayim b. Shemarya, in Fustat. (Identifications by Gil; Goitein understands this to be part of the same document as T-S NS 320.42 and says that both are written in the "unmistakable hand" of the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda.) Dating: before 1035 CE (per Gil). The first few lines preserved here are written in Arabic script, and the end of the letter is in Hebrew. NB: When Goitein refers to "T-S NS 320.16," he generally means the manuscript that currently has the shelfmark T-S NS 320.42.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Written in an unusual hand; Goitein calls it "papyri script," probably referring to the early documents edited by Blau and Hopkins in "Judaeo-Arabic Papyri" (1987). There are also some interesting spellings, e.g., ואמגיר for ואמא גיר. The addressee is supposed to send the silk that Abū l-Faraj wants. The sender then orders some goods for himself, e.g., a qumqum of rosewater. Most of verso consists of a price list, mentioning goods such as soap, almond, mastic, saffron, tragacanth (kathīrāʾ), henna, sumac, pistachio, sesame, usnea/lichen (shayba), labdanum, and kohl. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Letter from communal leaders, in Alexandria, to the judge Shemuel, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unclear; likely early 13th century, based on handwriting and Goitein's identification of the judge Shemuel as the same one mentioned in T-S 10J16.6. Regarding a woman in Alexandria with a sick daughter, whose husband had fled his creditor and gone to the capital. The letter says that she had been deserted for a long time, that she had to maintain herself and her little girl, to pay rent, and on top of this, was sued in court by the creditor of her husband. The writers of the letter ask in the politest terms that Shemuel approach the Nagid for action in this matter. Verso: Letter from the judge Shemuel to the Nagid. The writer reports that he had sent several summons to the runaway husband, but since both the High Holidays (approx. September) and Hanukka (approx. December) had passed without response from him, sterner measures were now required, and, to the judge's dismay, the Nagid had to be troubled. The matter was of utmost seriousness since the Alexandrian wife asserted that her husband had married another woman and was living with her in Cairo. Clearly, the police now had to be instructed to bring the man to court by force. But only the Nagid, as official representative of the state, was authorized to give that order. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc, III, pp. 203–04 and Friedman, Jewish Polygyny, pp. 213–16.) ASE.

Letter from a certain Aharon to Eliyyahu the Judge about a lack of success of a collection made for himself. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Avraham the son of the Gaon to Sahlān b. Avraham. (Identifications by Gil; whereas Goitein says that it is written in the "unmistakable hand" of the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda.) Mainly in Arabic script, with some Hebrew mixed in. Dating: ca. 1045 CE. The sender mainly details the honors and appointments that were given out during the month of Tishrei. He refers to the "Av Bet Din" and his brother "ha-Shelishi," who are probably (Gil says "certainly") Yosef and Eliyyahu, the two sons of Shelomo Gaon (hence the estimated date). On verso there is a draft of a piyyuṭ in the handwriting of Sahlān b. Avraham (hence the identification of the addressee). (Information from Gil.) NB: Goitein published this fragment in "New sources on the Palestinian Gaonate," Baron Jubilee Volume (1974), but at the time it was called "T-S NS 320.16." Perhaps the confusion arose because Goitein understood these two fragments to be part of the same document. His index card for this manuscript is also located under that shelfmark. The index card currently attached to this shelfmark must be referring to a different manuscript. It says, "Ṣadaqa b. Moshe ha-Levi buys from Yosef b. Shelomo for 25 dinars Tawfīq (a female slave) whom the latter had originally bought from another Jew for his daughter Sitt al-Ahl."