Geniza Lab

Recto: Large letter in Arabic script. This is a fragment from the left side of the document. Needs examination for content.

Letter from ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen, in Jerusalem, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. The letter consists entirely of good wishes for the holidays.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script, in a chancery hand. The first line includes a name: Abū Yaʿqūb [...]. The second line is a basmala, and the letters begins in the third line (asʾal ḥaḍrat mawlāy...). Mentions a promissory note (ḥujja) for the value of half of [...], namely 45 dinars; the next line also mentions the word "debt" (al-dayn). There is then a request of some sort (...yajʿal lahū...) and the word "condition (al-sharṭ/lil-sharṭ). Needs further examination.

Beginning of a letter containing a request for a book to be made for the forthcoming holiday. Note on Goitein index card: Shelomo b. Eliyya. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Masʿūd b. Mawhūb to his brother Sābiq b. Mawhūb. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender is agitated about the news he heard from Umm Subayʿ b. ʿAbdallāh, namely that his wife has taken their son out of the school (kuttāb) and allowed him to play all day. "She behaves like an idiot (ablah), inflicting unhealable wounds." He will travel (or send raqqāṣīn?) to Cyprus (קברץ), where it seems the woman lives. He has sent 15 dirhams with Abū l-Munā b. Ḥiyya to give to the teacher. The boy should not be allowed to play hooky. He sends a jūkāniyya (a garment) for the boy. He asks for Abū ʿImrān to draw up a bill of divorce for him for Ṣafar [5]31 (=1136/37 CE) for a half dinar. Some of this summary is tentative; needs further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Marriage-related document, possibly a ketubba,, based on the reference to החתן הנחמד in the last line. But only a thin vertical strip from the right side is preserved, and it is difficult to make sense of everything. Dating: Late, perhaps 16th century. In a mixture of Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions: [Yo]sef Ibn Shānjī; Yaʿaqov ha-Levi; a sum of ducats (peraḥim); and "my wife" (so maybe this isn't a ketubba?). Needs further examination.

Verso: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mostly consists of especially deferential phrases: ...wa-fa-qad ʿalima l-khāliq anna ʿinda samāʿī... wa-tanwīh ismih wa-ḥusn thanāh min kull ṣādir... wa-anā uqabbil yadayhi wa-akhdumuh...

Verso: Note (ruqʿa) addressed to Abū l-Ḥasan. In Judaeo-Arabic. It seems that the sender has enclosed a copy of Tehillim and wants to sell it to the addressee for 4 1/4 dinars. He should examine it and send it back if he doesn't want to buy it.

Letter from Yehuda b. Sahl, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Note that Yehuda's father's name is something else in the Hebrew-script address (neither Sahl nor Yashar; ends with ש). The sender asks Nahray to order a commodity (ḥajar al-māʾ?) from another trader, because there is none in Palestine, and they are importing it from Sāl[...], and that seems to be an inadequate substitute for coral. (This reading is tentative.) He also orders a mantle (īzār) for himself. This document is uncited in the literature.

Mercantile letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower left corner of recto). Dating: 11th or 12th century. Appears to mention "a nice little chest" (ṣufayṭ laṭīf). Not much else is preserved.

Letter from Shela b. Mevasser to [Mevorakh] b. Seʿadya. Essentially nothing is preserved apart from these names. (Information from Cohen, Self-Government, p. 243n110, where similar letters are listed.)

Letter of appeal for charity, probably. In Hebrew. Mentions the names Moshe b. Yiṣḥaq and Abū [...]. There are also a couple of words in Arabic script on verso.

Letter in Arabic script from Ravaḥ Ha-Kohen ha-ḥazzan (the cantor) al-Baghdādī b. Pinḥas, Ramla, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, end of 1029.

Letter from a man to his 'brother'. In Judaeo-Arabic, rudimentary script and spelling. He informs him that he has "fallen" into the ḍamān (tax farm) of Minyat Badr (near Tinnīs) with Abū Saʿd and that he cannot leave, otherwise he would go up (presuambly to Fustat/Cairo) in person. He has sent some money for purchases and sends regards to various people. ASE.

Letter from Ṭahor b. Avraham to Ḥananel b. Shemuel the judge (and father-in-law of Avraham Maimonides). In Judaeo-Arabic. See his other letters T-S 8J26.8 and T-S 8J40.9.

Strong censure from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides that the addressee had left a guest recommended by him without food on Friday and Shabbat and, in addition, the addressee's son had insulted him. He summons both father and son to his court, urgently. Infromation from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from Barakāt to Samaw'al. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very deferential. Little of the substance after the introduction remains. The letter has been cut into the shape of a circle.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter of petition from a man to a potential benefactor: 'I hereby inform you that I have been in good health, "concealed" among the people (mastūr bayn al-nās). Then when my hand became paralyzed (infalajat), I was left without a means of making a livin[g].' When capitation tax payment came he had to go into hiding in his house, and so he asks for assistance." Cohen, Poverty and Charity, 42-43. See also Goitein's note card. The writer has been hiding in the house for 55 days. Only Abu l-Fakhr the son of the judge and Ibn [...] al-Amshati have come to his aid, each one giving him 5 dirhems. He bribed the capitation tax collectors with 5 dirhems and already spent the other 5. He needs food. ASE.