Geniza Lab

Letter/petition addressed to the judge Shela b. Yefet ('the faithful teacher,' ha-melammed ha-neʾeman). In Judaeo-Arabic with Hebrew and Arabic on verso. Fragmentary (bottom part only). "I informed him that people only serve us on account of the man's knowledge and action, and the lofty opinion belongs to the master in this. קנה חכמה קנה בינה. May God make him always among the seekers of His law and those who cling fast to it." AA. ASE.

Small fragment of an unidentified document in Arabic script. A letter? Mentions Abū Mūsā Hārūn. Very faded.

Possibly an official letter in Arabic script. Mentions "min aṣḥāb al-mawlā Sayf al-Islām." On verso possibly a few lines of accounting. Needs examination.

Letter probably to a father. In Arabic script. Fragment (upper right corner). "Taʾakhkharat ʿannī akhbār. . . mawlāy al-wālid. . . ." Asks for news of a woman (. . . mā hiya ʿalayhi. . .) to put the sender's heart at ease (li-yaṭmaʾinn qalbī). Mentions a ghulām named Nāṣīr. Needs further examination.

Business letter in Arabic script. At least partially about agriculture and mentions the town of Minyat al-Layth in the Delta. Also mentions "if [...] arrives from Cairo," and "the regiments in Syria" (al-ajnād alladhī fī l-Shām). The tone is urgent ("surʿa surʿa... wa-mā taḥtāj waṣiyya...")

Names of persons and quantities of commodities in Arabic (FGP) - needs examination.

Brief business letter from Nissim b. Hillel to Ibrāhīm b. Maḥfūẓ (=Avraham b. Shemarya? Or maybe the first name is Efrayim instead of Ibrāhīm). In Arabic script. Faded. Dating: Probably 11th century. Needs examination for content. Mentions Jerusalem in l. 4. Needs further examination.

Letter from ʿAmmār b. [...] to al-Rayyis Bū l-Faḍl, a court official. In Arabic script. The writer reports on a particular course of treatment for eye problems that included inflammations, dimness of vision, expanded pupils. The illness was treated with lamellae, eye drops and with the prescription of a potion to be taken after breakfast. Simples mentioned include anise, rose, lavender, oregano, mastic, liquorice, myrobalan, and aloe. The writer mentions his recent move to the town of Qalyūb. (Information from CUDL, probably from Isaacs's catalogue.)

Miscellaneous, including draft letter and price list of commodities in Arabic and Judeo Arabic - needs examination.

A very faded and damaged, barely legible, letter, mentions Damascus and a certain Zekharya b. [...]

Letter from an unknown writer, probably in Qūṣ, to an unknown addressee, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century, but this is a guess. The writer describes a harrowing Nile voyage "due to the illness of the passengers and loathsome odors. Three of them ended up dying. The last one survived for a day and a half until he died. I remained in distress from the stench that wafted from him, and nearly perished." The writer then safely arrived in Akhmīm on Friday as evening was falling, so he spent Shabbat in the city. He had to pay 10.5 dirhams (of customs?) upon leaving on Sunday, after swearing that he had nothing with him except the clothes (? qumāsh) on his back. He mentions al-Shaykh Abū Isḥāq b. Mushrif/Musharraf who had paid the customs duty for the קמקין (?). The writer wished to inform the addressee of this earlier, but there was a delay of five days before he arrived in Qūṣ. "Your servant arrived in Qūṣ and experienced on the side of aṣḥābunā a measure of hospitality which I am unable to describe even in part. They kindly took an apartment for me, a place which can be locked, before I arrived. . . " On verso there is Mishna Avot. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society 1:298, 474; 5:31-2, 513.) EMS. ASE.

On recto a fragment of Judeo Arabic letter mentioning Abu al-Ridda relating to selling or buying iron. On verso an Arabic letter- needs examination.

Minute fragment, few words in Hebrew

On verso fragment from a letter dated 1110 .(1421 Era of document, 4880 to the creation)

Letter addressed to Yiṣḥaq Luria (the Ari). In Hebrew. Only the first two lines of the letter and the address are preserved.

Letter from a woman to her son. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century. She may be writing from Ifrīqiyya (based on typical handwriting and orthography). The letter is headed בשם אל עליון, which is unusual. There is no formulaic opening (except ammā baʿd), so perhaps this is the continuation of a previous page or recent letter. Mentions Ḥayyim b. ʿUmar (=Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār?) and a request to write to the boy of Abū ʿImrān b. Ibrāhīm b. al-[...]. The letter is quite faded and damaged, and it is difficult to figure out more.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be identifiable. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century. This fragment (lower half of recto, upper half of verso) begins in medias res: the sender is writing about his time with some community, probably near Minyat Zifta; he describes a circumcision that was done on Shabbat; the sender organized a drive (pesiqa) for "the female captives"; and he found the congregation impoverished (fa-wajadtu l-[qaw]m fī ḥāl ṣaʿb... baqā al-jamāʿa ʿaniyyim marudim) on account of the ḍamān incumbent on them (a guarantee they had undertaken? or payments owed to a tax farmer?). He specifically mentions a loss of 100 dinars. It was resolved to inform Rabbenu about all this, and the Parnas went to do that. The sender awaits (the Parnas's? Rabbenu's?) arrival, and he plans to go to Minyat Zifta. He asks Abū l-Makārim "to obtain a rescript (tawqīʿ) regarding [...]."

Letter from Yedutun ha-Levi to his brother Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Identification based on handwriting and the mention of "your brother Abū Isḥāq." In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragmentary (left half of recto). The sender reports that he conveyed some information to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd. Then: "... he will take it, and I will hopefully be with him... on a day when he is in town... the dīwān... [and we do not know] if he has arrived in Fustat or Cairo... he did not do it. And your brother Abū Isḥāq... they did not say much about you... and you will hear everything that the people said... with the Rayyis, and he did not do it...the congregation... [and do not cut] off your news from me." On verso there are a couple words in Hebrew script. ASE.

Letter from an unnamed woman, in al-Mahdiyya, to her brother, probably in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is concerned with family matters. She insistently urges her brother to come home. E.g, "Do not think, O brother, that the longer you stay in that land, your money will increase and your livelihood will multiply. O brother, the profit in you being well is [greater?]... than you being in a foreign land... and your money will not increase as much as you think." She alludes to the loneliness of their mother, especially after their brother Yosef married and moved to al-Jibāl (the mountain region of Tunisia), where he now has two boys (possibly twins), and after another brother, Mevasser, got married in Palermo earlier that year to the daughter of their relative Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Mazmīzī. She sends greetings (twice) from her husband and her children Zikrī, Farrāḥ, Barakāt, and Umm al-Yaman. She reports that she has taken Zikrī out of school (the kuttāb), and he is now working as a dyer. Their brother Yosef recently came to visit her in al-Mahdiyya, and he is doing well. Abū l-Muʿammār their brother-in-law sends his regards; he recently traveled to Sicily without bringing any goods with him. Join: Oded Zinger. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) ASE

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Headed by ישועת יי כהרף עין (a non-biblical phrase) and לקי = לישועתך קויתי ייי. Addressed to 'the boy' Sulaymān b. Yehuda. None of the substance of the letter is preserved.