Geniza Lab

Letter from Ashkelon to Bilbays about the ransom of a captive.

Draft of a letter to the 'the Rav' in Mahdiyya, in which the sender writes that he bought quires of books from the inheritance of Berekhya and asks the recipient to have copied or purchased for him additional quires to complete his collection. (Information from Gil)

Recto: Letter addressed to Nahray b. Nissim. Verso: Draft of a letter from Nahray b. Nissim to a person in the Maghreb. Dating: ca. 1046 CE. Seems like the letter is addressed to someone in the Tāhirtī family. Mentions relatives and ships. Also mentions a visit of Nahray to Alexandria, the status of selling silk, and the arrival of Ibn Basak (Maṣliaḥ b. Eliyya, the judge of Sicily). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #246.) VMR

Fragment of a letter from Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Yosef to Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1070. The writer answers Nahray’s request to check the option of buying bonnets. Mentions that their production decreased and therefor their prices are higher. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #843) VMR

Letter of request, in which a silk-weaver who owed money to his employer, but wanted to quit his job, asks the Nagid to instruct his judges to permit him to pay in installments. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 35, 36)

Letter in which a physician traveling from Cairo to Damascus describes how he was honored by the Jewish judge of Bilbays. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 227, 228)

Letter to a certain David ha-Sar in which the writer asks him to intercede on his behalf with al-Sadīd.

Recto: Letter consisting of ten lines of honorific titles given to R. Yeḥiel and his student, R. Ḥananel. (Information from Goitein's index card.). Verso: A draft of a get

An addendum to a letter, informing a man that his son was arrested in Bijaya (Bougie in present-day Algeria) and his belongings were confiscated because he did not have any certificate attesting to his relationship with a woman with whom he was found. (Information from Goitein, typed texts) See also ENA 3901.5.

Petition from Cairo to Gaon Sar Shalom (ca. 1177-1195) in which the wife of Abu al-Ḥasan, the miller, requests that the latter not be permitted to tell his wife to go and do embroidery in other people's houses and bring him her earned money, instead she should be permitted to retain her wages if she chose to work. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 133)

Left upper corner, of list of persons receiving emoluments from the community, headed by judges and including 2 scholars, 3 parnasim, the beadles of the 2 synagogues, a woman teacher, and 5 unspecified others. The Rayyis Abu al-Mufaddal was judge in the capital of Egypt but also a merchant who traveled as far as Qus. He appears also in contributor lists App. C 18, 19, 119. Written by the clerk Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ibn al-Qata'if, dated documents 1100-1138. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 442, App. B 16)

Letter in which the writer reports that he stayed for the Sabbath in Qalyub and continued his travel on Sunday. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 299.) Likely same handwriting as T-S 10J18.8.

Letter from the physician Abū Zikrī, in Alexandria, to his father Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. Dating: Shortly before 1227 CE. Abū Zikrī tries to convince Eliyyahu to accept the post of judge in Alexandria. He promises that he will procure Eliyyahu's pension from the Ayyubid sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil (r. 1218–38 CE). He reports about the downfall of the Muslim governor and the Jewish Nasi of Alexandria and suggests that his father could get a position in that town if he wanted to. He also rebukes his father in strong terms for failing to include an update on the health of his mother in the previous letter, causing tremendous agitation and fear that she might be sick (r18–21). In a section that is almost completely effaced (v16–17), he mentions "appetite for food," perhaps in the context of one of his own chronic illnesses. (Information in part from Frenkel and from Goitein, Med. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 64 and Vol. 2, pp. 353, 380, 596.) See also T-S Ar.39.64. ASE

Fragment of a letter in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides including the following bitter statement: "What is the reason of this? Don't you know the value of what I do for you? Know that if you do not close the yearly account that you owe to me, on the morning of the holiday I will send you the messengers of the house of the Ṣāḥib [al-Dīwān, the official in charge of the capitation tax]."

Beginning and end of an important business letter written after the arrival of the sender from Mahdiyya to Alexandria, containing a list of prices. Dated to the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 221, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter to the judge Avraham ha-Ḥaver, perhaps Avraham b. Natan Av. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is a complaint and an appeal for help against Ibn Ṭarīf and his brother-in-law who had brought a complaint against the writer. (Information from Goitein's note card.)

Informal note from Hillel b. ʿEli to Eli b. Yaḥya ("al-Parnas al-Neʾeman"). In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking him to look after Ṣedaqa b. Nufayʿ and his father who were local people and deserving. Verso: 8 persons donate each 1/4 dinar, presumably for the needy mentioned on recto (poor hand, but not that of ʿEli the parnas). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter sent from an unidentified man, in Alexandria, to his brother, in Shayzar (Syria). In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender has recently returned from a long visit to Yemen. The addressee has recently moved from Ḥamāh to Shayzar (a smaller town nearby), and is planning to emulate his brother and travel overseas. On verso there are jottings. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Yūsuf, in Alexandria, to family members, probably in Fustat. The letter is addressed to the shop of Abū [...] al-ʿAṭṭār. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1160 CE, based on the mention (lines 11–12) that the writer departed Egypt in the year 51, probably 551H (1156 CE). This is corroborated by the mention of Abū ʿAlī Ibn al-Amshāṭī (see Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, pp. 103–04). The writer summarizes the events of the last four years. He suffered terrible illnesses and nearly perished en route to Constantinople. He lived there for two and a half years, where it seems he developed a new illness and also suffered from "the illness you know about." He survived only due to the grace of God and their prayers for him. He now asks his family members to go to Ẓāfir the tax collector and bribe him with a half dinar or dinar to register the writer as a newcomer (ṭārī) so that he will not have to pay for all four years he has been gone. "Remind him of my name, Yūsuf, who was under the Muʿallaqa (the Hanging Church)." Information in par from Goitein’s index card. The handwriting looks very similar or identical with that of T-S 10J11.11, and some of the same names appear in each letter, including Abū l-Surūr, Abū ʿAlī, and Sitt Ikhtiṣār. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, fragment, probably in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe.