Geniza Lab

Goitein: Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking for oil to be purchased for the synagogue in Dammūh. Yefet also mentions the arrival of ships from Al-Andalus (Spain) and al-Mahdiyya. Greetings are sent to Sitt Naʿīm, Ḥalfon's wife. Gil edited this letter but misidentified the sender as David b. ʿAmmār Madīnī. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #658). ASE

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. With instructions about the sale of kohl, pepper, and boxthorn (khawlān). Greetings are sent to Sitt Naʿīm, Ḥalfon's wife. Gil edited this letter but misidentified the sender as David b. ʿAmmār Madīnī. (Information in part from CUDL and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #659.) VMR. ASE.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif to one of his brothers. Fragment (upper right corner of recto). Mentions the phrase/title/name "Sar Shalom." Little else is preserved here.

Recto: A summary of the different names terms applied to girls at different stages of life, perhaps from a halakhic standpoint. Verso: Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. After the writer finished his previous letter, bad news arrived ("what happened in ארבל") that made him weep, and he asks the addressee to inform him of the details. ASE.

Letter from Menaḥem to the judge Yehosef. In Judaeo-Arabic. A letter of recommendation poor man who has debts and must pay the capitation tax. Menaḥem also promises to send the quires (karārīs) as soon as he has finished writing them. "As for the capitation tax, it is said that it will not be demanded from the poor, who may obtain for it a rescript from the government (khaṭṭ al-sulṭān)." ASE.

Letter or letters. Recto: Lengthy laudatory preamble in rhyming Hebrew, followed by the body of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic starting three lines from the bottom and extending into the margin. Only formulaic phrases remain. Verso: Another rhyming preamble that starts in Hebrew and transitions into Judaeo-Arabic. It is followed by the body of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, concerning booklets (dafātir) and a big turban (? biqyār) and their prices. Mentions Abū l-Faḍā'il and R. Natan. ASE.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Avraham ha-Talmid, rebuking him for not coming to the shop as he had promised. Shelomo did not open the shop, because he was waiting for Avraham. He urges him to come tonight, without delay. Quotes Mishna Avot 2:5 ("in a place where there are no man, endeavor to be a man"). ASE.

Late business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions R. Shemuel Būnyāl. Needs further examination.

Letter addressed to Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Moshe b. Ṣalḥūn. In Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli? Most of what is preserved is formulaic.

Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably no earlier than 13th century. Mentions a woman named Sutayta, a woman named Esther, a man who seems to be named Rāwand ('rhubarb'), and a man named Isḥāq.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment (upper left corner of recto). Mentions Abū l-Surur (their brother Peraḥya?); a request to convey information from Ḥassūn b. ʿAllūn. Yefet has sent something for Yehuda b. [...] with this letter. He mentions a good "made in Fustat, cheap."

Recto: The last few lines of an Arabic letter. Needs further examination. Verso: The lower part of a letter of appeal signed by the cantor Yedutun ha-Levi who had fallen on hard times and needs money to support and feed himself. He also alludes to the pains of an illness. The upper half probably had a poem in praise of the recipient, a Levi. In the margin, the writer's name is spelled out in more detail: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū Sahl the cantor of the Palestinian synagogue, may it last forever. ASE.

Letter addressed to Av[raham?] Kohen b. Yosef Kohen, in Fustat. Reports that the two ships from al-Mahdiyya that had been anchored underneath the lighthouse departed on Saturday the 15th of Sivan when the wind became favorable. Mentions a qāḍī. Most of the rest is missing.

Letter addressed to Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century. There are somewhat unusual phrases after the address: בלג פדית and ישע יוחש. Mentions a caravan; the rotting of the names of the wicked; and a gathering of the elders of "the two cities."

Letter or petition in Arabic script. Wide space between the lines. Thin vertical strip with portions of 6 lines preserved.

Letter. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The name Aharon b. Efrayim (b. Shemarya?) appears in the upper margin. Mentions Kanīsat al-Shāmiyyīn.

Recto: Letter/petition to Avraham b. Yaʿaqov ha-Ḥazzan. In Judaeo-Arabic. This is either intended for the eyes of Mevorakh or simply mentions previous petitions submitted to Mevorakh. It is a complaint about the excesses of Shela the Judge and his brothers and sons, who have seized power over the community in Alexandria by "violence and lack of government control(?)" and are behaving in ways unbecoming of judges. (See Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, Princeton University Press, 1980, 243.) Join: Oded Zinger. EMS. ASE. Verso: Draft of a court record after the death of the well-known ʿEli ha-Kohen ha-Parnas (b. Ḥayyim/Yaḥyā), confirming that his nephew has received the 20 dinars willed to him. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE

The beginning of a letter of recommendation from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides, for a man named Eliyyahu "who has no tongue [in Arabic] or in Hebrew." The name Ṣedaqa ha-Ḥazzan appears on verso. Bibliography: Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 67–104.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century. The sender asks for news of a trader in Yemen should anyone arrive from there. There are various Muslims (a qāḍī and a faqīh from Bijāya) who are mentioned. A portion of a name is preserved on verso: Yosef Kohen.

Short note to Muwaffaq, accompanied by quantities of “hindi” and “lādan” (labdanum), instructing the addressee to sell them. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS