Geniza Lab

Recto: Bottom of a letter addressed to a brother. In Judaeo-Arabic. The addressee is instructed to look after their mother and not to neglect his prayers, morning and evening. Verso: The original letter was torn and the lower fragment was reused for an informal note from Shelomo (b. Elya) to R. A[vraham?]. Shelomo has delivered the money (darāhim?) to Abū l-Khayr; the addressee should now give the bearer all of the quires (karārīs), without leaving out a single page.

Letter, fragmentary and calligraphic, regarding business. Mentionins dealings in corals, storax, and zaituni (silk), and merchants of the second half of the eleventh century (Joseph b. Farah Qabisi). On verso is a medical prescription in Arabic letters. Most likely the receiver of the business letter was a physician. Information from Goitein's note card. Possibly the same scribe as T-S NS J194.

Abū l-Faraj b. Khalaf (?), probably in Minyat Ghamr, writes to his cousin (ibn ʿamma), Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. These cousins had prior correspondence and business dealings—Eliyyahu sent 22 dirhams with his previous letter, and the writer has a store in which he deals in indigo. The purpose of this letter is to ask Eliyyahu to write to the judge R. Menaḥem in the hope of obtaining permission for Abū l-Faraj to take a second wife. Eliyyahu is familiar with the case already, but Abū l-Faraj repeats some of it here. He has endured 20 years of suffering because of the illness of his wife, which prevents her from going to the bath (presumably a problem for him because of menstrual purity laws rather than because of hygiene). When Abū l-Faraj arrived in Minyat Ghamr from Jerusalem, he found a second woman whom he wanted to marry. The local judge, Mufaḍḍal the ḥaver, refused to marry them on his own authority and said that permission would need to come from higher up. Mufaḍḍal sent a letter to R. Menaḥem with Ḥabīb the shohet, but there was no response; Abū l-Faraj himself was unable to accompany Ḥabīb. Abū l-Faraj thought that Eliyyahu would already have intervened on his behalf, but no news of that has reached him. He visited Alexandria, but it seems that Mufaḍḍal discouraged him from seeking a ruling from the judge [A]natoli on account of his strictness. In the remainder of the letter, he repeats his request in various ways. He is willing to come to Fustat in order to marry. Information from Friedman's edition and translation. The writer quotes a saying in lines v13–15, where he is urging Eliyyahu to act quickly, and Friedman marked his translation as somewhat tentative. Cf. alternate versions of the same idiom in ENA 2558.21, T-S 13J21.20, Moss. II,167, T-S Misc.28.33, and Bodl. MS heb. d 66/14, e.g., "mā baqiya fī l-ʿumr mithla mā maḍā," literally, "there do not remain [years] of life like those which have passed," apparently corresponding to the English "we aren't getting any younger, [so please help me]." Another version of the phrase also appears in the first chapter of Ibn Buṭlān's Daʿwat al-Aṭibbā', in the mouth of a physician whose income has dried up and who has nowhere to go: mā baqiya aqallu mimmā maḍā ("what remains is less than what has passed"). See also T-S AS 162.167 + T-S AS 151.29 and Oded Zinger's edition in "You and I will enjoy each other's company until God decrees our death in the Land of Israel," Cathedra 174 (2020), note 22. ASE.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner of recto). He reports that someone gave something to Ḥalfon's mother, and she prays for him and his prosperity night and day. Also, Abū l-Surūr (their brother Peraḥya) gave her 10 dirhams. Nothing more is preserved on this fragment.

Letter from Netanel b. Ḥalfon to Zakkay ha-Dayyan ha-Maskil Nezer ha-Maskilim. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably the same sender as AIU V.B.48 (dated 1174 CE); this letter was written earlier, because his father was still alive when he wrote this letter. Netanel opens with praises for a great woman who departed. After she left, Musallam al-Muṭarriz (the embroiderer) had a wedding. A collection (ṣīniyya, lit. "tray") was arranged at the wedding and brought 30 dirhams. Since Netanel was not present the money was handed over to the "Pride of the Cantors" (al-Peʾer) who was supposed to deliver it to the addressee. (The sender himself is a cantor, since he asks for a piyyuṭ called Raḥmān to be sent with Musallam.) He goes on to report on the collections at two more weddings, that of Yosef b. MN[...] and that of Yosef Ibn Shahīda and the daughter of Munā b. Abū l-[...]. The letter ends rather abruptly just as he begins to say what happened when Abū l-Faraj al-Jazarī arrived. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and Goitein, Med Soc II, p. 499.) Join: Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1080. Natan asks Nahray to help the widow and orphans of b. Sason because they still did not receive the money that belongs to them, probably from the inheritance. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #433) VMR

Letter in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe probably to one of his brothers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Large fragment (lower right corner of recto). Mentions: Abū l-Munā; the tax collector (ṣāḥib al-mas) Abū ʿA[lī?]; something distressing; a request to talk to someone important (mawlāy al-ajall); Nuṣayr; regards to Khalīl; a great loss (? khaṣāra ʿaẓīma); three dirhams to purchase something with; a Jewish man from Tūnis who is going to Fustat en route to upper Egypt (al-Ṣāʿīd); dinars; Isḥāq b. אלמהר; a complaint about his friends who just take advantage of him (cf. T-S AS 153.235 with a similar complaint); his distress and shame about asking people for help; a request to get Nuṣayr to do something; tailoring something; and the closing greetings.

Letter from Harun b. Yosef [al-Ghazal?], Alexandria, to Abū l-Faraj Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. Awkal and to his sons. CUDL description: Fragment of a letter from the brothers Yosef and Nissim, sons of Berekhya, in Qayrawān, to Yosef b. Yaʿqub Ibn ʿAwkal in Fustat, ca. 1015-1017 CE. Similar letters are found at T-S 13J29.9, T-S 16.42, T-S 16.64, T-S NS J388, and Mosseri IV.10(?).

Letter in which a man who calls himself the father of the cantor who is "sick, poor, and naked" asks a prominent physician to arrange for him a collection, pesiqat sedaqa, in his private synagogue—and first to give himself. See further details on Goitein's note card and Med Soc II, Appendix C, #90 (p. 500).

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dated: 4 Tammuz = 18 June 1059 CE, according to Gil. The letter discusses the legal queries that Nahray had sent to be answered by the Nasi Daniel b. ʿAzarya, who, however, has been too busy to answer them.

Letter/petition from Yehuda(?), probably in Cairo, to an important person called Sayyidnā, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Rudimentary orthography. Dating: Probably late 12th or early 13th century. He first makes an excuse about why he could not come in person. Then he asks the addressee to obtain for him a copy of Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn ("The Oculists' Handbook") in the best handwriting possible. "For this is a khilʿa (robe of honor?) from Sayydinā"—i.e., receiving the book would be like receiving a robe of honor? He explains that the book cannot be found in Cairo. The addressee should spare no expense; the sender will reimburse him. ASE

Letter from Iṣḥaq b. David b. Sughmār to Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tāhirtī, mid 11th century. The writer asks Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tāhirtī to purchase for him urgently a jug or a third of a jug of high quality cooking oil, for which he appears to have found a customer. The price should be a dinar for a jug. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 6.)

Letter from Malīj containing a detailed description of a legal case involving a fabric manufactured while evading the tax due on it and sold to an acquaintance who did not keep the secret. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 116)

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower left corner). Dating: Probably 11th century. Mentions Aṭfīḥ.

Official letter from the office of one of the later Maimonidean Nagids. Headed with an elaborate Emet. Perhaps instructing Avraham ha-Zaqen to help the bearer of the letter who is a deserving man from a good family; he should receive charity without knowing who the giver is. On verso there is a note in Judaeo-Arabic and Greeek/Coptic numerals concerning a qāʿa.

Letter of a prisoner mistreated by a Maghribi guard and affected by illness, who asks a notable ("my brother, Abu Imran") to intervene for him with a judge. He mentions an incident on Friday when he attempted to use the toilet after three days without a bowel movement, which is when the guard beat him. "They were also allowed to send letters out of prison, some of which we still have, and since in one such letter a complaint is made against a particularly wicked jailer who cursed and beat the writer without reason, we may assume that in some places at least the authorities in charge did not tolerate excesive cruelty." (Med Soc II, 373 and Goitein's index card.)

Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. From an unidentified man possibly named Karīm, apparently in Zarnīkh (in Upper Egypt, see recto l. 44 and recto right margin l. 3), to his brother ʿĀzir and his mother (or at least an older female relative) Suʿūd the wife of Nissim al-Kohen, in Fustat/Cairo. He alternates between addressing ʿĀzir directly and addressing Suʿūd directly throughout the letter. In Judaeo-Arabic, with many quite modern dialectal features. The handwriting is reminiscent of some of the late Judaeo-Persian documents. The sender frequently mixes up emphatic and non-emphatic consonants (e.g., ק and כ, or ט and ת) and has unusual orthography throughout (e.g., זכות is spelled סכות); it requires further study to determine if this is the norm for Judaeo-Arabic letters of this period or if it reflects some specific linguistic background of the sender. Dating: Certainly 15th–19th century, but this range can likely be narrowed. There are greetings to several other family members and acquaintances (especially in recto, ll.1–8). The sender describes a great number of harrowing violent events and general destruction from which he narrowly escaped. He was being pursued by 'the rajjāla' (policemen of some sort?) who intended to kill him. He was initially traveling with Turks or "Turkmen" (תרקמאן) by land. He had a document (marsūm) with him concerning a certain Ḥasan the son of the kāshif (district administrator). He parted ways with the Turks, and that very night Ḥasan and every one of the Turks was slaughtered and thrown into the sea (or Nile), which the sender discovered when he arrived in Wādī אלעראקת(?). The sender himself continued to be pursued (including by rajjāla coming down from the mountain from ʿAqaba?) until he reached a place called ריואן or דיואן. (At another point in the letter he mentions a place called Wādī al-ʿUlayqāt and a traveling companion named Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUlayqī.) The same group had come in the night and killed the kāshif, and 15 Turks had fled, "and they plundered all of the documents." The next part of the letter deals with 3 gold coins that the addressees are supposed to collect in Fustat/Cairo, and also various commodities, some of which the sender sent with Muḥammad al-Babarī. He asks for either an account (ḥisāb) or a calendar spanning two years. He mentions someone named al-rayyis/al-amir Samāʿīn. He wants Suʿūd and ʿAbd al-Karīm to come see visit him in Zarnīkh, quickly. He emphasizes his bond with Suʿūd with a medical metaphor: "I am your tested theriac, and you are an old woman, and no one (but me) will come to your side and go before you." He asks her to pray for him. He orders ink, paper, and pens, plus some halloumi cheese and olive oil. He gives the strange instruction not to come to him "naked" but to come dressed (well) for the sake of onlookers. He asks Suʿūd to distribute money to the poor for his sake, and to tell his sister Ghāliya to pray for him in the synagogues. In a first postscript, he asks for news of his niece Siwār who was due to give birth. He gives further news about someone else (a rabbi? הראב) who was going to be killed, but then a group called al-jawābir(?) came and killed over a hundred people, and the sender was forced to flee. In a second postscript, he lists various items that he has sent with Muḥammad al-Babarī, instructing the addressees to sell them for a good price. He asks them to take good care of this Muḥammad, including bringing him to the Qaraite physician in order to have a good medicine prepared for him. On verso, in a different hand, there are jottings of accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, along with two lines containing greetings to 'the mother Ghāliya.' Join by Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter from an old cantor to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. He is complaining that his post was taken by someone other than his son. He lived in the synagogue compound and whenever he heard the voice of the other cantor, his illness grew worse. "It is in fitting with our sense of justice that any one should retain his position. If my son is treated like this during my lifetime, what will happen to him after my demise?" He mentions that he has "cast himself down" (fa-qad ramā nafsahu) and that his severe illness costs him at least 5 dirhams every day. (Information in part from Goitein, Med Soc II, pp. 89–90).

Letter from Simḥa ha-Kohen in Bilbays to his father-in-law Eliyyahu the Judge.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif, in Alexandria, to one of his brothers (Ḥalfon or Peraḥya), in Fustat. Fragment (left side of recto). Dating: first half of the 12th century. The letter describes the general mourning of the community in Alexandria after somebody's death. Mentions a cantor from the Ibn al-Jāzfīnī/Ghāzfīnī family; Abū l-Khayr; and a young woman. (Information from Frenkel.)