Geniza Lab

Letter to Eliyya Levi. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ottoman-era. Recto consists of greetings. On verso the writer relates various types of bad news (violence, financial losses) inolving relations with the Rabbanites and with the local Ottoman rulers (al-Chelebi, Kaykhiya al-Basha/Kaykhiya al-Shāwīshīyya, Turjumān al-Bāsha). Needs examination

Letter from Dā'ūd b. Shuqayr, probably in the Levant, to his son Shemuel b. Dā'ūd b. Shuqayr, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Catalogued as 15th century. The letter mainly deals with business matters and greetings. The currency cited is the ashrafī. The addressee's mother has had some sort of pain in her breast (mawjūʿa bi-buzzihā. . . nazala lahā shay' fī buzzihā) for the last two months, ever since she gave birth, "and she is with the barber (muzayyin)," (for treatment?). Needs further examination.

Letter from Sulaymān al-Skandarī, in Damascus, to his brother-in-law Faraj Allāh Ibn Fāḍil and his wife (the writer's sister), in Cairo. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown. He alludes to various business matters. He writes that he arrived safely in Damascus (and crosses out "Hama" which he originally wrote instead). Needs further examination.

Letter from an unknown writer in Jerusalem to Yeshuʿa Rofe, Fustat (Ẓoʿan). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Catalogued as 17th century. The writer also greets the Qaraite community of Cairo (Miṣr ha-semukha Ẓoʿan). The purpose of the letter is to inform the addressee that Umm כאסכיה(?) died on the 24th of Nisan. The writer describes her funeral arrangements. Needs further examination.

A long letter regarding a marriage case. A refernce is made to the ketubah and drinking of the cup as part of the betrothal ceremony. Sayyidna is mentioned throughout the letter, but the period can be determined. Cairo is also mentioned. needs further examination

Letter from Yeshaʿya Kohen, in Damascus, to his nephew Aharon Kohen, in Fustat/Cairo. (The writer is the paternal uncle of the addressee.) In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter mainly consists of very flowery greetings. There is a second letter directly underneath the first, addressed to Gedalya Fayrūz, also consisting almost entirely of greetings. There are two versions of the same postscript in which David Nasi Rofe adds his greetings to all the aforementioned people.

Letter addressed to Moshe Kohen. Opens with long poetic Hebrew introduction, then transitions to Judaeo-Arrabic. The sender is reporting on the family's hardships this year. They are in distress over the daughter of R. Pinḥas and have spent nearly 100 גרש on her. It seems that the sender had a male newborn who died. When the wife of R. Avraham Qudsī came on Friday, the guard of the neighborhood brought a miscarried fetus (walad siqṭ) and left it in the road in front of the house of the addressee's sister Ḥana (blood libel??). Then, someone (al-Qudsī?) and R. Shemuel were imprisoned and the house of the sister was ransacked, and she and Ibrāhīm were left without anything. And there is no news either about the barley crop or about Jerusalem. The addressee's brother-in-law Shelomo Rofe has come. Needs further examination.

Letter from an unknown writer, unknown location, to his brother-in-law al-Shaykh al-Fakhr al-Khāzin and his wife (the writer's sister), in Jerusalem. The addressees are asked to return to 'the city' before the winter. Otherwise the letter consists of expressions of concern and regards. Several more names are mentioned.

Letter from an unknown writer, in Jerusalem, to "the community of Qaraites." In Judaeo-Arabic, with some Hebrew verses at the top. Dating: Unknown. The letter discusses a matter of inheritance and a 'tarsīm' and complains that the addressees have abandoned him, and he suffers at the hands of the gentiles, and he does not sleep at night. He wishes the addressees to write back quickly, come in person, or help him with money. Needs further examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Dating: ca. 1224 CE (this date is mentioned in the text of the letter). Contains a fascinating and long-winded tale about contradictory testimonies regarding whether a woman's husband (ʿAbd al-Khāliq) gave her a conditional divorce before he traveled to Egypt; on the strength of this, certain people drew up a get for her and now she's engaged to someone else; the writer is upset about this and wants the addressee to weigh in, partly because the witnesses are contradicting their own past statements/behaviors, and in part because of how it will look to the Rabbanites ('the Qaraites have already become a חרפה וקלסה'). Merits further examination. ASE.

Letter from the Qaraite community of Damascus to the Qaraite community of Fustat/Cairo. Numerous senders are named. Date unknown. Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Deals with a legal or financial matter; needs examination.

Letter from an unknown writer, in Jerusalem, to Shelomo ha-Kohen and ʿOvadya Kohen, presumably in Fustat/Cairo. Dated: Thursday 24 Heshvan 5514 (עמדת), which is 1753 CE. Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, and the address is written in Hebrew and Arabic script. Deals with a legal matter. The writers have close links to Damascus. Needs further examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Names of writer and addressee are not immediately apparent. Their locations are also not explicit but it should be possible to deduce them; Jerusalem and Damascus are mentioned several times; Homs and Baalbek are mentioned as well. Dating: Probably 15th century or later, based on comparison with the other letters from this stratum. The writer's son Avraham recently died. On verso he describes a controversy over when the new moon of Tishrei appeared, spurred by the moon failing to appear at night but then appearing during the daytime before the next sunset. Needs further examination.

Letter draft from the Qaraite community of Cairo to the Qaraite community of Damascus. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown. Regarding a marriage-related legal case that reached the Muslim courts and resulted in someone spending two months in prison. Needs examination.

Letter from ʿAbdallāh b. Fayrūz to his brother-in-law, a certain Fakhr. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 15th century; mentions the currency ashrafī. Deals mainly with business matters. Goods mentioned include: rice, chickpeas, peas, taro, safflower, cinnamon, and wax. Also mentions the addressee's daughter several times. Needs examination.

Letter from Dāʾūd [...], possibly in Jerusalem, to his 'brother' Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov the physician (Samawʾal b. Yaʿqūb al-Mutaṭabbib), in New Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic, with an introduction in Hebrew and the address in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 16th or 17th century. The sender excuses himself for failing to write by citing a problem he had in the brain (al-dimāgh) which descended to his chest, and which required 7 or 8 months of purging. He is tired of the dressings and ointments, and is is scared of the barbers (muzayyinīn) of Jerusalem, because he has no experience with them. One barber diagnosed him with a fistula (nāsūr) and treated both him and the husband of his daughter Raḥel. The sender went somewhere else (Tyre?) for one month to convalesce. Greetings to and from numerous people in the family. Mentions ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, the beadle ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ḥakīm, al-shaykh al-sadīd, al-shaykh al-saniyy Farajallāh Ibn al-Nushuww, the sender's maternal aunt Raḥel, Mūsā Ibn Khaṭīr, ʿAbdallāh al-Qayyim, Ibn Juwayhira, and many others. Resembles Yevr.-Arab. II 1457 and its associated letters in terms of the vivid medical details found in it.

Letter from Sulaymān al-Kohen, unknown location, to his mother and brothers Faraj Allāh, Yaʿaqov, and Yiṣḥaq, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. Consists mainly of greetings. Many people are named.

Letter from the Qaraite community of Damascus to the Qaraite community of Cairo. Dated: Wednesday, 10 Tammuz 5512 AM (ואתה על), which is 1752 CE. But it is catalogued as 1776 CE. Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. This very large document needs further examination. Apparently this also has the shelfmark Yevr.-Arab. II 1477.

Letter from a woman named Harja (הרגה), somewhere in Syria, to her mother, the wife of Mūsā Ibn Fayrūz, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter is a remarkable account of Harja's months-long illness. "My heart flared up until I nearly died. I received an enema three times a day, but it did not relieve me. I remained anxious about how I would pass the fast. When the fast came, I let loose (my bowels) like one who has been loosened (in his bowels). I thought it was colic and considered that it was due to a discharge from my brain that settled in my stomach and felt like the colic. I did not sleep during the night of the fast, but I managed to last until midday, and from midday onward, it began to subside. I remained three or four days after the fast as it subsided(?) from me (or: gave me strength?). And when it subsided from me, I remained troubled on account of my eyes, for I could not see the light of the world with them. After that, the pain in my heart returned, and whenever it flared up the basin was not taken away from under my mouth, for whatever went down into my stomach came back up, and my stomach churned from all the vomit. But for now, it has abated, thanks to God for all things. I never imagined I would be carried to Syria sick and blind. I had taken the sickness into account, but not the blindness. I am afraid to have my eye treated, due to the season (i.e., season of illnesses) in Syria, and I am afraid that something else might come over me. I await a sign from God to illuminate my eyes. When you tell me that I am behaving recklessly as is my wont, I have never been more patient in all my life than I have been in these days. Someone who has not seen the light of the world for four months should not feel defeated? Whenever I awake and see the black obscurity of the morning and do not perceive the evening, my only remaining desire is to end my life. When they took me out into the sun, I didn't even see gloom, I saw only blackness." The margin and verso contain mostly greetings. See tag for more of her letters. ASE.

Letter from David Ḥazzan, in Jerusalem, to Eliyya Levi, in Fustat/Cairo. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer describes the difficult financial state of himself and of the Qaraites in Jerusalem, and how "we are in the fire from [the Rabbanites'] oppression." He mentions that he got sick and nearly died, recovered, relapsed and nearly died, and recovered again. Also mentions Gaza. Needs examination.