Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter, left side, in Judaeo-Arabic with a long preamble, greeting Eliyya ha-Sar. In the body of the letter, at the bottom, the writer requests to be send the [...] containing masā'il ḥullin. Verso: Letter, draft fragment, in a different hand, including respectful greetings and "I went to Abū Isḥāq". . .

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to a certain Abū Ṭāhir containing interesting technical details of the capitation tax administration. The writer heard from Manṣūr al-Dimashqī "may God protect him" (possibly identical with the recipient Abū Ṭāhir—otherwise how is Abū Ṭāhir connected to the story?) that he has been drawn into the matter of Mūsā b. al-Maghribī's capitation tax. Mūsā had been selling off his qumāsh (household furnishings? his wife's dowry?) when he went to the governor (al-wālī), possibly of al-Benha, and said "this man [presumably the letter writer] is my guarantor (ḍamīnī), and I make my payment in Malīj." The governor said, "Impossible! Show me your acquittances (barāwātak)." Mūsā brought the acquittances. The sequence of events becomes blurry around here due to the missing ends of lines. A speculative reconstruction is as follows: The governor said that he had been ordered to collect the capitation tax from a group of people who still owed it for "years 8 and 9" but it then transpired that the record (al-jarīda) in the tax bureau (al-dīwān) showed that someone else had already collected their capitation taxes—perhaps because they, like Mūsā, were registered elsewhere? The governor then says he will take the list to the authorities (al-sulṭān) and report that these people actually live in his district. The text in the margin is fragmentary but mentions the capitation tax farmer in Malīj (ḍāmin al-jawālī bi-Malīj) and, later, "let him pay it in al-Benha." The upper margin is lost. When the story resumes on verso, someone—perhaps the governor of al-Benha—is saying, "I will not let you off without a capitation tax payment for year 8, as the authorities (al-sulṭān) have ordered." The writer continues, "We are in a difficult situation with him [perhaps the tax farmer of Malīj]." The writer concludes by beseeching Abū Ṭāhir at least twice not to "oppose (tuʿāriḍ). . . [something or someone] that is in al-Benha." The meaning of this is not immediately clear. Perhaps the writer, in Malīj, is now facing trouble with the local tax farmer, because the governor of al-Benha is trying to transfer the tax revenue to his own district, and the writer wishes Abū Ṭāhir and Mūsā would not stir up any further trouble with the authorities. See Moss. IV,7 (L 12) for another use of עארץ in relation to the capitation tax. The references in this letter are quite opaque, and there are probably many other interpretations consistent with what remains of it. ASE.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic—perhaps 13th or 14th-century—to the Shaykh (abbreviated אלש׳) Hārūn in Cairo.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic to Alexandria.

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic, dated 29 January 1807 (20 Shevat 5567), from Avraham Haman and Gavriel Hefez to Merkado Karo and his partner Avraham ha-Levi.

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic, from a certain Merkado [Karo?] to Yosef (?) Najjār in Fustat/Cairo. Needs examination.

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic, dated 1802 CE (the 9th of the Omer = Matmonim 5562), to Nissim Molcho in Fustat/Cairo, from Yiṣḥaq ben Naʿim. Beautiful handwriting.

Late letter in Arabic, reused on verso for a text in Hebrew. Needs further examination.

Late letter (or a copy of one) in Judaeo-Arabic.

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic (dated, but confusingly) to Ḥayyim ha-Kohen and Ḥayyim Ṭaliṭ (?).

Letter from Shelomo Cesana & Company to Karo y Frances & Company. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 1 Sivan 5568 AM, which is 27 May 1808 CE.

Letter from David Maimonides, in ʿAydhāb, to his brother Moses Maimonides, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1170 CE. This is the last letter David wrote before he died at sea en route to India. Maimonides had ordered him to travel as far as ʿAydhāb, the Sudanese port, and not to embark on the pasage to India. But David, who had just successfully completed a daring feat, namely, crossing the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea after being separated from his caravan, accompanied only by a fellow Jew, and who did not find in ʿAydhāb goods worthwhile buying, was bent on traveling to India in order to make his voyage profitable. Information from Goitein.

Letter from Ibrāhīm, in Sunbāṭ, addressed to a Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. Requesting assistance for his family in time of need. His family members are all sick, and he has no money even for a medicinal syrup.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The name Yosef b. Seʿadya appears on the other side (technically recto); perhaps this is the name of the sender. The sender is in terrible straits and urges the addressee to meet with him and help him. He reminds the addressee that "when [he] was healthy," he used to do whatever the addressee asked of him no matter how unpleasant. ASE

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to 'rabbenu.' The sender seems to be without anywhere to spend the night and is asking for help. Mentions Abū l-Ṭāhir.

Letter sent from al-Mahalla by a man who is sought by the controller of revenue, asking a friend to obtain for him a letter from Shams al-Din (the director of revenue in the capital), saying that he is registered as absent. "Do not ask about my state of illness, weakness, want, and terrible fear of the supervisor's warrant." (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 382)

Letter from a man, in Minyat Zifta, to his paternal uncle, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender has sent 40 dirhams in cash (wariq) and he wants to know if it has arrived. The addressee is to purchase a quarter(?) of Alexandrian sūsiyya (apparently a textile originally manufactured in Sūsa) and send it, because it will be worth 50 dirhams in Minyat Zifta. Regards to the addressee's wife; Abū l-Surūr al-Kohen and his wife; and Mukhalliṣ and his wife. The addressee is also supposed to send a jubba that is muthallath ('triple-thread') and muḥtashim (modest?), for the addressee's brother asked for it. The sender hopes to visit Fustat, God willing. ASE

Letter in eloquent Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Requesting a Nagid to intervene with the government officers (ʿummāl) in Shaṭnūf during his forthcoming visit to the place. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Moshe b. Yequtiʾel, Jerusalem, to someone from his circle in Fustat, approximately 1040.