Geniza Lab

Family letter addressed to Moshe b. Yehuda known as Ibn Abī Kharrūba, in Palermo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th century. The letter was written by one of Moshe's siblings-in-law in Fustat, to be sent to their sister (Moshe's wife). "I also inform you, O my sister, that your brother Barakāt arrived safely in Fustat... staying here, and we have spent 10 dinars on him. Do not cut off your news from me or... from your brother Barakāt, for our hearts are relieved whenever we receive news from you... and that you are in health. I and my mother pray for the elder your father-in-law day and night... the fire is in my heart on account of my separation from you... I wish to travel to you, but my mother does not allow me, for she has no one (but me)... your maternal uncle Musallam asks after you, and your maternal uncle Abū l-Faraj as well... and your maternal aunt sends her greetings and adjures you to tell your (other) maternal aunt to send her a letter of her own... to make her happy... I heard that you sent a letter to Alexandria, but it was lost and never arrived.... Abū l-Khayr sends his greetings, and your brother Barakāt, and your maternal uncle Musallam, and your maternal uncle Abū l-Faraj... I greet you and your husband Mūsā and your sons Abū Isḥāq and his brother and your daughter Sitt al-Kull and your father-in-law and your maternal aunt." Reused on verso for Hebrew literary/liturgical text. ASE

DK 184a: Copy of a letter from Sharira b. Hananya, while he was a judge (Av Beit Din) in Pumbedita, to the communities in Spain and North Africa. Probably 962. The writer asks for their support, while in the Yeshiva there are disagreements about their Gaon – Nehemya b. Kohen Sedek. (Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, Doc. #19) VMR

Circular letter from Maṣliaḥ Gaon to all the communities of the Rīf.

Letter from Maṣliaḥ Gaon to Aharon ha-Sar b. Netan'el. Opens with Maṣliaḥ's genealogy: Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen b. Shelomo b. Eliyyahu b. Shelomo (thus far all are titled Rosh Yeshivat Ge'on Yaʿaqov) b. Yehosef ha-Kohen Bayt Din Kohen Ṣedeq b. Aharon. Maṣliaḥ writes that he has sent his emissary Yefet ha-Levi and asks the addressee to assist him in his mission. Dated: Iyyar 1443 Seleucid, which is 1132 CE. The transcription available on FGP does not entirely correspond to the images available. The FGP transcription is for a circular letter by Maṣliaḥ Gaon sent to all the cities of the Rīf. This text may have come from part of the letter that was not digitized.

Business letter in Arabic script from the circle of Nahray b. Nissim, in Arabic script. Mentions the arrival of a certain Salmān, mentions al-Ashmunayn, Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ḥarīrī. Fragmentary and difficult to read.

Letter of extremely elaborate flattery and good wishes for Purim addressed to a Jewish dignitary (rayyis al-ru'asā). There are a few lines of Hebrew, then the rest (two folios) is in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the mighty sultan and the amir Jamāl al-Dīn.

Letter to R. Yaʿaqov b. Moshe. Writer unknown.

Letter (or petition or report) in Arabic script. Mainly the formulaic beginning is preserved with the sender's prayers for the addressee's longevity.

Letter in Arabic script. Addressed to [...] al-Malikī al-Nāṣirī. Dating: Probably Mamluk era. Needs examination for content. 'warada l-musharraf al-karīm al-ṣādir ʿan al-majlis al-ʿāl... wa-ʿalima jamīʿ ma sharaḥahu wa-ammā mā dhakarahu bi-sabab al-bighāl...'

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, the uncle of Nahray b. Nissim, in Alexandria, to Nahray's son, Abū Saʿd Nissim b. Nahray, in Fustat, ca. 1066. The letter relates many commercial matters and mentions Avraham al-Derʿi as Natan's commercial competitor in coral trade. From Nahray's title and from the fact that Nissim is already grown up and involved in trade, one can conclude that the letter was written in the late nineties of the 11th century. Doc. #43 in Nahray's archive. Mentions various goods: silk, clothes, pearls, lapiz lazuli and tin (Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 439).

Fragment of a large letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Referring inter alia to a Nile voyage in the entourage of al-Malik al-Afḍal (1095–1121). Excerpts from recto: "...send it with whomever is available, and I will pay him the price of two nights of [...].... The only reason I did not send the saddle and the reins was fear that you would not be happy with that... I hired a donkey (with) a driver from Qalyūb nearly to Shaṭnūf, to the place of the noble barges (al-ʿushāriyāt //al-saʿīda//), and we went down and stayed several days, and we encountered terrible frights on the Nile. When we arrived in Manūf, the king (al-mālik) //may God make his reign eternal// embarked, along with my master (mawlāya) as well as my master Abū l-Mufaḍḍal, and they traveled to al-Maḥalla. I stayed in the barge, and a murshid(?) stayed with me, and there was nobody to send a letter with, which is the reason for the cutting off of my letters. The day that my master arrived from al-Maḥalla, I wrote a letter and sent it with Salāma al-Shīrajī, and it was concise... because I did not have enough time...." The continuation of recto deals with trade in clothing and textiles. The letter resumes on verso as follows: "We entered Alexandria.... Abū l-Mufaḍḍal took back (? istaʿāra) his seal/decree (?? sijill) and gave me a female donkey and informed me what happened with the Frankish female slave...." Then mentions purple cloth (urjuwān) and the merchant Abū l-Afrāḥ. In a postscript, "I was informed about the deliverance of Abu Saʿīd's wife, praise be to God for this. As to the girl's death, nothing can be done about it. May God soon give them a male child instead. Congratulate them all on her deliverance" (Med Soc III, p. 228 note 26). ASE. NB: Goitein's attached transcription belongs to another fragment.

Letter by Raḥamim b. Nissim to ʿArūs b. Yosef about dealing in purple and indigo.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Mūsā b. Muwaffaq primarily to his son Yehuda, but also to a certain Abū Sulaymān, telling him to come visit his sister. He sends regards to a large number of people. There is an addendum or draft of a different letter or petition in Arabic script (from "Mūsā the Jew," presumably the same man who wrote the Judaeo-Arabic letter). Dating: Probably Mamluk-era, based on handwriting, formulae, and layout. Needs further examination. NB: The metadata and transcription in FGP belong to a different shelfmark, Gil, Kingdom, IV, #430, which, at the time Gil saw it, used to have the shelfmark DK 228 d-e. The current shelfmark for that fragment will take some work to figure out.

Letter from Maymūn b. Khalfa, Palermo, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. 18 August 1056 (Gil). Describes the movement of goods and ships to and from Sicily. The government of Sicily imposed on Jewish merchants in Palermo a customs import duty (ʿushr), normally imposed only on foreign merchants, because resident Jews cooperated with their foreign partners and declared incoming goods as their property. A judge and other Jews were sent to prison. The writer reproaches Nahray for his dealings with a resident of the island, Sulaymān b. Shaʾul. Also mentions "the ships (plural!) of Abū ʿAbdallah Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ:

Detailed, beautifully written letter of a silkweaver, Abū Saʿd b. Avraham, to his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ, asking for instructions as to the pattern wished for the garments ordered, and many other details. The yarn sent to the writer through one Nāṣir was entangled (mukabbal) and had to be put into order (ḥll); he had not woven the garment ordered, because no clear instructions had been given with regard to the pattern (numūdhaj); a later message, delivered by one Ṣedaqa—of course different from the receiver of the letter said 'yurīduhu bisakākīn,' 'he wishes the pattern with knives,' an instruction which seemed to the writer insufficient. As usual, the manufacturer also trades with finished products. He offers good sūsiyāt and local arḍīs (pl. arāḍī) of utmost thinness (margin l.2) but not of the pattern alluded to. Information from Goitein's notes (to be found with those attached to PGPID 6565). For additional documents involving Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ (unless there were two), see: Bodl. MS heb. b 11/3, Bodl. MS heb. d 66/96, ENA NS 21.9, T-S 8J33.11, T-S 10J6.11 (ed. Weiss, "Ḥalfon," #138), T-S 13J18.4, T-S 18J1.21, T-S 8.125, T-S 8.131, T-S 28.17 (ed. Ackerman-Lieberman, "Partnership Culture," #56) where we find Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ b. Dāwud al-Raqqī and, perhaps, T-S 13J17.8, which is addressed to Abū l-Khayr Ṣedaqa b. Ṣammūḥ b. Sason. Information from Oded Zinger's dissertation, p. 166, notes 119–23. ASE.

Letter from ʿAmram b. Yosef to Netanel b. Yefet regarding goods sent by Ḥasan b. Bundār. Location: Alexandria. Dating: 1094–97 CE. ʿAmram mentions his ophthalmia ('it seems as if I have found slight relief') and the wretched woman (ʿaguna for ʿaguma, as in CUL Or.1080 J24) who suffers pain in the joints of her hands and feet (this woman and her arthritis also appear in T-S 13J23.10). ʿAmram excuses himself from paying his respects to the Nagid on account of his ophthalmia, so he asks Netanel to represent him. ʿAmram makes the same request of Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy in Halper 394 and of Nahray b. Nissim in Bodl. MS heb. d.75/19. ASE. See Med. Society II, 478, Section 18. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Yosef b. Ismāʿīl al-Iṭrābulusi, Ascalon, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Circa 1060. Discusses the import and export of goods through Ascalon. (Information from Gil, Palestine, Vol. 3, p. 186.) The writer has been suffering from a severe case of ophthalmia (ramad), "but even so I have never neglected my correspondence (r6–7).

Letter to Judge Elijah from Alexandria containing a request to send back a man whose daughters were in prison-- see Goitein Nachlass material

Detailed letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Simḥa Naysābūrī, Alexandria, to Abū l-ʿAlā Sā'id (i.e. ʿŪllā) b. Yosef ha-Levi the Trustee of the rabbinical court of Fustat in Fustat. (Gil's ID based on handwriting.) Dating: ca.1120 CE. The main topic of the letter is a great disaster that befell the writer and many other merchants. Of a convoy of five ships, three, carrying a load to the value of about 200,000 dinars, were lost. In the ship carrying the writer's goods, there were ten Jews, prominent in their home town (most probably Tripoli), who, in addition to merchandise to the value of 7,000 dinars, lost all their money, belongings and even clothing. The writer's cargo amounted to 500 d., of which 320 d. were his own and the rest on commission. One of the Jewish travellers, Abū l-Faḍl b. Abū l-Yumn al-Dimashqī, known to the addressee from a previous visit to Fustat, perished. As the writer obviously was hit hard by that disaster, he asks his friend to take steps to coerce merchants owing him money—Siman Tav (not Tov), Abū Manṣūr, and Jaʿfarī—to fulfill their obligations. In addition, the letter deals with many other business affairs. In a postscript, the writer reports that the banker (ṣārafī, to be pronounced ṣayrafī) Abū l-Maʿālī died bankrupt, owing people about a thousand dinars, to Jews alone about 600, and to the writer 27d. Many other names mentioned. Main merchandise: silk and other textiles, corals, but also wax and millstones. Information from Goitein's attached notes.

Letter of a father to his son in Damietta (written by a scribe), reporting about a lawsuit and urging him to stay with his mother until her confinement. Information from Goitein's note card.