Geniza Lab

Letter from Elazar Ha-Levi b. Yosef to Eli Ha-Kohen Ha-Ḥaver Ha-Me'ulle, Baniyas, beginning of the twelfth century.

Letter reporting the sinking of a ship in the Red Sea, dating probably from the 14th century or later based on the mention of the port city of al-Tur, which rose to prominence after the decline of al-Quṣayr. AA

Sheet folded so as to form a booklet of 4 pages. But only one page, headed by the superscription 'In your name' (which indicates the list started there), contains writing. List of 20 notables, solicited for a special drive, eight already having made their pledges, ranging from five dinars, contributed by a jahbadh (money-changer, tax cashier, or possibly a banker), to one dinar each from two glassmakers and a convert to Judaism named Abū l-Khayr (Goitein: "Mr. Good the Proselyte"). Among the others: Tiban; Shemuel b. Nahum, the father-in-law of Yequtiel b. Moshe, known as al-Hakim. Ca. 1090. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 124)

Fragment of a letter from Isma’il b. Barhun al-Tahirti from Mahdiyya, to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal from Fustat. Mentions some information about the Sultan interfering in trade matters. Mentions Yosef b. Berekhya and the Nagid Avraham b. Ata. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #119) VMR

Account of Marduk b. Musa listing a large number of commercial transactions with many names - some of known merchants. Also contains instructions.

Letter from Egypt, late, to Moshe Franko in Jerusalem, written in beautiful Hebrew. The writer mentions that he had left Saloniki. The recipient's wife, Dona Blanca, is pregnant. Published by Avraham David in Cathedra 56 (1991).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic dealing with commercial matters, reused between the lines for a literary text quoting rabbinic works.

Letter, once large and impressive - on its margins someone wrote down various liturgical texts.

Letter addressed to the Nasi Shelomo b. Yishay-Jesse from the town of Bilbays containing local news and sending greetings to the Nagid David b. Avraham b. Moshe Maimonides and members of his family.

Letter from Alexandria, the writer is a person from Ramla (who lived for twenty years in Baghdad). He writes to Mevorakh b. Se’adya ha-Nagid or one of his closest people. Around 1095. The writer refers to himself as Mevorakh’s servant. He asks Mevorakh to help his daughter who is in Fustat while he is in Alexandria. Mentions several details about the Jews in Iraq as well as the head of the Eretz Yisraeli Yeshiva, Evyatar ha-Kohen b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #86, where the shelfmark is incorrectly listed as ENA NS 9.15). By the same writer as T-S 12.780. VMR.

Letter wth greetings to Yosef al-Ashkar from Avraham אלגדיאני Tיק

Letter fragment. A square piece was cut from a personal/commercial letter and on the back there is some sort of table of contents for a halakhic work, perhaps responsa.

Note in Judaeo-Arabic. Written in a crude hand. Probably an order for numerous materia medica (including one cryptically called "the beauty of Joseph / ḥusn Yūsuf"). The writer will send payment on Monday. And "regarding the eggs I owe you, I sent them to you on Sunday with the woman."

Letter from Mordekhai ha-Levi Mizraḥi, probably in Meron or Safed, to Moshe Ḥayyim and Yiṣḥaq Ḥayyim, unknown location. This fragment also contains the end of the letter from ENA 2634.2 (dated: 7 Av, 5656 AM, which is 1896 CE). Written in Hebrew, by a professional Ashkenazi scribe. The writer is a maker of amulets and segulot who has gone at least partially blind. He complains about his tremendous expenses paying for the scribe who had to repeat the amuletic drawing "50 times" and paying for a postal delivery (הפוסטה), because he initially trusted Agha Baba Tehrani to deliver the letters and amulets, but that man absconded and failed him, leaving no option but to use the post. (All this seems to be by way of exhorting the addressees to reimburse him for his pains.) He mentions the same ʿEzra from the preceding letter and Avraham Dayyan in the context of the amulets and segulot for conceiving a male child. ASE.

Letter from Mordekhai ha-Levi Mizraḥi, probably in Meron or Safed, to Agha Meir b. Eliyyahu, unknown location. The letter continues onto the upper part of ENA 2634.1. Dated: 7 Av, 5656 AM, which is 1896 CE. Written in Hebrew, by a professional Ashkenazi scribe. The writer is a maker of amulets and segulot who has gone at least partially blind. In this letter he describes in detail how to make an amulet for a woman to conceive a male child: it should be engraved on refined silver, the person who makes it must be in a state of purity and fasting, and a human figure should be drawn with the appropriate dimensions (including a large belly) and filled in with the appropriate letters. Psalm 121 should be engraved underneath the figure and the priestly blessing above the figure. When the time of birth comes near, the pregnant woman should dress herself entirely in linen, and the boy should be dressed only in linen until age 3, and even better if that continues until age 10. The addressee is also to light oil lamps for the soul of Rashbi and R. Meir Baʿal ha-Nes. Mordekhai reminds the addressee in a roundabout way to send him money (lirot) for his pains. He also seems to instruct the addressee to name the newborn son Mordekhai after him. He asks again for money, for he and his son Yiṣḥaq are in difficult straits. He also mentions a certain M. ʿEzra b. Yaʿaqov Dā'ūdī in the addressee's location. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Written on parchment, in a scribal hand, in a narrow column on the verso of a page of piyyuṭim (in the hand of the same scribe?). Most of the letter consists of polite formulae. The sender urges the addressee to help him in something involving cutting parchment for a bible.

Letter from Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim to Seʿadya ha-Rofe. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. It is hard to discern the content. Yeḥiel instructs Seʿadya "not to fast as usual" (?) during his stay in a foreign land, and perhaps to return quickly. Also mentions Avraham ha-Talmid. On verso are jottings in both Arabic script and Hebrew script.

Copy of a letter from an as-yet-unidentified Nagid, describing inter alia his appointment by the caliph. The interpretation of this document has been controversial ever since its original publication by Elkan Nathan Adler (with numerous errors) in "The Installation of the Egyptian Nagid" JQR (1897), 717–20. Most recently edited by Shulamit Sela, "The Headship of the Jews in the Fāṭimid Empire in Karaite Hands" in Masʾat Moshe, ed. Fleischer et al. (Jerusalem, 1998). See also the bibliography on FGP for discussions of this document by Cohen and Friedman.

Letter (end only) referring to difficult events that happened to Sayyidnā and the people of Fustat and Cairo, apparently delivered with an item of clothing that al-Shams/Shammās R. Yishaq had worked hard to mend. The handwriting and contents resemble the letters of Jalāl al-Dawla the Mosuli Nasi to his brother Shelomo, in which case it would date from the first half of the 13th century. Reused for a note in a different hand addressed to the writer's brother, who is instructed to send something urgently. The writer informs the recipient that sayyidnā al-rayyis came to the synagogue to raise money for (?) and then returned to Fustat. ASE.

Informal note from Umm Ḥasan bt. al-Shofeṭ (or at least written in her name) to a certain judge. She asks for her share of the money raised for the Jerusalemites. She is staying with Abū l-Faraj. See Med Soc. II, p. 427, sections 135–36 for the significance of "my share with the Jerusalemites." Information from Goitein's note card.