Geniza Lab

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 11th century. The handwriting may be known. Mentions 15 dinars and 27 qintars of something and ships that are in need of a captain/rabbān (l. 8).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. On vellum. Dating: First half of the 11th century, as it mentions the ship of Ibn Daysūr (cf. Bodl. MS heb. d 66/15, T-S 10J19.19, and T-S 8J24.10). Deals with the trade in silk. Gives many numbers. On verso there are accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Document in Arabic script. Likely a letter (seems to be a first-person narrative: wa-waṣaltu... wa-dakhaltu...). Very faded. Needs further examination.

On recto, possibly a draft of a letter in Arabic script. Mentions Abū l-ʿAlāʾ the brother(?) of Saniyy al-Dawla. In the margins of recto, the name Elʿazar b. Yefet appears twice (probably pen trials).

Letter fragment in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Lower right corner. Mentions a qāḍī Abū ʿAlī; [Ibn al-]Qaṭā'if; the diwan; the policemen (al-rajjāla) being after somebody; a document and somebody acknowledging (muqirr) something; the sender asks for help. Related to T-S 8J17.31?

Letter from Khayr b. Yūsuf Ibn S[...] to Abū l-Ḥasan Mevorakh, in Fustat. The letter is to be delivered to Fusṭāṭ, al-Murabbaʿa, the shop of Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-Ḥasan. The letter is in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Opens with blessings for the addressee's sons Abū ʿAlī Yefet and Abū l-Makārim Nadiv. Conveys congratulations for the holiday. The sender ran into his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Yūsuf—the bearer of the present letter—on Saturday and was very distressed on his account. There is a postscript on verso in a different hand: "The bearer of this letter, Abū Shahwān, is our neighbor, and we are distressed on his account." The addressee is instructed to give him a dinar's worth of saffron and a dinar's worth of "qarāṭīs."

Letter addressed to the Nagid Mevorakh b. Seʿadya. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Consists almost entirely of flattery and blessings. On verso there are words of condolence for Mevorakh's late brother (Cohen suggests that this is Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Seʿadya and that the phrase "fakhr ahl al-ʿilla" means "pride of the medical profession"; see Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 134). Join: Alan Elbaum.

Letter from Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen b. Aharon to Moshe b. Maṣliaḥ. In Judaeo-Arabic. He reports that he has arrived safely after a terrible Nile voyage when the boat sprang a leak and everyone almost drowned. The silk has been selling well, but not the garments. He tells the addressee to look after the children. Abū Isḥāq is doing well. He reminds the addressee to have the craftsman (? spelled both sāniʿ and ṣāniʿ here) do something. He offers to send some flax for this purpose. Regards to Sitt al-Gharb, Sitt al-Banāt, and Sitt al-Nās.

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Asking Manṣūr to slaughter for Bū l-Faraj on the 14th of Shevaṭ (i.e. serve as substitute slaughterer?).

Letter addressed to Abū l-Khayr Mubārak b. Faraj. In Judaeo-Arabic, with a portion of the address in Arabic script. Quite damaged. Contains a story about someone who was driven out (wa-ṭaradūh), but the details are mostly gone. There may be a request for the addressee to help that man. Regards to Ismāʿīl al-Maghribī, Mukhtār al-Zinjārī, and 'your friend' ʿImrān al-Ṣūrī (from Tyre).

Letter from Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju: two fragments. Aden, 1134.

Letter from Avraham b. Moshe b. Maṣliaḥ to his father Moshe b. Maṣliaḥ. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. Discusses transactions of white lāsīn silk. Abū ʿImrān b. Ghulayb and Harūn b. Shamāri are mentioned.

Letter fragment from Menaḥem to Eliyyahu. Onlly the first few lines are preserved. Verso contains the name Abū l-Faraj in giant faded letters.

Letter from Manṣūr b. Yehuda Muqaddasi to Yūsuf b. Makārim. In Judaeo-Arabic. Has to do with a sensitive matter. "I read your letter and forgot it and have not mentioned it except in these lines."

Letter from the French rabbi Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov probably addressed to Ḥananel b. Shemuel. In Hebrew. Written on a very narrow strip of paper. Dating: Early 13th century. In Hebrew. He complains about Eliyyahu the Judge and bribes to the government/shaliṭ. He tells Ḥananel to compare this letter to Shemuel's other letters to the judge Menaḥem and to 'the Sar' (Avraham Maimonides) so that they can all know all the details.

Letter fragment (opening lines. Written in Judaeo-Arabic with remnants of an address in Arabic script on verso.

Letter from Musa b. Yahya al-Majani from Alexandria to Binyamin b. Yusuf Ibn Awkal. Around 1025. The writer came back from his travels in Sicily where he arranged large shipments of fabric, mainly silk. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #118) VMR

Letter from Khalīfa Ḥāmī to Yaʿaqov. In Hebrew with some Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 16th century. The sender heard the addressee was in prison and sent him money. Mentions the kāshif (prefect) Ikhtiyār; Sharaf al-Dīn; a sum of 225 peraḥim;

Letter draft from Yiṣḥaq Maslati (מסלאתי) to R. Mordekhay. In Hebrew. Dating: Possibly 16th century. Asking him to send 1,500 new Venetian peraḥim. This text is surrounded by various pen trials and practice signatures.

Letter from [ʿAll?]ūsh b. Yūsuf to Efrayim b. Yefet. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Recommending the bearer for charity.