Documents

Primary language

Arabic

A group of poor workers (ṣunnāʿ) petition the Caliph and remind him of his promise of not extracting revenue from them except for the “customary portion” “al-ḥilf al-maʿmūl” as decreed by the qāḍī al-Asʿad from the dīwān. The petition contains the “raʾy” clause “ḥusn al-ārāʾ al-ʿaliyya”. Geoffery Khan cites this as an example of a shortened raʾy phrase and translates it as “the boon of the lofty resolutions” (Khan, ALAD, p. 315, n44). Another qāḍī by the title ‘al-Akram’ is also mentioned.

العلامات

• dimme
• petition
• ra`y

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Probably sent from Alexandria to Fustat. Refers to the arrival of ʿImrān to Fustat; the addressee is to ask him for news concerning another trader, and whether this other trader has left al-Jāwa yet. Also mentions the arrival of somebody else, a Maghribī, in Alexandria from Aden who conveyed news concerning Abū l-ʿAlāʾ. This person stayed in town (= in Alexandria) for 5 days and then returned to Aden. The sender goes on to refer to the difficulties he would face in traveling to Fustat whether by land or water.

Related Places

4

العلامات

• ib-addenda
• java
• red sea

1 نسخ

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter of Benayahu b. Musa, an Alexandrian from Maghribi origin, to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. The letter contains severe complaints on the local Alexandrian Jews treatment of foreigners, especially from the Maghrib. […] Benayahu also conveys his preoccupation for the addressee, who is recovering from an illness (r3–6).

Related People

2

Related Places

1

العلامات

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517

4 نسخ 1 ترجمة 1 مناقشة

Document date

Ṣafar 537 Hijrī (26 August 1142–23 September 1142 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Record of an ordinance dated Ṣafar 537 AH (= September 1142 CE) from Al-Ẓāfir to instruct Al-Hāfiẓ’s book warehouse to issue ‘the epistle of the elder ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā’ (i.e. the ophthalmological treatise Tadkirat al-kaḥḥalīn) to the amir Fakhr al-Dīn Abū Manṣūr ʿIzz al-ʿArab b. Muḥammad. The oversized ʿalāma (endorsement) in thick pen reads as "yuṭlaq dhālik", "may it be granted", possibly in the Caliph al-Ẓāfir's own autograph ("al-khaṭṭ al-sharīf").

Related Documents

1

العلامات

• dimme
• khatt sharif

1 نسخ 1 ترجمة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Simḥa al-Nīsābūrī ha-Levi to Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Salāma b. Hillel al-Ḥalabī. The sender reports that he arrived in Alexandria on Tuesday after spending three days in Malīj. […] But now he has recovered. The sender also refers to the addressee's intended travel to Yemen.

Related Places

3

العلامات

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: marad
• illness: recovered
• nisaburi

1 مناقشة

Document date

909 Hijrī (26 June 1503–13 June 1504 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

ENA 3960.6–10 are five distinct but related legal acknowledgments (iqrārs) in Arabic script, all dated 909 AH (1503/04 CE), and involving the same people (e.g., Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Khwājā Yūsuf b. al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Tājir al-Saffār(?) al-Ḥalabī) and the same witnesses (Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. [...] and Ismāʿīl [...]).

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Document date

12 Elul 4968 Anno Mundi (26 August 1208 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from the teacher Bū l-Ḥusayn Yehuda (b. Aharon?) Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to his third cousin and brother-in-law the physician Yeshuʿa b. […] There are further instructions about Ibn al-Tinnīsī and obtaining a ruqʿa in the hand of the judge (al-dayyān) from the Qaraite al-Shaykh al-Thiqa. […] Yakhin), and the allies of Anatoli were also there. Yosef was then denounced to the amir Ḥusām al-Dīn as someone who curses the Jewish law and who must be banished from the city.

Related Places

3

العلامات

• 4800
• bimaristan
• dating tricks
• medicine
• physicians
• (+ 2 المزيد)

2 نسخين 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Customers include Makārim al-Ṣayrafī, Barakāt al-Azraq, Maḥāsin b. al-[...]; the son of Simḥa; Abū ʿAlī Ibn al-Sukkarī; Bū Manṣūr b. al-Dhahabī; al-Shaykh al-Makīn and his brother Abū l-Baqā'.

Related People

1

العلامات

• account
• wine

1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim. Offers details of ill-fated ships that were destroyed in a storm or met with the Byzantine navy. Of the ships that had been in al-Kanāʾis (a port in western Egypt), the only ones that had made it all the way to Alexandria were 7 ships of al-Ishfīlī, and one qārib apiece of Ibn Dayṣūr, Ibn Sindūr, Ibn al-Dajdāj, Ibn al-Jannānī and al-Jazūla — 12 in all. […] Gil connects this with the 15 ships mentioned in T-S 8J27.2, his #447, and therefore understands this letter to imply that the ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ was among those that hadn't yet returned to Alexandria).

Related People

3

Related Places

2

العلامات

• fayj
• ibn al-ba'ba'
• khums
• qarib
• ships
• (+ 2 المزيد)

3 نسخ 1 ترجمة 1 مناقشة

Document date

Dhū l-Ḥijja 407 Hijrī (1 May 1017–29 May 1017 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Acknowledgment of the repayment of a debt in monthly installments over the preceding year. Al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥusayn b. Jaʿfar al-Hāshimī al-Khazīnī and his paternal sister Mubāraka bt. al-Ḥusayn b. Jaʿfar al-Hāshimī al-Khazīnī acknowledge the receipt of the following amounts of money as repayments of a debt from Aḥmad Ibn al-Sayyidī, representative of the head of the Ṭālibīs, Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī b. […] The document is witnessed by ʿAlī b. Aḥmad, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Sādān and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b.

Related People

7

العلامات

• debt
• installments

1 نسخ 1 ترجمة 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yehuda b. Yahya from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1050. […] He also mentions two ships of Abū ʿAbdallah (Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ), a qārib of Bū ʿAlīal-Shāmī and three ships from the Shām. Also mentions a shipment of camphor and the account of Yehuda b.

Related People

3

Related Places

1

العلامات

• camphor
• ibn al-ba'ba'
• qarib
• qunbar
• ships

2 نسخين 1 ترجمة

Document date

1528 Seleucid (15 September 1216–3 September 1217 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Legal document. Location: al-Maḥalla. Dated: 1528 Seleucid = 1216/17 CE. Al-Nuṣayr b. al-Ḥakīm, a Muslim, declares before Yosef b. […] (Information from Goitein's index cards; also Mediterranean Society, I, p. 242; II, 402.) It seems that al-Nuṣayr is not stating that he will do this, but rather threatening to do so if al-Makīn's in-law al-Rashīd Abū ʿAlī b. al-Makīn does not pay off his debt (the part about al-Rashīd appears in the section of l. 8 that Goitein left unread).

Related Places

1

العلامات

• debt
• diwan
• state

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

The addressee is called al-shaykh al-ajall... al-muwaffaq al-ṣadīq al-kohen al-vatiq. The sender complains that this year he has perished and his flesh has been afflicted (...fī hādhihi al-sana alladhī halaktu... ilā allāh taʿālā wa-qad baliya laḥmī...).

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Arabic

Begins: "Uṣdirat/aṣdartu hādhihi l-[...] ilā al-majlis al-sāmī.... al-ajallī al-mawlawī... al-makhdūmī... al-sayyidī al-sanadī... al-Badrī...." The addressee is probably titled something like Badr al-Dīn or in the service of one. On recto there is a ketubba (see separate entry).

Related Documents

1

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Arabic

Mentions other landmarks including the house of Bū ʿAlīal-Urjuwānī and that of Fāris al-Kubarāʾ(?). Also mentions the al-Mamṣūṣa neighborhood of Fustat. […] Mentions Abū Jaʿfar b. ʿAlī and Qāsim b. Jamīl al-Ḥāmī. Needs examination.

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Family letter from the end of the 12th century to Abu al-Faraj b. Abu al-Barakāt, a doctor in Fustat, from his brother in Alexandria. The letter mentions forceful collection of the capitation tax (jaliya) in Alexandria. (Information from Frenkel. See also Goitein, MEd. […] Goitein describes the document as following: Family letter from a physician in Alexandria to his brother, also a physician, who had traveled to Fustat without having paid his poll-tax (or having forgotten to send the receipt back).

Related Places

2

العلامات

• capitation tax
• jaliya
• jizya
• personal
• tax

2 نسخين 1 ترجمة 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter that mentions the death of Aharon b. Yeshu'a Ibn al-'Ammani. A man writes to his two brothers in Alexandria. He left Alexandria for Fustat in order to get from the sons of Aharon b. […] Hanan that instructs his Na'ib (his deputy) in Alexandria to give assistance in regards to the will.

Related Places

3

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Document date

20 Rabīʿ I 909 Hijrī (12 September 1503 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

ENA 3960.6–10 are five distinct but related Mamlūk-era legal documents in Arabic script, all dated 909 H (1503/04 CE), and involving the same people (e.g., Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Khwājā Yūsuf b. al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Tājir al-Saffār(?) al-Ḥalabī) and the same witnesses (Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. [...] and Ismāʿīl [...]). […] The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgement which is also a sub-genre of with Islamic legal manuals (shurūṭ al-fiqh).

العلامات

• dimme
• iqrar
• pinholes

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Arabic

Many names mentioned, including Shihāb al-Ḥajj; Munjid; Munajjā al-Ḥajj; ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-[...]; "the Christian who is in the qāʿa of Abū Naṣr"; Abū ʿAlīal-Yahūdī; Sālim b. Yūsuf; Aḥmad al-[...].

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

He states that he consulted God and sent with al-Rayyis Fāris 7 manns of saffron in a receptacle (ẓarf); also mentions a pouch (mizwad); he also sent [...] weighing 109; and also a bale of אש.... Almost nothing else remains. On a second unrelated piece of paper underneath, dated 1942, somebody (Alexander Marx?)

Related People

2

العلامات

• ib-addenda
• ib5
• india book unedited
• trade

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Arabic

Mentions Muḥammad b. ʿAmmār al-Tājir in l. 3. Mentions a variant of the raʾy clause: "al-ʾārā al-ʿāliyya". Could be a petition, but could also be a formal letter, as no other petition formula is preserved. Also ends with the Quranic verse (53:22). On the verso, there are a few words in Hebrew (Proverbs 1:8).

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Document date

1531 Seleucid (12 September 1219–30 August 1220 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions people including: his daughter (receives 47 dinars); his cousin (ibn ʿamm); Efrayim his son; Sitt al-Khafāʾ bt. Abū l-Munajjā; Futūḥ b. [...]; Sayyid al-Ahl al-Qāhirī; Makārim al-Maḥallī; al-Rayyis [al-shaykh al-sa?][…] Bū Ghālib; Abū l-Riḍā b. Abū Zikrī; Abū l-ʿAlāʾ; Abū l-Maḥāsin al-Shaykh al-Tifʾeret; Ibn al-Sunbāṭī; Abū l-Fakhr Ibn al-Shammāʿ; Dāʾūd al-Bilbaysī; Abū l-Bahāʾ.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

العلامات

• dowry
• slaves
• will

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Arabic

With a popular character: it has extremely short verses with dense rhymes: (1) wa-starhabūhā al-ruhbān. . . wa-staqsamū [..] al-ṣulbān. . . (2) yā ṣāḥ ludhdh bi-alwāḥ wa-nhaḍ [...] al-afrāḥ [...] al-mirāḥ [...] al-aqdāḥ. The latter poem is full of conventional love imagery and reminiscent of Yemeni Shabazian poetry (but there is nothing to suggest that this fragment is late or that it has any connection with Yemen or even with Jews). There is also what may be a name of a woman: Ghālī bt. al-Dawālī.

العلامات

• arabic poetry
• arabic script
• popular literature

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

The sender seems to be conveying a legal query from the original queriers (ahl al-suʾāl) to a higher authority (adonenu) concerning a controversy over half of a Torah scroll (al-nuṣf al-sefer). There is also a question concerning the beadle (khādim al-kanīs... al-melammed) and two brass platters (ṭabaqyn nuḥās) Verso: Another letter, in a different hand. Possibly referring to tailors' work, and also to the bearer of this letter. (Information in part from CUDL.)

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Refers to someone's illness (r2), and evidently the sender was also sick because God sent him health (r4) and now he is well. He mentions that he fasts. On verso mentions al-nīl, likely referring to indigo rather than to the Nile (which is usually al-Baḥr). Also mentions somebody who traveled to Ashmūnayn (280 km south of Cairo), also mentioning "al-Minya" and the news of bread and wheat.

Related Places

2

العلامات

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Menashshe b. David al-Ṣayrafī. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender might be Faraḥ b. Yūsuf al-Qābisī (the usual correspondent of Yehuda b. […] Mercantile letter concerning the trade in commodities such as pepper and mentioning Abū Saʿd and traders from al-Andalus. Mentions the geographical area of Jazāʾir al-Qurashī (also mentioned in T-S 16.13) and awaiting a group of people called al-Fīshāniyyīn or al-Fayshāniyyīn (also mentioned in Sassoon 713).

العلامات

• account

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Recto: Petition draft in Judaeo-Arabic. Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-[ʿIzz al-Yahūdī] kisses the ground before al-maqām al-ʿālīal-sulṭānī al-malikī al-sayfī al-ʿādilī, and reports that he is a poor man and cannot pay even his own capitation tax (al-qiyām bi-l-jāliya) except through the charity of others. […] He asks for the issuing of a rescript (khurūj al-tawqīʿ) confirming that he should only be liable for his own capitation tax.

العلامات

• al-'adil
• capitation tax
• petition
• tawqi'

1 نسخ 1 ترجمة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Abu al-Nasr b. al-Melammed mentioning the impending divorce of his nephew and niece. Abu al-Nasr describes himself as suffering 'dispersion and separation from family and friends' after he traveled from Fustat to Alexandria, where he hoped his mother would join him. He adds that he will spread the fame of his benefactor at warehouses and social gatherings. He also writes that his wife refused to return with him to Alexandria after he had had to flee to and spend some time in Fustat after having gone bankrupt in Alexandria.

Related Places

1

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Abū l-Manṣūr b. Ṭāhir al-Kohen, in Alexandria, to Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr b. Yiṣḥaq al-Dimashqī, in Fustat. […] The letter reports on a decree of Saladin that was proclaimed in Alexandria, halving the customs dues (maks) that had been incumbent on local and foreign Jews and Christians. The ṣāḥib al-dīwān authenticated and registered the decree (athbatahū), and the amir Fakhr al-Dīn ordered for it to be implemented.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

العلامات

• 12th c
• business
• customs
• decree
• sahib al-diwan
• (+ 5 المزيد)

3 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Arabic

Title and introductory page (recto) for the ophthalmological work Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn by ʿAlī ibn ʿIsa al-Kaḥḥāl (d. 1038 or 1039 CE). […] The Arabic text on the verso could also be from the Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn but is in a different scribal hand. The paper was also reused on the recto for piyyuṭ. ASE/MCD.

العلامات

• cmp
• medicine

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر