Documents

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Important business letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat by a Maghribi merchant named Nissim who, coming from al-Mahdiyya, had arrived in Alexandria at time of a civil unrest. […] (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 168; V, pp. 50, 51, 519.) A letter from Alexandria, in the hand of Salāma b. Mūsā b.

Related Places

3

العلامات

• alexandria
• byzantium
• crete
• genoa
• prices
• (+ 3 المزيد)

2 نسخين 1 ترجمة 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

IB VI, 22b. Letter from Alexandria sent around 1120 CE from a Maghribi merchant, Makhlūf b. […] He asks the addressee to “sell” them, meaning to convert the Sicilian currency he was dispatching into local Egyptian money. Makhlūf devotes eleven lines of the short letter to an apology for not buying his friend a Sicilian turban that was ordered.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

العلامات

• alexandria
• ib6
• india book
• trade

2 نسخين 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter of petition, draft, addressed to “our lord” Mevorakh during his first term in office, from the “holy community of Malij and its cantor.” […] (Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt, 167; and Marina Rustow, “The Diplomatics of Leadership: Administrative Documents in Hebrew Script from the Geniza,” in Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times: A Festschrift in Honor of Mark R.

Related Places

1

العلامات

• 11th c
• communal
• draft
• petition

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Document date

Sivan 1491 Seleucid (27 May 1180–25 June 1180 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The banker Munajjā b. Shelomo al-Levi loans 58 dirhams to Abū Saʿīd b. Abū l-Khayr, to be repaid in monthly installments of 10 dirhams. […] Verso: another document in the same hand, which mentions Abū Manṣūr, Shemuel b. Yosef and Elʿazar b. Natan ha-Kohen; signed by Shemuel b. Saʿadya ha-Levi, Elʿazar b. Mikhaʾel and Mevorakh b. Natan.

Related People

1

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Document date

Adar 1525 Seleucid (12 February 1214–12 March 1214 CE)

Primary language

Hebrew

Letter from Daniel b. Saʿadya ha-Bavli. Dated: Adar [1]525 Seleucid = February/March 1214 CE. (Mann read 1522 which would have been 1211 CE.) The letter concerns a stranded Nasi, perhaps Yoshiyyahu b. […] A marginal note mentions a certain Yehuda. Verso: An ethical piece, a Midrashic passage.

Related Places

1

العلامات

• nasi

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Verso: Legal notes in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (fl. 1100–1138 CE). Mentions Abū Kathīr Efrayim b. Ḥalfon and his wife Maḥfūẓa bt. Yosef known as Zayn al-Tujjār. Underneath, mentions Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. [...] Ḥananya known as Ibn [...] ha-Kohen.

Related People

1

العلامات

• bialphabetic

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Arabic

The continuation is missing. He is presumably leading up to a request that he be formally employed at the hospital himself. On recto there is part of a medical notebook dealing with ophthalmology. Recto contains a list of simples used for curing eye complaints and follows roughly the list found in ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, Tadhkirat al-kaḥḥālīn (ed. Hyderabad 1964, p. 347). Simples mentioned include antimony, sarcocolla, ceruse, acacia, lichen, gum of sal ammoniac, myrtle, melitot, galbanum, onions, borax, lettuce seeds, zinc oxide, and egg white.

Related Places

1

العلامات

• education
• hospital
• petition
• physicians
• to edit

1 نسخ 1 ترجمة

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Legal record(s) in the hand of Halfon b. Menashshe (fl. 1100–38 CE). Fragment (lower left part of recto). The main record concerns a dispute over money owed between Ṣedaqa and Ṣāʿid. Also mentions a qāḍī and 5 elders. There are several (possibly unrelated) names underneath: [...] b.

Related People

1

العلامات

• halfon b. menashshe
• qadi

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

On recto there is a remnant of an Arabic address of a letter from Faraḥ b. Ibrāhīm(?) to Nahray b. Nissim, who evidently received the letter and reused the blank space for this account. The Arabic text on verso mentions an official ʿAbd al-Salām (unless this says ʿinda l-shaykh) who was the supervisor of the maintenance/construction of ships of the dīwān (mutawallī ʿimārat marākib al-dīwān). David Bramoulle suggests that these were state owned ships rented out to merchants (Fatimides et la Mer, 645). It isn't clear whether the Arabic script is in Nahray's hand or of an earlier use.

Related People

1

Related Places

2

العلامات

• nahray b. nissim

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Mufaḍḍal, probably in Fustat, to Abū l-Majd al-Melammed, in Qūṣ. […] Upside down, there is also a list of medicinal herbs in Arabic script, unrelated to the letter. The scribe of this letter has distinctive handwriting with very tall, hooked lameds.

Related People

3

Related Places

2

العلامات

• jewish community
• medicine
• physician

1 نسخ

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

India Book III, 52: Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef Yijū, in al-Maḥalla, to Abū l-Fakhr Saadya b. […] Peraḥya conveys his happiness to have learned that the family members of Abū l-Fakhr who had been sick are now recovered (and for this reason opens the letter with Deut. 7:15, "The Lord will ward off from you all sickness").

Related Places

2

العلامات

• education
• ib3
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: du'f
• (+ 2 المزيد)

2 نسخين 1 ترجمة 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Hebrew

Three letters from Se’adya b. Yosef to his students in Fustat in the course of the 921-922 calendar controversy between Palestinians and Babylonians. Original letter was written in February or March 922. This copy probably dates to the 11th century. […] (Information from Rustow and Stern, "The Jewish Calendar Controversy of 921-22," in Stern and Burnett, eds., Time, Astronomy, and Calendars in the Jewish Tradition; Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 17; Goitein notes; and Moshe Yagur, "Living in the City: Jews and Their Residences in Medieval Fusṭāṭ," Medieval Encounters 27 [2024].)

Related People

1

Related Places

1

العلامات

• calendar controversy

2 نسخين 1 ترجمة 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter, possibly a draft, from a man to his family members Moshe and דאני(?). […] His heart burns; his eyes are damaged from copious weeping; he has no mind; he cries as he writes this letter. He may also say that he is near death himself. […] He complains about the lack of letters from the addressees. He hopes that Barakāt will stay with him instead of going to them ("if he leavesme, I will go mad").

العلامات

• death
• grief
• illness
• numismatic dating

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Hebrew

Two paper leaves, very damaged, which form a part of a collection of letters from Evyatar ha-Kohen Gaon b. Eliyyahu, sent from Tyre. The first letter is addressed to Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel the Spaniard, a judge in Fustat. […] Aharon and the elder Abu ʿAlī Ḥasan are also mentioned, and "my son-in-law ʿAmram ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver ha-Meʿulle Yesod ha-Yeshiva, of Jerusalem."

Related People

1

Related Places

1

العلامات

• 11th c
• communal
• evyatar b. eliyyahu
• tyre
• widow

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from the physician Abū Zikrī, in Jerusalem, to his father Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. […] The letter also makes a note of “our colleagues at Qūṣ.” (Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS 18 (1967), 18; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:347, 603.)

Related People

2

Related Places

4

العلامات

• abu zikri al-rayyis
• al-malik al-aziz
• al-malik al-mu'azzam
• damascus
• illness
• (+ 4 المزيد)

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Verso: Legal testimony in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Reporting on the fulfillment of the orders of the Gaon. […] Ḥalfon known as Ibn Abū Salāma (probably the same mentioned in T-S 8J5.4, dated 1127 CE) and questioned him regarding the drug store of the late Abū Sahl Menashshe ha-Levi b.

Related People

1

Related Documents

1

1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. […] Ya’aqov who causes losses to the partners. Mentions bible books, trading silk and trading cloths. […] Alternate description: Letter from the Ifrīqiyan merchant Yeshu‘a b. Isma‘il-Shemuel, who settled in Alexandria, to Nahray b.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

العلامات

• nahray b. nissim
• trade

3 نسخ 1 ترجمة

Inferred date

1128–1138 CE

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (fl. 1100-1138 CE). Fragment (left side only). Location: Fustat. Dating: ca. 1128–38 CE, based on the active dates of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver (both of whom signed the document).

Related People

2

Related Places

2

العلامات

• partnership

1 نسخ

Document date

2 Shevaṭ 14[..] Seleucid (16 January 1089–3 January 1188 CE)

Primary languages

Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Recto: Legal testimony. Dated Sunday, 2 Shevaṭ 14[..] Seleucid (or 146[.]?). […] Signed by Yehoshuaʿ [b. Shemu]el(?) ha-Levi, Yeshaʿyahu b. Nissim and Yaḥyā b. Avraham. […] On verso there is a very interesting first-person narrative in Arabic script probably summarizing the same case from the standpoint of one of the parties. "[...] my three brothers and their three wives prosecuted me with this at the time of my father's death, God's mercy be upon him, without any right (ḥaqq) or will (waṣiyya), and they took it from me [...] with slander and calumny, even though [my father] (God have mercy upon him) already paid them, and their [purpose?]

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Arabic

Abū Sahl b. Ibrāhīm (=Yedutun ha-Levi?). The witnesses confirm his trustworthiness, good health and moral values, religious devotion, reliability, probity, charitableness, and integrity.

Related People

1

العلامات

• glyph
• yedutun ha-levi

1 نسخ 1 ترجمة

Letter from Ya’aqov b. Yosef al-Tunisi, Fustat, to Salah b. […] The writer sends goods to Ramla, to the merchant’s officer Ahmad b. al-Harani. Mentions details about merchandise that arrive in Fustat.

Related People

1

Related Places

2

العلامات

• al-tahirti
• state
• trade

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

In the first line Abū Saʿīd al-Dimyāṭī (= Ḥalfon b. Netanʾel ha-Levi) is mentioned as owing a debt of 20 dinars. Should be included in the addenda to India Book IV. Other names mentioned: Zakkay; al-Rayyis Hibatallāh; ʿAbdallāh al-Dallāla; אלכזאלי; Zikrī; Abū l-Ḥasan; Hārūn al-Kohen. A grand total of 384 dinars is mentioned.

Related People

1

العلامات

• halfon-addenda
• ib-addenda
• ib4
• list

1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Yosef b. Musa al-Tāhartī from Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1058. Mentions several goods including silk, copper, and seashells. Mentions family matters. The writer is concerned about family members and especially about girls that became orphans.

Related People

2

Related Places

8

العلامات

• 11th c
• nahray b. nissim
• orphans
• silk
• trade

3 نسخ 1 ترجمة

Document date

1435 Seleucid (22 September 1123–10 September 1124 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Engagement (shiddukhin) contract. Fragment (upper left corner). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, Dated: 1435 Seleucid = 1123/24 CE. […] Ṣedaqa. Other names mentioned (these might be parts of the names of the couple): Abū [...] b. Mevorakh and [...] b. ʿOvadya.

Related People

1

العلامات

• halfon b. menashshe

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

"O you whose slave I am: the servant came to the house in the end, seeking you on account of the meat (al-laḥma) that is with me, since I didn't manage to make it, because it is low quality (muqāraba). . . . by God, get up and buy for me. . . from the market. . . . for seven(?)." At the bottom there are jottings of phrases from the beginning of a letter in Arabic script.

Related Documents

1

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (fl. 1100–1138 CE). Mentions [...] b. Yaʿaqov; Yiṣḥaq ha-Melammed b. Ḥayyim [al-Nafūsī]; Avraham b.

Related People

1

العلامات

• copy

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Inferred date

1007–1055 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Legal record in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya (fl. 1077–1055 CE). […] The document is fragmented, so it is tricky to figure out what is happening. Mentions a shop; mentions Yeshuʿa making a deposit; mentions a sum of 190 dinars; mentions "his father Hārūn b.

Related People

1

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Recto: Legal document in the hand of Ḥananʾel b. Samuel concerning a debt of ten ounces of Dūqī (= ducal) gold "in the weight of Messina" owed by Isḥāq b. […] The first nisba signifies origin from Trapani. Also mentions Refaʾel ha-Sar b. Daniʾel, who serves as guarantor for the loan. […] (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I, p. 256.)

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

العلامات

• debt
• testimony

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Letter from Isma’il b. Farah from Alexandria, to Nahray b. […] Mentions details about Byzantine merchants and the prices of several types of goods: resin, fabrics, soap, and oil. Also mentions a shipment of wax, that has not been sold entirely yet.

Related People

2

العلامات

• byzantine merchants
• byzantines

2 نسخين 1 ترجمة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Recto and verso: Letter to the Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. Politely disputing a quotation used in his sermon on the preceding Saturday, the topic of which was that even the greatest Talmudic scholar, Rabbi ʿAqiba, was a sinner in his youth. The sender suggests in a postscript that the ʿAqiba b. Yosef mentioned in this context in Bava Meṣiʿa (though Goitein's note card points out that his citation is actually incorrect, and it should be ʿArakhin 16b) must have been a different ʿAqiba. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:158–59, 553) EMS

Related Documents

1

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Document date

Kislev 1286 Seleucid (18 November 974–17 December 974 CE)

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew

Legal document. Location: somewhere in Egypt, probably Fustat. Dated: Kislev 1286 Seleucid = November/December 974 CE. The merchant Maṣliaḥ b. Yiṣḥaq b. David acquits another merchant Maṣliaḥ b. Mevasser b. ʿEzra of a debt of 85 dinars and all other obligations toward him.

العلامات

• merchant
• quittance

1 نسخ 1 مناقشة

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Small fragment of a family and/or business letter. 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

Document date

527 Hijrī (12 November 1132–31 October 1133 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Contract related to tax farming in Cairo, likely a partnership agreement between two men. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: Mentions the year 527 AH = 1132/33 CE as the start of a period. Mentions the word "dyed" (maṣbūgh) and then "from neighbors who oppose the two of them"; the context is missing. One of the parties may be Abū l-Ḥasan (l. 1), but this is tentative as only the bottoms of the letters are preserved. Cf. T-S NS 226.57 + T-S NS 225.92 (PGPID 24232).

Related People

1

Related Places

1

العلامات

• damin

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter sent from Acre shortly after it was taken by the Crusaders in 1104, in which a merchant describes to his parents the terrors of the war, as well as the usefulness of his servant in such a situation. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 132)

Related People

1

Related Places

2

العلامات

• acre
• cheese
• crusade
• shohet
• sicilian cheese

1 نسخ 1 ترجمة 2 مناقشتان

Bottom fragment: Validation of a legal document. Signed by Yaʿaqov b. Avraham (also signed BL OR 5551.1), Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq, and Efrayim b. Meshullam. None of the main document is preserved.

Related People

3

Related Documents

2

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Hebrew

Letter in the hand of Saʿīd b. Marḥab, in Aden, sent to a notable in Fustat, containing an account of a messianic harbinger in Yemen, and his arrest and execution by the authorities.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

العلامات

• messianism

1 نسخ 2 مناقشتان

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning Ibrāhīm who has not yet completed the aqāwīl, also mentioning boats arriving from all over the place and a high demand for ginger.

1 نسخ

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with the opening in Hebrew and the address in Arabic script ("to Fustat"). […] Of the substance of the message that is preserved, the sender says that he prays for the addressee and wants the addressee to help somebody (maybe the bearer) with something.

Related Places

1

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Strip from the right side of a letter regarding business. Mentions wool. From Yefet b. Menashshe (Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif, early 12th century). The addressee's name seems to contains Yaʿaqov in it.

Related People

1

العلامات

• wool

1 نسخ

Document date

Sivan 1434 Seleucid (27 May 1123–25 June 1123 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (fl. 1100-1138 CE) concerning payments in installments, and the names Yefet and Benaya(?). Dating: mentions Sivan 1434 Seleucid (= May/June 1123 CE).

Related People

1

لا توجد ثبت المراجع والمصادر