Documents

Primary language

Arabic

Unidentified text in Arabic script, in red ink. Mentions flour and "al-ḥajar al-...".

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Account in Judaeo-Arabic giving the value of something that was sold in Alexandria, probably mercury (ziʾbaq).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Yosef b. Yeshu'a, Alexandria, to Yosef b. Awkal (1028 or 1029).

Related Places

1

Tags

• 11th c

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Document in Arabic script. State? Refers to al-Qāḍī al-Ajall. Needs examination.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Hebrew

Small fragment, probably from the opening of a ketubah (but can also be from top of a letter).

Tags

• ketubba

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Fragment of a letter either addressed to or mentioning 'al-ḥakīm al-ajall' (the esteemed physician).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Accounts. Mentions al-Jaʿfarī and al-Naṣrānī. Verso may mention the rent of a warehouse.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Likely an order or receipt. Names al-Shaykh Bū l-Qāsim b. al-[...]

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Small fragment of an Arabic document. May say in part "al-shaykh... al-ajall"

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Unidentified document or text in Arabic. There are also two lines of calendrical calculations in Hebrew script.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Accounts in Arabic and some sort of shorthand. On verso there are also a few lines in Hebrew script.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions the cost of traveling from Fustat/Cairo to Alexandria.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions Yehuda and Tripoli (טרבלס) and Alexandria (סכדריה).

Related Places

2

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Shelomo has gone to great lengths to collect the debt, but in the end, all he got was five dinars, only two of them full dinars, the rest Sicilian quarter-dinars, some clipped. […] Ḥayyim he-ḥaver b. Shelomo also expresses horror at a certain ʿImrān who is deprecating the memory of the deceased gaʾon (Gil: Shelomo b. Yehuda; also Gil: goes to show that fears of being vilified after death were justified).

Related Places

2

Tags

• suftaja
• treasury

3 Transcriptions 2 Translations 1 Discussion

Document date

1459–62 Seleucid (28 August 1147–12 September 1151 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

(2) The brother-in-law of Ibn al-Shadīqī(?) owes 5 dinars + 1/3 dinar + 1/2 qirat. (3) Yiṣḥaq al-Maghribī owes the nephew of Abū Naṣr 10 (or 30?) […] On verso, in a third hand, there is also a Judaeo-Arabic philosophical commentary to Genesis 1.

Tags

• responsum

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter begging for help from a communal authority ('sayyidnā'), written by Abu Sahl b. al-Ahuv during a famine. Likely early 13th century. […] Ibn Imran recently stole 100 dinars that were buried in Abu Sahl's house and also took items from his house and sold them. Due to Abu Sahl's age and weakness, he could not act to stop this. […] Abu Sahl himself has been ill for the last month. He turned to al-Shaykh al-Nezer, who told him that Sayyidnā ordered for him to receive bread in the distribution, but it has been three weeks and he has not received any bread.

Related People

1

Tags

• appeal
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: dying
• illness: poverty
• (+ 1 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1425–1600 CE

coinage (l. 13r). All of these figures are expressed alphanumerically. On the verso, the same hand continues accounts connected to a variety of individuals such as Yiṣḥaq b. al-Ashqar "אלאשקר" (l. 6-7v from left side of fragment), Meʾīr Saragosī "סראגוסי" (l. 8-9v), and Aharon b. al-Ashqar (l. 11-12v)– at least one of whom is traceable in dated sixteenth-century documents (R. […] In the calculations connected to these individuals, the general label "silver / פצה" (=medin) is used alongside the more specific designation of the gold "sharifi / שריפי" which was first minted under the Mamluk sultanate in 1425 CE (Pamuk, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, 60).

Tags

• list
• numismatic dating

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Ṣafar 481 Hijrī (26 April 1088–24 May 1088 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Faraḥ paid his share of the customs on the bale in Tinnīs (2.75 dinars), which means that Mawhūb owes 1.375 dinars (apparently they are dividing expenses at a 2:1 ratio). Faraḥ and Abū l-ʿAlāʾ checked the ledger of the wakīl and found in it only the entry for the customs of Fustat; Abū l-ʿAlāʾ and Ṣāʿid can both testify to this. Then mentions Tripoli, Abū l-Riḍā, and the customs for a sack of starch (mikhlāt al-kathīrāʾ) and linen cloth (khaysha). Abū l-ʿAlāʾ apparently told Mawhūb to leave the 1.375 dinars in Fustat with Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa. Faraḥ "did not travel until I ordered Abū l-ʿAlāʾ to collect it from the wakīl." Concludes, "If you wish to see the ledger of the wakīl, go to my master the qāḍī Abū l-Qāsim.

Related Places

3

Tags

• bialphabetic
• customs
• daftar
• qadi
• wakil al-tujjar

1 Transcription

Another interesting point in the letter is that the woman mentions that Izz al-Din came to Egypt "Because the sultan called al-Kamil sent him" - a clear reference to the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil (1218-1238) giving us a dating for the letter. Finally, Shelomo ha-Melammed added a personal message to Yosef at the end of the letter: He asks him to send greetings to Shelomo's cousin (the son of Shelomo's mother's brother) Abu al-Faraj and his two sons Ma'ani abd Abu Majd. These relatives are also mentioned in T-S 10J7.2 and T-S 13J35.15 (OZ).

Tags

• capitation tax
• jaliya
• jizya
• nar
• tax
• (+ 1 more)

No Scholarship Records

Document date

1248 Hijrī (31 May 1832–20 May 1833 CE)

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

The legal query reads, "A Jewish woman died, and some man came and demanded a bribe from her husband and brother "as is their custom" (ʿalā ʿādatihim)" The ruling of the jurist Aḥmad al-Tamīmī al-Khalīlī al-Ḥanafī: the bribe is invalid and the husband and brother can demand their money back. […] There are two official seals on this document, the first belonging to the Muslim authority (Aḥmad al-Tamīmī al-Ḥanafī), the second belonging to the Jewish authority Yosef Mas___[?].

Tags

• 19th c
• fatwa
• seal

1 Transcription

Inferred date

1214–1215 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

ʿIwāḍ to Ḥananel b. Shemuel. Alexandria, probably 1214-1215. Yosef's brother Futūḥ had died recently on a ship on the India route near Yemen. […] David) took the deceased man's possessions and sent them to Futūḥ's heirs in Alexandria. Yosef claims that Futūḥ did write a will that bequeathed a gift to him, but the will was not drawn up properly as they were "in a wine party" (ʿalā sharāb, l. 13). As a result, Yosef is now penniless. He reports already having written to the Nagīd of Egyptian Jewry (at the time, Avraham Maimonides), who wrote several unsuccessful letters on his behalf in an attempt to secure help from the local Jewish community.

Related People

6

Related Places

3

Tags

• 13th c
• ib2
• india book

2 Transcriptions 3 Translations 2 Discussions

Document date

Tuesday, 15 Kislev 1526 Seleucid (19 November 1214 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Abū l-Bahāʾ b. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Dalātī Ibn al-Naḥḥāl (the beekeeper) releases his nephew Moshe ha-Kohen from all obligations resulting from "all of the joint enterprises (muʿāmalāt) which were between us from the beginning of time until now", as well as any concomitant oaths. […] Goitein identifies three other financial documents between Abū l-Bahāʾ and Moshe, all of which concern loans from Moshe to his uncle. […] As the other documents are all concerned with the repayment of loans from Moshe to his uncle, it seems likely that Moshe was the source of capital for this partnership, and one of their "mutual dealings" was an investment partnership.

Related People

3

Related Places

1

Tags

• partnership
• release

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

They have sent him no letter at all; they only sent back the 'muthallath' (triple-weave) coat with instructions to sell it in Qalyub, but why would he have sent it to Fustat in the first place if he wanted to sell it in Qalyub? […] In the continuation (T-S AS 145.195), there isn't much more of substance, but he mentions al-Shaykh al-Yesod on recto, and then again in a postscript: "please go to al-Yesod [and apologize for me] from him and tell him that I am only hiding because of [the capitation tax?]." Join: Alan Elbaum.

Related People

2

Related Places

2

Related Documents

1

Tags

• abu sahl levi
• capitation tax
• jaliya
• moshe b. levi
• tax

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Pereṣ," "wife of Moshe לוחייזא?", ʿAbdalqādr al-Skandarī, ʿAlī b. ʿAbd.. al-Mīnawī Gorge/Jorge (גורגי) Consol, Muḥammad ʿAnbarī, David[?] […] (perhaps a Turkish word), Menaḥem Kohen, Badr al-Dīn al-Qabbānī, Shemuʾel Kohen (verso) Avraham Kohen, Avraham al-Ḥakīm, Yiṣḥaq Ḥabīb, Yosef Abulkhayr, Shemuʾel b.

Tags

• 16th c
• late prosopography
• radbaz

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Recto: Letter from communal leaders, in Alexandria, to the judge Shemuel, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. […] Regarding a woman in Alexandria with a sick daughter, whose husband had fled his creditor and gone to the capital. […] The matter was of utmost seriousness since the Alexandrian wife asserted that her husband had married another woman and was living with her in Cairo.

Related Places

3

Tags

• aguna
• communal
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: children's
• (+ 1 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from an unnamed woman, in al-Mahdiyya, to her brother, probably in Egypt. […] than you being in a foreign land... and your money will not increase as much as you think." She alludes to the loneliness of their mother, especially after their brother Yosef married and moved to al-Jibāl (the mountain region of Tunisia), where he now has two boys (possibly twins), and after another brother, Mevasser, got married in Palermo earlier that year to the daughter of their relative Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Mazmīzī. She sends greetings (twice) from her husband and her children Zikrī, Farrāḥ, Barakāt, and Umm al-Yaman. She reports that she has taken Zikrī out of school (the kuttāb), and he is now working as a dyer.

Related Places

2

1 Discussion

Document date

1235–1236 CE

Primary languages

Arabic, Greek/Coptic Numerals, Judaeo-Arabic

See Goitein's note cards and Med Soc II, 492–93, appendix C, #55. See also Elisha Russ-Fishbane, "Earthquake, Famine, and Plague in Early Thirteenth-Century Egypt: Muslim and Jewish Sources," p. 158. […] Goitein: 'Emergency appeal for the purchase of wax candles both for the synagogue and needy persons (see B 89, 90) and also for some other communal expenses. Written mostly in Arabic characters and with Coptic numerals. […] But a few of the 32 receivers of wax candles appear also among the contributors. At least 6 names identical with C 57.'

Tags

• demographics

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Persian

Biblical commentary? There is also some ink transfer from another fragment.

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Poetry in Judaeo-Arabic. There are also two lines in Arabic script, difficult to read.

Tags

• arabic script
• judaeo-arabic poetry

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning (perhaps addressed to) al-Shaykh al-Melammed Abū Saʿīd.

Related Documents

1

No Scholarship Records

Shemuel mentioning Alexandria. On the back are drafts in a cursive hand, perhaps of poetry.

Tags

• literary with documentary value

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Greek/Coptic Numerals

Unidentified list in Arabic script. Also possibly a column of Coptic numerals on the left.

No Scholarship Records

Accounts. Three pages. See also ENA 3770.8. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

1 Discussion

Accounts. Three pages. See also ENA 3770.7. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Ladino

Mostly pen trials, but there are also a few undeciphered lines in Ladino and some names.

No Scholarship Records

Alphanumerical calculations or perhaps alphabetical practice.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Very disorganized. There is also a nice doodle.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Likely legal, but may also be a letter. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Possibly a business account in Arabic script. Looks late. May also mention Hippocrates (Buqrāṭ).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

A few words possibly from a state document in Arabic script. "... al-murtaḍā al-kāshif..."

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Maybe Mamluk-era. Mentions [...] al-Dīn al-Mardāwī.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Official-looking document in Arabic script ("min jumlat al-wuṣūl al-[...]"). Needs examination.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Rabīʿ I 810 Hijrī (6 August 1407–4 September 1407 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Legal document, letter of ḍamān, in Arabic script. Mentions al-Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn.

Tags

• dimme

No Scholarship Records