Documents

Inferred date

950–1013 CE

Primary language

Arabic

Recto: Official letter mentioning the kharāj and agriculture. Also mentions khafāra and a Coptic name Yāfus. Dating: before September 1013.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• khafara

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Many names are listed: Abū Isḥāq; Salāma; Ibn al-Sukkarī; Hiba; Abū Kathīr; Bū Zikrī: Ḥakīm and his brother-in-law; Abū Manṣūr Ibn al-Tūzī; Elḥanan; Yeḥezqel; Ibn Nuṣayr; Abū Manṣūr; Ibn Mujayn. […] The list is introduced by an Arabic-script note: jābī al-ishrāf(?) [...]. On verso there are several notes in Arabic script, including one headed "Dīwān al-Kharāj", followed by عمال ذهب به مهدي من منصور من مال اقتبيش(؟) د....

1 Discussion

Document date

23 Adar I 1475 Seleucid (18 February 1164 CE)

Primary languages

Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic

Shela ha-Kohen) ruined something and the wife (Khulla bt. Avraham/Ibrāhīm al-Aswad, also known as Sitt al-Kull) complained to the court.

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary language

Arabic

The writer acquaints the addressee about the safekeeping of his things with Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Qasam and reassures him about the friendly bond between the writer and Abū l-Ḥasan. The writer also rebukes the addressee about something he said and says “it can’t be pardoned except with the aid of God.”

Tags

• dimme

1 Transcription

Document date

Ṭevet 5550 Anno Mundi (18 December 1789–15 January 1790 CE)

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

who lives in Istanbul ["Costa"]. Also involves Yaʿaqov Bibas. Item #2: Drafts of a document regarding a partnership between the same Moshe Torongi and Yaʿaqov Bibas. […] Verso: Contains some text from a legal document with 5 elaborate witness signatures (but at least two belong to the same person--perhaps someone is practicing their signature?). Also contains at various angles an account, a draft of a letter, and two medical recipes for vaginal suppositories to promote survival of sperm.

Related Places

2

Tags

• aripol
• betrothal
• bibas
• infertility
• medical
• (+ 1 more)

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Mūsā b. Yiṣḥaq b. Nissim, in al-Mahdiyya, to Ismāʿīl b. Barhūn al-Tāhartī. In Judaeo-Arabic. […] The writer is looking forward to the addressee's intended visit to al-Mahdiyya. He describes the situation in the Maghreb, and he mentions silk business and a large transfer of money to a yeshiva. […] The wakham has ceased, and all our friends [meaning the compatriots from Tunisia] are well."

Related People

2

Related Places

2

Tags

• 11th c
• al-mahdiyya
• epidemic
• epidemic: wakham
• illness
• (+ 2 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

He was very sad and wept the night after an elder female family member (al-kabīra) left him and returned to Fustat. He urges his mother to 'do the things that you told her to do for me' without delay. […] The addressee is to get from Maḥfūẓ all that he owes to Moshe. As for Dammūh, he suggests that the family members go there first and he try to catch up with them on Sunday, or alternatively he'll try to come to them on Thursday and they can all go to Dammūh together.

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• dammuh
• moshe b. levi

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

The sender mentions a group of people who came before him and pledged their allegiance (...ʿindī mudhʿinīn muslimīn ilayya qāʾimīn bi-l-khidma fī dhālika...). Later, "after they departed," a group of infantry and cavalry came before him (...dakhala ilayya jamāʿa min al-mutarajjila wa-l-khayl...) and said, "Our master, we heard that so-and-so and so-and-so came before you and told you the opposite of what was agreed upon in the majlis" (haḍarū bi-haḍratak wa-takallamū bi-khilāf mā istaqarra fī l-majlis bi-l-asr(?)), and they didn't realize it until it was nearly too late (...mā ʿalimnā bihi ḥattā tamḍī al-sāʿa...). Verso: Financial record—a receipt for a certain Mufaḍḍal.

Tags

• cavalry
• dimme
• infantry
• report

No Scholarship Records

Document date

13 Av 1300 Seleucid (18 July 989 CE)

Primary language

Hebrew

The senders ask that the letter be read aloud in public in Ramla or Jerusalem. (2) Letter from Yosef b. […] Ibn Abitūr's main goal is to get the gaon to reiterate the excommunication of someone whom Ibn Abitūr had already excommunicated, but who refused to repent. Ibn Abitūr also asks the gaon to excommunicate other people "who are aiding this wicked man, inciting him to remain steadfast and, further. to claim that he will be flogged, he will apostatize" (yeṣē mi-dīnō le-tarbūt ra̔ah יצא מדינו לתרבות רעה).

3 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

1461-03-15 Seleucid (17 November 1149 CE)

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew

This interpretation is tentative owing to the state of the document and the fact that Goitein seems to have understood the payment as maintenance for nursing/rearing a child for 5 months. (But note also that the poor state of the previous PGP transcription suggests that the fragment was even more crumpled when Goitein examined it than it is now.) Also on verso, there are four undeciphered lines in Arabic script.

Related Places

1

Tags

• ketubba
• marriage

1 Transcription 2 Discussions

Inferred date

1489–1489 CE

Primary language

Hebrew

He conveys instructions for what should be given to the wife of the Shamash for his own wife. Also mentions raisins. (Information in part from Avraham David via FGP.) […] Yehuda, see Arad and Wagner, "Moses ben Judah – a 15th century bibliophile and gourmand" (FOTM June 2016) and Arad, "The Jews of Alexandria in the 15th Century in Light of New Documents" Peʿamim 156 (2018), 167–84 (Heb).

Related People

1

Tags

• 15th c
• book trade
• raisins
• sholal
• zohar

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The writer gathered the courage to write to Rabbenu Avraham and al-Ḥaver about this matter, but he has not received a response from 'his Majlis', thus he writes the present letter. […] Maqdūnsa (an Ibn Maqdūnsa is also mentioned in T-S Ar.54.91). Her husband sent her a get from Damascus with Muẓaffar. She then remarried in Fuwwa Yūsuf b. al-Yaqṭīn. "And the purpose of your letter to R.

Related Places

2

Tags

• damascus
• divorce

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

As for the quires that were sent with al-Bilbaysī, and likewise the two quires that were sent with Abū ʿAlī, the writer did not receive them. […] A woman ('sitt') was sick. It is also possible that Elʿazar's letter came first and the other one is the response.

Tags

• book trade
• copying

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

However, the doctors said to me that the medicines would be of no avail, as long as he continued to work in sunlight, which his profession forces him to do.” The letter also references a ‘maker of razors’ (mawwas) and mentions Ibn al-Minqar Abu al-Ma’ali.

Related People

2

Related Places

2

Tags

• ib-addenda
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: etiology
• illness: eye
• (+ 3 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

Sunday, 20 Sivan 4845 Anno Mundi (15 June 1085 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Hiba; his partner Abū l-Khayr al-Ger; and Abū Zikrī. Abū al-Khayr will be the executor of the will. […] Fully transcribed (and translated to Hebrew) in Yosef Rivlin, Inheritance and Wills in Jewish Law, (Bar Ilan: Ramat Gan, 1999), pp. 338–40. See also ENA 4100.15 (PGPID 11546). T-S 8J21.14 + T-S 8J8.12 (PGPID 7679) and T-S 12.606 (PGPID 3187) are a likely (noncontinuous) join; both refer to the same sum of 7.25 dinars owed by Yāqūt.

Related Places

1

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Nissim (Gil read "Naḥum") in Fustat (sūq) al-ʿAṭṭārīn. Dating: 1046 CE, according to Gil. Mentions a shortage of grain and inquires about an apartment. He also mentions a sea voyage he had planned to Sicily which had not taken place and expresses concern for a certain Abu `Imran, urging him to take care of his wife and child. […] "And inform him that I did not purchase anything for him because of the prevailing hunger (jūʿ) and food shortages in the countryside (al-Rīf). One and three-quarter waybas of wheat and beans...whereas an irdabb of wheat (in Fusṭāṭ) sells for 2 dīnārs."

Related Documents

1

Tags

• commodities
• countryside
• grain shortage
• ibyar
• prices

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The counterfeiter was the mutawallī al-sikka, or the ṣāḥib dār al-ḍarb. When Nissim tried to exchange the dinars, the deceit was discovered and he was in mortal danger. […] Yefet) as well as an earlier Arabic state document (see separate record). Also a letter or legal document resembling a letter with the name Shelomo b.

Related People

3

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• counterfeit coins
• deposit
• mint

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Document date

Nisan-Iyyar 1431 Seleucid (2 March 1120–29 April 1120 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

MS heb. c 28/68) releases her ex-husband Abū ʿAlī Yefet from alimony for his daughter, and her father stands security for her in Jewish and Muslim courts and supplies his daughter with all her needs. […] was considered (l. 9), she was entitled to alimony. This means that she left him against his will.

Related People

3

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yosef, in Qayrawān, to Ismāʿīl b. Barhūn al-Tāhartī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1020 CE (Gil) or 1022 CE (Goitein). […] Abū Zikrī mentions the honors (including a dove-colored mule and robes of honor) bestowed upon him and upon the addressee's brother by "the Illustrious Lady" (al-Sayyida al-Jalīla), i.e., Umm Mallāl, the aunt of the Zīrid sultan al-Muʿizz b.

Related People

4

Related Places

2

2 Transcriptions 2 Translations 1 Discussion

Document date

Thursday, 24 Tammuz 4978 Anno Mundi (19 July 1218 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Futūḥ, the widow of Ṭoviyya the Byzantine scribe (al-Rūmī ha-Sofer), acknowledges receipt of the Torah scrolls and legal codices which had belonged to her late husband and been deposited with Avraham ha-Rofeʾ ha-Nikhbad b. Simḥa ha-Kohen Segan ha-Kohanim on behalf of their two daughters, Leah known as Thanāʾ and Sarah known as Sitt al-Kull. This document is of particular interest because it contains interlinear corrections in the hand of Avraham Maimonides, who also took over the incomplete draft, wrote four more lines of the text, and then summarized the formulaic remainder with וכול ("etc.") and an אמת (his usual validation mark).

Related People

2

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

He writes about some small business matters and asks about his sick wife (wajaʿ al-bayt, r8–9). (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, III, p. 160, and Goitein's index cards.) Alternate description: Letter to ‘my son’ Isaac ha-Kohen b. […] Joseph (obviously not father and son in the strict biological sense, as he also sends greetings to Jacob the judge, the actual father), concerned with business matters, for example the trade of indigo.

Tags

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: women's

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from an unknown writer, in al-Maḥalla, to Nahray b. Nissim, presumably in Fustat. […] There is widespread unemployment in al-Maḥalla, and traveling at this time is dangerous (ופחד הדרכים יותר). The writer also discusses something that he needs to return, perhaps money or books.

Related People

1

Related Places

2

Tags

• arabic address
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: children's
• illness: cost
• (+ 5 more)

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Document date

Saturday 20 Rajab 550 Hijrī (19 September 1155 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

The muqirr is Murhaf b. Fāris al-Dawla Nushtakīn "one of the greats of the Ḥāfiẓī regiment" (احد الحافظية الكبار). He acknowledges owing a sum of dirhams to Ṣafiyy al-Dawla(?) Abū Manṣūr Ṭalāʾiʿ b. Gharīb(?)b. Jaʿfar al-Kātib. […] (النائب في الحكم للوزير(؟)) the qāḍī Thiqat al-Dawla(?). He will repay the sum on Saturday, 20 Rajab 550 AH = 19 September 1155 CE.

Related People

4

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

After the court session (wa-kharaja min al-moshav), he went and moved with his wife to near the dwelling of al-Ḥasan Yosef ha-Levi, in the al-Mamṣūṣa quarter of Fustat, in the apartments (ṭibāq) where Abū l-Munā al-Ṭabīb used to live.

Related People

1

Tags

• marital reconciliation

1 Transcription

Inferred date

1205–1237 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Bill submitted to Avraham Maimonides: the cantor 'al-Makīn' is owed 9 dirhams for 6 weeks, and Abū l-Ṭāhir is owed 1.5 dirhams for 3 weeks. Avraham Maimonides then wrote "the total: 7.5" and on verso "let it be paid from the rent of the compound." All this is on a reused scrap from an earlier Arabic-script document. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218.

Related People

1

Tags

• account
• heqdesh
• qodesh
• waqf

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

People involved: a kohl seller (al-kaḥḥāl) (who has been allowing the young men to gather at his place); Ibn Rummān and his mother (they are the ones with Muslim tenants); and the father of the kaḥḥāl, who is Barakāt al-Ṣīrī.

Related People

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• avraham maimonides
• communal

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Business letter from the North African merchant Benāya b. Mūsā (Alexandria) to Shelomo b. Mevorakh (Fustat), containing inter alia information about the movement of ships and referring to several India traders.

Related People

8

Related Places

9

Tags

• business
• dispute
• ib-addenda
• movement of ships
• nagid
• (+ 1 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Barakāt Ibn al-Lebdī; Hārūn b. Rajā; Efrayim b. Ismāʿīl. (Goitein's attached notes may refer to several other documents other than this one; Goitein quotes a sender who says “I cannot undertake for the third year a voyage [to Aden]," and he makes some date calculations mentioning the years 1131, 1134, and 1135.) Goitein's attached notes also contain a full transcription.

Related People

3

Tags

• ib5
• india book

2 Transcriptions

Document date

Shevat 1341 Seleucid (7 January 1030–5 February 1030 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yosef gave to Barhūn b. Thābit al-Ṣā'igh the power-of-attorney to make out a bill of divorce for his wife Surūra. This was attested in "al-Ṣaʿīd al-Fawqānī" by Ghālib b. Faraj and Abū Saʿīd Maymūn b.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The letter contains instructions about money to be received and/or paid; mentions the army (al-ʿaskar); mentions Abū l-Maḥāsin and Abū Isḥāq. […] will travel with another man and the little girl (al-ṣughayyira), while the addressee(s) should remain in Egypt. Then: "If you wish to marry your daughter to al-Raḍiyy and stay in Egypt--then stay! And if you do not wish, do not marry her to anyone."

Related Places

1

Tags

• marriage
• trade

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

[5]32 Hijrī (19 September 1137–7 September 1138 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Dated: probably [5]32 AH = 1137/38 CE. Also possible is 432 AH = 1040/41 CE. Only isolated phrases are preserved. Mentions a group (ṭāʾifa) of people; something that happened last year; a group (jamāʿa) that fled; the typical petition requests of asking the addressee to address and remove harm (. . . al-ḍarar wa-yazūl . . .), possibly palaces (quṣūr), and obedience to the (addressee's) orders.

1 Transcription

Primary language

Arabic

It is filled with bureaucratic jargon referring to several different bureaus (e.g., Dīwān al-ʿUmūm and Dīwān ʿUmūm al-[...]," which is opposed to Nuẓẓār al-Furūʿ) and to "protecting interests" (عدم تعطيل المصلحة) and "necessary expenses" (المصاريف الضرورية).

Tags

• arabic script
• diwan

No Scholarship Records