Documents

Document date

August 1894 CE

Primary languages

Arabic, French

Probably mentions the communal title "shamāsh of the syna[gogue]" in the "Name" field of the form (شماش الكنيـ[ـسة). Also mentions [Isr]aelite.

Tags

• 19th c

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Discussing accounts, including the phrase נומרו בנומרו (numero be-numero). May also involve indigo (אניל). Needs examination.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Bifolio containing mainly literary text including masekhet avot. There are also several blocks of Arabic text, including some literary text and (on recto) many drafts of phrases from a letter or petition to a notable.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

411/427 Hijrī (1021–1036 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Report to the caliph Al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh in which a previous report is mentioned.

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew

Dating: No later than 1034 CE ([4]7[.]4 AM). It is also possible that the 'ארבע' is 'ארבעין', in which case this would date from 979–89 CE.

Related Documents

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Dated: Wednesday morning, 15 Dhū l-Ḥijja, no year. Wulida al-mawlūd al-mubārak.... Reused on the other side for Hebrew literary text.

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The content is unclear but a certain Elʿazar is mentioned. an agent (wakīl), and [... al-]kātib al-mushtarī (a buyer).

Related People

1

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

In Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. There are also a few lines (at 180 degrees) in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning a funduq.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Ladino

Possibly accounts given the content: "sesenta ciento (160)" and "cinco" twice written in the line underneath, but student exercises also seem possible as a genre given the disorderly layout.

Tags

• ladino

No Scholarship Records

Document date

12 Dhū l-Qaʿda 531 Hijrī (1 August 1137 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Mentions a date in the body of the text: 12 Dhū l-Qaʿda 531 AH = 1 August 1137 CE. Also mentions safātij. Needs further examination.

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Narrating the progress of a construction project in relation to "the breaking of the canal" (kasr al-khalīj). Mentions "builders" and "the tall youth" and "al-Ṣaʿīdī" and Bū l-Faraj and Sibāʿ.

Tags

• khalij

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from unknown writer, unknown location, to his 'brother,' in Fustat. The address is almost entirely gone, but one of them is named Bū Saʿd. […] He is further worried because he doesn't know if al-Rayyis Barakāt actually delivered the garments (awsāṭ and an ʿarḍī), because Barakāt said that he found the addressee spending the evenings at Dār al-Bayḍ (or Bīḍ?)[…] The 2 dinars should be deposited with Abū ʿAlī or with the writer's cousin (ibn ʿamma) and the remainder should be sent to the writer.

Related Places

2

Tags

• d-t switch
• garments

1 Transcription

Inferred date

1039–1039 CE

Primary languages

Arabic, Hebrew

Petition to the caliph al-Mustansir concerning the schism of 1038–42 between Shelomo b. […] Abraham, who ‘arrived from the West, claiming the position of the head of our Academy, and who has been head of this Academy for 16 years’, the amir Munjiz al-Dawla, and the ‘slave of our master, Daʾūd b. […] MS Heb. b 18.21 (both published in Stern 1969 and republished in Gil, Palestine, doc. 197; the first document was also republished in Khan, ALAD). FGP lists via the CUL-GRU that the fragment is a join with T-S 13J8.2, but the join is false (Rustow has reported this to FGP).

Related People

3

Related Documents

2

Tags

• communal
• dimme
• draft
• efrayim b. shemarya
• katb shahada
• (+ 3 more)

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation 2 Discussions

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Binyām (Binyamin) of Rosetta, probably in Alexandria, to Abū Saʿīd the gallnut merchant, in Fustat. […] Goods named in this letter include afsantīn (wormwood); kundus (baby's breath); zunjufr (cinnabar); sunbul (spikenard); quṣṭ (=qusṭ, alecost or costus); martak (litharge); salaqūn (red lead); jullanār (pomegranate blossom); qiṭna or qaṭina (a cryptic term which may simply be a derivative of cotton, but in this form means 'omasum' according to the dictionaries); אבר (either abār, meaning lead, or ibar, meaning "needles"); khaskhāsh abyaḍ (white poppy); 1000 dūdīyya li-l-misk (Goitein suggests astringent kermes worms); qurashiyya (Goitein suggests "odoriferous claws"; Lisān al-ʿArab says it is a type of wheat); and asārūn (asarabacca), which [in Rosetta, probably] is going for 1 dinar, due to demand from the Andalusians.

Tags

• andalusians
• druggist
• ink
• materia medica

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1101–1101 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Goitein/Friedman suggest that the sender's intent is to take the corals east to Aden or al-Hind, where they sold for higher prices. The sender urgently requests the recipient's help and also asks him to form a partnership with a merchant from Córdoba who had spent the winter in al-Mahdiyya. […] Remarkable is the piece of information regarding the entire amount of merchandise that has arrived in ʿAydhāb after the roads were reopened and merchants began receiving "governmental prescripts" (sijillāt al-sulṭān): 9,000/13,000 bales of goods. Among these merchants was Labdī with a shipment of 80 bales of lac packed in Nahrawara (Gujarat), 50 bales of pepper and other merchandise.

Related People

1

Related Places

7

Tags

• hinge
• ib-partial translation-eng
• ib1
• india book
• trade

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Hebrew

Greetings to the addressee, his father-in-law the son of the late Gaʾon, and Shemuel ha-Kohen, who should be informed that his son Eliʿezer departed from the sender and traveled first to Alexandria and then to "the villages," where he is living in peace and tranquility. […] (Information in part from CUDL.) Join: Alan Elbaum. There are several additional fragments in the hand of the same scribe (identified by Oded Zinger): JRL Series B 3311 (PGPID 5213), Moss. […] The JRL document is addressed to the sister's husband (also confusingly named Shemuel) and refers to some of the same content as the present letter: "I remind you to keep the contract. . . of my partner Shemuel . . . ."

Related Places

1

1 Transcription

Primary language

Ladino

The list is titled "ב׳׳ה בצט נוטת די אלייות דיל ק׳׳ק נגב..סנת" which yields: "... note of āliyyot (sic) of the Q[ahal] Q[adosh]..." The erratic spelling of āliyyot (with א rather than ע and with יי) is then repeated at the opening of most of the individual entries in the singular form אליית, aliyyat. […] Other entries relate to "aliyyot" for the holiday "Sūqōt (sic)" (סוקות) and in a few instances the scribe notes that contributions were made "by me" (por mi) or a certain "David." One entry on the left side of the document mentions "the āliyya of the Q[ahal] Q[adosh] Porṭegezes (sic)," probably a reference to the Portuguese Congregation of early modern Cairo.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from a Qaraite, in Jerusalem, to al-Shaykh al-Rashīd Hārūn Ibn Saghīr, in Cairo. […] He clarifies that the conflict is about Ibrāhīm and Sulaymān who both insist on marrying Rivqa who 'belongs to' (? btāʿ) al-Shaykh al-Najīb Shimʿon. They had decided to marry her to Avraham, but she insisted that she would only marry Sulaymān, and Avraham said that he would kill someone if he didn't get to marry her. They feared something ('al-amākin' = the places?) and prevented her from entering either Sulaymān's or Avraham's house or from leaving her own house without a female escort.

Related Places

2

Tags

• habash
• muslim courts
• qaraite
• qaraite-rabbanite relations

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1007–1055 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

It mentions Abū l-Ḥusayn Ibn al-Andalusī, ʿAllūnal-Ṣahrajtī, and Abū Khalaf, the friend/partner (ṣāḥib) of Abū Saʿd. Also mentions the judge Yosef b. Azhar. Bareket says the letter is about business matters and that it attests to Efrayim b.

Related People

1

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The addressee's nephew Isḥāq is without help in the shop except for Avraham al-Zūrzūr. It seems that the addressee has shipped some bales of flax, but they have not yet arrived. Greetings to various people including the addressee's sister and wife. Greetings also from her husband, the addressee's father. (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #239.) […] The second fragment under this shelfmark may be unrelated, though the appearance of the parchment is similar and it likely also dates to the 11th century. It is the bottom of a legal deed with a number of signatures: Shelomo b. [...]; [Abū?]

Related Places

2

Tags

• tax
• women's letters

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Eliyyahu to his brother, Abu Zikri in Alexandria. Reporting that the 'old man' (likely their father Eliyyahu) arrived safely. […] Their sister and R. Simḥa are also well.Their cousin Yosef the son of their paternal uncle Abū l-Faraj sends his greetings. […] Greetings to their paternal uncle Abū l-Faraj Ibn al-Tawwazī and to Rabbenu Yosef and his son and to Abū l-Maʿānī b.

Related People

2

Related Places

2

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yūsuf claims that Da’ūd and Ṣedaqa, sons of Ṣemaḥ b. Da’ūd al-Raqqī, have withheld profits from a partnership in a store. The brothers were also involved in long distance trading on behalf of the partnership. Yaʿqūb himself seems to have contributed the sum total of the partnership capital, amounting to four thousand dinars, which yielded a one time payment of ten dinars to Yaʿqūb and a single dinar each week, of which Yaʿqūb would receive half and the brothers the other half. Yaʿqūb also received 30 dinars each month to satisfy a debt on the store.

Tags

• court record
• jah
• partnership

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Abū ʿUmar, in Aden, addressed to Sitt Ghazāl and Umm Munajjā, in Fustat. […] This letter describes the same series of events from the same point of view, including being plundered by the Ghuzz ("we went out naked and hungry. . . and I had no resort. . . and I saw no alternative to traveling"), Khalaf b. Maḍmūn sending 30 dinars with Abū l-ʿAlāʾ and urging the sender to come to Yemen after hearing of his misfortune, and the matter of Abū ʿImrān converting to Islam and divorcing his wife ("al-ṣaghīra," "the little one"). […] Near the end of this letter, the sender reports that “as for the news of Makārim your son, I heard that he entered al-Jāwa, may God reunite you...." It concludes with a ṣalwala — blessings upon the prophet Muḥammad — indicating that it was written by a Muslim scribe on behalf of the sender, whose family is known to be Jewish from other documents.

Related People

4

Related Places

3

Tags

• conversion
• divorce
• ib-addenda
• ib2
• india book unedited
• (+ 1 more)

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The addressee stated that he has paid another 3 nuqra (pure silver) dirhams to the owner (Allony et al read this as "13" nuqra dirhams). Yefet calculates that altogether these payments amount to 50 black dirhams less 1 and 1/8 dirham (= 48.875 dirhams). […] (Information in part from Allony et al, The Jewish Library, pp. 218–19.)

Tags

• book trade

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

(The join—ENA 2386.4—clarifies that Sitt al-Ahl is actually the daughter of Yosef ha-Kohen.) […] This document is discussed in Med Soc III, 192–93, 467 n.152, and also in the cluster of documents edited by Gershon Weiss, Ḥalfon, #200–02. Join: Alan Elbaum. The wording of the document is nearly identical to T-S 6J1.20, another document in the hand of Ḥalfon b.

Related People

1

Tags

• alimony
• halfon b. menashshe

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The instructions involve Ibn al-Tājir and Nuṣayr. The sender has been stuck in al-Minya for 8 days; it seems that the boat is stuck in the mud. Regards to al-Shaykh al-Neʾeman, Elʿazar(?), and his cousin (ibn ʿamm) and his female cousin (bint ʿamm) Zahra. […] I said, “Go back!” He said, “Leave me alone(?). I will not ‘drown myself’ (by returning?).

Related Places

1

Tags

• al-bahnasa
• boat
• runaway
• wheat

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Judaeo-Arabic, Ladino

Accounts mainly in Ladino, written in the same hand but not necessarily from the same notebook (the pages are not all the same size, and the grids on different fragments are in purple ink vs. red/brown ink). Lists of names in Ladino which follow a common formula repeating the phrase "la mujer de X." There are also Greek influenced names such as "la mujer de Nicoli ẓu Demitri".

Related Documents

4

Tags

• 18th or 19th c
• bialobos
• ladino
• mosseri
• ya'aqov bibas

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1150–1181 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Legal declaration, missing its beginning, involving several Bibles (maṣāḥif), someone's brother Abū Saʿīd, Abū l-Barakāt al-Ḥazzan, Abū l-Makārim al-Tājir al-Levi, and a certain Nadiv.

Related People

5

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yiṣḥaq, the widow of Furayj, and Ḥusn bt. Ibrāhīm Ibn Fūla(?) al-Ṣayrafī acknowledge in court that they have received two dinars from the debt transfer (ḥawāla) of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. […] Moshe ha-Levi. The latter also wrote the document and conveys the thanks of the two ladies (who were relatives) and his own greetings.

Tags

• hawala
• loan

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

Elul 1552 Seleucid (9 August 1241–6 September 1241 CE)

Primary language

Aramaic

Shemuel ha-Levi. Bride: Sitt al-Rashīda bt. Yeshuʿa ha-Talmid, an orphan and a virgin. The document also states that he 'betrothed' her, indicating that there was no formal betrothal which preceded this document.

Related Places

1

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Isḥaq b. ʿImrān, probably in al-Maḥalla, to the parnas Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Yahya, in Fustat. […] The letter concerns Efrayim, a poor man from al-Maḥalla, whose wife did not wish to live in the Rīf and traveled to Fustat on her own without his permission.

Related Places

1

Tags

• marital conflict
• patrilocal residence

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Inferred date

18 August 1056–18 August 1056 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The writer reproaches Nahray for his dealings with a resident of the island, Sulaymān b. Shaʾul. Also mentions "the ships (plural!) of Abū ʿAbdallah Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ:

Related People

9

Related Places

4

Tags

• 'ushr
• customs
• ibn al-ba'ba'
• nahray b. nissim
• prison
• (+ 3 more)

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Ismail in Busir, December 1055 (Gil), or to his nephew Ibn al-Surur Farah b. Ismail b. Farah before 1058 (Ben Sasson). The letter discusses commercial matters (i.e., exchanging checks and coins) and the departure of ships containing goods to Sicily. Also mentions Nahray b. Nissim. (Information in part from Gil and Ben Sasson) For the nizārī dinar, see https://dpul.princeton.edu/coins_geniza/feature/1-nizari-dinar-and-ahiri-dirham-11th-century-ce.

Related People

3

Related Places

3

Tags

• coin
• ship
• trade

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Hebrew

The Iberian surname Colodrillo is possible but the letter yod does not appear on the document (though it could be missing from the tear in l. 3). The alternate reading Colodro, another Iberian surname, also seems plausible.

1 Transcription

Primary language

Arabic

Accounts in a medieval-era scribal hand on recto. Although the verso was not reused in this case, the shelfmarks ENA 3264.1-6 are recycled pages of Arabic accounts that were cut into small sections for a student's notebook of alphabetical practice. […] The clearest evidence of sewing marks from the booklet's binding are visible along the right border of ENA 3264.3r. MCD.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• arabic reused
• learning

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The sender trusts that the addressee obeyed his order to shake out the cloaks (aksiyā), for now he is supposed to hand them over to the bearer of the letter, Mūsā b. Yūsuf along with some other items. He is to record the transaction in an account (thabat). He should also look after Mūsā, who is the victim of some misfortune (mujāḥ miskīn).

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Includes the well-known story of Ibn al-Sammāk who visited Hārūn al-Rashīd, who was drinking water. Ibn al-Sammāk stopped him from drinking and asked what he would give to be able to drink if he were forbidden from doing so.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

28 Nisan 5492 Anno Mundi (23 April 1732 CE)

Primary language

Ladino

The last two lines of the verso also mention an unknown commodity related to cloth that can be transliterated as "crisales de panyo" or alternatively "carisales de panyo."

Related Documents

4

Tags

• ladino
• list
• to examine

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Describing difficult circumstances: The slave of the king came . . . 30,000 dinars for repaying the debt and the dīwān and all the merchants, and the country is closed (maghlūqa), and the exchange is 42.5 [this is tentative], and no one has a dinar any more, and the collection (istikhrāj) of all the remaining capitation taxes, and the poor are in perplexity, I have informed the master [this]." […] Mentions the fatwā (jawāb al-faqīh) for the writer's cousin (ibn ʿamm) Maʿānī.

Tags

• capitation tax
• diwan
• exchange rate
• fatwa
• jaliya
• (+ 1 more)

1 Transcription

Inferred date

1066–1108 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Dating: Second half of the 11th century. In which Abū ʿAlī Yefet Tif'eret ha-Qahal b. Avraham confirms that Abū Yaʿqūb Yequtiʾel b. Moshe (the Peqid ha-Soḥarim) has paid all the money that he owed to Abū ʿAlī's brother, Ya'ir the Judge.

Related People

4

Related Places

1

No Scholarship Records

Letter from Barhūn b. Iṣḥaq al-Tāhartī, in al-Mahdiyya, to ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣedaqa, in Fustat. […] The writer mentions his plans to write to Abū Naṣr Ḥesed b. Yashar al-Tustarī, demonstrating that the latter was killed in 1050 rather than 1049.

Related People

3

Related Places

2

Tags

• al-tahirti
• al-tustari
• flax

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Document date

3 Kislev 5581 Anno Mundi (9 November 1820 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Short letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Berakha Goren, probably in Cairo, to David Ben-Naʿim, probably in Alexandria. Dated 9 November 1820 (3 Kislev 5581). Goren recounts having received a letter from David and sends news regarding the affairs of the ṣarrāfs (ṣayarīf), accountants/moneychangers, as well as the ṣayarīf al-kūbār, perhaps a leadership role or signifier of clout in the profession.

Related Places

1

Tags

• 19th c
• ben na'im
• late ja

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions a suftaja; 30 dinars; possibly gems (jawāhir); how the addressee shouldn't blame the sender for blaming him; something arriving from Almeria; lac selling there for 20 [...]; a leader or captain (qāʾid); the ship of Ibn Ghattūsh returning to Alexandria.

Related People

2

Tags

• hinge
• ib-addenda
• ib5
• suftaja

No Scholarship Records