Documents

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Petition from the Jewish community of Alexandria to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya (1140–59 CE). […] Iskandar the jahbadh, ʿUmar b. [...], and Yaḥyā ("may he not live!") b. Abū l-Faḍl known as Ibn Ukht Badīʿ(?). They are issuing receipts without having them registered in the supervising dīwān (wa-lam yuthbithā fī l-dīwān), which enables them to extort a second payment—one for their own pockets, and one for the dīwān.

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

first decade of Nisan 1433 Seleucid (19 March 1132–28 March 1132 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Recto: legal deed in which Sitt al-Thanāʾ bt. […] ha-Kohen 'Sixth in the Academy' gives a house in New Cairo to Ḥalfon b. […] Shabbat ha-Kohen, and Faḍāʾil b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi. Although from the 12th century (from the names of the signatories), this is apparently not the famous scribe Ḥalfon b.

Related Places

1

1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

A different version of this poem is cited several hundred years later by al-Itlīdī (17th c.) (https://shamela.ws/book/408/157): وصل الكتاب فلا عدمت أناملاً عنيت به حتى تضوع طيبا ففضضته وقرأته، فوجدته لخفي أوجاع القلوب طبيبا فكأن موسى قد أعيد لأمه أو ثوب يوسف قد أتى يعقوبا — this verse is very close to the second verse in the Geniza letter: "(Your letter arriving) was as if Moses had been returned to his mother, or the garment of Joseph to Jacob." Apart from the poem, none of the substance of the letter is preserved, except for the name al-shaykh Abū l-Faḍāʾil in the margin.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Last third of Ṭevet 1443 Seleucid (1131–1132 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

In which ʿAmāʾim receives control over her dowry (nidūnya) (except for three precious items (aʿlāq), namely, the lamp and cushion and pail) and frees her husband of all obligations except the me'uḥar. He promises not to beat her and to treat her well, but no fine is fixed for contravention. There is also someone named Faḍā'il b. Abū Saʿīd b. Yakhin ha-Ḥazzan somehow involved (representing her? "al-muʿarrif lanā bihā"). Witnesses: Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Meshullam b.

Related People

2

Related Documents

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1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

However an earlier dating should be considered - it mentions Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod, and someone of the same kunya and yeshiva title was active in the mid-12th century. Also mentions Muʿallā b. Raḥmūn; Bū l-Faḍāʾilal-Kohen; Bū Manṣur al-Ṣāʾigh.

Related People

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• 13th c
• account
• communal
• heqdesh
• qodesh
• (+ 2 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Maḥfūẓ (active ca. 1183–1223) and the latter as Avraham Maimonides. However, the letter also mentions Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Qamḥa who is known from a document from 1156 CE (PGPID 31842). […] The sender may have been a physician and/or a person of some importance. He alludes in vague terms to various dealing with the Rayyis ("you may speak to the Rayyis in my name"). He also admonishes, "Your mother should not fast (as an expression of mourning for the dead), for this will impair her health."

Related Places

1

Tags

• fasting
• wheat
• wine

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1121–1125 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

She reports that later the same day, Abū l-Faḍl b. al-Neʾeman was fired from his post by the vizier al-Maʾmūn (1121–25) and was commanded to leave Cairo and take up residence in Fustat. Abū l-Faḍl cannot show his face now, and the rest cannot be explained in a letter (r11–14). […] (Information in part from Goitein's index cards; also Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 90, 404, 412; II, pp. 183, 345, 558; V, pp. 243, 574.)

Related People

3

Related Places

2

Tags

• al-ma'mun
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: children's
• illness: household
• (+ 3 more)

1 Transcription 2 Translations 1 Discussion

Upper right: a literary text in square hand involving inheritance. Upper left: faded text, perhaps a part of a piyyut. Lower right: a list of names and sums - probably dispribution of bread for charity. Lower left: faded text , hard to read.

Tags

• 12th c
• bread
• charity
• communal
• poverty
• (+ 1 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1213–1237 CE

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

The prose is elaborate and often rhymed ('the reason for [some lapse] was the debts (al-duyūn) and not madness (al-junūn)'). In line 13, the writer gets to the point: he asks for forgiveness for something and asks for 'the strengthening of his heart' (ijbār qalb al-mamlūk) and something that will 'console' the writer (yaslūh) given what he has lost—typical phrases in the context of grief and letters of condolence, but plausibly also just asking for money. […] Only the formulaic beginning is preserved. On verso there is also a list of names in Judaeo-Arabic: Ibn al-ʿŪdī Abū l-Ḥasan and his brothers Abū l-Faḍl and Abū l-ʿIzz, and his grandfather Abū l-Riḍā. Also Abū l-Majd b. Hibatallāh.

Related People

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

"Detailed and important" according to Goitein's index card. See also ENA NS 22.21 (PGPID 6940). ( Recto, right side: Mentions Abū l-Faḍl Ibn al-Kutubī(?); Ibn al-Mumḥe; Ibn Nūḥ(?); brazilwood; Aḥmad; Yaḥyā; Abū l-Surūr al-[...]; Ṣāʿid al-Dimashqī; Yaʿaqov; Ibn Benaya; wheat; kohl; (at 90 degrees) Ibn Ṭībān and Abū Manṣūr. […] ; the hiring fee from Fustat; provisions (ḥawāʾij al-zād). Finally (at 90 degrees): further shipping expenses; "the dues of Alexandria";.

Related People

1

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

In Judaeo-Arabic, in a blocky hand and with אללה spelled אלי. He alludes to a terrible misfortune afflicting him. "If it were not for the dream which I had on the eve of the day of the betrayal—for I had lain down in [...] as God knows, and I saw a man telling me, 'Cast/throw yourself onto [...], by God and by the Torah, do not exceed what I tell you....' […] The continuation is too faded to read. Toward the bottom, 'the affair of Abū l-Maymūn' is mentioned.

Tags

• dreams

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The writer defends himself for having to refuse a request of the addressee (he cites a version of a couplet of Arabic poetry that some sources attribute to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib: אדא סאלת אלי כרים חאגה ואבא פלא תעתב עליה בח[אגב] | רבמא אמתנע אל[...] […] The letter becomes very faded at the bottom, but he seems to discourage the addressee from taking some matter to court, because the judge will not award the desired sum of money.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• classical arabic poetry

No Scholarship Records

Document containing mostly signatures, above a few lines of faded text. Signed by Ezekiel b. Avraham, Shemarya b. […] Habib, Shalom b. Daniel al-Kohen, Ezra b. Aharon, Yosef b. Farrah, Nahman b.

Tags

• signature
• witness

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

This testimony was apparently already given in ʿAsqalān, but now the testimony is being disputed. […] The last few lines are quite faded but mention a pesiqa; R. Efrayim again; a sinner; and "the two congregations" (Palestinian and Iraqi).

Related Places

1

Tags

• ascalon

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Khalaf; Yaḥyā b. Sawsān; Munajjā al-[...]; al-Muʿallim Abū l-Faḍl; Abū l-Manṣūr al-Ṭabīb; Ibn Nuṣayr; Furayj al-Maḥallī; Abū Saʿīd; Ghazal(?) b. Sulaymā˜; Yaʿīsh al-Najm; Wuhayb al-Mikhṭār(?); Ibrāhīm b. Mufaḍḍal; Wahbān; Menashshe al-Ṣāʾigh; Abū Saʿīd al-̵ʿAṭṭār; ʿImrān b. […] Abū Ṭāhir al-[...] al-Ghazzī; Sulaymān; Ibrāhīm; al-Kohen.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Wednesday, 15 Kislev 1500 Seleucid (7 December 1188 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Will of a silk-weaver named Abū l-Faḍl b. Barakāt Ibn al-Maqdisī, dividing his house, workshop, and other belongings to his four sons. […] Avraham ha-Levi (may be identical with Abū Sahl Levi the cantor, father of Yedutun and Moshe b. Levi; may also be the same Levi b. Avraham who appears in T-S NS J273 in connection to a silk workshop).

Related People

1

Related Places

1

Tags

• inheritance
• silk
• will

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation

Document date

1466 Seleucid (9 September 1154–29 August 1155 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

אלשקאק אלמקצור) and the cotton (אלקטן) which I purchased for the poor for the year 1466: 417 dirhams." Then mentions Munajjā al-Kohen; Abū Manṣūr; and the Heqdesh. The legal text is on the righthand page of recto: Abū l-Majd b. Abū l-Faḍāʾilal-Ḥazzan acknowledges that he owes Abū l-Faraj b. Sulaymān al-Bayyāʿ(?) 100 dirhams, which he will repay with installments of two dirhams every day(!)

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

fa-idhā iḥtajja bi-ḥujja)... and if not, leave him alone, and yours is... and act in accordance with your wisdom (cf. 1 Kings 2:6)... empty excuses/promissory notes... […] אלתמת for אלתמסת, probably) of you... do it, and the matter... with witnesses... with the impossible (bi-l-muḥāl)... your meeting with the elder...." On verso there is also another text in Judaeo-Arabic in different handwriting; too faded to read.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Middle third of Shevaṭ 1434 Seleucid (9 January 1123–18 January 1123 CE)

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

But this dating is not certain, because it is very faded. In which Yefet b. ʿEli praises and acknowledges the help of Moshe ha-Sar b. […] Mevorakh, if the dating is correct). The document is very faded, but it appears that the matter has to do with the Palestinian synagogue as well as 'the congregation of the Cairenes.'

Related Documents

1

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Extremely faded letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a family member in Fustat. […] Over 40 people packed into the house incuding a group from al-Mah[allah?]. He started praying, but it seems quietly and to himself. […] The continuation is unfortunately effaced, and when it is legible again in line 9 of verso, Moshe is probably writing about his sisters ('al-Kabirah' and Fakhr) and mentions a man named Ibn al-'Assar.

Related People

2

Tags

• moshe b. levi

1 Transcription

Document date

603 Hijrī (8 August 1206–27 July 1207 CE)

Primary languages

Arabic, Coptic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

The space around this document has been filled with Judaeo-Arabic text going in all directions. Most of the Judaeo-Arabic is calendrical reckoning. But in the middle of the page: "Ibn Abū l-Faḍlal-Parnas died on 25 Tishrei 603 AH / 4967 AM," which is 1206 CE. […] At the very bottom, in Arabic script: al-ḥurūf al-nāṭiqa sabʿa ("the 'speaking letters' are 7"), which is followed by 7 letters that appear to be Coptic.

Tags

• arabic script
• coptic
• jafr
• magic

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Very neatly tabulated with four column headers: (1) "the names" (al-asmāʾ); (2) "the agency" (? al-wakāla); (3) "the bureau" (al-dīwān); (4) "the farms" (? al-mazāriʿ). The entry "Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Qūrī: 5 1/3" has been inserted above the column headers. […] Yaʿlā; Ghiyāth b. Kayl; Salmān b. ʿAllūn. For the 14th: Isḥāq al-Qiss; Yūnus b.

No Scholarship Records

Too faded

No Scholarship Records

Too faded

No Scholarship Records

Too faded

No Scholarship Records

Document date

5 Dhū l-Qaʿda 520 Hijrī (22 November 1126 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

The property abuts the house of Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. ʿAlī, the house of Abū l-Ḥusayn Ismaʿīl b. al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAbbāsī, and the house of the daughter of Abū l-Ḥusayn Ismaʿīl b. al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAbbāsī. Dated Ḏū al-Qaʿda 520 AH (= November 1126 CE). Futūḥ b. Faḍl and Abū ʿUmar Daʾūd b. Ḥasan formally recognised the lessor. Witnessed by ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Ibrahim Ibn al-Salam, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan.

Related People

11

Related Places

1

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Document date

Wednesday, end of Shevaṭ 1402 Seleucid (1091 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen irreversibly releases Abū l-Faḍl/Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Netanʾel b. Yefet from any obligations concerning a partnership. Avraham had purchased two baskets of indigo and silk as an investment on behalf of his Alexandrian partners – the silk was damaged on its initial journey to Fusṭāṭ and Avraham liquidated it completely, settling the balance with Nathaniel and terminating the partnership. […] The recto is another partnership agreement (for which the verso is possibly a draft), which reveals Abraham to be an investor (not the active partner), investing funds with Faraḥ/Peraḥya ha-Kohen, who also adds funds and takes the total to Damascus to import goods to Fusṭāṭ.

Related Places

1

Tags

• alexandria
• damascus
• indigo
• partnership
• pepper
• (+ 2 more)

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Thursday, 25 Iyyar 1528 Seleucid (4 May 1217 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Buyer: Bū l-ʿIzz b. Bū ʿImrān al-Sharābī. Seller: Bū l-Ḥasan al-Melammed. Stating the Bū l-ʿIzz is responsible for any damage resulting to Bū l-Ḥasan from the loss of the deed of sale (ʿuhda) for the female slave whom Bū l-ʿIzz purchased from Bū l-Ḥasan. The transaction was conducted in the presence of Bū l-Faḍlal-Raṣuy. Recto, bottom: List of goods (mostly garments) in three columns, likely part of a trousseau list. Verso: Legal entry concerning an agreement between Abū Saʿīd al-Naqqād and Abū l-Fakhr al-Ṣayrafī. Abū Saʿīd undertakes to make an oath on a Torah scroll concerning financial arrangements between them.

Related People

2

Tags

• bill of sale
• slave

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

last day of Dhū l-Qaʿda 544 Hijrī (30 March 1150 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Verso (original use): Legal deed in Arabic script. (Abū l-)Faḍāʾil b. Khalaf al-Yahūdī al-Ḥarīrī, the tax farmer of the silk, has to receive 474 dirhams from Khalaf, a sum composed of the price of a certain kind of silk worth 425 dirhams, plus other dues from Khalaf, to be paid on 10 Dhū l-Ḥijja 544 AH, which is 10 April 1150 CE.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• damin
• dimme
• silk

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Most of the document consists of an account of expenditures including for al-Paqid; bread; clothing; four days of food for a man from Tripoli (al-Ṭarābulusī) who spent shabbat in Cairo. […] It's not clear if verso is a separate entry or part of the main document; mentions Daniʾel; Bū l-Faḍl; a Mallorcan (Māyurqī), Umm Hilāl, and another name.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

Tags

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Regarding dowry arrangements after the renewal of a lost ketubba. The ketubba of Abu l-Fadl Ṣadoq b. Ḥalfon b. Moshe and his wife […] bt. […] Yehuda ha-Levi was lost when the Franks (‘May God ruin them’) captured Tripoli (Lebanon, in 1109 CE) and Abū l-Faḍl and his wife were taken prisoner. On verso there is Genesis 1:1-3.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

Tags

• 12th c
• dowry
• halfon b. menashshe
• ketubba
• testimony

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

15 Tammuz 1428 Seleucid (17 June 1117 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yakhin ha-Kohen known as Ibn al-Tawwān (son of the tuna vendor), who is suspected to be illicitly living with his divorcee Sitt al-Ḥusn bt. Saʿadya known as Bint al-Ḥadaba ("daughter of the hump(?)" or more likely "the hunchback"). Avraham was then forced to draw up a second divorce deed for his wife, which he did, and gave it to Abū l-Faḍl Yakhin Rosh ha-Qehillot as his agent, who in turn gave it to al-Ḥazzān al-Raḥbī (the cantor from Raḥba, later identified as Netanʾel b.

Related People

2

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Piyyut, very faded.

No Scholarship Records

Piyyut, very faded.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Hebrew

Calendar? Very faded.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Literary text, faded.

Tags

• dimme

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Literary text, faded.

Tags

• dimme

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Letter. Damaged and faded.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Faded accounts, probably.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Possibly accounts. Faded.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The addressee is asked to go to Mukhtār and frighten him over the 2.75 dinars, since the sender has had to pay this sum to Ibn al-Tāhartī. He mentions appointing an agent and the name Ibn Ṭalyūn and "to collect it from him, a little bit every week." Greetings to many people: the addressee's son Abū l-Faḍl; Ḥasan and his children; Ṣadaqa and his children; Abū Naṣr; Abū [...]; Sulaymān; Samīḥ; Mūsā.

Tags

• unedited 11th c

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The case involves a geṭ, but this document is not itself the geṭ. Names mentioned: Faḍlallāh; [...] bt. ʿAmram; Abū ʿAlī b. Dāʾūd; ʿImmanuʾel b.

1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

דינאר); how if it weren't for God's mercy all would have been lost (ולולא רחמי שמים הלכו); and sins and desecration of the sabbath (רכילות(?) […] The responsum itself is too faded to make sense of. Includes a reference to excommunication (ומן לא יכון אהל להא יחרם).

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Ayyūb, Abū l-Ḥasan, Abū l-Faḍl, Abū l-Surūr, Abū Zikrī Ibn al-Ḥijāziyya, Abū l-Ḥasan b.

Related People

4

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Hebrew

They rejoiced to learn that God saved Yosef from some danger that is too faded to read. The substance of the letter is that someone was supposed to send someone money, but no money has arrived. When Yosef's letter arrived, the sender of this letter went and spoke with the mother of אבולפד (=Abū l-Pad? Abū l-Faḍ[l?]) who said that she would write to him about the matter. […] His beneficence is lauded, and presumably he is asked about the money in one of the portions faded beyond legibility. ASE

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Headed, "the wheat named for the poor." Names include: al-Kohen [...] and his brother [...]: 1 irdabb; al-Shaykh al-Saʿīd al-Kohen [...]; 1 irdabb; Abū l-Barakāt: 3 waybas; [...] b. […] On verso: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Kohen b. Maṣliaḥ; Abū Isḥāq Ibn al-Zablūṭ(?). […] Naḥrīr: 2 waybas; al-Shaykh al-Saʿīd: 1 irdabb; al-Mawlāy(!) al-[...]: 2 waybas.

No Scholarship Records

Extremely faded, perhaps a letter.

No Scholarship Records