Documents

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Legal document written and signed by Yehuda b. Ṭuviyyahu (muqaddam of Bilbays, active ca. 1170s–1220). Regarding the welfare of orphans and mentioning Cairo. Also signed by Ṭāhir b. David, and ʿAmram b.

Related Places

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Verso: End of a Judaeo-Arabic note or letter, mentioning the elder Abū l-Faḍāʾil. (Information in part from CUDL)

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. A relatively large piece is preserved. […] The addressee is asked to meet with "the aforementioned." There are references to both the Nagid and the Gaon, who appear to be different-but-connected people.

1 Transcription

Document date

1475 Seleucid (31 August 1163–18 September 1164 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Dated 1475 of the Seleucid Era (= 1163/64 CE). Also mentions Ibn al-Malījiyya. Signed by Shemuʾel b. Saʿadya ha-Levi.

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1

Related Documents

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No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Goitein dates it to 1179 or 1183 CE (Med Soc I, 381–82). This sheet was then reused for piyyutim. […] The hand is that of Yedutun ha-Levi, and these fragments also contain poems of his alongside the accounts.

Related People

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Related Documents

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Tags

• yedutun ha-levi

1 Discussion

The bridegroom, styled "the elder, the scholar Abu al-Baha" (written in larger letters, different from the rest), pledged (Ar. asma) 1/2 dirham, and so did the others. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 495, App. C 65)

Tags

• charity
• communal
• donors
• poverty

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Document date

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

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Recto: Several drafts of legal documents. Item #1: Legal document regarding a business partnership (but not the original partnership agreement). […] 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

Document date

Tuesday, 7 Adar 1505 Seleucid (30 January 1194 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Recto: Legal deed. Location: Qalyūb. Dated: Tuesday, 7 Adar 1505 Seleucid, which is 1194 CE, under the authority of the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Moshe later cut it very neatly down the middle, yielding ENA 2558.18 and T-S 13J7.12, and wrote a family letter on the verso of each half. […] (See also Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS (1968), 13; Jacob Mann, Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs, 2:294.

Related Places

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Related Documents

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Tags

• moshe b. levi
• partnership
• qalyub

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter, probably written by Elazar ha-Kohen b. Shelomo, who worked for(?) […] Possibly sent to ‘the leader’ Abū l-Mufaḍḍal. Mentions people including Gershom ha-Kohen, al-Ḥaver Ibn Shemaʿya, Yosef, Shelomo, Ibn al-Dabbāgh (son of the tanner) and Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif, and the death of a leader (Rayyis) and a honourable lady (אלגבירה). […] Some of the same phrases appear in T-S NS 226.185 + T-S NS 226.162 (PGPID 24309), another letter by Elʿazar b. Shelomo ha-Kohen.

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1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Last page of a letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria, to a public figure, in Fustat. […] The letter contains information on ships that frequented the port of Alexandria. […] The letter reports the great distress in which the Jews of Alexandria found themselves.

Related Places

3

Tags

• debt
• markab al-sultan
• material culture
• petition
• state
• (+ 1 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter sent to Sitt al-Ghazal, wife of the judge Eliyyahu b. […] , Abu Zikri, asking her to put up a newly acquired friend, Abu l-Faraj Hibatallah, and his wife. Information from Mediteranean Society, V, pp. 36, 515. Mentioned in Rustow, "Formal and Informal Patronage," Al-Qantara (2008), p. 363. […] And he opens, "God give you joy with the precious boy, the master, the brother" (line 5), consistent with a letter to a sister-in-law. ASE.]

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1

Tags

• personal

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Muslim legal query with responsum (fatwā). The query concerns a young Jewish man who insulted a venerable Jewish rabbi (...ḥākhān ʿālim al-yahūdī...) by calling him "apostate (kāfir), cursed (malʿūn), swine (khinzīr), blackguard (zarbūn)" in the presence of Muslim witnesses. […] On the insult zarbūn (at least in modern times), see Susan Slyomovics, The Merchant of Art: An Egyptian Hilali Oral Epic Poet in Performance (Berkeley, 1987), in which her informants define the term as meaning "deep black, ill-mannered, and without family and lineage."

Tags

• fatwa
• insult

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Recto (secondary use): An inventory of legal deeds in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the heirs of Barakāt; a woman and Baqāʾ the orphan girl of Bunyām al-Malījī; the widow of Abū l-Surūr the brother of al-[...]; the orphan girl of Abū l-Maʿā[...]; a relative of Ibn al-Shelishi, the wife of Abū [...]; the ketubba of Malīḥa bt. […] ālī Ibn al-Dihqān the wife of [...]; a deed in which someone gives a gift to his wife and daughters; the will of Yaʿqūb; a governmental rescript (tawqīʿ) perhaps regarding the Jews' right to administrate their own inheritance laws (תוקיע בחמל אליהוד עלי מוא[ר]יתהם); a fatwā from [...]; something involving al-Dhabbāḥ and 14 dinars; a deed for "my paternal aunt" against her husband Abū M[...]; one involving Ibn Khaṣīb and Maʿālī Ibn Asad (this may be the prominent merchant Shemuel b. Yehuda active in the mid-12th century, cf. […] T-S 10J7.6 (PGPID 7856)). On verso there is a legal document in Arabic script (see separate record).

Related Documents

1

Tags

• list of deeds

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Alexandria, to Abū Bishr Azhar b. Manṣūr (aka Avraham), in Fustat, ca. 1075. Mentions a shipment of silk to Fustat that got wet. […] But if the addressee thinks it is absolutely necessary, he will bear the 'fasting and difficulty' and make the trip. Meanwhile, a rumor spread in Fustat about Yehuda b.

Related Places

2

Tags

• badr al-jamali
• communal
• excommunication
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• (+ 8 more)

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from a scholar from Ramla (who had lived for twenty years in Baghdad) to Nahray b. […] Nahray was blind at that time and needed someone to read him the letter. Mentions the book by the Gaon Aharon b. Yosef (Khalaf b. […] Between his request for funds due to him and his discussion of an ongoing divorce, he interposes the line, “for I am a lump of flesh waiting to die,” continuing later that “I am in need of mercy, my strength is fading” — a common rhetorical strategy for gaining the sympathy of one's correspondent.

Related People

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Related Places

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Tags

• 11th c
• disability
• disability: vision
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• (+ 5 more)

3 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

15 Tammuz 1428 Seleucid (17 June 1117 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Mentions Sunday, 15 Tammuz 1428 Seleucid = 17 June 1117 CE. […] Shelomo al-Neʾeman al-Qudsī and Yosef b. Yefet ha-Levi. One of the witnesses of the document is Yiṣḥaq b.

Related People

2

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from an India trader, probably in Yemen. In Judaeo-Arabic. […] The addressees should send their letters to Mufliḥ b. Sūdān. Mentions Khalaf the son of the Kohen, Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī, 'the parnas,' and Abū l-Surūr al-Kohen Ibn al-Dawānīqī. He has been unable to collect a debt from Fahd, for in this town there is no one to oblige anyone to pay their debts aside from one’s own ‘gentlemanly character’ (muruwwa). Mentions having sent something to Nahrawara (Gujarat) (v9).

Related People

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Related Places

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Tags

• ib7
• india book
• karim

2 Transcriptions

Document date

23 [Elul] 1412 Seleucid (17 August 1101 CE)

India Book I,21. Legal document. Dated: 23 [Elul] 1412 Sel. The death of Shelomo Lebdi was not only a serious personal blow to his brother, Yosef Lebdi, but it also meant that Yosef could lose half of his property to his nephew, David b. […] While I, 20 (PGPID 5353) shows a testimony forward by David, this document shows a testimony in the court of Fustat brought forward by Yosef Lebdi. Sedaqa b. David testifies regarding a rather large shipment (worth about 400 dinars) that Yosef deposited in his hands to be delivered in Tripoli (Libya) in the Maghreb to Shelomo Lebdi or his son David. […] The month is missing, but Goitein and Friedman narrow it down based on the timeline of Lebdi's travels. They convert the date to August 17, 1101 in the Hebrew edition and August 19, 1101 in the English edition.

Related Places

2

Tags

• deposit
• ib-untranslated-eng
• ib1
• india book

2 Transcriptions 2 Discussions

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Yosef b. Moshe ha-Levi the Jerusalemite to Yefet ha-Neʾeman b. […] The Nasi in Cairo honored him by letting him lead the congregation in prayer—"may God answer my prayers in my illness (ḍuʿfī) for the whole congregation, small and great." […] Please forgive me for not being able to name everyone." (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

Related Places

3

Tags

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: du'f
• illness: prayer
• illness: waja'
• (+ 1 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

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-Faḍāʾil al-Kohen; Bū Manṣur al-Ṣāʾigh. […] (Information in part from Gil, Documents, p. 409f, doc. #111, and Goitein, Mediterranean Society II, p. 428, App. A, sec. 138.)

Related People

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Related Documents

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Tags

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

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

10 Ḥeshvan 1531 Seleucid (21 October 1219 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Alexandria from the 21st of October 1219, a short time before the crusaders' assault on Damietta. […] See additional information in Goitein, Med. Soc. 1:98-99 and the detailed discussion in V:55-56. […] Of all concerns, bad health is most apt to move hardhearted relatives" (Med Soc V:56). See also T-S 8J20.26.

Related Places

2

Tags

• alexandria
• crusade
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: skin
• (+ 2 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter probably sent from a man in Alexandria to his brother in Aden. […] He confirms receipt of the letter in which the addressee said that he has repaid Manṣūr b. […] As the sender was completing the letter, (Abū Naṣr?) b. Elishaʿ arrived from Sicily.

Related People

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Related Places

4

Tags

• hemorrhoids
• ib6
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• india book
• (+ 1 more)

2 Transcriptions

Primary language

Hebrew

Two poems.

Tags

• poem

1 Transcription

Dirge on the death of a scholar which also appears in another document (Or 5557 P. f. 56) believed to have been written on the …

Tags

• dirge
• poem

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Damaged letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed 'to our Nagid' (Gotein suggests Mevorakh b.

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

In which four people — the writer, Bū Surūr Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh, Faḍāʾil al-Ḥazzān, and Maʿālī Ibn al-Irbilī — testify that Sitt Riyāḍ the wailing woman (al-nāʾiḥa), who owns seven qirats of a compound, donates a third of her part to the Qaraites and a little less than that (7.5 qirats) to the Rabbanites. This is recorded on the left part of a leaf detached from a notebook, apparently belonging to an ʿadl, a "righteous witness," or notary. […] (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 294 #63.) See also Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix A, #164. Verso: Further accounts of the bookseller, for Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh and Ibn Sibāʿ

Related Documents

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Tags

• 12th c
• qaraite
• rabbanite
• testimony

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Hebrew

Printed copy of a letter that purports to be from the tribes of Gad and Reuben, in the Holy Land, to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. […] The letter reports that the tribes of Gad and Reuben are living in security and prosperity, successful in all their wars and living in perfect piety. […] Dating: Mann suggests that the reference to the Jews in Spain means that it comes from before the expulsion in 1492.

Tags

• incunabula
• india
• lost tribes
• messianism
• printed

1 Transcription 2 Discussions

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Mūsa b. Yaʿqūb, in Damascus, to Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Yūsuf b. […] Mūsa requests in the letter sixty golden boxes, to be packed with leather bottles, and sent to him immediately in a warship; along with a container of flax oil and information about the price of borage ("oxtongue"). (S. D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, 89–91.) EMS

Related Places

2

Tags

• flax
• suftaja

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 2 Discussions