Documents

Document date

28 Elul 5324 Anno Mundi (5 September 1564 CE)

Primary languages

Hebrew, Ladino

Abraham is in Egypt/Cairo and wants her to come to meet him with the first ship to Alexandria. (Information from CUDL.) He begins by informing her that he is in Misrayim, i. e. […] On the journey she is to take a companion if she so wishes: "no receles de tomar algun hombre nekhbad o mujer . . . lo ke avreis menester tomares y abasares en Alexandria ke luego abasara vuestra hermana."

Related Places

2

Tags

• 16th c
• ladino

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The query concerns complicated cases in the laws of levirate marriage: a woman who heard by rumor that her husband had been killed, who had refused to enter into levirate marriage, and who then died, and the uncertainties surrounding the inheritance of her ketubba money, part of which she had already collected (fifty dinars), with the yavam demanding that her heirs return it to him. Also discussed is the neʾemanut ("trustworthiness") clause in her ketubba, which exempts her from an oath when collecting the ketubba, and its relation to talmudic sources, including the force of the waiver formulas מחול לך and אתן לך. […] Friedman and Ashur (India Book IVa, 91–94) consider various possibilities for the identity of the addressee and conclude by suggesting the following course of events: - a dispute arose between the scholars in Aden or Yemen regarding issues of levirate marriage - Ḥalfon's lengthy stay in ʿAydhāb allowed him to send a legal query to Fustat to receive a response - the authority addressed in the query may be "the Rav" Rabbi Elʿazar Ibn al-Qaṣabī - Ḥalfon then returned the responsum to Khalaf in Aden and received a letter of gratitude This document was not part of Goitein's original list, but was identified as a Ḥalfon document by M.

Related People

1

Tags

• ib4
• india book

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yedutun complains about how everyone repays him with ingratitude, and he seems to refer to his activities as a physician (although Goitein read יטבהם in line 9 as יכצהם). Yedutun had to swear to Abū Zikrī that he must have been mistaken about seeing Moshe in Cairo and that Moshe doesn't know Ben Shaʿya either. […] , so Moshe should watch out. Moshe should also pass on Yedutun's prescription to Yaḥyā al-Khuḍarī, because Yedutun owes him a favor.

Related Places

1

Tags

• apricots
• gratitude
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: physician
• (+ 5 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Alphabetized list of contributors and their payments toward the communal kosher meat tax (gabela) in the month of Elul (Raḥamīm). […] It may be possible to ascertain a clearer dating estimate through comparison of the names of those referenced (several appear also in JRL L 29 (PGPID 40135) dated 1822 CE). […] , Nissīm Ṭawīl, Nissīm Zābī, Naḥmu al-Shaykh, Siman Tov Ḥakīm and his wife, Saʿad Semana, Saʿad Abūalʿafīya, Saʿad Angel, Saʿad ʿAfleq[?]

Tags

• 19th c
• gabela
• kashrut
• late prosopography

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Ṭevet 1435 Seleucid (21 December 1123–18 January 1124 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Menashshe ha-Levi Rosh ha-Qahal known as al-Jubaylī; Natan/Hiba ha-Levi; and Abū l-Riḍā. […] dinars which are owed to him by Natan; the debt contract is dated the first decade of Dhū l-Qiʿda 517 AH, corresponding to Ṭevet 1435 Seleucid; its witnesses are Ibn al-Fāʾiqī and Ibn al-Amadī. Abū l-Faraj relinquishes his right to sue Natan for the total unless the government appropriates (yaʿtariḍ) from Abū l-Faraj anything pertaining to the estate of Sar Shalom, specifically the money that he (Abū l-Faraj?) […] The witness signatures are not preserved on these fragments, though the top of one signature might be barely visible on T-S 8.153. Joins: Alan Elbaum. The lower fragment under the shelfmark AIU VII.A.22 (PGPID 38245) is from the same legal case; may be a copy of the same document.

Related People

1

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The writer reports that Abū Isḥāq the cantor recently arrived and told him that the addressee is seriously ill (fī ḥālin ṣaʿb min al-wajaʿ). In place of expressing sympathy, the writer begins a tirade about how the addressee has mistreated him (and/or his family members?) […] I swear to God that I will not write you again, wish you peace, or ask after you, neither you nor those in your family, neither with language nor tongue (i.e., not at all). And [I will remain?] in this world without uncle, without father, and without brother." He concludes with two somewhat self-righteous biblical quotations: 'Abraham was one among the nations [and he inherited the land]' (Ezekiel 33:24, slightly misquoted), and 'may God repay every man according to his deeds, according to the fruit of his doings' (Jeremiah 17:10, slightly misquoted). The writer might also quote 1 Samuel 24:15 ('The Lord therefore be judge') earlier in the letter (r11–12), but a lacuna makes it difficult to be certain.

Tags

• breakup
• ghuzz
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: letter norms
• (+ 4 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

1241 Seleucid (7 September 929–27 August 930 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The text is part of a longer calendrical work; the passage preserved on this fragment sets out to correct the Christian calendar dates of Lent and Easter for 1241–44 Sel. (929–933 CE). The 19-year Alexandrian Easter cycle, instituted in the 4th century, synchronizes the lunar months with the Coptic solar years; but the discrepancies from astronomical reality became progressively more pronounced over the centuries (hence the Gregorian reform in the 16th c). […] Such Jewish texts are attested in the Latin West from the twelfth century onward, and somewhat more common from the 14th-15th c on, but this is early even for the Islamicate Jewish material. It may also be the earliest known attestation of the Seleucid era that can be firmly traced to Egypt.

Tags

• calendar
• coptic calendar
• copts

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Arabic, Greek/Coptic Numerals

Small receipt. For Ḥamīd Ibn al-Ṭawīl.

Tags

• arabic

No Scholarship Records

Alphabetical practice exercises in square Hebrew script.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

receipt for a goldsmith (al-ṣāʾigh).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Fiscal document with several ʿalāʾim. Needs examination.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Private accounts. Mentions "yawm al-aḥad".

Tags

• dimme

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Prayer in Judaeo-Arabic with philosophical allusions. ASE.

No Scholarship Records

Genealogy list. "The house of Makīn al-Nabbādh."

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Tax receipt for Ṣadaqa b. al-Ḥasan.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Order, probably. For 3 ounces of almond oil.

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Greek/Coptic Numerals

Small fragment of accounts. Mentions "al-bāqī."

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Probably the beginning of a letter in Arabic (salām allāh . . . )

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Greek/Coptic Numerals

Small fragment of accounts. Almost entirely numerals.

No Scholarship Records

Hebrew alphabet with chinoiserie designs printed on verso.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Unidentified language and script

Magical fragment, perhaps. Unidentified alphabet or cipher.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• cipher
• magic

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Jottings in Arabic script, including "... al-mawlawī..."

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Bi-alphabetic Letter, in Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic.

Tags

• bialphabetic

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Arabic text on astrology (ṣifat burūj al-[...]).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Persian

This poem is a masnavi that has been attributed to ʿUbayd Allāhal-Zākānī (d. 1370). It tells of a stonecutter on Mount Sinai who loves God so much that he weeps from lovesickness and invites Him down to earth and promises him a beautiful stone cottage and all sorts of mountain delights (e.g., the choicest sheep-tail).

Tags

• judaeo-persian literary

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Abū l-Bahāʾ received the money that was owed to him by Khalaf the cantor: 485.75 dirhams. Someone is in Sūq al-Ghazal (the Yarn Market) in a silk shop. "And these are the dirhams... in his ledger (daftar) in my handwriting." Somone also received 7.5 dirhams' worth of silk. Signed: Yaʿaqov b.

Related Places

1

No Scholarship Records

Document date

1 Kislev 5415 Anno Mundi (11 November 1654 CE)

The calligraphic text in square Hebrew characters is interspersed with numerous signatures in different Sephardi scribal hands, some of which are also in the first person (אני הצעיר): Yaʿaqov Melamed, Yiṣḥaq ʿAʿtal[?][…] Perhaps Shemuel Ashkenazi was a shaliaḥ traveling through the Middle East seeking aid on behalf of the Voroshilovka community and, over the course of his travels, allowed people to sign this greeting text. Hundreds of Jewish communities in what is now modern-day Ukraine were impacted by the Chmielnicki Pogroms of 1648-49, shortly before the date listed on the document (1 Kislev 5415 AM // 1654/55 CE.

Related Places

1

Tags

• 17th c
• ukraine

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1168–1204 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Maimonides responds that her claim should not be believed without witnesses, that anyone who has been slandered can excommunicate his slanderer by name, but may not obtain a blanket excommunication against all who accuse him. However, still better in this case is to put an end to the gossip and avoid any kind of public discussion or excommunication. The handwriting of the questioner closely resembles that of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (see also ENA 2808.16 in which Moshe b. Levi asks the recipient to obtain an answer to a fatwa that he had previously sent to Fustat).

Related People

2

Tags

• accusation
• maimonides
• maimonides autograph
• metoo
• moshe b. levi
• (+ 3 more)

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Shemuʾel ha-Sefaradi, describes itself as a partnership document enacted between Abraham al-Mirjānī b. Moses and Mevorakh b. Eleazar, though details as to the partnership itself and the divison of profits and losses are missing from the preserved portion and much of the language is reminiscent of release documents. […] The clauses here concerning soundness of mind are common in release documents as well. They also appear in both power of attorney and partnership agreements.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

Tags

• partnership

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Document date

Tammuz 1315 Seleucid (22 June 1004–20 July 1004 CE)

Primary language

Hebrew

(Information mainly from CUDL.) Join: Alan Elbaum. See also RNL Yevr.-Arab II 223 (PGPID 38543), in which Nissi b.

Related Documents

1

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter to Abū l-Ḥusayn b. Abū l-Khayr al-ʿAkkāwī, Fustat, from his uncle (khāl) Ṣadoq b. […] Goitein, Nachlass material. This document is also mentioned, considering the perspective of the addressee's wife, in Ashur, Engagement and Betrothal Documents, p. 116, no. 121.

Related Places

3

Tags

• crusades
• personal
• prison
• tiberias
• torture

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

This fragment begins with a discussion of the death of a woman; the writer's father and mother have also died; the writer resents being rebuked for the lack of letters. […] If someone sends a piece of news and reports that someone (or the wife of someone, āl fulānī?) died, I am confounded, I don't know if I should mourn or not."

Tags

• epidemic
• epidemic: magefa
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

There is a folio number "12" on the lefthand side of recto. It is not clear if all four pages here are continuous (likely not, as the catchword at the bottom of the righthand side of recto does not match the first word of the next page). […] This is confirmed by comparison with T-S Ar.48.294, another bifolio from the same codex (with folio number "9") which gives his name in full (נגידנו שמריה בן חיי גבירינו דוד). The letter also acknowledges receipt of a letter from a certain Manṣūr b.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

2 Discussions

Primary language

Aramaic

Private letter almost entirely in Aramaic, with a few phrases in Hebrew. […] Dating: maybe 12th century, and almost certainly 11th–13th century. Opens with extensive blessings for the addressee (unclear if his name is preserved) and his children, including Yehuda (called "peraḥ ha-Torah") and a newborn who has just been circumcised. […] Additionally, he did not receive the letter informing him of the date of the circumcision until it was already the time of Shabbat candle lighting, and the prior morning there was no caravan he could take.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

"We heard from a group of the merchants arriving from Fustat/Egypt that there arrived a lot of the merchandise (? al-ḥaml) which comes from Yemen, and it must be sold 'whether by money or loss' (in shāʾa bi-l-naqd in shāʾa bi-l-faqd). […] ḍuribnā), I and Abū l-Barakāt, from distress and demands (al-ḍīqa wa-l-muṭālaba). We ultimately settled with the Maghribīs concerning the customs for the wheat which they must pay, 39 dinars [...]." […] "And we wrote the receipts (al-wuṣūlāt), but they were not content, and this is part of the distress and demands.

Tags

• dimme
• ib-addenda

1 Transcription

Document date

Middle third of Adar I 5453 Anno Mundi (17 February 1693–26 February 1693 CE)

Primary language

Hebrew

The description of the property mentions the collapse of various walls and the lack of a door/lock on the building (דלת ובריח אין לה). The document entry also discusses arrangements for future repairs, ground rent (arḍiyya), and for the property's succession among current/future descendants of the Castro family. The full name of the commercial house appears later in line 35 (1r) and line 16 (1v): Wikālat al-Mhāzqa/Mrāzqa (the exact spelling of the title requires further research).

Related Places

2

Related Documents

31

1 Transcription