Documents

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Individuals include Hassan b. Kushik, Sa‘id al-‘Aqrabani, a lacemaker (al-‘aqqada) and a pastry chef (qaṭāʾifī). There are also two Karaites: Abū l-ʿAlāʾ and Ibrahīm al-Ghazzī b.

Tags

• charity
• communal
• poverty
• recipients

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions trading merchandise in different lands including Yemen ("[al-bul]dān min diyār [...] wa-diyār al-Yaman wa-ghayrhā"); Yiṣḥaq b. Makhlūf al-Nafūsī; [...] b. Yosef al-Nafūsī; Fahd b. [...]. Also mentions the term "muḍāribīn" (אלמצארבין) with unclear significance.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe
• ib-addenda
• qiyyum
• shimmush

No Scholarship Records

Letter from Yehuda b. Sahl, probably in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat, ca. 1050. Mentions the sale of a house that may have belonged to Nahray. Also mentions flax and the copper trade. Yehuda b. […] sends him regards for the holidays and prays all the time for his health. She was sick (tawajjaʿat), then Yehuda became sick, then he got better, then he relapsed, and also their daughter was sick (r14–18).

Related People

2

Related Places

1

Tags

• flax
• house
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: household
• (+ 5 more)

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Azhar, who owes him money. Also concerning various commercial issues. Yeshuʿa opens with an allusion to his many illnesses this winter, but reports that he is now doing well (r3–5). There are also many lines of Arabic script (apart from the address), some superimposed on the Judaeo-Arabic text. There are also some brief accounts in Judaeo-Arabic in a different hand than the letter.

Related People

2

Related Places

2

Tags

• arabic script
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517

3 Transcriptions 2 Translations 1 Discussion

Document date

Ramaḍān 387/Jumādā I 389/3 Rabīʿ I 393 Hijrī (7 September 997–20 January 1003 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Account book in Arabic script, dating to the period of al-Ḥākim. Dates range from Ramaḍān 387 to Jumādā I 393 = 997–1003 CE. […] The commodities frequently mentioned (often in large quantities) are coral and flax. Another entry is for aloe. Mentions the Red Sea (al-Qulzum) several times; various ships; and names such as al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad; Mūsā b. Mālik; al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā b.

Tags

• to edit

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Moshe ibn Sighmār, in Alexandria, to ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā (aka Ḥayyim) the parnas, in Fustat. […] See also the power of attorney dated 1085 CE, Bodl. MS heb. c 28/11, published in both publications. See also Goitein's note card #27115. ASE.

Related Places

3

Tags

• ambergris
• brazilwood
• byzantine merchants
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• (+ 1 more)

3 Transcriptions 2 Translations 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

The author of the letter, who appears to work for this merchant, mentions his visit to Ṭanṭa in Egypt, where he offered prayers at the shrine of a local Ṣūfī saint Aḥmad al-Badawī (d.1276). He also mentions the stagnant market conditions (al-bayʿ wa-l-shira waqf ḥāl) and states that only a Jewish merchant al-Ḥāj al-Ḥarīrī settled his dues of 41 maqṭaʿ in 91 days. He expresses his intention of traveling to the mediterranean sea and embarking on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Sayyīd Ibrāhim al-Desūqī (d. 1296) to observe his birth anniversary. Towards the end, he requests a letter from Muḥammad Effendī in the name of ʿUmar Aghā, the superintendent of the freights (al-Anwāl) of al-Maḥalla.

Related Places

1

Tags

• al-anwal
• dimme
• fatiha
• offerings
• pinholes
• (+ 2 more)

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

had he delivered it. "I left it alone and did not bother him for it further, for you know that this kind of person is no good for fulfilling errands, even though I know they can get heavy things through customs (yudkhilū al-ashyāʾ al-thaqīla al-mukūs) for nothing (? […] In the margin he mentions "that I have already given the girl (al-ṣabiyya) the name of [...]" and that he is very anxious for a letter (כארץ עיפה למים). Greetings to Abū ʿImrān and "the mother" and "all the children."

Tags

• customs

1 Discussion

Document date

Sunday, 18 Ḥeshvan 1318 Seleucid (13 October 1006 CE)

Primary language

Hebrew

In which a rich man, Maṣliaḥ b. al-Ḥasan known as Ibn al-Ḍabāb, gives his second wife and the mother of three of his children, Raḥel, 200 dinars if she does not marry again, but only 50 dinars if she does get married. […] Shemarya is also to look after his two sisters Jamīl and Qurrat al-ʿAyn. In the bottom preserved line of the document, mentions a man named Abū Maymūn Wahb b. Suqayr, who appears also in T-S 12.239 (PGPID 1636). (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 251, 283, 411, 481)

Related People

1

Tags

• will

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Seems to find a parallel (with some variants) in a letter of the famed Buwayhid-era calligrapher Ibn al- Bawwāb (d. 413/1022?) as contained in Yāḳūt al-Ḥamawī al-Rūmī’s (d. 626/1229) Muʻjam al-udabāʼ (ed. I. Abbas, 5: 2001). al-Rūmī’s source for this letter is the poet, calligrapher and scribe al-Ḥasan b. ‘Alīal-Juwaynī al-Kātib (“the Scribe”) (d. 586/1190) who settled in Egypt sometime during the early Ayyubid period.

Related Documents

1

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Petition in the hand of Makhlūf b. Mūsā, possibly in Alexandria, addressed to a judge, probably in Fustat. […] Frenkel identifies the sender's location as Alexandria but does not explain why; Goitein (on his index card) tentatively identified the addressee's location as Alexandria but likewise did not explain why. […] Makhlūf has also appointed Abū Zikrī (Kohen?) to help him in this, because the judge's representative has been unhelpful.

Related People

3

Tags

• 12th c
• communal
• petition

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Rough description of contents — this all should be confirmed: Recto, right side: the nine flax purchases were made from or through six named dealers: Futyān (three purchases); ʿAbd al-Azīz; al-Lādhiqī; Ridwān (two purchases); Muḥammad al-Miṣrī; and Yaʿīsh. […] Mufarrij, al-Qamarī, al-Muʿallim, Avraham b. Wahb, Asad, Yosef b. […] Also lists customs and fees, including government duty of 32¼ dinars.

Related People

1

Related Places

2

Tags

• flax
• nahray b. nissim
• silk
• sumac
• tiraz
• (+ 1 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

for a mortar for a woman; Aḥmad (then mentions a nizārī dinar); Ḥasan al-Simsār; Yosef; al-Ṣabiyy; Ḥusayn al-Naḥḥās; Yaḥyā; al-sabbāk; a ḥaddād. […] Mentions Yehuda b. Ismāʿīl al-Andalusī; Abū l-Faraj Ṣemaḥ; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Entries are circled/boxed. […] Many entries are introduced with the phrase "al-bāqī ʿinda X baʿda qaṭʿ al-ḥisāb." People mentioned: ʿAlī; al-ṣabiyy al-ṣaghīr; Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm; Maḥbūb; Aḥmad; ghulām al-ṭabīb; Ḥasan; Ismāʿīl; Mūsā; Ibn al-Ashqar; Ḥayyim; Abū l-Ḥasan; Ḥasan b.

Tags

• account
• fingerprints

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Concerning Abū l-Barakāt and a blind woman (al-mara al-kafīfa) and a sale. Also a woman named Ghāliya.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

48[..] Anno Mundi (1039–1139 CE)

Primary languages

Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic

Legal document. Location: Alexandria. Dated: 48[..] AM = 1039–1139 CE. Involves [...] b. Yaḥyā and ʿEli. Also mentions Fusṭāṭ. (Information in part from CUDL)

Related Places

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Bifolio with one page of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Also writing exercises in Arabic script (with some Judaeo-Arabic transliteration). Also Hebrew poetry.

Tags

• to examine

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Shela, probably in Alexandria, to Yosef ha-Kohen "the pride of the traders" (peʾer ha-soḥarim), in Fustat. Dating: mid-12th century; mentions Abū l-Fakhr Saʿadya Ibn al-Amshāṭī (d. 1172); Frenkel gives the date as 548 AH = 1153/54 CE but does not explain why ("Medieval Alexandria," al-Masāq (2014), p. 32). […] He then instructs the addressee “while in Fustat, do not disregard the advice of al-Shaykh Abū l-Fakhr Ibn al-Amshāṭī and his brother's son and his brother-in-law (reading צ{ה}רה) Ibn al-ʿAjamī" (See Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, p. 96 n. 31).

Related Places

3

Tags

• alexandria
• capitation tax
• customs
• indigo
• sicily
• (+ 1 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Appeal for charity by the scholar Mawhūb b. Ḥalfōn ha-Ḥaver Ibn al-Bunduqī (“the son of the Venetian”). The addressee's name is too damaged to read (Pinḥas?). The sender says he is from a distant land (al-balad al-baʿīd al-shāsiʿ). The letter itself is almost entirely conventional/formulaic.

Tags

• appeal

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Eliyyahu regarding the estate of the late physician (al-mutaṭabbib al-ḥakīm) Ibrāhim b. Mukhtār Ibn Ilyās. He bequeathes his property—including medical books (nusakh ṭibbiyya)—to the synagogue of Dammūh. Also mentions "al-rayyis Nuʿmān" and another physician with many titles Sulaymān/Shelomo.

Related Places

1

Tags

• dammuh
• estate

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions people such as: Ibn ʿAwkal, al-Ḥamrāwī, al-ʿArīf, al-Shāmī, Barakāt b. Saʿāda. Mentions places such as Alexandria and Rashīd. Probably a join with ENA 3740.6.

Tags

• list

1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Numerous names are mentioned along with their professions, such as al-khayyāṭ (tailor) and al-bazzāz (clothier) and ḍāmin (tax farmer / guarantor). Also mentions a maṭbakh (dyehouse). After many of these names, the garment "fūṭa" is mentioned.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Ordering payments to the usual people: Umm Nuṣayra the sister of Ḥayāʾ the wife of Yosef al-Nafūsī; [...] the wife of Hārūn the scribe; ʿAzīza "who is in the house"; someone else (Ḥanna?) who is also in the house; ʿAfīf the greengrocer (? al-bayyāʿ al-khuḍarī), and a couple others.

Related Documents

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter addressed to Abū Saʿīd Ibn al-ʿAfṣī ("the gallnut merchant") al-ʿAṭṭār, in Fustat. […] The writer calls him "my son." The writer also refers to "my house in Shubrā [=Shubrā Damsīs]." Mentions Khalaf in al-Maḥalla. Needs further examination.

Related People

1

Related Places

2

Tags

• arabic address

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

May mention an infant child (al-ṭufayl); also mentions "the road" (al-ṭarīq), possibly a rebuke (wa-mā kadhā), "the time of adversity" (waqt al-shidda), and a request to be informed of the arrival of something (tuʿarrifnī wuṣūl...).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Business letter from Avraham b. Farah in Alexandria to Yosef b. Moshe b. Barhun al-Tāhartī in Fustat. […] Avraham takes care of the storage house rented by Yosef in Alexandria. He asks Yosef to buy him ink and pens in Fustat.

Related People

3

Related Places

3

Tags

• al-tahirti
• ink
• material culture
• pearls
• silk
• (+ 1 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1045–1065 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣadaqa, in Alexandria, to Nahrāy b. Nissīm, Fuṣṭāṭ. August 4, 1045. ʿAyyāsh writes about the movement of ships from Mahdiyya and Sicily, trade with the Tustaris and Muslims. Also mentions Yosef b. Musa al-Taharti's intention to travel to Spain.

Related People

3

Related Places

5

Tags

• movement of ships

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Private account by Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī. Dating: ca. 1080. Concerning shipping goods from the Maghreb to Alexandria. Mentions different expenses in the ports and different goods: wool, scarlet material, perfumes, fabrics, and butter. Also mentions money exchange (with different types of dinars).

Related Places

2

Tags

• commodities
• trade

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Document date

3 Ramaḍān 654 Hijrī (24 September 1256 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Isḥāq b. Abū Saʿd b. Maḥāsin al-Yahūdī al-Kaʿkī receives from al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Maḥfūẓ b. Mubārak al-Ṭaḥḥān 254 dirhams and 50 [...]. Dated: 3 Ramaḍān 654 AH = 24 September 1256 CE.

1 Discussion

Document date

first decade of Av [1]549 Seleucid (14 July 1238–23 July 1238 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Announcing that the collector of the alms for the poor (Ibrāhīm al-Parnas al-Jābī) was empowered to make the necessary arrangements for the payment of a certain elder’s need (al-Shaykh al-ʿAfīf?).

Related Places

1

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

13 Kislev 1502 Seleucid (13 November 1190 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Record of the auction of the library of the late al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Abū Saʿd al-Ṭabīb. The proceeds are at least in part for the widow. […] This is is a large and tremendously learned library, mostly of medical books, but there are also scattered titles pertaining to bibliography, philosophy, logic, geomancy, and other matters.

Tags

• booklist
• medical

1 Discussion

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy. Around 1063. The writer informs the addressee about Nahray b. […] Seems like there is a crises in the Maghreb and therefore no ships are leaving from there, and in Alexandria the situation is not good as well. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #435) VMR

Related People

3

Related Places

3

Tags

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Document date

Sunday, 5th of Kislev Anno Mundi (17 November 1140 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Netanel, probably in Alexandria. Dating: November 17, 1140 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably written after Ḥalfon traveled to Alexandria to meet Yehuda ha-Levi. Yeḥezqel writes about the fear that gripped him when Ḥalfon left and boarded the boat, while ill and without any companion. […] It may be sent to Yeḥezqel in Qalyūb or to 'the Jew' (the tax farmer) in Shaṭnūf, which is the iqṭāʿ of Razīn al-Dawla. Yeḥezqel asks for news of Ḥalfon's arrival in Alexandria and asks him to convey an apology to Yehuda ha-Levi for not having written to him or come to Alexandria to greet him in person.

Related Places

3

Tags

• damin
• ib-partial translation-heb
• ib-untranslated-eng
• ib4
• illness
• (+ 7 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Same addressee as CUL Or.1080 J40 (also a Yaḥyā ha-Sar with some of the same titles: שר בית ישראל זקן התפארה הוד השררה). […] maʾūf) in-law with a woman (ll. 4–5). Mentions Ṣārim al-Dawla and something which the governor of the town said (...fa-qāla wālī al-balad...). Someone is under intimidation (...taḥta takhwīf...).The addressee is asked to obtain a document from al-Muʾayyad (or perhaps this is another al-maʾūf, "regarding the maʾuf")) addressed to Asad al-Dawla, the son of al-Muaʾayyad.

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

On verso there are a few words, also in Ḥalfon's hand: "10 years and 3 months...." (A previous description said that there is also a Zekharya ha-Levi mentioned in this document.) […] AA/ASE. Join: Alan Elbaum.

Related People

1

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe
• ib-addenda
• legal

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Goitein makes much of the addressee's matronymic and also reads the address as kanīsat al-muʿallima, "literally, "the synagogue of the woman teacher" (since school often was held in the synagogue compound, the school itself came to be called synagogue)." But it is also possible that the letter is addressed to the neighborhood of the Hanging Church (Kanīsat al-Muʿallaqa) and that the addressee is Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallim, that is, the son of the male teacher. […] Otherwise, the letter is almost entirely taken up with expressions of preoccupation and urgings to write.

Tags

• ascalon
• book trade
• captives
• crusade
• illness
• (+ 3 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Allush ('Lamb') b. Makhlūf al-Nafusi to M[ahr]uz ben Yaʿaqov. […] MS heb. b 11/21]. The letter also mentions Abu Said Makhlūf and Ibn Elisha, travel to the Maghrib and Aden, and shipments of pepper. On verso, the writer asks the addressee to intervene in a matter concerning his brother, the well-attested India trader Yiṣḥaq ben Makhlūf al-Nafusi. Mentioned also are the elder Madmun, Ibn al-Dimyati, and Abu Said.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

Tags

• ib-addenda
• ib2
• pepper
• trade

1 Transcription

Primary language

Arabic

Letter from Ibrāhīm b. Hillel, Alexandria, to ʿArūs b. Yūsuf on the conclusion of the latter’s second or third voyage to the south. […] ʿAzrūn of Alexandria had sent from a previous journey so that his family could benefit from the proceeds (Khalaf b. […] Hillel is planning to depart from Alexandria westward selling some of what ʿArūs b. Yūsuf has acquired in the south.

Related People

3

Tags

• aodeh
• hinge
• ib6
• india book

2 Transcriptions

Primary languages

Arabic, Hebrew

A Fatimid state official by the title ʿAmīd al-Dawla appears in at least seven documents (see: T-S AS 145.353, BL OR 5561A.2, ENA NS 48.20, CUL Or.1080 J156, T-S 10J21.10, and T-S 10J23.2). One was active during the reign of al-Ẓāhir and toward the beginning of the reign of al-Mustanṣir and was a close associate of the wazīr al-Yāzūrī (al-Maqrīzī, ʾIttiʿāẓ II, 161, 243). He also appears on a state document dated to 1024–27 CE along with Tāj al-Dawla (see BL OR 5561A.2 and cf.

Tags

• dimme
• iqta'
• petition

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Inferred date

1024–1134 CE

Primary language

Arabic

Petition from Ṣāliḥ al-Khaybārī, a Jew from the community of Baghdad, to the Fatimid amīr Tāj al-Dawla. […] There are two amīrs by the title Tāj al-Dawla attested in chronicles: Tāj al-Dawla b. Abū l-Ḥusain, the governor of Sicily in the period of al-Ẓāhir, active in 415/1024; and Bahrān the Armenian, governor of al-Gharbiyya province under al-Ḥāfiẓ, active in 529/1134 (al-Maqrīzī, Ittiʿāẓ, II, 161 and III, 159).

Related Places

1

Tags

• khaybari
• petition
• prison

1 Transcription 1 Translation