Documents

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

One, in Judaeo-Arabic, refers to "al-amwāl al-dīwāniyya bi-l-diyār [al-miṣriyya, probably]." Another refers to an "ʿāmil al-[..]ār al-sulṭānī bi-l-diyār al-miṣriyya." Needs further examination.

Related Places

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Greek/Coptic Numerals

Refers to the nākhūdha ʿAlī (recto left side, l. 3), suggesting a connection to the ~12th-century India trade. Other names include Qāsim al-[...]; ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Marjūsī(?); ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq; [...] b. ʿUṣfūr; and Salmūn al-Yahūdī. There is a recurring phrase that appears underneath the names in the individual entries that looks like ىىل هىه وسيف(؟؟) محلد.

Tags

• ib-addenda

No Scholarship Records

Document date

30 August 1842 CE

Primary language

German

Letters of recommendation, probably. For Barukh Löb (here also called Barukh Lion). Written in Mainz. Presumably the language is German. […] There is a second fragment here, also written in Latin script, which appears to be dated 1845 CE. See also AIU VII.E.239 and AIU VII.E.243, which are letters that Barukh Löb picked up in Livorno and Torino in 1852 CE and in Zagreb.

Related Places

1

Tags

• 19th c
• barukh lob
• german
• latin script

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yakhin appoints [Yaʿ]aqov(?) b. Yiṣḥaq(?) al-Sijilmāsī as his agent to collect aloe from another merchant, probably Abū ʿUmar b. [...] ha-Levi Ibn al-Baghdādī. Ṣāfī b. Yakhin also appears posthumously in L-G Misc. 48. (Information in part from Goitein notes linked below.) Join: Alan Elbaum and Oded Zinger. AA. ASE.

Related People

1

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe
• ib7
• india book

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

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.

Related Places

1

Tags

• to edit

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary languages

Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic

Regarding shares in a house which was given as inheritance. The parties are Sitt al-Nās bt. Abū l-Afrāḥ, Yeshuʿa b. Yaʿaqov, and Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllān aka ʿElī al-Urjuwānī. Possibly related to the estate of ʿArūs b. Yosef al-Urjuwānī, who is the only Abū l-Afrāḥ in Geniza documents; this Sitt al-Nās is presumably his daughter, and Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllān is presumably his nephew ʿAllān b.

Related People

3

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe

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

Document date

2 Shaʿbān 537 Hijrī (20 February 1143 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

It reports that out of the ten newly constructed ships (al-mustajadd inshāʾuhā) in the arsenal (ṣināʿa) of Damietta, a cargo ship (ḥammāla) has been entrusted to the command of a certain man, who voluntarily completed its outfitting (tabarraʿa fī takmīl ʿudadihā wa-ālātihā). This man acknowledges before witnesses on the specified date (possibly 2 Shaʿbān 537 H or 567, though the decade digit is mostly effaced), and under the supervision of the state official al-Shaykh al-Khaṭīr(?) Thiqat al-Khilāfa Jalāl al-Mulk [...] Ṣafiyy Amir al-Muʾminīn Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Salīm, that he has received the ship with all of its equipment.

Related Places

1

Tags

• ship
• shipbuilding
• sina'a

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

It concerns Ibn Muḥsin b. Shaddād al-Yahūdī and probably the collection of fiscal dues in a district (nāḥiya). The writer refers to previous correspondence and to instructions apparently authorizing or confirming Ibn Muḥsin’s collection of a payment connected with assessed obligations (al-muwāẓif). The text also mentions the amir al-Muwaffaq, with the laqab Shams/Nasīm al-Dawla(?) […] The fragment ends with the formula “Ḥasbī Allāh waḥdahu wa-bihi astaʿīn.” Reused on recto for Hebrew piyyuṭ.

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

The muqirr is [...] b. Saʿd al-Dawla Abū Manṣūr. Also mentions the name ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.

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 languages

Arabic, Hebrew

Verso: opening lines of an Hebrew letter addressed to a dignitary written in a different hand from recto. There is also one line of Arabic script: . . . . mawlānā ṣalawāt allāhʿalayhi. . . .

Related Documents

1

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

Arabic

State document, probably a petition or official correspondence. First line - "al-Ṣāliḥī al-khidma li l-majlis". The second line has the word "al-Mamlūk kataba" written in an oversized script and a few words after it. The third line probably has titulature for the addressed official "al-Ajall al-Mawlawī". Might be a draft. Needs examination.

Tags

• dimme

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

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Among many other items mentions al-bayt al-ṣaghīr, Dār al-Azraq, the house of the Baʾalbakī, al-Ḥaver, a ruqʿa from Nissim for 8 dinars; a carpenter. Torn and reused on recto for a legal formulary for the reversal of a ban of excommunication (taḥlīl al-ḥerem).

No Scholarship Records

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

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

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Lists numerous people and interesting titles, including Saʿd al-Dīn Nā'ib al-Bardār; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Muʿāmil; Aḥmad al-Rasūl; a ḥaqqān (enema-giver); a ḥāshir; a duwaydār; a jabbān; a Sambari or Samkari; a nushādirī; etc.

Tags

• duwaydar

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Greek/Coptic Numerals

Recto: 1) Draft of the opening of a letter to a dignitary (al-majlis al-sāmī al-ajallī al-jamālī) 2) Accounts (table of names with numbers).

No Scholarship Records