Documents

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Sent to Fusṭāṭ, to the caravanserai of al-Maḥallī, to be given to Abū Isḥāq b. Yaʿaqov, who will forward it to Abu l-Majd. Written by Abū l-Munā who also sends greetings. The writer sends condolences on the death of a child (ṭufayyil), with the description of the pain that an elderly female relative went through after hearing the news. […] Greetings are sent to and from various family members and to the teacher Yiṣḥaq. Also mentions a Ḥaver and Ibn Daʾūd, and that the silk the writer had sent arrived at Maḥāsin’s.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• condolence
• grief
• haml

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

IB VI, 11. Letter from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, in Sindabūr (India), to his uncle and father-in-law ʿArūs b. […] He complains about his cousin Yosef (another nephew of ʿArūs), who "stays in Lakhba (near Aden) with the whores (Heb.), 'the company,' and a beardless youth, who ser[ves them drinks]." He also reports on previous sales in ports on the west coast of the Red Sea: Dahlak, Bāḍiʿ, and Suwākin. In the address on verso, ʿAllān calls himself ʿAllāl (as some other ʿAllāns did occasionally), a form of endearment, imitating the speech of small children.

Related People

2

Related Places

6

Tags

• ib6
• india book

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation 2 Discussions

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Last page of a letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria, to a public figure, in Fustat. Identification is based on handwriting and style. […] The letter contains information on ships that frequented the port of Alexandria. It mentions an attack of Bedouins on the passengers of the Sultan's ship in Tobruk (this note was added from Goitein) as well as general news and instructions of a commercial nature, dealing with spices, perfumes, books, pearls and gold. The letter reports the great distress in which the Jews of Alexandria found themselves. The leaders of the community, among them Abu Nasr himself, were under house arrest due to unpaid debts from previous years.

Related People

1

Related Places

3

Tags

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

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

Tuesday, 23 Adar II 1540 Seleucid (20 March 1229 CE)

Primary languages

Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic

Dated: Tuesday, 23 Adar II 1540 = 20 March 1229 CE. In which al-Shaykh al-Nafīs Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Ḥananya known as Ibn al-Dayyan leases half of a house with a garden (known as Dār al-Bustān) to Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān aka Shelomo Segan ha-Kohanim b. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Meshullam ha-Kohen Kelil ha-Yofi Ibn al-Istibānī.

Related People

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Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• draft
• garden
• tenant

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Hebrew

Shelomo’s suit for maintenance from her husband Surur b. Yaʿaqov Ibn al-Jāsūs. For the expenses, Surūra was ceded one-half of a bill of debt given in Qayrawān to her husband’s father by a merchant in Alexandria in summer 1029 CE (the date on the bill quoted is Tammuz [4]789 [A.M.]), amounting to 280 silver pieces, worth 23.33 dinars. Surūra presented the bill to a court in Fustat with the request to have it collected in Alexandria, and further stated that her husband had left her an ʿaguna and thus owed her and the children this maintenance. T-S 13J8.2, part of CUL Or.1080 J7, and T-S NS J149 all include versions of the same document, or at least concerning the same case.

Related Places

2

Tags

• aguna
• alimony

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1007–1055 CE

Primary language

Hebrew

Letter probably from the leaders of the Jewish community in Alexandria to Efrayim b. Shemarya in Fusṭāṭ (fl. 1007–1055 CE), describing the ransoming and generous treatment of two Jewish captives by Netanʾel ha-Kohen, and the special prayers recited in honor of both Netanʾel and David b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi on every Sabbath on account of their past generosity. The letter also begins to narrate the tale of a ship belonging to the Muslim pirate Jabbāra b. […] This document has been cited extensively in scholarship. The sender is the Alexandrian judge Yeshuʿa b. Yosef according to Frenkel.

Related People

1

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3

Tags

• prisoners
• ransom

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Efrayim b. Isḥāq, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1070 CE. The writer owns several apartments in Alexandria and rents an apartment to Nahray. Nahray has heard rumors that Efrayim is loaning other people books that belong to Nahray, from his apartment. […] on a reused receipt—written in Arabic script—from nearly twenty years earlier (it is dated 4 March 1051 CE). The writer also inquires about his sick female paternal cousin (bint ʿammī, r3).

Related People

2

Related Documents

1

Tags

• arabic address
• book trade
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: mention

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from a certain Yosef, in Alexandria, to his brother, an India trader. Mentions Aden (verso, right margin, l. 15) and people including Avraham al-Miṣrī, Abū l-Maʿānī, Abū l-Surūr, Ibn Khalaf and Ibn al-Ḍarūra. […] Mentions numerous people and family members and business matters and Sicily and Bijaya. See also T-S Misc.28.33 (PGPID 9177) from the same sender (India Book VI, 43).

Related People

1

Related Places

3

Tags

• capitation tax
• fasting
• hinge
• ib6
• illness
• (+ 7 more)

3 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

The bride's legal guardian (waliyy) for the purposes of the marriage is her brother Abu ʿAlī Ḥasan b. ʿAbd al-Aḥad b. Faraj. Mentions [...] al-Anmāṭī and Isḥāq b. Muḥammad al-Maghribī who attest that the bride is free, Muslim, a virgin, mature, and sound of mind and body. […] Found (and joined) by Alan Elbaum and edited by Naïm Vanthieghem.

Tags

• marriage
• muslim marriage contract

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The Book of Musta‘īnī (Kitāb Musta‘īnī, ca. 1106) by Yūsuf Ibn Biklārish al-Isrā’īlī consists of a mostly alphabetical list of 704 medicinal components, identified in Arabic and presented in tabular format. […] (The Kitāb Musta‘īnī also survives in several Arabic manuscripts, as the work remained useful for centuries.) Although the author originally included five columns in his table, this copyist reduced it to three.

2 Translations 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

He mentions meeting someone at Raʾs Tīnī, an Aleppan, and the arrival of a Byzantine ship (markab rūmī), apparently carrying Jews from al-Mahdiyya, among them Ibn Nufayʿ and a member of the Nahray family. […] The postscript mentions ʿAydhāb and travel to Alexandria after the holidays. The letter closes with the Qurʾānic phrase ḥasbunā Allāh wa-niʿma l-wakīl (Q 3:173).

Related Places

6

Tags

• hinge
• ib-addenda
• ib6
• india book unedited
• to edit

1 Translation

Primary language

Arabic

There follows a greeting to 'the noble lady' (al-sitt al-jalīla) and 'the dear sister' (al-ukht al-karīma). […] This poem has been kindly identified by Hussein Al-Osman as a variant of a poem by al-Muʿtamid Ibn ʿAbbād (ruler of Seville, d. 1095 in Morocco): https://www.aldiwan.net/poem14008.html.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Also, when he wishes to review (yuʿīd), don't let him. If you want him to review old material, he might as well be alone. He is not a youth (ghulām) just anyone can recite to. […] But from the context here, ghulām seems to be a boy older than a ṣabiyy. There is also an unrelated line in Arabic script at 180 degrees (. . .

Tags

• education

1 Transcription

Primary languages

Arabic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

The writer refers to receipts (wuṣūlāt), discusses authority over property or funds, and alludes to the date and amount of a payment or remittance. […] (2) Strip from the left side of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to a notable, mentioning al-shaykh al-Makīn, a known figure from Avraham Maimonides's circle. Refers also to the sender's distress on behalf of Sālim al-Aʿmā ("the Blind").

1 Transcription

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Regarding a partnership in a tax farm, on all of the proceeds from silk coming into the Ṣināʿa (the main port of Fustat), from the Jazīra, from the near [and the far Ṣaʿīds], from al-Sharqiyya and al-Gharbiyya, and by river and by land. […] Someone commits to "protecting" whoever encounters opposition in dyeing, importing, or selling silk, or petitions him about this (istinjāz tawqīʿih). There is also a condition that people will not sell silk in a certain period. […] See T-S NS 226.57 + T-S NS 225.92 (PGPID 24232) and related documents cited there. AA/ASE. Join: Alan Elbaum.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

Tags

• al-sina'a
• damin
• halfon b. menashshe
• island
• silk

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Nissim b. Isḥāq b. al-Sahl, in Fustat, to Abū Yūsuf Ḥujayj b. Yūsuf, in al-Maḥalla. Dating: 11th century. For the sender, see also Yevr. III B 640 (PGPID 27836) and T-S 10J29.8 (PGPID 3006).

Related Places

3

Tags

• hat
• trade

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

ʿEli Kohen Fāsī, in Fustat, to Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs (aka Avraham?) b. Yosef, in Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1080 CE. Yahya, probably Yosef’s younger brother according to Gil, deals with trading lacquer, and asks ʿArūs to handle three shipments of lacquer that he bought in Alexandria.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• ib6
• india book
• trade

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation

Primary language

Arabic

Petition to a Fāṭimid vizier concerning an allowance of a jurisconsult, which the petitioner used to receive from the auspicious office, which was to be paid to jurisconsults who registered for it. […] The exact problem with the allowance is not clear. Dating: First half of the 12th century. […] Part of this text is written also on the recto between lines 6 and 8 of the Arabic document.

Tags

• dimme
• fatimid
• petition

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

The first document is a fragment of a letter from the Qaraite community of Fustat to the Qaraite community of Alexandria. On recto, only the flowery Hebrew beginning seems to be preserved, and a few fragmentary lines in Judaeo-Arabic in the margin. On verso, there is the address in calligraphic Hebrew and four lines of text in Judaeo-Arabic in a different hand, mainly blessings for the addressees but perhaps also encouraging them to give charity. Following the letter are two leaves of piyyutim.

Tags

• qaraites

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Verso: Note from Efrayim to al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab Abū l-Thanāʾ. In Judaeo-Arabic with a Hebrew superscription and ending with a ه (for انتهى). […] The sender says that he doesn't owe anything, also that he is busy with צדע אלזינה(??) and "the arrival of the sultan in Fustat."

Related People

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Bifolio containing poetry in Hebrew, followed by a few lines in Judaeo-Arabic, followed by the same lines in Arabic script, concluding "this completes the qawl of al-Rāb Abū Isḥāq al-Andalusī with the help of God the exalted," followed by a ḥamdala and two other elaborate scrawls. At bottom right there is an entry documenting that Sitt al-Dalāl //Amat al-Qādir// died on Monday night the 14th of Sivan, corresponding to Dhū l-Qaʿda.

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1400–1600 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Given how much of the text is missing, the only full name that is visible is al-Ḥājj Khalīfa al-Qādi. The currency of the monetary values may be implied by "fiḍḍa" (perhaps the late-Mamlūk and early Ottoman medin) but this usage could also refer more broadly to an unnamed type of silver coinage that was in use for these payments.

Tags

• 15th or 16th c
• qadi

No Scholarship Records

Yusuf b. Abi Uqba from Alexandria, to Yusuf b. Ya’aqub b. Awkal, Fustat. Around 1030. […] They damaged merchandises that were on ships from the Maghreb to Alexandria. They killed several people from one of the ships.

Related Places

1

Tags

• byzantine pirates
• byzantines

1 Transcription

Primary languages

Arabic, Greek/Coptic Numerals

Report on income from a province (ʿaml al-[...]) submitted to the diwan of al-Afḍal (i.e., the vizier al-Afḍal b. Badr al-Jamālī, r. 1094–1121). Some of the text: مبلغ . . .

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

From Waliyy(?) to his 'father' ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (named on recto). The address is made out to Makīn(?) b. Waliyy al-[...] al-Ḥarīrī in the al-Muṣāṣa neighborhood of Fustat.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Hebrew

The addressee spent time in Rosetta and Alexandria (l. 6). The sender complains about the lack of letters (ll. 7–8). The addressee also appears in MS 9160, fol. 1, MS 9160, fol. 8, and Moss.

Related Places

2

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

He is writing to the distinguished physician Abū ʿAlī and complains that he has been suffering from a fever of the liver (ḥummā al-kabid) for the last several months. On verso there are pen trials and jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script, probably also by Shelomo. AA/ASE

Tags

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517

1 Transcription

Primary language

Arabic

Addressed to a lower official whose titles are "al-Rayyis al-Muḥrim al-Amīr ʿImād al-Mulk". Reports an event occurred on the bank of the Nile or the sea (shāṭiʾ l-baḥr).

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• dimme

1 Transcription

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Interesting fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew, with wide space between the lines, addressing al-Mukhtār Muntajab al-Dawla Badr. There is a date and location at the bottom: Adar II 14[.]2, Fustat (צוען מצרים). Most likely is 1442 = 1131 CE (per the catalog), in part because most of the other plausible years were not leap years. The catalog also says that this letter is in the name of Maṣliaḥ Gaon.

Related Places

1

Tags

• badr
• masliah gaon

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew

Recto: late letter, to someone described as ‘a great man among giants’ and ‘the great tamarisk’, who is also praised as ‘[possessing more wisdom] than all the wisdom of the Bene Qedem and than all the wisdom of Egypt’.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Sunday, 5 Adar 1403 Seleucid (February 1092 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

At the top the names Bishāra and ʿAllān b. Saʿīd appear. The letter mentions: someone's in-law Abū Isḥāq; Abū Saʿd al-Ḥalabī; collecting money from someone; Yūsuf; and various business reckonings and instructions. Concludes by mentioning a letter for Sayyidnā al-Rayyis al-Nāsī. Needs further examination.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• 11th c
• partnership

1 Discussion

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary languages

Aramaic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Fragment (upper part only). In which Abū Saʿd al-Ḥarīrī Ḥalfon b. Yiṣḥaq, the brother of Abū l-Ḥasan Daniʾel, acknowledges something (perhaps a debt) for Hiba b. Avraham. There is also a filing note on verso ("document from Abū Saʿd al-Ḥarīrī to Hiba").

Related People

1

1 Transcription

Document date

23 September 1056 CE

Letter from Isma’il b. Farah, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. September 23, 1056. The letter contains details about shipments of money and goods, and several requests to send letters, as well as requests related to buying goods (mainly sugar) and selling goods (mainly silk) in Fustat. Also mentions a large shipment of wax that was sent to the government.

Related People

2

Tags

• 11th c
• nahray b. nissim
• silk
• state
• sugar
• (+ 2 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Nahum b. Hakhmon, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1053. The letter contains several topics: details about the ships movements; oil that was sent from the Maghreb to Egypt; the quite situation in Tripoli (Libya); a disagreement about the price of amber; and a disagreement in Alexandria between the cantor and his son. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #690) VMR

Related People

2

Related Places

6

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Mentions the amīr Fāris al-Dawla. The amīr Fāris al-Dawla was active around 550 H, in the period of al-Fāʾiz. (For other mentions of Fāris al-Dawla, see T-S Ar.39.445, T-S Ar.42.171, ENA 1822a.95).

Related People

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• dimme

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Simḥa Kohen, probably in Alexandria, to Abū l-Manṣūr. Dating: ca. 1205 CE. The writer complains about the extortions of a tax farmer who claimed that many people had executed the transfers of the ownership of their houses before a Jewish court without registering them with the government. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 90, 365). See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Tags

• 13th c
• construction
• damin
• renovation
• tax

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Muslim/Musallam, reporting the arrival of a letter from Saʿadya the cantor and mentioning business matters and a certain Barukh, who is coming to Fusṭāṭ together with a certain Majīd the perfumer on the 17th of Av. Also mentions Abū l-Faraj and Rukn al-Dīn who has just arrived from al-Shām (Syria-Palestine).

Related Places

2

Tags

• druggist

1 Transcription

Document date

Dhū l-Qaʿda 454 Hijrī (6 November 1062–5 December 1062 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Two of the endorsements at the top mention the dīwān al-iqṭāʿāt al-murtajaʿa (office of reclaimed fiefs), cf. […] Written by Yaʿqūb b. Dāʾūd. Might also mention ḍamān (l. 9). Dating: looks like Dhū l-Qaʿda 454 AH = 1062/63 CE.

Tags

• dimme

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Arabic, Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

So perhaps the addressee is titled Sharaf al-Dīn and his father is a qāḍī titled ʿAmid [al-Dawla]. There are also some jottings in Arabic script. On verso there are Hebrew writing exercises (הקץ עצל).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

There are greetings to his brother Ḥalfon's wife Sitt Naʿīm. Also the addressee's "mother and sisters" are mentioned. Yefet reports that Ḥassūn b. ʿAllūn arrived. Mentions Baqāʾ. Mentions a radda (a garment alternately identified as "scarf" or "turban").

Related People

1

Related Places

1

Tags

• yefet b. menashshe

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Very deferential and asking for help, including a letter on his behalf to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Abū l-Faraj Kātib al-ʿArab. (Information in part from CUDL.) Join: Alan Elbaum

Tags

• biblical verses quoted

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter addressed to the Qaraite Abū l-Barakāt ʿAlī b. Rawḥ (aka Berakha b. Ravaḥ), one of the supporters of Natan b. […] Dating: Probably spring 1039 CE (Gil's assessment). The sender alludes to the Qaraites (l. 6) and Rabbanites (l. 10); refers to a man (Shelomo b. […] as a "rebellious elder" who deserves to be stoned; also mentions a pilgrimage to the graves of the patriarchs.

1 Transcription

Primary language

Hebrew

Some of the names mentioned include: Mūsa Ashkenaz(i), Mikhail al-Shaykh, Yaʿ(īsh) Angino, [...] Ashkenazi, [...] […] For the surname Argel, see also: JRL C 148 (PGPID 31998). The word "Argel" directly translations as "Algiers" in Spanish and Ladino but is likely a surname in this context given the format of the list.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions: the sale of something by Efrayim; something that should be sent with Ibn al-Dawāniqī(?) ('the penny pincher'); an urgent request to write to al-qāḍī al-makīn about something that will help Yefet; something "this year in al-Mahdiyya"; regards to Sitt Naʿīm (possibly Ḥalfon's wife).

Related People

3

Related Places

2

Related Documents

1

1 Transcription