Documents

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mostly various types of letters of condolence (and one side of the folio is headed "taʿziya"). There are also templates for letters/petitions to a Muslim qāḍī and to the caliph. Join: Alan Elbaum.

Tags

• condolence
• formulary

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1020–1039 CE

Primary language

Hebrew

Letter from Yehoshuaʿ ha-Shofeṭ probably to the community of Aleppo. Dating: ca. 1020 CE (Gil) or late 1020s—early 1030s (Frenkel). […] The identification of the addressees as the community of Aleppo seems to be based on the statement in l. 58 that this letter was a response to a request made by Yaʿaqov he-Ḥaver, identified by both Gil and Frenkel as Yaʿaqov b. Yosef he-Ḥaver, the leader of the community of Aleppo. (Information mainly from Gil and Frenkel.)

Related People

4

Related Places

4

Tags

• communal

2 Transcriptions 3 Discussions

Inferred date

1100–1100 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yiṣḥaq, the chief Rabbi of Aleppo, Syria, to a colleague, it seems in Fustat. […] The sender requests the documents to be sent by special mail, for the merchants are being detained and are hardly reaching Aleppo. . (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 271; IV, p. 277)

Related People

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Tags

• communal

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

20 Shevaṭ 1564 Seleucid (21 January 1253 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Certificate of the Qodesh. Location: Alexandria. Dated: 20 Shevaṭ 1564 Seleucid = 21 January 1253 CE, under the authority (reshut) of the Nagid David I Maimonides. The leaders of the community of Alexandria grant Elazar b. Shelomo the right to receive bread from the qodesh as well as the sum needed for the capitation tax.

Related People

2

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Tags

• endowment
• qodesh

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Arabic, Hebrew

Appears to list at least 12 towns in the upper eastern Nile Delta (some include Bilbays, al-Ghaffariyya, al-Hissa, Tuḥuriyya, Dahamsha, Selmant, al-Shobra) along with sums (revenues?)

Related People

1

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4

Related Documents

1

Tags

• dimme
• fiscal

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Jumādā II 1010 Hijrī (27 November 1601–25 December 1601 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

In the upper part mentions various people al-Ḥājj Muḥammad Ibn Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Manārī and gives their tribal affiliations. Mentions the village of al-Muʿayṣira (المعيصرة) in the vicinity of Homs and قطيا (maybe the town of that name in Sinai).

Related Places

3

Tags

• homs
• trade

No Scholarship Records

Letter from Yosef b. Musa al-Tāhartī, from Alexandria, to an unknown person. […] The letter is written on the other side of a different letter that Nissim b. Yishaq al-Tāhartī wrote around 10 years earlier (PGPID 38060).

Related People

2

Related Places

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Related Documents

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Tags

• flax

1 Transcription 1 Translation 2 Discussions

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The writer mentions several paper trails and notes arrival of few ships, more importantly the ship which carries wheat for the state "waṣal l-markab al-ladhī fīhi qamḥ al-ṣulṭān". The letter begins with an anxiety of hard times and also concludes on that note.

Tags

• dimme
• state wheat

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

of the sisters of Abū l-Najm for 50 dinars. Also concerns rights to a house. Other protagonists include Yiṣḥaq Nafūsī, the judge ("who exerted great effort" in this case), Abū l-ʿIzz, and Abū Manṣūr b. [...]. In the margin, the judge is forbidding somebody from slaughtering, and al-Mufaḍḍal al-Kohen, the town slaughterer says something.

Related People

1

Tags

• shehita

1 Transcription

Inferred date

1750–1850 CE

The former name was that of a scribe who produced many legal documents across the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Cairo (the paleography also matches this estimate of dating). The contents of the lists are somewhat unclear, because at times they indicate the parshas for specific weeks of the liturgical calendar but then may also be relying on other unrelated terminology.

Tags

• 18th or 19th c

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter of business from Isma'il b. Ishaq al-Andalusi, in Tyre, to Nahray b. Nissim. The writer alludes to his great losses at sea while simultaneously thanking God, who has replaced what has been lost many times over. Also includes a quotation from II Shemuel 14:20.

Related People

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Related Places

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Tags

• 11th c
• nahray b. nissim
• trade
• tyre

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Recto: Letter fragment in which the writer complains that Abū Bishr al-Mushrif (the government supervisor) claims from him a payment which has already been paid. Also mentions Abū l-Riḍā and Abū l-Munā. Dating: likely 12th or 13th century.

Tags

• account
• coptic numerals

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The sender, who has been arrested, asks him for help on account of his illness, poverty, and "hot bedbugs (al-baqq). May God never afflict our master with distress, and may he afflict my state on all those who hate you." On verso there is a postscript mentioning Alexandria and family members being left in prison.

Related Places

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Related Documents

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Tags

• 13th c
• appeal
• bedbugs
• communal
• illness
• (+ 6 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

ʿAyyāsh sends him instructions and advice. Also mentions details about ship movements, including ships from Mahdiyya and Sicily. Also mentions the government's new decrees and an incident in which the state confiscated ships and goods.

Related People

3

Related Places

4

Tags

• trade

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Eliyyahu (aka Barakāt b. Abū l-Faraj al-Dayyān) to a physician named Abū l-Maḥāsin (titled al-Shaykh al-Sadīd). […] The last two lines probably contain a request concerning Dāʾūd al-[...]. The letter may have been abandoned unfinished.

Tags

• bilingual
• dimme
• shelomo b. eliyyahu

1 Transcription

Document date

18 Jumada II 957 Hijrī (4 July 1550 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Accounts with Hebrew numerals, possibly mentioning the head of the weighers guild (shaykh al-qabbāniyya). Dated in the upper left corner of the verso Thursday 18 Jūmada(!) II 957 AH (1550 CE): יום אלכמיס אלמבארך י׳׳ח גומדה אלאכר ס׳ נזץ. The year might also be read as סנ׳ זץ (san[at] 907 AH), which yields an alternate date in late 1501 CE.

Tags

• account

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1213–1237 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Either a letter or legal jottings, but in any case they all concern a legal case involving Yaḥyā b. Ṭāhir (the same who signed T-S 13J4.10 in 1253 CE?), al-Shaykh Muhadhdhab, and al-Shaykh Musallam. They are consulting or have already consulted the Nagid Avraham.

Related People

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Perhaps involving the plunder and occupation of a house (....al-bayt wa-nahabū... ikhrājuhum ʿanhu... fa-mā li-l-mamlūk illā marāḥim al-mawlā...). The form of the ra'y clause that appears here (wa-l-ra'y aʿlā) is typical of Ayyubid-era petitions. Mentioned several times in Geoffrey Khan's work (Khan, Historical Dev, 21; JRAS 52; ALAD, 315 n43, 373, 396).

Related Documents

1

Tags

• petition
• to edit

1 Transcription

Primary language

Arabic

Mentions titles of the judge Abū Isḥaq (al-qāḍī al-rashīd al-muwaffaq al-sadīd), probably an investiture document.

Tags

• appointment
• dimme
• judge
• titles

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary languages

Greek/Coptic Numerals, Judaeo-Arabic

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals concerning "Dīwān Maṭābikh al-Mulk," which sounds like the government office in charge of royal sugar refineries. […] Every section starts with the sentence ‘and they also had […]’. Mentions a receipt (wuṣūl) in the hand of ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm.

Tags

• account
• coptic numerals
• sugar

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Muḥarram 410 Hijrī (9 May 1019–7 June 1019 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Legal deed in Arabic script. In which Hiba b. ʿAlī b. […], the carpenter, leases a shop from al-Ḥasan b. Makkī b. Abī al-Ḥadīd, who in turn had been leasing it from his maternal uncle, Ibrahim Ibn al-Fatḥ.

Related People

3

Related Places

1

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary language

Arabic

Includes a version of the raʾy clause (fa-li-l-ḥaḍra ʿuluww al-raʾy fī dhālika). Mentions something related to the Muslims, the arrival of two ships, and a warehouse (ḥānūt). Greetings (awfā taḥiyya wa-ikrām) to various people, including the faqīh Abū l-Qāsim, and the qāḍī Abū Muḥammad. Also mentions the ṣāḥib al-ṣūr. Needs further examination.

Related Places

1

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

On the smaller piece (T-S AS 146.218), names include Abū l-Bayān, al-Lebdiyya, Abū Zikrī, and the wife of Abū Kathīr. On the smallest piece (T-S AS 151.71), names include the daughter of Surūr, the Alexandrian woman, and Umm Khulla. (Information in part from CUDL.) Joins: Alan Elbaum. There are probably additional joins waiting to be found.

Tags

• charity
• communal
• poverty
• recipients

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

The addressee is not identified, but there may be a clue if the unusual raʾy clause, wa-raʾyuhā al-asʿad, is a reference to his title; speculatively, this could be al-Qāḍī al-Asʿad a.k.a. […] The sender reports that he went up (to New Cairo?) with Abū l-Fakhr Ibn al-Rāb (Heb. al-Rav), who appears to have learned from the government dīwān that he overpaid his tax liability. […] The addressee is now asked to go up with this Ibn al-Rav and clear everything up. This fragment was identified by Kedem Golden.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

In this unsigned and undated draft, an unnamed active partner receives 200 dinars from Sibāʿ, with which he is to travel to Alexandria and transact in unnamed commodities. Sibāʿ agrees to share equally in all losses to the partnership as a whole (e.g. losses due to work stoppage or broken merchandise). Lines 12-16 indicate that if commodities may end up traveling for sale in Alexandria escorted by someone other than the active partner, the active partner should inform Sibāʿ. […] (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 97–98.) See also separate document record for verso.

Related Places

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Related Documents

2

Tags

• alexandria
• draft
• halfon b. netanel
• ib4
• india book
• (+ 1 more)

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1120–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The document explains that the merchant acted with great valor hiding his companion's merchandise from the rulers of Dahlak who would have confiscated it—and would have killed the merchant himself if they had found out what he had done. This merchant also made haste to go to the court and declare all the goods belonging to his companion (and therefore his orphans) as soon as he returned to Fustat (l. 10), and even mentioned "several things that were not in the account ledger (daftar al-ḥisāb)." […] Rajā?). See also T-S AS 149.84 (PGPID 18611). (Information in part from Goitein's attached discussion, transcription, and translation.) Join: Alan Elbaum.

Related People

3

Related Places

1

Tags

• daftar
• dahlak
• ib7
• india book

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

He lists various people who have helped him in the past: Abū Saʿd Ibn al-Maṣmūdī gave him 2 dinars for him and his son last year; the judge Abū Naṣr gave him a dinar for an ʿarḍī garment worth only a dirham; the son of Abū l-Munā whom the sender owed for the price of rose water also gave him something; Abū Zikrī al-Talmid, Ibrāhīm al-ʿAkkāwī, and Yosef who lives in in zuqāq al-qanādīl all gave him a half dinar. He has heard that there is a village near Minyat Zifta belonging to Nāṣir al-Dīn whose inhabitants have to pay no capitation tax, and he's fantasizing about moving there and never coming back to Fustat.

Related Places

2

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Fiscal account recording the revenue of wheat, barley and broadbeans produced in five villages of the Gharbiyya province (Basūṭ Nahīsah, Maḥallat Bū l-Haytam, Nawāj, Damshīt, and Minyat Bū l-ʿAṭāf) in the kharajī year 562 and assigned to the military unit of the emir Abū Manṣūr ʿAlī b. ʿAlīal-ʿĀḍidī al-Nāṣirī. In its present state, the account consists of a single vertical bifolio (a format typically used in Fatimid accounting), which now contains only the details of the production of the village of Basūṭ Nahīsah. Originally, however, the account was also meant to contain details of the production of the other four villages, which implies either that a part of the account is missing or that the account was left unfinished. […] In lines 17–19, the scribe was supposed to sum up and account for the whole agricultural production of the five villages after each new entry (min al-ghallāt: qamḥ, šaʿīr, fūl). The sum of the whole production would then have been converted into counted gold money and the number obtained would have been added in front of the entry min al-ʿayn (l. 16).

Related Places

2

Tags

• dimme

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary language

Hebrew

In addition to this reshut, he also copied an ōfān for Sukkot by the Andalusī Yehuda ha-Levi. If he copied it before 1141, it would have been while the poet was still alive — a remarkable distance for his poetry to travel in his own lifetime; but Ibn Yijū also writes of having met in Aden Sulaymān Ibn Gabbay, Yehuda ha-Levi's travel companion (rafīq) during his eastward voyage to Egypt from al-Andalus in 1140, so perhaps Ibn Yijū saw his dīwān only then and disseminated it from Aden eastward. He also copied a maʿariv for Yom Kippur and composed his own liturgical poetry, including two seliḥot that he wrote in the margins and on the verso of a deed of manumission, as well as secular poetry.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• ib-addenda
• ib3

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The woman brought her case before the court asking for an allowance in order to provide herself with living expenses. […] Her request of the court was two-fold: a. as mentioned above, to fix her an allowance for living expenses, and b. to confirm in a recorded document that all that she was obliged to sell in order to survive should be regarded as due her from her husband. […] Because the husband delayed his return, and she repeated her requests for help, it was decided to grant the woman an allowance on a temporary basis. It seems that she was one of the notables of the city and she was not even deprived of her servants who were also taken into account when the amount of the allowance was determined.

Related People

1

1 Transcription 1 Discussion