Documents

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria, to his relative Abū l-Ḥasan Shelomo b. Nissim al-Barqī, containing instructions about selling goods such as textiles and lead in Fustat.

Related People

4

Related Places

2

Tags

• alexandria
• commodities
• lead
• textiles
• trade

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

In Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentions Ibn al-Qaṣīra; Sitt al-Dār; Umm Tujjār; the orphan girl of Bū Saʿīd; Nisāʾ; al-Parnas; the orphan of Ṭāhir.

Tags

• list

No Scholarship Records

Document date

4 Shawwāl 602 Hijrī (14 May 1206 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Fiscal account, probably a tax receipt, beginning with the waṣala ilā bayt al-māl al-maʿmūr, probably a receipt of delivery to the bayt al-māl.

Tags

• account
• arabic script
• dimme
• fiscal

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions Fustat (or Egypt) four lines from the end and Almeria three lines from the end. Also mentions David ha-Rav.

Related Places

1

Tags

• halfon-addenda
• ib-addenda
• ib4
• to examine

No Scholarship Records

Document date

5 Dhū l-Qaʿda 1238 Hijrī (14 July 1823 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

State document in Arabic, from the bureau of silk looms (dīwān anwāl al-ḥarīr) in Alexandria, a branch of the state silk monopoly.

Related Places

1

Tags

• 19th c
• alexandria
• dimme
• late arabic script
• to edit

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Abu l-Bayān [...] died on Wednesday night (laylat al-khamīs) on 3 Rajab 507 AH and was buried on Thursday (wa-dafannāhu yawm al-khamīs). Alan Elbaum and Marina Rustow

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The writer asks the addressee to retrieve all of the writer's books that are currently with the 'Rav.' They include parts of Berakhot, the Mishna, Neziqin, and notebooks (karārīs) containing perush. He also asks for a quffa of raisins.

Tags

• book trade
• raisins

No Scholarship Records

Primary languages

Greek/Coptic Numerals, Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions various female and male names such as Farajallāh, Bint al-Kātib Abū Shaʿra, Ibrahim Dhabbāḥ (‘the butcher’), Yiṣḥaq al-Faranjī and Yosef al-Faranjī.

Tags

• account
• coptic numerals

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Menashshe (fl. 1100–1138 CE). Involves Abū l-Faraj al-Jabīlī (or al-Jubaylī); the estate of his father; and his sister Sitt al-Nasab.

Related People

1

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Mentions tawqīʿ at least twice and the purchase and price of timber (ḥaṭab). There is also an ʿalāma or archival note on the verso, which is not extremely readable.

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

He is seemingly asking only for advice, but in reality also for help (per Goitein). Sulaymān had written to the addressee to recommend the sender. "The greatest of my wishes is travel from Alexandria into the Mediterranean (al-baḥr al-māliḥ) in the ṣalībī ships."

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Sings the praises of a Coptic sage in Alexandria. This sage is versed in theology (الناطق بالقوال التالوغسية) and Hermetic arts (المتادب بالاداب الهرمسية) and translates the Coptic and the Arabic languages (مترجم الغات القبطية والعربية). […] And there is one word (الاوبيين) that perhaps should be read "al-Ayyūbiyyīn" which would date the fragment to 1171–1250 CE. But it might also be al-adībīn. Informtion from Krisztina Szilagyi via FGP.

Tags

• arabic script
• copts
• hermetism
• interreligious strife
• violence

No Scholarship Records

Document date

21 Adar 1409 Seleucid (25 February 1098 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Court records, all concerning the same persons. Recto: Sason b. […] Continues elsewhere. [Sason b. Natan also appears in T-S 12.1 (ca. 1090 CE), in which testimony is given regarding Sason’s attempt to defraud with counterfeit currency, and Moshe Ibn Majjān features in a dispute over a Bible codex in T-S 18J5.2 + T-S 10J5.16.] […] (Information mainly from CUDL. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Related People

4

Related Documents

2

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Document date

Last third of Av 1492 Seleucid (August 1181 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

This document preserves the lower part of a partnership agreement between the brothers Abū al-Faraj and Abū al-Mufaḍḍal in a shop selling food. The partners are allocated maintenance from the shop’s stores, as well as one dirham each per day. The two are to eat and live together, though they are given the option of eating separately, in which case Abū al-Mufaḍḍal is to take two dirhams and Abū al-Faraj is to take four dirhams as maintenance.

Tags

• autograph
• joseph b. shmuel halevi
• partnership

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Arabic, Hebrew

Letter from Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq, evidently of al-Maḥalla, to Abu Saʿd Hibatallāh (aka Netanʾel b. […] The beginning is in Hebrew ("twelve lines of exquisite Hebrew proem"), and the body of the letter is in Arabic script, except for two phrases. (On verso there are also a few lines of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.) This is a letter of recommendation for the bearer, one Yakhin ha-Meshorer ("the poet") who had settled in al-Maḥalla but fled from there and abandoned his family,when the superintendent of revenue (ṣāḥib al-Maḥalla) "harassed him" by demanding from him the capitation tax (al-kharāj).

Related Places

2

Tags

• arabic
• capitation tax
• jaliya
• jizya
• khaybari
• (+ 2 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Testimony about power of attorney regarding Mūsā b. ʿAllush’s bequest. Dating: 1046 (Gil). Mūsā, from Jerba, had businesses in Sicily and drowned on his way to Alexandria. […] ʿAllūsh's belongings, including the judge Maṣliaḥ b. Eliyyahu and Abī Mūsā, approve that all of his money belongs to his partner Berekhya b.

Related Places

5

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

The shelfmark T-S Ar.18(1).123 unites three fragments, which all have Hebrew liturgical poems on one side and remainders of letters in Judaeo-Arabic on the other. All three letters appear to be in the same handwriting, and all the liturgical fragments are likewise in the handwriting of the same scribe (different than the scribe of the letters). […] with the animal, and he should feed it whatever fodder it needs (aʿlifhā aysh mā iʿtalafat) and charge the sender for it.

Related Documents

2

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Part of a preliminary draft of a chancery document addressed to a government official. ". . . bi-l-shadd minka fī istikhrāj al-māl ʿalā l-kamāl ʿalā l-kamāl (sic!) wa-l-tamām wa-qaṣr yad man yudawwim al-iḥtimā' ʿalayka wa-l-manʿ min iḥdāth rasm lam tajri bihi l-ʿāda. . . . " That is, an order has been issued in favor of the addressee: "for you to be granted the power to levy the money in its entirety, for the hand to be restrained of whomsoever continually defaults (on his payment) to you, and for the prevention of an unwonted practice.' […] The provinces in question are the districts of Gharbiyya and Sharqiyya, and Jazīrat Banī Naṣr, which is in the Delta by the Sharqiyya province. (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, II, 139).

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• dimme
• shadd

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The first section is a report on a member of the Ibn Sughmār family, who was suspected of having an affair with a Muslim woman or prostitute (אלזונה אלגויה). "He had already paid a fine of 120 gold pieces, an enormous sum, and had already been imprisoned for a month and a half at the writing of the letter reporting the scandal to someone in Qus, Upper Egypt; twelve court records had been written in this matter" (Med Soc V, p. 322, note 49). Abū Naṣr al-Tustarī involved himself somehow. The next part of the letter is a report on the prices of various mercantile goods. Also refers to a Jewish tax-farmer for tanning (hunā mutaqabbil al-dabāgha yahūdī).

Related People

4

Related Places

2

Tags

• ib7
• india book
• natan b. avraham
• prostitution
• qus

3 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1066–1108 CE

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

The petitioners were apparently newcomers to a provincial town (though it is not clear where the document says this) and were dragged to the corvee (forced labor) and forced to work for the government by doing some job (the specifics are lost in a lacuna in line 5) which is perceived by their fellow Jews as tantamount to idolatry. They also assert that the indigenous inhabitants did not permit them to exercise their craft (Goitein). Or, alternatively, the threat of excommunication is for the scenario in which they continue working for the government, and they now wish to be exempted from this work, by asking the addressee to intervene with the ṣāḥib al-shurṭa on their behalf. […] The join is very likely but not 100% certain as there are no words clearly split across the two fragments. There may also be a third intervening piece.

Related People

1

Tags

• corvee
• state

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The Book of the Correction of the Negligence Found in the Books of the Head of the Academy, al-Fayyūmī (Kitāb istidrāk al-sahw al-mawjūd fī kutub ra’s al-mathība al-Fayyūmī), is a book by Mubashshir ben Nissi ha-Levi criticizing Se‘adya Ga’on—who was often referred to as the Fayyūmī, as he was born in the Fayyūm region of Egypt. […] This passage, from the introduction, proclaims that the author will show no loyalty to Se‘adya and instead will verify all religious matters for himself. (Information from Posen Library)

Related Documents

1

1 Translation 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1205–1237 CE

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

In a mixture of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. The cantor al-Shaykh al-Makīn (=Abū l-Majd?) is to give 10 dirhams to the bearer, a judge. The judge Anaṭoli is also somehow involved. The money should come from the rent of the compound. […] T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218.

Related People

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• account
• heqdesh
• qodesh
• waqf

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

25 Shawwāl 422 Hijrī (15 October 1031 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

. […], companion of the amīr Dhakhīrat al-Dawla Ḥaydara b. Muḥammad b. ʿAdnān (appears also in T-S AS 176.1 (PGPID 39213) around the same time and in T-S 13J26.13, twenty years and a promotion later), acknowledges the receipt of 1124 irdabbs of barley from Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. […] On the last page, in a different hand, there is a draft of a legal document in Hebrew. Location: Alexandria. Dated: Thursday, 20 Kislev 4815 AM, which is 1054/55 CE.

Related People

3

Related Places

1

1 Transcription 1 Translation

Primary language

Arabic

Naftali, collated by Levi b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlīal-Baṣrī. Two pages of Arabic state documents were recycled for this; they seem to be from different documents but this is uncertain. Fol. 1 of the literary work also includes an Arabic name in the margin: Yaʿqūb b. […] The first Arabic page (fol. 3r) mentions Abū l-Faraj; the payment of an account; "and when I returned to al-Ramla, I found that he had arrived. . . . " The second page of Arabic (fol. 4r) shows pronounced stacking of words at the ends of lines and is difficult to read.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Likely sent from Jerusalem (since it refers to people "coming up" from al-Ramla this week). Addressed to a woman. The sender reports that the mother of Abū Manṣūr is well. This week, Abū l-Faraj al-Tūnisī "came up" from al-Ramla together with "the girl" (al-ṣabiyya). […] But then the dark girl (al-samrā), the daughter of ʿAbd al-Salām, died.

Related Places

1

Tags

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• to edit

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Letter in Arabic from a father to a son that consists almost entirely of greetings and well-wishes. The family rejoiced to receive his letters from Tripoli al-Gharb (Libya) and from al-Mahdiyya. […] Yūsuf sends her regards, as do Umm Sitt al-Jamīʿ and Abū Saʿd and Abū Surūr. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning items that were sent with Abū Surūr and others with [. . .] al-Nafūsī and others with [. . .] b.

Related Places

2

Related Documents

1

Tags

• dimme
• tripoli (libya)

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Concerning a shipment of tartar and a report about the arrival of ships from the West (Spain and al-Mahdiyya). "Tartar (Ar. ṭartār, derived from the same medieval Greek word as the English) was another mordant, also coming to the capital of Egypt via Alexandria.

Related People

6

Related Places

1

Tags

• ib6
• india book
• movement of ships
• tartar

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

Av 5556 Anno Mundi (5 August 1796–3 September 1796 CE)

Primary language

Hebrew

The main text of the document also names two non-Jews as partners and the note below the signatures section names a third non-Jewish partner, specifically: Shaḥata, the merchant Ibrahim(?) al-Mamlūk, and the merchant ʿUmr al-Sarrāj. The common purse of the partnership is rather high, in the main text totaling to 183,000 medin (36,000 + 36,000 + 36,000 + 48,000 + 27,000). The addendum note mentions that the sixth partner, ʿUmr al-Sarrāj, contributed 700 reales. The scribe Meʾīr Ben-Naʿīm notes that three copies of the document were issued at the time of its recording.

Related People

2

Related Places

1

Tags

• 18th c
• palombo
• partnership

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat). Describes his tribulations due to the winter; mentions business in flax; the animals are unable to travel due to the rain and mud. He has sent a purse of 26 dinars weiging 26 1/6 dinars with the bearer Abū Naṣr al-Baghdādī, to be paid to Abū Kathīr al-Ṣayrafī, and out of which the addressee is to take 19 2/3, leaving 6 1/2 dinars. Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa is to add 1 1/2 dinars from Abū Manṣūr al-Zayyāt; the 8 dinars are to be paid to Abū Saʿīd Khalaf Ibn Qaṭṭūs when he arrives from Tinnīs.

Related People

2

Related Places

3

Related Documents

1

Tags

• nahray b. nissim
• trade

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Dating: Possibly first half of the 12th century, based on the reference to the merchant Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī (see Friedman, India Traders, p. 258, n. 1). […] The sender has sent a mat (? ḥaṣīr) with Ibn al-Dawāniqī. Regards to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllān, Khallūf al-Nafūsī, and Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī.

Related People

2

Tags

• ib-addenda
• ib6

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1100–1138 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Menashshe (fl. 1100-138 CE). In which Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Tinnīsī (aka Yefet b. Shemarya) appoints Makārim b. […] Yeshuʿa ha-Ḥaver known as Ibn al-Sulamī (appears also in Bodl. MS heb. c 28/22 (PGPID 9058)) as his agent to claim what the late Ṣāfī b.

Related People

1

Tags

• halfon b. menashshe
• ib7
• india book

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

first third of Tammuz 500[.] Anno Mundi (1244–1249 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Certificate of kashrut. Location: Alexandria. Dated: First third of Tammuz 500[.] AM; the options are 5004, 5007, and 5009 (=1244, 1247, or 1249 CE). […] Bū l-Barakāt purchases 97 moulds (qālib) of Sicilian (Rūmī Siqillī) cheese from Jewish merchants who have arrived in Alexandria. The cheese has a seal on it, and reliable witnesses testify that it is kosher (lā rayba fīhi, a phrase borrowed from Quran 2:2). Witnesses: Yehuda b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī; the teacher Yefet b. Yosef ha-Melammed.

Related People

3

Related Places

2

Tags

• cheese
• kashrut
• merchant
• sicily

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Dating: Late 12th century, based on the mention of Abū Zikrī b. ʿAṭiyya who also appears in 1182 CE in JRL Series B 3858. The subject of the letter is hard to discern since so much is missing. However, it is mostly about legal thickets involving an orphan girl, an untrustworthy Muslim named ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, a dead person, his niece, and several ambiguous other people, how the writer is seen as meddlesome and knows more than he's supposed to know, and how he wants the addressee to intervene, including by making sure the case is brought to court in Alexandria.

Related People

1

Related Places

1

Tags

• to edit

1 Transcription