Documents

Primary language

Arabic

Official letter/report in Arabic script. 6 lines preserved from near the beginning. (There are also a few lines legible as mirror-image imprints only, including the phrase "adām Allāh saʿādatuh,") Narrow sheet with a wide right margin, a format seen in ca. 13th century documents. […] The sender reports that his father the amīr Fāris al-Dīn has sent some crops (qalīl ghalla) to the noble addressee, who is then flattered for several lines.

No Scholarship Records

Document date

1463 Seleucid (13 September 1151–31 August 1152 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The margins and verso are filled with Arabic script, mostly writing exercises, though there is also a phrase addressed to Abū l-Fakhr and the beginning of a petition to "al-maqām al-sharīf."

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1

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No Scholarship Records

Document date

10th Marḥeshvan 1437 Seleucid (9 October 1125 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

This document describes release from a partnership in glasswork, explaining that Shemarya ha-Kohen (also known as Abū al-Wafā b. Menashshe ha-Kohen) demanded 9 and 1/6 dinars of his erstwhile partners Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda and Yiṣḥaq's son Abū al-Karam. Yiṣḥaq gave Shemarya a settlement, andShemariah released him and his son from the partnership. […] Court decisions themselves not only required the attention of a higher court, such decisions also required an oath (a troublesome process for the court and the community).

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2

Related Places

1

Tags

• glass
• halfon b. menashshe
• partnership

1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: ca. 1063. […] He blames Abū Zikrī b. Menashshe. Also mentions a matter of inheritance in the Tāhartī family. […] This is the remnant of the smallpox (wa-huwa bāqī al-judarī).They have prescribed for us Indian ṭabāshīrī tutty (tutty resembling bamboo chalk?).

Related People

2

Related Places

2

Tags

• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: prescription
• illness: smallpox
• illness: treatment
• (+ 4 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation

Primary languages

Hebrew, Ladino

The writer was expecting deliveries of several items, mostly fabrics (e.g. a cortina and a mandīl; she has also sent a vela to the addressee) but some obscure commodities as well (e.g. […] I already found out, barukh hashem, no thanks to you. […] Verso contains the address in Hebrew, along with various other jottings. ASE.

Related Places

1

Tags

• ladino
• saida
• textiles
• women's letters

1 Transcription

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Collection for the capitation tax - jibayat al-jawali (verso) (for the 6th week of the liturgical year, usually falling in November). […] Sums: 1 gave 11/2 dirham wariq, 13 gave 1 dirham, 3 gave 3/4 dirham, 12 gave 1/2 dirham, 2 gave 1/4 dirham, and 5 unclear or not preserved. All these sums together would not make the total of the yearly capitation tax required from one man. […] The fraction rendered 1/3 is represented by a 'v' on its side with a dot in the middle and another on top ( like an abbreviation mark); a 'v' on its side without a dot in the middle I think is 1/2 [half an 'alef]. The common Coptic slash is also used for 1/2.

Tags

• account
• capitation tax
• charity
• jaliya
• tax

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Inferred date

1025–1051 CE

Primary language

Hebrew

Dating: Ca. 1040 CE. The letter is also signed by the physician ʿAmram b. Aharon ha-Kohen (also signed T-S 12.507 (PGPID 1677)). […] Yehuda writes about the same case in T-S 20.178. There is also a request "to obtain a little kohl for me to remove the whiteness from the eye of my little daughter," and a request for emblic (amlaj).

Related People

1

Tags

• communal
• illness letter 969-1517
• illness: children
• illness: eye
• inheritance
• (+ 4 more)

1 Transcription

Document date

Shevat 1411 Seleucid (14 January 1100–12 February 1100 CE)

Yefet, the widow of Abu Nasr the banker for her daughter, Shemuel's late wife and the mother of his children, left after her death. He also sued his mother-in-law for the share of his late wife in her sister's inheritance, which is half her inheritance. He is also suing for half of the house in which his mother in law lives. The court then asks Sittan and she says that her late husband gave her the house in Muslim courts. She also claims to have dedicated the entire sum inherited from her daughter for the burial and for the wailing (the lamenting of the wailing women).

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1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Thābit the judge tattling about something to Sayyidnā, and how this isn't what they were used to in the days of the late Raʾs al-Mathība. Someone acted "as if someone had been killed" and made the sender take mighty oaths that he would live nowhere in Egypt except Alexandria, to which the sender acquiesced (קלת אלסמע ואלטאעה). […] Written from Benha, Lower Egypt, on the writer's way to Alexandria. The writer describes how his clothing was stolen on his travels. […] (Information in part from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:154, 396.) EMS. Join: Alan Elbaum

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Tags

• 12th c
• travels

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The teacher ʿIwaḍ tried to sell the Masoret but couldn't find a buyer. As for the physician al-Ḥakīm al-Naṣīr(?), the sender told him about Sayyidnā's request concerning Kitāb al-Taṣrīf fī Istiʿmāl al-Adwiya (perhaps a volume of al-Zahrāwī's magnum opus?). […] The document needs further examination to make sense of all this. ASE

Tags

• medical books
• physicians

No Scholarship Records

Document date

Tuesday, 5 Kislev 1420 Seleucid (10 November 1108 CE)

Primary languages

Arabic, Judaeo-Arabic

ʿAllān, sells her Nubian female slave Naʿīm to Sitt al-Munā bt. […] There is a clause stating that Yehuda b. ʿAllān permitted (? amḍā li-zawjatih) this sale. Witnessed by Menaḥem b. […] Verso: Subsequent deed of sale in Arabic script. Sitt al-Munā sold Naʿīm to the Christian physician ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b.

Related People

4

Related Places

1

Related Documents

1

Tags

• aodeh
• bill of sale
• nahray b. nissim
• slave

3 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Simḥa ha-Levi al-Nīsābūrī to Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid aka ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi al-Dimashqī. […] He sent goods with Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā al-Fāsī. He heard that the addressee had arrived safely (in Fustat?) together with a group of other merchants in a letter he received from Abū l-Faraj Hiba al-Ḥamawī (whose letter was delivered by Wahb the relative of Naḥrīr).

Related People

4

Tags

• nisaburi

1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Several names are preceded by ṣaḥḥa, 'paid.' Each name also ends with a line extended to the end of the column, possibly signifying that it has been paid. […] Many of the people listed bear surnames indicating their place of origin, including Baghdad, Amid (in Iraq), Aleppo, Damascus, Tiberias, Gaza, Sicily, or indicating their profession, including porter, packer, night watchman, dyer, soap maker, or mosaic craftsman. […] Some of the names on T-S Misc.8.67 are: Naṭīra b. Yosef al-Nāṭūr (the watchman); Naḥum b. Khalaf; [...] b.

Related Documents

1

Tags

• capitation tax
• chicken
• dimme
• jaliya
• jizya
• (+ 2 more)

2 Transcriptions

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Upper fragment: Letter addressed to Abū ʿAlī, probably Yeḥezqel ha-Levi (his name is written in the margin), in Alexandria.

Related People

1

Related Documents

1

1 Discussion

Document date

Rabīʿ I 534 Hijrī (26 October 1139–24 November 1139 CE)

Primary language

Arabic

Fragment of a legal document in Arabic script, with an addendum on the back concerning the same case. There are also notes in the margin in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. The verso has a date which reads as Rabīʿ al-Awwal 534 H (?). Needs examination for content.

Tags

• dimme

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The sender is asking Sayyidnā Sar ha-Sarim and al-Rayyis to help a woman and some orphans. Alexandria is mentioned.

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Manṣūr(?) b. Abū l-Ṭayyib al-mutaʿalliq bi-dīwān al-[...]. Mentions blessings for the addressee, then a certain Mūsā, and further down the millers (al-ṭaḥḥānīn).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Mentions various names (al-ḥaver, [Abū l-]Khayr al-Najjār), sums of money, and the police (al-shurṭa).

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Scribed by Avraham b. Ismāʿīl al-Maghribī. Also signed by Mevorakh b. Yehuda.

Tags

• ib7
• india book
• on textile

2 Transcriptions

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Short letter to 'the in-law' Yosef and 'the daughter Esther Yāqūta, also mentioning Khuḍayr,' in a crude hand and extremely colloquial language. […] On verso it states ‘(to the) house of Maʿtūq al-Miṣratī’. (Information in part from CUDL)

Tags

• 15th or 16th c

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Short letter written and sent from Alexandria by Musa b. Abu al-Hayy to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat, dealing with a shipment of robes and with collecting a debt of 106 dinars.

Related People

2

Tags

• nahray b. nissim
• trade

2 Transcriptions 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Musa b. Abu al-Hayy from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat.

Related People

2

Tags

• nahray b. nissim
• trade

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Arabic

Dating: Probably late Mamluk or early Ottoman era (the date is given but is difficult to read). Involves ʿAlī b. Muḥammad and mentions "al-dīwān al-maʿmūr."

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

Describes various architectural elements of a house: the living room (majlis), the guesthouse (dār al-ḍiyāfa), the wind catcher (al-bādhanj). Signed by Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. ʿAlī, among others. Needs further examination.

Tags

• architecture
• badhanj

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

List of books, possibly from a physician's library. The books include Al-Majūsī, Al-kāmil fī al-ṣinā‘a; a commentary on Megillat Esther; a Pentateuch; a prayer-book; a commentary on Ruth; a copy of the Song of Songs; and a codex with no title.

Tags

• booklist

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

One section is headed "al-ḥāfiẓ allāh" (God is the guarantor) followed by "Owed to Barhūn and Nissim the sons of Isḥāq al-Tāhertī. . . "; later mentions Yisraʾel b.

Related People

3

No Scholarship Records

Primary language

Arabic

The writer is Barakāt b. al-Dayyān (presumably Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, cf. ENA 3927.1 and CUL Or. 1080 J155 for other specimens of his Arabic-script handwriting). The recipient is an older, respected relative: the writer addresses him as both 'father' and 'brother' in the protocol, where he also includes blessings for the [addressee's?] father Abū l-Thanā'. […] Line 15f: "By the Law, I rejoiced for his sake when [a newborn boy] took the place of the boy of our master the Nasi on Saturday and consoled his heart" (wa-ḥaqq al-sharīʿa laqad faraḥtu lahu lammā khalafa yawma l-sabt ʿalā ghulāmi Sayyidinā al-Nāsī wa-jabara qalbahu).

Related Documents

1

Tags

• arabic script

No Scholarship Records

Inferred date

1094–1097 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Yosef to Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria. Dating: 1094–97 CE. "The addressee Moses, mostly referred to as Mūsā, was active in communal affairs and was honored, because of his generosity, with the title Segullat (ha-'Yeshiva), 'Treasure' (of the Academy). He was a native of Tunisia, who had settled in Alexandria and was temporarily in Fustat. Lines 1-32, and margin: Expressions of friendship, complaints about the bad times, personal misfortune, and an eye disease, which made it impossible for Amram to come to Fustat in person. […] Lines 7-20: In his dire circumstances ʿAmram had given some of his books to the schoolteacher Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī (also a Maghrebi) to sell, but this man had moved to Fustat and nothing was heard from him.

Related People

5

Related Places

4

Tags

• ib-untranslated-eng
• ib2
• illness
• illness letter 969-1517
• india book

2 Transcriptions 2 Translations 1 Discussion

Document date

1238–1252 CE

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

The sender reports on a circumcision that he performed on the 9th of Av for (the newborn son of) Mufaḍḍal al-ʿAnbarī, the paternal uncle of Muhadhdhab and Abū Saʿd al-ʿAnbarī. […] Ḥananel has disappeared; some say that he went to Qūṣ, some say Alexandria, and some say he is hiding in Fustat. His son now gives public lectures on Shabbat and Monday and Thursday eves. […] The same day, a decree was proclaimed, requiring Christians and Jews to wear a distinctive mark (ʿalāma and zunnār) under threat of life and forfeit of property.

Related People

1

Related Places

3

Tags

• 'alama
• david i maimonides
• rabbenu hananel
• zunnar

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

Sivan 1470 Seleucid (19 May 1159–17 June 1159 CE)

Yaaqov, Miska Berakhot b. Avraham al-Ḥaver, Makārim al-Parnas, Abū l-Ḥasan Kohen b. Ṣāliḥ, Abū Saʿd (known as Ibn al-[..]ṭ), Yehuda b. Shelomo and Shelomo ha-Levi b. […] Information from CUDL. See also Goitein's note cards.

Related People

2

Related Documents

2

Tags

• slaves

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Document date

19 Adar 1538 Seleucid (16 March 1227 CE)

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

Letter on behalf of a Byzantine convert named Raḥel, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. The main part of the letter (in Judaeo-Arabic) is scribed by the teacher and court clerk Yehuda b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī; there is a postscript (in Hebrew) added by Shemuel (a.k.a. […] Yaʿaqov corroborates the story in the body of the letter and blames the husband's mother, who tempted him to do these bad things, and also "his wife, the snake, who married him against his will"—which makes it sound that Yosef has already married the local woman.

Related People

5

Related Places

3

Tags

• avraham maimonides
• byzantium
• communal
• illness
• illness: changing name
• (+ 8 more)

2 Transcriptions 1 Discussion

Document date

middle decade of Ṭevet 145[5] Seleucid (20 December 1143–29 December 1143 CE)

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Elʿazar ha-Ḥazzān known as Ibn Thābit reaches a settlement with Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Berakhot Ibn al-Dayyān who had sued him and made him take an oath in court. […] The original contract stipulated that after Ramaḍān 538 AH, Yeshuʿa would become responsible for the rent and all of the government taxes. With this document, they are changing that stipulation, and Yakhin will continue to pay the rent and be responsible for all the government dealings and taxes; he will also continue to pay the rent of 15 wariq dirhams and retain the right to live in the store. […] (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) Join: Alan Elbaum

Related Places

1

1 Transcription 2 Discussions

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Complaint of a ḍāmin (tax farmer) in al-Minya about competitors from Tyre, submitted to the Nagid Mevorakh around 1096–97 (Goitein, perhaps on the basis of Mevorakh's titles). […] Badr al-Jamālī died in 487/1094. If, in 1096–97, the ḍāmin had served a year and a half of a three-year term, that term began c. 1095, so the vizier in question was al-Afḍal, or there was an earlier appointment from Badr that was renewed. […] Mentions an official known as al-Dhakhīra, presumably a shortening of Dhakhīrat al-Mulk (as in T-S 32.7 (PGPID 17079)) or Dhakhīrat al-Dawla.

Related Places

8

Tags

• communal
• damin
• petition
• tax

1 Transcription 1 Translation 1 Discussion

Primary language

Judaeo-Arabic

Abū Zikrī reports that his masters, the princes al-Malik al-ʿAzīz and al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam, were laying siege to Damascus and that he was unable to get through to them to request a leave. Although ill himself, the writer states that he visited the sultan’s palace every other day. The letter also makes a note of “our colleagues at Qūṣ.” (Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS 18 (1967), 18; and S.

Related People

2

Related Places

4

Tags

• abu zikri al-rayyis
• al-malik al-aziz
• al-malik al-mu'azzam
• damascus
• illness
• (+ 4 more)

1 Transcription 1 Discussion

Primary languages

Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic

There are several distinct items on this fragment, all but one in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. […] Maʿālī who is presumably her husband; alimony (mezonot); her ketubba; and "a complete geṭ." A daughter of Muwaffaq the freedman appears also in T-S 10J2.15 (PGPID 7757). (IV) Something to do with al-Nadiv and monthly rent payments for a certain house.

Related People

2

Tags

• communal
• draft
• maimonides

1 Transcription 1 Discussion