Oxford, Bodleian MS. Heb. d. 66.5

Bodleian Library (Oxford, United Kingdom)

One leaf document

Paper

Black (carbon based)

Calamus

No ruling can be seen

26+marginalia

11th Century CE

Egypt, Alexandria

al-Mahdiyya, al-Shām, Fustat

Judeo-Arabic

Letter

Letter from Yehuda b. Moshe ibn Sighmār, in Alexandria, to ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā (aka Ḥayyim) the parnas, in Fustat. Yehuda explains the problems he has been having collecting monies owed him by a 'partner,' Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Faraj al-Raḥbī, having to do with the sale of a valuable piece of ambergris. He has heard that Abū Isḥāq is now in Fustat, but he cannot come in person due to an eye disease (recto, margin, ll. 1–2). He requests that ʿEli represent him in litigation against that person. He has enclosed a power of attorney with his letter.

No vowels or accents

M. Cohen, "A Partnership Gone Bad: Business Relationships and the Evolving Law of the Cairo Geniza Period,"Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 56, no. 2 (Brill, 2013), 218-263.

M. Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael‎ (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv University, 1997), vol. 4.

Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/578/ (accessed December 22, 2025).