Geniza Lab

One side: Legal formularies, including one for semikha for a slaughterer. The other side: Legal document (שטר עיסקא) or perhaps a formulary of one that happens to use real names. Dating: Ottoman-era, based on the currencies, which include reales and medins (מ״כ = מאידיס כסף).

Private accounts written by Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1058. Details about expenses. Mentions books. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #286) VMR

Letter, probably in the hand of Shelomo. He spent a few days in Minya on the way to Cairo with his children on the occasion of a wedding.

Letter in the hand of Avraham Maimonides in which he instructs Fakhr al-Dawla regarding a sum of money, nine dinars, still owed, and what to tell Abu al-'Ala about it. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Rhymed prose in Judaeo-Arabic, perhaps with a bit of Hebrew. In the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. One side involves a physician; the other side involves a retelling of the story of Moses bringing down the Torah. This is one of the fragments that he signs (אנא אלאדיב נאצר).

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer mentions a warrāq and a promissory note (ḥujja) for 5 dinars. On verso there is literary text in Arabic, perhaps a collection of poetry (wa-ghayruhu... ghayruhu...).

Letter of appeal from an unknown man, in Bilbays, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. The writer had lived with Eliyyahu's son (Abū Zikrī) in Jerusalem. (Other letters to Eliyyahu from another one of Abū Zikrī's Jerusalem roommates have survived: see T-S 8J16.3 and T-S 8J16.3 by Avraham b. Rav Shelomo the Yemeni.) The writer gives his story. He was supporting himself from his store ('as your son will confirm'). He heard that his wife had died in Bilbays, so he leased the store and came to Bilbays. "God disciplined me with great discipline and with great illness 'from the illnesses of Egypt' and with a disease of the eyes." He lost all his money and "the money of others" (=his creditors?). He concludes with eloquent expressions of his shame in turning to Eliyyahu for help. "Due to the great shame and hardship and pain/illness, I have not turned to (afṣartu, from Hebrew הפציר) any Jew this Passover, and I have not gone to the synagogue, rather [I am] like a corpse in the grave. Do what you can according to your power and your righteousness." ASE

Letter probably from a man, in Jerusalem, probably to a woman named Marḥaba, perhaps in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with many colloquial forms (incl. the suffix שי for verbs that are negated). Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 15th century, based on handwriting and language. The letter is full of grief and self-pity. This fragment begins with a discussion of the death of a woman; the writer's father and mother have also died; the writer resents being rebuked for the lack of letters. On verso, "We see others congratulating each other on/with their children, and I am in sorrow. . . You have killed my soul. . . This deed that you have done, nobody does this. If someone sends a piece of news and reports that someone (or the wife of someone, āl fulānī?) died, I am confounded, I don't know if I should mourn or not." The writer requests a proper letter containing news of the address and the family. "You asked if we have an epidemic (magefa) here in Jerusalem. Thank God, there is no evil and no heat (? lā sharr wa-lā ḥarr, probably an idiom). After greeting those of you who have survived, (I inform you) that your son and brother-in-law are well." ASE

Segment of a letter from a woman in the process of divorcing her husband to her 'lawyer'.

Letter from Abū Manṣūr to his 'father' (it seems father-in-law) al-Rayyis Hibatallāh the judge, representative of the Nagid David, in Alexandria: Dating: Based on the name of the Nagid, either 1237–1300 (if David I) or 1355–1410 (if David II). In Arabic script with occasional Hebrew script mixed in. Goitein refers to the script as "childish," in part because it is relatively easy to read and has diacritics. The letter is a detailed business letter concerning the textile trade. See Goitein's note card for some of the content.

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim. 1065. Details about trading pearls. Mentions partnership with Nahray’s circle of friends. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #296) VMR

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In a rudimentary hand. The addressee failed to do something that he had promised, and the writer is telling him to do it. On verso there are jottings (phrases from letters) in Arabic script, Judaeo-Arabic, and Hebrew.

Legal document (iqrār) in Arabic script. Declaration by al-Masīḥī al-ʿAmīd Abū l-Faḍl b. Abī l-Majd b. Bishāra al-Naṣrānī acknowledges a debt that he owes to Abū l-Fatḥ (or Abū l-Faraj) al-Isrā'īlī al-Ṣā'igh al-Mawṣilī. Dated: 626 AH, which is 1228/29 CE (per the Baker/Polliack catalog). Information from the Baker/Polliack catalog.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. NB: Goitein's index card and the corresponding citation in Med Soc I, p. 440 no. 9 seem to belong with T-S Ar.7.3(2).

Letter from Mufaḍḍal b. al-Ḥaver to Abū l-Maḥāsin [...] al-Maḥallī. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is very faded, but much of it should be legible with effort. Awaits further examination.

Legal document (iqrār) in Arabic script. Declaration by Khalīl b. Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr al-Ḥalabī al-Muḥāmī (the lawyer? the soldier?). Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Letter draft in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Possibly 11th century. Beginning only. The writer reports on previous letters that he had sent with the fayj to the addressee and to Abū l-Ḥasan. He brings up the heartache that the addressee had given him with a letter full of blame and rebuke. The draft ends here.

List of names. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded.

Esoteric text in Judaeo-Arabic. May be magical ( "indeed you will be able to do whatever you wish to Khalaf b. Moshe") and/or for treasure-hunting ("indeed, you will find it")

Letter from a Qaraite religious authority to a pupil. In Judaeo-Arabic. Containing the answers to a number of queries that the addressee had sent him. Chief among them is the proper interpretation of beginning the counting of the Omer on "the morrow of the Sabbath" (Leviticus 23:15–16)—a famous bone of exegetical contention. Rabbanites interpret it as the day after the first yom ṭov of Passover, while Qaraites interpret it as the day after the shabbat that falls during Passover. This writer presents various arguments and proofs and says, "And no one can dispute this with some tradition (i.e. Oral Torah) that they know of. . . because they did not see the messenger, and they are just deriving it (?yastamiddū) from us." There follows a somewhat cryptic analogy to whether or not we believe what a clothier says about the price of his merchandise. There are several additional exegetical issues broached here, and verso reads, "the answer/responsum to the query on 'the morrow of the Sabbath.'" ASE