Geniza Lab

Rhymed invitation to a festive event on the 29th of the month at 3:00 at the home of Nissim Lumbroso (נסים לומברוזו). Dating: 19th century. The invitation is copied out two and a half times, so probably this is merely a writing exercise.

Literary text in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentioning the government/sulṭān and the ancestors and the synagogue and the Torah... it is difficult to see how it all ties together.

Judaeo-Arabic poetry. About the beauty of the Levant (ll.1–3) and the destruction of the Temple (l. 8f). Perhaps to be read on Tisha b'Av.

Accounts in Arabic script. Large, filling four columns. Consists entirely of columns of names with eastern Arabic numerals.

Five leaves of an account book. Mostly daily entries of a money dealer. Goitein writes, "The first two of five leaves written by a fledgling banker are translated here because they convey an idea of the book-keeping for deposit banking, for which no other examples have been found thus far. Each customer was listed on a separate sheet showing his weekly debit and credit. The second account shows a heavy overdraft. No balances from preceding weeks are indicated and presumably did not exist. The writer was a mere beginner and, as his poor handwriting shows, had little education. His capital consisted of 8 7/24 dinars, see column IId, f. 8, and on one of the pages not rendered here, p. 8 b, l. 6, he notes an expenditure of 3 dirhams on the manāqid, a chest with drawers, as the money changers used to keep. His name was Mūsā, p. 8a, l.4, and it is highly probably that he is identical with the banker bearing that name, mentioned with small sums in [T-S Ar.54.15]..., since the two lists have other names and details in common. One is surprised to find great merchants such as Nahray b. Nissim and Barhūn Tāhertī or members of the Exchange confiding their money to such a poor man. Most probably they wanted to give Mūsā, who perhaps was an orphan (which would explain his poor education), a start in life." (Information from Goitein's edition and index card.)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, perhaps 17th or 18th century. "The blessed account of the expenses on meat by Yiṣḥaq." Arranged by parasha.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Mentions people such as 'the woman' (al-sitt); Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Siqbāl al-Andalusī; Barakāt Ibn Shūʿa; "my cousin (ibn ʿammī) Yiṣḥaq; and 'the woman the daughter of al-Kharazī.' Lists both credits and debits. Concerns a wide range of commodities, from household goods to garments to foods and materia medica (e.g., sumac, chebulic myrobalan, a preserve, qāqullā, rhubarb) to gems (e.g., a ruby worth 2 dinars) and gold (e.g., unminted washed gold (dhahab maghzūl, i.e. maghsūl)). (Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalogue.)

Bifolio of accounts in Arabic script. For Abū l-[...] al-ʿAfṣī. Needs further examination. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Short note from a father to the teacher of his son. Only if the boy memorizes biblical passages which he will be able to chant in public will he be prepared to learn. Information from Goitein's note card.

Writing exercises.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Both pages are filled with poetical phrases in Judaeo-Arabic, significance unclear.

Tax receipt from the dossier of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb. Written by the jahbadh Yūḥannā b. Mīkhāʾīl.

Both sides consist of Arabic poetry transcribed into Judaeo-Arabic. There is an interesting albeit damaged postscript in a different handwriting (but conceivably the same scribe) that begins "I am the [....] from among those who sung to..." Needs further examination. ASE

Draft of a court record dated 623 (1226) written on a very small piece of paper (4 x 2.5 in) regarding the testimony of Abū Saʿīd al-Levi b. Abū l-Maʿānī that Abu ʾl-Faḍl b. Mukhtār al-Iskandarī had died while in Kalah (Goitein: on the west coast of present-day Malaysia). The document establishes that India traders ventured to Southeast Asia. Goitein didn't supply a reading for the place-name after Kalah ("the lands of ..."); Marina Rustow and Michael Laffan (March 2021) read "Java" (al-jāwa). The document gives dates according to the Jewish (Seleucid) calendar and the hijrī calendar. Old IB Number: 322. New IB Number: VII, 32. In the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Dating: 10 Tammuz 1537 (Seleucid)

Several obscure sentences in Judaeo-Arabic. Recognizable phrases are "expel the superfluity of the food" and "Levantine apple" (?) and "sick people," suggesting that these may be medical aphorisms. But needs further examination. ASE.

The remnants of 8 pages of magical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic; only the parts closes to the central crease/binding have survived. ASE.

Recto: Inventory of a dyer's store. (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR Verso of T-S Ar.30.89: Arabic script, needs examination.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

5 pages of a late Hebrew literary composition that seems mostly about biblical subjects. For example, "Why was the name of Avraham changed as well as the name of Ya'aqov, but the name of Yizhaq was not changed?" (page 2). May belong with T-S Ar.30.50. ASE.