Geniza Lab

Recipes in Hebrew with some Ladino mixed in.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.

Legal or state document. In Arabic script. After the basmala: "[...] in the name of Jurayj(?) b. Ḥayyūn from the money/property of...." Needs further examination. Reused on recto for Hebrew liturgical text for Rosh Hashana, probably related to the Zikhronot of the additional service. (Information in part from JRL online catalogue.)

Document in Judaeo-Arabic. Detailing financial arrangements. Handwriting of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe?

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very rudimentary hand and spellings. Mentioning a waṣiyya (advice/exhortation). Requesting an urgent response. Regards to the addressee's siblings and mother and to the writer's sister and her children.

Letter fragment. In Arabic script.

A partially preserved medical prescription that mentions burnt goat-horn, eggplant, and a cup of wine. The recto (B 5664-1), in the same hand, bears a complete prescription, for menstruation. For a prescription that includes burnt goat-horn, see Sabur b. Sahl, Aqrabadhin al-saghir / The Small Dispensatory (trans. Oliver Kahl, 2003, p. 50). For the materia medica of the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II.

Medical prescription, for menstruation. It recommends a three-day course of powdered substances, to be taken in admixture with wine. The materia medica are equal parts of kohl, dried cane (Acorus calamus?), and black cumin (Nigella sativa), which, like 'menstruation' at top, receives its Hebrew name. The verso, B 5664-2, bears a partially preserved prescription in the same hand. For materia medica used by the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II, pp. 261-72.

Minute fragment from a list. Abu Nasr is mentioned. AA

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

The scorpion amulet attributed to Yehuda b. Yeḥezqel. Belongs with ENA NS 73.12 and T-S AS 143.26.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Peraḥya b. Menashshe. Fragment (upper left corner). Only the opening greetings are preserved.

Minute fragment from a marriage deed. On recto probably from a marriage agreement or ketubah, with monogamy clause and probably a stipulation about domicile. On verso probably the qiyyum (legal establishment of this deed) under the authority of Masliah Gaon. Only part of the date survived: Ad[ar … 14]48 (only תמ remains) = 1137. AA

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. No full sentences are preserved. There are wishes for someone to be recompensed in heaven, and possibly a report on business affairs in the sender's location. On the other side, there is mention of someone named Abū Naṣr.

An unnamed elder (titled 'the most illustrious, solid') directs the beadle Abu al-Tahir to furnish Harun the copyist with a good copy of a Torah scroll so that the latter can copy from it. Harun is to bring the book to the beadle each Friday, to be read on the Sabbath. A beadle named Abu al-Tahir b. Mahfuz was active between 1183 and 1223 (Med. Soc. II 421, 431, 546; IV 436; V 547). A penurious copyist named Harun is mentioned in JRL Series B 4525-1. The verso (B 5738-2) is blank.

Legal testimony, fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter. In Arabic script. Address only. Addressed to the faqīh [...] b. ʿAbd [...] b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, in the Muṣāṣa quarter of Fustat.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Sefaradi-influenced hand. Needs further examination

Letter fragment addressed to Ḥalfon b. Aharon(?). In Hebrew.

Letter fragment in Hebrew. May mention 4 peraḥim.