Geniza Lab

This document, which continues onto the verso, lists in detail payments to individuals, some for commodities (including bread, flour, and meat), as well as amounts owed (possibly for rent) connected to a qodesh ('holy trust', that is a pious foundation; see Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations, 3-4 et passim). The payments are made on behalf of a haver ('member (of the yeshiva),' apparently associated with the administration of the qodesh). A man named Wahish appears in three other documents related to the revenues of a qodesh in the 1040s (see Gil, ibid., 194, 201-2, 206-7). All quantities are in dirhams.

This is the verso continuation of an account of payments and debts connected with a qodesh (pious foundation).

Probably a list of recipients of communal funds, on a recycled Arabic document (of which hardly anything remains). The list includes the supervisors of the quarters (aṣḥāb al-arbāʿ) of Qaṣr al-Shamʿ and al-Muṣāṣa neighborhoods (see Med Soc II, 369–70 on their presence in communal accounts). It also lists Abū l-Najm [...] Yeḥiel; al-Shaykh Efrayim al-Melammed; Abū l-Faraj with the curious title "the former collector of the bread of the Kushim (? גאבי כבז אלכושיים קדימא)"; Ibn al-Fuḍayl; Faḍā'il the blind (al-sūmā); and Sayyid al-Ahl.

Probably a continuation of the letter on recto, referring to 'the medium board' (al-lawḥ al-wasṭānī) of the boy Yiṣḥaq. The writer wants to be informed about everything.

Letter written by a man to his nephew. The lines preserved are mostly in Hebrew and mention the addressee's father. Dating: Probably no earlier than 13th century, on paleographic grounds. Verso appears to be in the same hand and is probably the continuation.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment (right side only). Apparently a deathbed will. No names are preserved. A man makes financial arrangements for a woman (presumably his wife) in the event that he should die. If she remarries, she will lose her rights. There is also a reference to his daughter (or perhaps daughter's daughter). The verso is blank.

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Legal document. Location: al-Maḥalla (בעיר אלמחלה הגדולה הסמוכה לצען). Dating: Likely late 11th century, based on the reference to the court of David ha-Nasi ha-Gadol (=David b. Daniel?) in the validation. Witnesses to the main document were ʿOvadya b. Avraham ha-Levi Rosh ha-Qahal; Seʿadya b. Elʿazar; and Yeshuʿa b. Avraham (now missing). The validation is signed by the scribe Yosef b. Moshe ha-Levi (also the scribe for the main document?); Yaʿaqov b. [...] ha-Kohen; and [...] b. Menaḥem ha-Kohen. The document itself concerns ʿĀliya bt. Yosef ha-Kohen Peqid ha-Soḥarim and Yeshuʿa b. Elʿazar (not the same one as in Bodl. MS heb. d 65/13, if the dating of the present document is correct). Needs further examination for the details of the case. On verso there are two more lines containing the draft of the beginning of a legal document. Join was made by whoever catalogued the JRL fragments. ASE

A list of Judaeo-Arabic roots, purpose unclear.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Somebody (with a Greek name?) bought "the rest of Plato's Laws (nāmūsiyya)." A cane seller (bayyāʿ al-qaṣab) is mentioned. The writer's business is not immediately clear; needs further examination. There is a note in a different hand in which Naḥum Binyamin Shelomo agrees that he owes Eliyyahu Kaspi (perhaps the scribe of the accounts) 130 gerushim.

Query in Judeo-Arabic addressed to an unidentified legal authority concerning a husband's financial obligations towards his wife. The text mentions several objects including the wife's household effects and gold and silver jewelry, and the existence of three children. Undated. Recto is largely effaced and appears to be unrelated.

List of names from different families.

List of verses or piyyutim, probably.

Small fragment from the beginning of a letter in Judeo Arabic. The hand is typical to 13th century, and might be by Shlomo b. Elya (compare with TS NS 304.7). AA

Letter, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic. Late, perhaps Mamluk-era. Needs examination.

very faded, almost illegible.

Small fragment from the beginning of a letter in Hebrew and Judeo Arabic. The writer inform about what has happened to our coreligionists in Fustat, but the letter is fragmentary and almost nothing survived. AA

Document or notes in Arabic script. Perhaps a draft of a letter or petition. Needs examination. On the other side there is Hebrew literary text. AA. ASE.

Fragmentary record of testimony from the 'Permanent Court' in Fustat dated Sivan 1367/May-June 1056.