Geniza Lab

Letter draft in Italian on a bifolium which may have constituted a broader notebook. A date may appear on the right page of the recto but is too faded to be legible. The fragment is business-related given the weadspread discussion of quantities and the author's mention of "facendo informa di pagamento / giving notice of payment" (l. 7r). On the verso there is an intricate table and numerical calculations that involve a variety of ratios. MCD.

Accounts, medieval, listing names and amounts of money. Names include: Sayyidnā al-Nasi; Abū Saʿd; Abū l-Faraj; Abū l-Najm Munajjā; Abū l-Faraj al-Munaqqi (?).

Accounts in Ladino mentioning the year 590 = 1829/30 CE.

Late accounts, arranged according to parshiyot, mentioning names including: Page 1: Yom Tov (?) Aripol, Nissim Nuṣayrī, Nissim Raṣon, Avraham Hakim (?), Page 2: Eliyyahu Ṣahal, Nissim Najjār, a Pinto, David Bibas, Yiṣḥaq Bibas, Yiṣḥaq Bialobos, Yosef Bialobos, Yosef Kattawi, Moshe Yagi, Moshe Aghion.

Accounts mainly in Ladino, written in the same hand but not necessarily from the same notebook (the pages are not all the same size, and the grids on different fragments are in purple ink vs. red/brown ink). Lists of names in Ladino which follow a common formula repeating the phrase "la mujer de X." There are also Greek influenced names such as "la mujer de Nicoli ẓu Demitri". The list's structure and the paleography help to estimate the dating as 18th/19th-century. One fragment additionally contains a list of donations (?) from individuals including Yaʿaqov Bibas, a Mosseri, and a Bialobos. MCD.

Letter in Ladino.

Late accounts mentioning Merkado Karo, Me'ir ben Naʿim, Eliyyyahu b. Ṣahal, Mordekhai Bialobos.

Small fragment of a list of names in Hebrew.

Late accounts.

Short note to Saʿadya ha-Dayyan in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Avraham Maimonides? Reporting that a certain affair was concluded successfully.

Accounts.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded. Dating: Maybe ca. 1100, if the "Sar ha-Sarim" mentioned is the Nagid Mevorakh. Also refers to Ibn al-Jabīna(?), al-shaykh al-jalīl Bū l-Khayr Andūna, the late Mārūt(?) b. Yūnus, and the rains.

Large list of names and sums of money (probably donations) dated Passover 1795 (5555).

Beginning of a late Judaeo-Arabic business letter (abandoned after 6 lines), listing a number of goods the writer has to sent to his "brother."

Business letter that mentions men named Hasday and Ahmad, concerning shipments of cotton. The verso contains seemingly unrelated jottings in Arabic script.

From a ledger of donations arranged by the parshiyot of the year 1803/1804 (5564); most of the ledger ended up in Paris, but this fragment ended up in Manchester. In fact, this segment of JRL Series B and AIU.VII.F seem to have been acquired from the same stratum of the Genizah and then sorted by genre (in this case, accounts and donation lists)

A record that Me'ir ben Naʿim paid the rent for a qāʿah somehow related to "Argaz Sefaradim" (?) from 26 August 1812 (18 Elul 5572) through January 1813 (Shevat 5573). Signed by Yehudah Pietro (?).

Accounts.

Letter addressed to the physician (rofeʾ) Moshe b. Ṣadoq ha-Dayyan ha-Kohen. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. The paper is darkened and the text is faded (damage from a book binding?). The addressee is given grand titles such as משה הרב המובהק הפטיש החזק דגל הרבנים. His two sons are blessed. After a very deferential introduction, the sender expresses his deep regret (al-nīrān wa-l-nadāma) for having neglected something. About two-thirds of the way down the front page, there is a small gap, and the sender turns to addressing a woman (plausibly his sister and the wife of the addressee; she is not his own wife, since he refers to her husband further down). He continues addressing the woman for the remainder of the letter. The next section is too damaged to read. The phrase "to Nāblus" appears at the bottom of the page. The sender then begins reporting on his pilgrimage to the graves of biblical saints in Palestine. He mentions Kafr Ḥāris and ʿAwarta and the tombs of al-Sayyid Elʿazar, Itamar, and Pinḥas; and apparently another village with the tombs of al-Sayyid Yehoshuaʿ, his father Nūn, and of Kalev b. Yefune. There are further descriptions of other places and sites he visited with his companions (including the tomb of Joseph in Bal[āṭa]), but the paper is torn and the names are mostly missing. He adds, "I have only told you these things because you sent a letter blaming me..." On verso, he refers to "[...] your staying there, other than your husband." May refer to her having ophthalmia (wa-antī ramida, v8). A few lines further down, "I have no silver and I cannot find anyone... Your cousin (ibn ʿammik)... Do not cut your (letters off from me)...." Note that the first fragment under this shelfmark is unrelated. The letter requires further examination, ideally with multispectral imaging.

List of parshiyot and dates in a calligraphic hand with artistic markings.