Geniza Lab

Small fragment (upper left corner) of a Judaeo-Arabic letter.

Horizontal strip from the middle of a Judaeo-Arabic letter. "Al-Parnas al-Kohen went to Bilbays two years ago and lived there and made a living with what God provided, until . . . his living. . . "

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, along with a couple practice signatures.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning "the diwan" numerous times, perhaps dated 1717 CE (1129 Hijri, or conceivably 1139).

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Small fragment. Refers to receiving money or goods ([tasa]llamahū) from al-Rayyis. Few other details preserved.

Small fragment of a Hebrew document (literary? genealogical?) mentioning several names: "Shimʿon his son," "Hananya," "Shemaʿya."

Small fragment in Aramaic, perhaps from a rabbinic literary work.

Very faded/damaged text in Judaeo-Arabic, probably a medieval letter.

Fragmentary record of sale; the script suggests that this was written in the Ottoman period.

Small fragment in Judaeo-Arabic, probably from a medieval letter.

Probably a fragment of a medieval Judaeo-Arabic letter, but little is still readable. A virgin is mentioned.

Probably medical prescriptions in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic, listing materia medica and quantities and containing phrases like "min kull wāḥid."

Short note by the gabbai Avraham Yuʿbaṣ affirming that Kasīm (?) Meyuḥas will rent a house in "darb al-midrash" (reading ḍarb as darb) somehow reated to the synagogue of the Mustaʿribim from the 7th of Elul II until the end of Elul of the year 1779 (5539) for 300 a month, yielding a total of 2100. The number 1050 is also given, perhaps a down payment?

Upper left corner of a letter in Ladino. A Gatenio is mentioned.

Order to a pastry chef: "To the elder Abī Saʿd, may God preserve him: please take two copper coins as a deposit, and give the bearer a raṭl of well-done ringlets [ḥulayqāt, probably a type of doughnut]. If you make cakes tomorrow, prepare for me two raṭls of small cakes (kuʿaykāt) of the utmost smallness for me." Proof that cake-pops were invented in medieval Cairo? Goitein: "Cakes, called kaʿk in Arabic (a word that seems, however, not to be connected with its English equivalent), also were normally bought in the bazaar, and the name or designation ka'ki, or cake master, is rather frequent. Here is an order to a cake master, carefully written on a tiny piece of paper: The pastrycook, khamīrī, was another familiar figure." Goitein, Med. Soc. I, 114.

Fragment of a letter in Hebrew and Ladino. Not much is legible. "Ha-Ish ha-Hafetz Hayyim. . . Avraham. . . Y agora. . ." and some pors and paras.

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Avraham Haman and Gavriel Hefez to Karo y Frances & Company, dated 1807 CE (19 Tishrei 5568).

Betrothal document for Yiṣḥaq Goren (?) b. Shelomo and Sitt al-Bayt bt. Avraham Dayyan, dated July 1804 (middle third of Av 5564).

Fragment of a letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. There is a note at the top of recto (part of the address?) indicating that when someone arrived (or arrives?) in Alexandria, something something "to our master Shemuel ha-Nagid."