Geniza Lab

Ownership note? In a prayerbook. Seʿadya ha-Levi b. Hillel ha-Levi.

Four columns from Deuteronomy.

Note in Arabic script in the upper left margin of a page of dirges. May mention Sharaf al-Umarā'.

Business letter in Arabic script. Dated: 1119 AH, which is 1708 CE. Concerning a property dispute in Damietta. On verso there is a seal as well as a ẓidduq ha-din in Hebrew. Information kindly provided by Jane Hathaway. Line 3 mentions "الامير(?) محمد اغا" and other Ottoman officials throughout, line 4 "waqf"?

Document in Arabic script. Wide space between the lines. Miniature طs above certain words (=ihmāl). May simply be pen trials. On verso there are seliḥot.

Document in Arabic script. Unidentified. Reused for lamentations for the Ninth of Av. Information from Penn Catalog.

Arabic text, undeciphered. Line four includes the phrase من الامور وحكم الله(؟). Sharing a fragment with Hebrew poetry (arhāṭ) by (or dedicated to?) Abū Saʿd b. Yisra'el ha-Zaqen (al-Tustari?), copied by his student.

Literary text with a signature: Peraḥya b. Ṭarfon ha-Kohen. The same man appears in T-S 8J11.15 and T-S 24.74 (early 12th century). Information from the Penn catalog.

Literary text with a signature: Yefet b. ʿAmram. See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h293.html) for detailed description and potential identifications of this Yefet.

Document in Arabic script. Chancery hand, huge space between the lines. Probably a state document or petition. Three lines are preserved. On recto there is Hebrew literary text.

Panegyric dedicated to Yaḥyā b. Avraham. See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h318.html) for detailed description and potential identifications.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to an important person; huge space between the lines. The handwriting is probably known. Describing a communal controversy with the blind cantor She'erit b. Yefet at its center. Needs further examination by someone familiar with liturgical controversies. On verso there is a well-preserved Hebrew poem.

Debate poem between wine and water. In Hebrew. Likely in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. Composed by Yehuda b. Eliyyahu (per the acrostic). A complete version of the same poem may be found in T-S 8K15.9 (copied in a different hand). Information in part from Penn Catalog.

Panegyric by Yeshuʿa b. Dunash b. Moshe Av Bet Din dedicated to the brothers Simḥa and Netanel b. Mesabar(?). See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h325.html) for further description and potential identifications.

Megillat Miẓrayim, here called "Megillat ha-Saṭan ha-Yaduaʿ." Retelling the events of the rebellion of Ahmad Basha against Suleiman I of Turkey in 1524, and its effects on the Jews of Cairo; A complete copy of this "Megillah", in which the Arabic translation appears in a parallel column, is found in London, British Library Or. 7768 (Margoliouth no. 1170). Information from Penn Catalog.

Two folios of poetry in an unusual mixture of Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, and Arabic. 2.5 of the 4 pages are filled with a Judaeo-Arabic & Arabic poem, which is a lament addressed to a communal leader "Rabbi David." The first and last line read: "O Rabbi David, the Jews are suffering in your absence, our friends are stricken and our enemies are gloating." At the bottom of fol. 1r, more of the story emerges: the speakers repent of having wronged Rabbi David (niḥnā qad asaynā fī ḥaqqak) and mourn that those who have replaced him in leading prayers and giving the sermon are no match for him. It is tempting to connect this poem to the deposition and later reinstatement of David I Maimonides (cf. the English edition of Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, pp.115–16 and BL Or. 5549.4). The two folios under this shelfmark also contain half a page of a Hebrew poem and a full page of a macaronic Hebrew/Arabic poem consisting of verses rhyming on "حو/חו." There are five verses per stanza, and there is no clear pattern dictating which verses are Hebrew and which are Arabic. ASE

Beginning of a ketubba, 870 CE. (Or 871 CE?) "The oldest dated Genizah document. A draft of a ketubah, in which the writing is interrupted after the date in the seventh line, probably because the day in the month is mistaken: 17 Tishre 1183 Seleucid, which is (שבת אשר בתשרי [...] אלפא ומאת ותמנ״ן מציון ותלת), Seleucid year (לשתרות)." Information from Penn Catalog.

Recto: Marriage contract (or renewal of a marriage contract?). Location: Fustat. Date: 13[..] Seleucid, which combined with the fact that the document on verso was signed by Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva, suggests not long before 1088 CE. Groom: Manṣūr b. Moshe ha-Kohen. Bride: Zayn bt. Aharon ha-Mumḥe. Early marriage gift: 10 dinars. Delayed marriage gift: 5 dinars. Dowry: 1/4 house worth 30 dinars, outfit worth 30 dinars. Verso: Addendum in the hand of Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva (who also signs). The wife, Zayn, sells the 1/4 house, receives 30 dinars, and releases (her husband; not expressly said, but since it was included in the ketubba, must be him). Two others sign: Moshe b. David ha-Levi and Ṣemāh b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. There are a few phrases in Arabic script on verso (only on Halper 333); one of them appears to be about love (perhaps the superiority of old love over infatuation? ويا عشقي القديم على...). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards; Halper catalgoue; and CUDL.)

Recto: a fragment of a Hebrew (Karaite?) legal document from Egypt dated 1038/9 CE (1350 Seleucid) and involving [...] Yosef and his wife Ghaniyyah bt. 'Amram. Binyamin b. Yosef is also named. Needs further examination for content. Verso: Hebrew piyyutim. ASE.

Draft of a deed of gifts, 1041