Geniza Lab

Informal note from the cantor Abū Sahl Levi to his son Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (identification based on handwriting and typical content). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Prior to 1211 CE. The writer gives repeated assurances that Moshe's brother Abū l-Ḥasan (Yedutun) is doing well. Abū l-Ḥasan even asked to write this letter in his own hand, but the writer feared this would tax him and make him weak. Abū l-Ḥasan is administering his own medicine. Another note on the same topic: ENA NS 32.14, in which the recipient is identified as Moshe and Abū l-Ḥasan is identified his brother. ASE.

Report to an Ayyubid official mentioning al-Malik al-ʿĀdil and a deceased official named Shams al-Dīn. The Mainz shelfmark is how it's listed in FGP, but it's not actually in Mainz. The image in FGP is from a microfilm at the National Library of Israel; the original was at a paper museum in Mainz that has since closed, now presumed lost. Join: Marina Rustow.

Letter in the name of the yeshiva, probably by Eliyyahu ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon, to the communities of Egypt, probably October 1057. NB: This shelfmark does not exist. Gil's edition is based on Harkavy's edition.

Sundry jottings in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script in the margins and on verso of a Hebrew literary text. The jottings include a draft or formulary for the opening of a letter/petition addressed to the caliph, in Judaeo-Arabic. They also include a couple orders of payment (e.g. Abū Naṣr should pay the bearer 5 1/3 dinars).

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. First few lines only. Involves a female broker (al-dallāla).

Legal fragment.

Deed of sale, probably. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment. "The large dār with the square door" in Qaṣr al-Rūm.

Deed of sale, probably. Fragment.

Legal document. Small fragment. Containing the first words of 15 lines. Likely a deed of sale, as it is describing the location and boundaries of a property.

Bill of sale for a female slave named Waṣīfa. Fragment, containing the first half of 5 lines. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Letter addressed to Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav ha-Gadol. In Judaeo-Arabic. Small fragment. Concerning a cantor Ibn [...].

Judaeo-Arabic poetry (qaṣīḍ). Late.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably from Damīra or Tinnīs to Fustat. Mercantile. The writer reports on the vicissitudes of purchasing flax and cotton in Damīra, Damietta, and Sunbāṭ. The writer has been unabel to hire a boat in Damīra, but wishes to return to Fustat as soon as he is able to do so. He asks the addressee to send three thiyāb to Fustat for him along with the thawb that the addressee bought in Caesarea. On verso he give supdates on various associates including Ibn Saḥqūn who was imprisoned and received lashes.

Literary, Talmudic.

Part of Saadya Ga'on's polemical work Sefer ha-Galuy. Information from FGP.

Palimpsest. Hebrew Midrash with Greek undertext.

Bifolium from a treatise on the laws of charity written in striking red ink.

Geonic responsa in Judaeo-Arabic. 37 folios. Hand of Hillel b. ʿEli? On folio 37r there is an ownership note: Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi, who presented the volume to his only son. On folio 37v, there are 3 lines of accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, naming Abū l-ʿAlā', Abū l-Faraj, Yūsuf, and al-Muʿallim.

Document or documents in Arabic script on verso of a page from Maimonides' Mishne Torah. There are some accounts (مما بلغ في الشهر دينارين ونصف). And there are verses by al-Mutanabbī on the east wind, copied by someone who was not a fan (lā raḍiya Allāh ʿanhu): الجزوا (الجزء) الاول من ديوان ابي الطيب المتنبي البصري(؟) لا رضي الله عنه من قوله في الصبا: أَبلى الهَوى أَسَفاً يَومَ النَوى بَدَني وَفَرَّقَ الهَجرُ بَينَ الجَفنِ وَالوَسَنِ. Needs further examination.

Legal query with Avraham Maimonides' autograph responsum and signature. Description from Penn Catalog: "The recto contains three related inquiries, in three separate paragraphs. Each of the inquiries is signed with the common salutation ושכרו כפול מן השמים; In the remaining exterior edge of the lower two thirds, written lengthwise to fit the open space, is R. Abraham's six-lines of reply, probably in his own hand. The reply starts with the headline אלגואב and is signed אברהם ברבי משה זצ״ל; The inquiry deals with the debt of an unnamed widow. Published from this source in the edition edited by Goitein and Freimann: Teshuvot / Avraham ben ha-Rambam ; Abraham Freimann and S. D. Goitein [editors]. Jersualem : Meḳitse nirdamin, 1937, p 202-204, item no. 118; The folio has been folded lengthwise into two halves, after the primary inscriptions. The verso bears a secondary inscription that fits this fold. It contains two columns of Hebrew poetry; The right column is filled by a poem in honor of a prince named Joshua, that starts מה תצרי מה תרחבי. Published from this source by Israel Davidson: Ginze Shekhṭer. New York : Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1928-1929, v. 3, p. 307-308; The left column, ll. 1-5 is a short poem that starts צורי חסדיך, published, from a different source, by S. Wertheimer: Sefer Zikhron le-rishonim ṿele-aḥaronim / Solomon Aaron Werthaimer. Yerushalayim : Bi-defus ha-Aḥim Solomon, 1909, part 3, p. 6a; Followed by Judah ha-Levi's יפה נוף (in H. Brody's: Diṿan / Yehudah ha-Leṿi (Judah, ha-Levi) ; Heinrich Brody [ed.] Berlin : Ḥevrat Meḳits nirdamim, 1910-, v. 2, p. 167 and also in Harkavy's edition: Yehudah ha-Leṿi / Albert Harakvy [ed.]. Ṿarsha : Aḥiasaf, 1893-1895, v. 1, p. 7); Under the heading אחר מאברם בן אזרא ז"ל, Abraham ibn Ezra's לאלהים כלתה נפשי (in the Diwan of Abraham Ibn Ezra: Diṿan le-Rabi Avraham ben Ezra / Aḳiva ben Yosef Eger [ed.]. Berlin, 1886, p. 187)."