Geniza Lab

Recto: The Book of Gathering the Winds. In Hebrew. See Goitein's index card for more information.

Verso: In a script different from recto, a page from a magical treatise in Judaeo-Arabic, with a colophon, Iyyar 1146 CE (4906 AM). See Goitein's index card for more information

Letter to the community of Mahalla, two lines of the opening. Only the poetical praises survived. On verso part of the address.

Responsa of the geonim copied by a known scribe who lived around the beginning of the 11th century. Some of responsa are known to us from other publications of Geonic responsa

Letter in Hebrew, very faded and torn, late.

Letter from Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Rosh ha-Seder to the judge Yehuda ha-Kohen (b. Ṭuviyyahu?). On parchment. Only the beginning is preserved.

Letter addressed to the Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. Recommending the bearer, Yisra'el ha-Ḥazzan, for charity.

Letter in Hebrew. Perhaps a letter of appeal for charity: the writer seems to be describing his poverty and pawning possessions.

Legal deed concerning a female slave, that is probably sold or given as a gift to a woman named Sitt al-Nas. Also mentioned Mevasser, Shemarya Hakohen. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe Halevi

Letter to Shelomo ha-Sar ha-Nadiv from Yeshua musharaf al-Qysiria. Mostly contains Biblical phrases and blessings.

Book list in a large, childish hand

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya (ca. 1055) to Eli b. Amram in Fustat. Marwan b. Saqir and Yosef b. Yaaqov are mentioned

Letter (possibly) from Moshe b. Yehuda, addressed to a certain Saʿīd. Dated: 23rd of the ʿOmer מטר, i.e., 5249 AM (probably), which is 1489 CE. Mentions that Yiṣḥaq Sholal (not yet the Nagid) arrived in Rashīd on business. The sender previously sent one letter from Rashīd and another with Ṣedaqa Nes. He orders silk garments to be sent with David Sofer and his son Meir. He orders the Zoharand other books. He conveys instructions for what should be given to the wife of the Shamash for his own wife. Also mentions raisins. (Information in part from Avraham David via FGP.) For more on Moshe b. Yehuda, see Arad and Wagner, "Moses ben Judah – a 15th century bibliophile and gourmand" (FOTM June 2016) and Arad, "The Jews of Alexandria in the 15th Century in Light of New Documents" Peʿamim 156 (2018), 167–84 (Heb).

Ketubba, Qaraite. The bride's name is Ḥusnā.

Agreement between Yiṣḥaq b. Yefet ha-Kohen and his divorcee al-Ḥasana bt. Moshe, from Tinnīs. She releases him from something. Signed by Yaʾir b. [...].

Letter-writing formulary. In Judaeo-Arabic. Bifolium, containing many letter samples. There are also two lines in Arabic script.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Small fragment.

Astrological text in Arabic script, with interspersed words transcribed into Judaeo-Arabic (late hand) in the spaces between the lines. This demonstrates that even some Jews who could write Judaeo-Arabic very well couldn’t read Arabic or the transcriber was beginning to create an edition in Judaeo-Arabic for non-Arabic readers. The names of the planets in Arabic are transcribed as is in Judaeo-Arabic and not translated into Hebrew which could be because the entire scientific literature of that period was in Arabic.

Petition, late Fatimid period given the blessings on a vizier, from a certain Ibn Mūsā (no forename given) concerning a Jew named (2) Bū l-Faraj who took another Jew named (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq to court repeatedly over a debt. The unstated request seems to be that vizier to whom the petition is addressed should either (a) pay (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq’s debt or (b) apply force or (c) imprison him until he pays. The (1) petitioner goes on to state that if a (a-prime) different guarantor (ḍāmin) steps in to pay (3) Ibrāhīm’s debt, or if local officials step in to (c) seize his property, the vizier will be informed. If a (a) guarantor steps in, (3) Ibrāhīm will presumably have to pay more. If (a) the vizier pays on his behalf, it would not cost the debtor more; so de facto the vizier must decide whether to pay or apply force. But if the situation changes — if a guarantor steps in to pay the debt, or the treasury (al-māl, short for bayt al-māl) steps in to seize the debtor's assets, the petitioner will inform the vizier. Perhaps the petitioner is a Jewish communal official who has run out of enforcement options, so now seeks help from the state in resolving the situation as expeditiously as possible. MR

4 pages from the medical text of the infamous medieval Persian polymath Muḥammad b. Zakarīyyā al-Rāzī (d. 925 or 935 CE) entitled al-Ḥāwī fī-l-Ṭibb. The pages are from the section of 'Hospital experiences' at the end of volume 2 and the second folio is from the end of volume 3 and the beginning of volume 4.