Geniza Lab

List of expenses regarding building according to date? ENA 4047.3 is related.

Table with names, perhaps those with the weekly parshiyot.

List of names and sums. It looks like what Ḥalfon ha-kohen was able to collect (or distribute?)

Account of what Abu Sa'id has collected.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

ENA 4050: Fragments of a letter from Shemuel Gaon b. Hofni to one of the community leaders in Qayrawan. Around 1008. Maybe was addressed to the Nagid, Avraham b. Ata. Describes the agreement between the writer and Sharira Gaon and the warning from transferring money to the other Yeshiva, Pumbedita, meaning the Yeshiva of the writer’s son in-law, Hayya Gaon. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #52) VMR

Responsum of a gaon, copied into a literary compilation.

Qadish containing praise for an exilarch: “May He make great his welfare and the welfare of his generation like the water of the Euphrates. . . . May he be as a tree planted along water, sending forth its shoots by a stream; it does not sense the coming of heat, its leaves are ever fresh; it has no care in a year of drought, it does not cease to yield fruit” (Jer 17:8). Information from Decter, Dominion Built of Praise, 72–74.

Megillat Miṣrayim

Two songs with musical notation by Obadiah the Proselyte. See https://johannes-obadiah.org/, Obadiah Musical Compositions, Song 1.

Bill of manumission of a slave, formulary from Siddur R. Natan of Sijilmasa, citing R. Hayya Gaon

Qiyyum shetarot, formulary from Siddur R. Natan of Sijilmasa

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Almost completely blank. A few remnants of some words.

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Letter to David ha-Nasi the Exilarch. He is also addressed as al-Rayyis. Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The writer reports that he arrived safely in Alexandria on Friday after 10 very difficult days of travel over sea and over land from Rashīd to Alexandria. On Shabbat, the travelers gathered in the great synagogue of Alexandria and recited blessings over their good fortune. It seems that ʿUlla Rosh ha-Qahal then invited the writer to his house. The writer expresses his gratitude for other distinguished Alexandrians who treated him well. The letter becomes damaged and difficult to read around here. On verso there are pen trials including of the name Yeshuʿa b. Avraham.

Letter addressed to ʿAbd al-Karīm. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably 14th century at the earliest. The writer and addressee are Qaraites. Very long. Conveys information about conflicts and disputes and the lashing of women by a court. Altogether a detailed report of communal affairs. Recto. The writer reports on the charge against a certain woman that she went to see an astrologer (munajjim), and that the addressee's mother went as well and protected the other woman. The ḥakīm himself gave the woman 20 strokes with a cane. The writer is very agitated about this and urges secrecy ("these are matters that should only be spoken in the grave"). The next couple dozen lines are damaged and difficult to read. Some time later, Naṣrallāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. the addressee's paternal uncle אבן אלנשו was going up the stairs when Ṣadaqa b. Ibrāhīm al-Ṣaghīr accosted him. It seems that Ṣadaqa upset Naṣrallāh, who went crying to his mother, who spoke angrily without realizing that the guards (shomrim) were listening, and word of what she said reached Ṣadaqa, who confronted the mother of Naṣrallāh and called her a fājirat kalb (!) who goes around seducing (tatabahraju) other men's husbands. The next couple lines are difficult to read; they mention "al-khāziniyyīn" and the addressee's parents. Subsequently, all the protagonists gathered in Dār Ben Sameaḥ (=Dār Simḥa, the main Karaite synagogue in Cairo from roughly the 14th century onward—see tag) on Saturday night for the reading of the Torah (al-talāwa). Ṣadaqa got up to read the Torah. The addressee's cousin ʿAbd al-Raḥīm (the father of Naṣrallāh and the husband of the woman whom Ṣadaqa had insulted) got up together with ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Shurayṭī, and they vehemently objected that a person who curses elders could ever read the Torah in the synagogue. Ṣadaqa then verbally abused them ("half of your prayers are heresy, you ass. . . .") and did the same to the others who confronted him (al-Melammed, al-Ḥakīm, his father and maternal uncle). The brawl continued until "the cameldriver was in the riverbed" (al-ḥādī fī l-wādī) and the community missed the chance to read the Torah. Eventually Ṣadaqa and Naṣrallāh's mother were summoned to continue their argument in the house of al-Muʿallim Sharaf al-Dīn, where Ṣadaqa was convicted of making oaths in vain and cursing elders/ancestors, and he therefore lost his right to pray before the congregation or read the Torah (yaṭlub sefer). The marginal note belongs here ("Why did you curse the khāziniyyīn?" "I only cursed them because of ʿAbd al-Raḥīm. . . "). It seems that a group (Ṣadaqa's gang?) was then overheard threatening to beat the muʿallim. The story winds down around here; the writer repeats that these matters are only to be discussed in the grave. Verso. The writer asks the addressee not to show this letter to Ibn al-Melammed, and also to take it with him to Cairo. The writer excuses the addressee for his failure to write, but, "When you went up to Jerusalem, you had no excuse left" or, "When you go up to Jerusalem, you will have no excuse left." He then gives detailed reports on the sightings of the new moons of Elul and Av. He mentions in passing "Yūsuf b. ʿAlam [who] was traveling through the lands collecting the jāmikiyya." Unpublished, uncited in the literature, and requiring much more work. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Last leaf only. The writer is begging for an urgent loan or gift of 5 dinars, on Sunday. A sum of 20 dinars is also named; possibly the addressee had previously given him 15 dinars, and the 5 dinars will round out the total to 20 dinars. "If I had anything I could sell, I wouldn't be burdening you. . . . I only wrote this letter due to my great distress, too great to be described, and because of my knowledge that your honor—may God establish your glory—will help execute the needs of your slave. . . . I do not believe that this is a loan, but rather, it is a second bestowing of favor (iṣṭināʿ)." If the addressee does not comply, the writer will "perish." Despite the writer's protestations, this may in fact be a loan.

Letter of appeal for charity addressed to Abū ʿImrān al-Kohen. Written in Hebrew (the opening poem and formulae) and Judaeo-Arabic (the body). The writer cites the illnesses in his household and the price of medicine among his other expenses.

Letter to Berakhot Abū Ṭāhir. In Hebrew (first ~20 lines) and Judaeo-Arabic (last ~5 lines). Consists almost entirely of blessings. Join: Oded Zinger.