Geniza Lab

Draft of a contract for a 2-year partnership in a drug store (dukkān al-ʿiṭr). Faded. Names: [...] ha-Kohen; Abū Yaʿaqov ha-Ḥazzan; [...] b. Abū Munā(?). Handwriting of Hillel b. ʿEli?

List or table in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script (these might be two different documents).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Recto: Communal/administrative letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: likely ca. 1150–1250. Ordering payments to the usual people: Umm Nuṣayra the sister of Ḥayāʾ the wife of Yosef al-Nafūsī; [...] the wife of Hārūn the scribe; ʿAzīza "who is in the house"; someone else (Ḥanna?) who is also in the house; ʿAfīf the greengrocer (? al-bayyāʿ al-khuḍarī), and a couple others.

Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: likely ca. 1150–1250.

Business letter. In Hebrew. Dating: 16th century, based on Avraham David's assessment. Currency: muayyadi/medin.

Resposum in Aramaic, tiny fragment

Collection of biblical verses about the triumphs of David, then in Judaeo-Arabic, “the composition (תאלפיה seems to be an error for תאליפה) was completed at the time of his ascendancy/rule over the sects in Nisan 1563 (=1252 CE)." The occasion might have been a political victory of David I Maimonides, but this is hard to prove. Cf. Halper 329.

Marriage document. Small fragment from a ketubba. All we have are the usual stipulations found in marriage contracts. Part of the bride’s name has survived: [...]טר, so her name was probably סת אלנטר (Sitt al-Naẓar) Dating: Possibly 13th–14th century. AA

Account in Judaeo-Arabic with alphanumerical figures and itemized labels such as "milk/ ḥalīb" that may date from the 16th-17th centuries (based on the paleography). On the right side of the recto the name Yiṣḥaq is mentioned on two occasions. The fragment is quite small but displays the inner crease of what was likely a bigger bifolium. Date: 16th c or 17th c. MCD.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Tiny fragment: preserves only the opening and part of the Arabic-script address. The hand is almost certainly the same as several other known letters: see tag. This fragment could be part of a non-contiguous join with ENA NS 7.48.

Court record(s). Recto mentions [Yi?]sraʾel known as Ibn Efrayim, traveling on business, a paternal uncle, and coming in to Fustat (or Egypt). Likely concerning a partnership. Verso has a name (the scribe?) at the bottom: Menaḥem b. [...].

Responsum in the hand of Yosef rosh ha-seder? Very torn.

Legal fragment of some kind. Perhaps from a court notebook. There are signatures at the top, two lines in Aramaic, then a section with several names (Natan... Rabbi Efrayim... [...] b. Musāfir...)

Fragment of a legal document in Arabic script. There is a damaged date in the top line (Dhū l-Ḥijja 4[..] AH, corresponding to the range 1010–1106 CE. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Small fragment with some Judaeo-Arabic text (lā man tawallā. . ."). Unidentified.

Informal note/order addressed to Abū Saʿīd (al-ʿAfṣī?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Giving him an instruction concerning the cup/jug (kūz) of mercury that is with the bearer of the note.

Too faded

Too faded

Too faded