Geniza Lab

Awaiting description

Marriage document (?). Torn and damaged fragment, barely legible. Few words can be read, such as מתקאלי, זוזי. Also the verb ויהב, which suggest it might be a remnant of a ketubah, probably 10th-11th century. Hebrew and Aramaic. AA

Legal document. Long and narrow strip from a bill of gift, 11th century, probably from Acre or Tyre, since נחלת אשר is mentioned and [הים] הגדול. Hebrew. AA

Marriage document. Damaged and creased document. Contains list of items, commonly found in dowry lists included or attached to a ketubah. Here, not as usual, we find them with no prices for each item, so the actual value was combined into one sum. The additional mohar (marriage gift) was 40 dinars. 11 Century. Judeo-Arabic. AA

Legal document in Hebrew. A damaged bill of gift, 11th century. Might be a join with ENA NS 3.16, but it is too hard to tell. AA

Marriage document. Draft of a prenuptial agreement, by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Damaged. Aramaic. AA

Two small fragments. One probably came from a Judaeo-Arabic letter, of which hardly anything remains.

Accounts in Arabic script. Might be headed "In the name of Mūsā the son of the deceased(?)."

Minute fragment with some Hebrew or at least Hebrew-script words.

Table of names in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals. Dating: Likely 13th century or later. The entries include personal names (Suwayd, Zayn al-Dīn, Zayn al-Naqīb 'the headman') and professional names (rasūl = messenger, ʿassāl = honey maker or seller). Underneath these titles and other individual entries there are figures expressed in Coptic numerals. On verso there are jottings of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. MCD.

Pen trials in Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script.

Letter addressed to Menaḥem Mir. Features honorific titles for the addressee in Hebrew (היקר נבון ונעלה), followed by the first few lines of the body of the letter in Ladino. The letter draft opens by reporting that "we are well, peaceful, and of good health / estamos buenos de pas y de salud" (l. 3r) and goes on to mention "mazal tov" and the name Yiṣḥaq Mir de Avraham (l. 4-5r). Possibly also the beginning of the winter and sending a shipment (l. 6r). MCD. ASE.

Accounts in Hebrew script. In Judaeo-Arabic (at least in part). Late. Mentions currencies such as sultani, corona, and fiḍḍa.

Letter fragment, probably. In Arabic script.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic (FGP). Four lines of rhyming flattery and self-abasement with miscellaneous jottings on verso. ASE.

A tale from Kalīla wa-Dimna in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Rosh ha-Seder ha-Bavli (active late 12th and early 13th century). A goldsmith fell into a pitfall (zibya) together with a monkey, a snake, and a tiger. A traveler passed by and peered in and lowered a rope to save the man, but each time he lowered the rope, one of the animals came up instead. The animals instructed him not to save the goldsmith, because they would be sincere in their gratitude whereas the goldsmith would not. The traveler doesn't heed their advice and saves the man. All the animals and the man honor the traveler and tell him that they will help him if he ever comes through their city, Nawārjūr. The Geniza fragment ends here but the continuation can be read in the versions of Kalīla wa-Dimna available online (e.g., https://al-maktaba.org/book/26537/296#p1 or Bodleian Library MS. Pococke 400, fol. 143a at digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk). When the man comes to the city, the monkey welcomes him by bringing him fresh fruit. The tiger welcomes him by killing the king's daughter and bringing him her jewels. The traveler brings the jewels to the goldsmith intending to have him sell the jewels on his behalf. The goldsmith betrays him and goes to the king and says that he's captured the man who murdered his daughter. Ultimately the snake cunningly manages to save the traveler from execution, and the king executes the goldsmith in his place as punishment for betraying a benefaction. Interestingly, in the published editions of Kalīla wa-Dimna and in the Arabic manuscripts, the third animal is a babr (tiger/leopard/lion) whereas in this fragment it is spelled "nabr," which does not refer to any large cats according to the Arabic dictionaries. Presumably the letter was undotted in the Arabic manuscript which Yosef used as a template and he mistakenly read it as a nūn, or else "nabr" was a dialectal variant. Another interesting discrepancy is that the name of the city seems to have as many spellings as there are manuscripts: here it is spelled Nawārjūr/נוארגור/نوارجور. You can compare ~25 different editions of this story in ~10 different languages with the Kalīla Reader app: https://www.theobeers.com/kwd-reader/#ch=17-Tg&ver=prompt. On verso there is additional (unrelated?) text also in the hand of Yosef Rosh ha-Seder. It is fragmentary and difficult to understand; needs examination. ASE

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions: someone called Rabbenu; a request to thank al-Shaykh al-Thiqa on the sender's behalf; telling the addressee to be patient; travel to al-Shām; al-dīwā(n?); Hilāl al-Dawla; and a request to investigate something.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. For the [congregation of the] Yerushalmim.

Legal query or queries. In Hebrew. Late. Concerning a widow and a shop. Mentions the currency "grossos."

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. Mentions many names. May be a join with ENA 3669.4.