Geniza Lab

Medical prescription or recipe. In Arabic script. The first item is hiera picra (ايارج فيقرا). Also uses pulp of colocynth (shaḥm ḥanẓal). There are 3 lines in the same hand in the middle of verso.

Testimony in Arabic script. Fragment (top cut off). Dated: first third of Jumādā I 528 AH, which is 1134 CE. The bottom is divided into two columns, each with its own witness statement. On verso there is a column of script on the right completely blacked out (appears to be Hebrew script, but this is not certain). Mentions several people by name, including the broker in Dār al-Tuffāḥ (line 3). Needs further examination.

Letter from Salmān b. [...] to Zayn b. Abū l-Faḍl. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender was happy about the recent letter from the addressee, and is very grateful for something the addressee did. Another Salmān recently arrived after a 5-year absence. The sender was saddened to hear about the addressee's fight (probably legal) with his father. He reports that Sittānā has given birth to a boy. Regards to the addressee's father and the father's wife and the addressee's mother. Salmān has returned to the west(?) to his maternal uncle(?); he and Ḥasan and Raḥel send their regards. On recto there is an Arabic-script document dated Ramaḍān 496 AH, which is June/July 1103 CE.

Legal (or state?) document in Arabic script. Rental contract for a piece of land on the west shore of the Nile by two Christians (= shares) from a Muslim man for a period of one year. Dated: 19 Ramadan 496 AH, which is 26 June 1103 CE. (Information from Tamer el-Leithy.)

Letter from Najm [...] al-Muʿallim the brother-in-law of Kamāl b. Yūsuf, in Fustat, to his 'brother' the cantor Musāfir ha-Bavli, in Alexandria. Spellings are eccentric. The first half is obscure, but mainly has to do with how much he misses and is worried about the addressee. He reports that the addressee's sister is still sick. His sister and his mother send regards and kiss his eyes. Turfa and Najm and Yehuda send their regards. Abu Yaʿqūb and his brother and father send their regards. Verso contains the address and a lot of random jottings. Related to Bodl. MS heb. d 66/23. ASE.

Letter from the physician Ibrahim to the physician Ya‘qub in Bilbays, whom he addresses as “my brother.” Ibrahim rebukes Ya‘qub for his failure to send letters or to fulfill his end of various agreements. This is a response to a recent letter in which Ya‘qub rebuked Ibrahim for a delay in forwarding the recipes of two compound drugs: the preventer (al-māni‘) and a drug for swelling (li-l-natwā). Ibrahim explains that he had to research the former and that he had to wait for Abu l-Baha to arrive and verify his recipe for the latter. He promises to send the mirror and the sign together with the rest of Ya‘qub’s goods, but not until Ya‘qub sends him the Shaykh, a medical textbook. Abu l-Ḥasan the physician is also upset at Ya‘qub’s tardiness and failure to communicate, and Ibrahim has had to make excuses for him, saying that he is busy in the shop. After finishing the letter, Ibrahim wrote the requested prescriptions in the margins (one version of the Preventer and two versions of the drug for swelling) and noted that all the ingredients for the third prescription are available in Bilbays. In yet another postscript, he emphasizes that it is only to be used after purging the patient. Greetings are sent by: Abu l-Ḥasan the physician. Greetings are sent to: Ya‘qub’s brothers, Najib, and R. Shemuel. ASE.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The first few lines and the last few lines are missing. Somebody forfeits their right to the 1/2 of the big dār located off of al-Darb al-Jadīd from the inheritance of his or her father, it seems leaving the entire house under the control of the other heirs. The document is almost entirely legalese, to the effect that this is a final and irreversible agreement. (Note that DK 317 and DK 318 are two different shelfmarks for the same fragment.)

Letter from a father to his son Abū l-Riḍā the physician. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with various financial and family matters. The father is in distress from unemployment ('and you know the character of your mother...'). The portion on verso mentions Abū l-Faraj the Christian silk merchant 'who is in your market.' The father has sent a book on sheḥiṭa and asks for copies of other books. Everyone is worried about the capitation tax.

Letter in Arabic script. Complete, filling all of recto and verso. The sender is Christian: he (or she) swears by the baptism in r15 (wa-ḥaqq al-maʿmūdiyya) and by Christ in v7 (wa-haqq al-masīḥ). The letter itself addresses a woman (ishbīnatī, mawlātī, sayyidatī), though the address is made out to Fahd b. Abū l-Ḥasan, in Fustat. The sender is angry about an impertinent letter from the addressee. There is a lot here about financial matters. Needs further examination.

Letter of appeal for charity. Addressed to a ḥaver. In Judaeo-Arabic with phonetic spellings (e.g., אלמותראתיף for المترادف and אלבֵרי for الباري and דיליך for ذلك). The sender is suffering from the cold weather, and there is somebody in his family who is unable to bear it. The addressee is asked to provide a covering or anything that will help.

Business letter from Abū al-Surūr b. David (al-Mahdiyya) to his cousin Abū al-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef (Fustat), ca. 1095. The writer sent to the recipient 100 Murābiṭī dinars, worth 267 less 1/3 dinars in the currency of al-Mahdiyya, and now gives instructions to buy jewellery. His other purchase requests from Fustat are for indigo, blue and green “fayyūmī clothes, pearls and more. The letter also mentions Abū al-Surūr’s purchases in al-Mahdiyya, including that of lapiz lazuli for which he was unable to find a buyer and intended to send it to Sicily. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 312.)

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning 'the arrival of the pieces (? qiṭaʿ).' The writer takes a snippy tone: "Please have the good grace to send them quickly, because when I must maintain (? aḥfaẓ) something urgently, I am not a person who wants to wait a long time for it to be maintained (? yanḥafiẓ) by our sins or worse." There are some cryptic headers. One of them is Exodus 1:17 about the midwives fearing God. Perhaps this is meant to allude to Exodus 1:21 about God making the midwives houses, and the desired 'pieces' are intended for a house?

Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Draft, with extensive corrections. This document is long, rich, and damaged. Dating: Perhaps c.1100, based on the appearance of Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī; but see the identification tab on FGP for further possible identifications of other people mentioned. Recto is a declaration/testimony in the first person. It opens with a reference to a group of captives, perhaps in Tyre (line 3), who managed to redeem themselves. The narrator donated 20 dinars, and the freed captives were able to travel to Fustat. The original text and the corrected text contain slightly divergent stories, but it seems the narrator gave a second payment of 15 dinars and a third payment of 12 dinars to a specific man (likely Yaʿaqov) and to his mother (the scribe drew up the document with few references to the mother, then subsequently added her into the story). At this point, Sar Shalom b. Ḥiyya and Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī arrived in Fustat and reported that Yaʿaqov was thriving and enjoyed the favor of (had 'ittiṣāl' with) Yehosef Nagid ha-Gola. A shipment of valuable Socotrene aloe now enters the story—Yaʿaqov might have asked the narrator to sell it and send him the money because his mother needed it. The narrator might have objected, citing some terms of the 'tadhkira' that he had with him. The story becomes difficult to follow around here -- it is possible that Yaʿaqov has been embezzling the funds that everyone (the narrator, Yaḥyā ha-Zaqen al-Fāsī b. Avraham, and Yīṣḥaq al-Nafūsī b. Ḥalfon) has been sending him to support his mother (a total of 47 dinars), and now they are demanding confirmation that she has received the money and a release from further obligations. There is a note underneath in smaller text that may contain the findings of the judicial investigation: how much money Yaʿaqov's mother received, how much money Yaʿaqov still owes her, and a confirmation that he has handed over the rest. Someone (Yaʿaqov?) may be called al-Muqaddasī here. The portion of the document on verso is the confirmation that Yaʿaqov's mother has now received all the money, and therefore all parties are now released from further obligations. This reading is tentative, and the document awaits transcription and more definitive study. ASE

Letter or official report in Arabic script, beautifully written From Ṣādiq b. Hibatallāh. Addressed to a qāḍī. Wide space between the lines on recto, narrow space between the lines on verso (perhaps these are two separate documents?). The text on verso refers to al-ḥabs, majlis al-wālī, an annual payment of 1 dinar (line 11), al-aḥbās (line 21). Needs examination.

Letter from Simḥūn b. Dāwūd ibn al-Siqillī (Qayrawān) to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. ʿAwkal (Fustat). The letter deals with a conflict between the sender and the recipient over a consignment of brazilwood, which Simḥūn b. Daʿūd sent to Spain against the instructions of Yosef b. ʿAwkal. This caused a delay in payments and a break of contact between the two. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 644.)

Letter from Simḥūn b. Dāwūd ibn al-Siqillī (Qayrawān) to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. ʿAwkal (Fustat). The letter deals with a conflict between the sender and the recipient over a consignment of brazilwood, which Simḥūn b. Daʿūd sent to Spain against the instructions of Yosef b. ʿAwkal. This caused a delay in payments and a break of contact between the two. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 644.)

Letter from Jerusalem from the middle of the 11th century, with a document from the Egyptian office of treasurer on the free space on the back. (Gil: Letter from Ḥayyim ha-ḥaver b. Shelomo/Salāma in Jerusalem to Yiṣḥaq b. Yiṣḥaq he-ḥaver in Fustat regarding a debt owed to the latter. On verso, accounts of very large amounts of money in the hand of Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tāhirtī, the cousin of Nahray b. Nissim. Ed. Gil, Palestine vol. 3, #463.) (NB: The Goitein material scanned here covers DK 2, DK 333 and DK 11. MR)

Liturgical.

Document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Genealogy lists for the families of Ibn al-Shavuy ('son of the captive') and the in-law of Nuṣayr. In the first family there is someone named Netanel Ne'eman ha-Malkhut.