Geniza Lab

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: Likely 11th or early 12th century.

Translation of Numbers 1–3 (somewhat jumbled up) into Arabic, in Arabic script. Mostly a translation, presumably Karaite, with occasional transliterations at the beginnings of verses.

Legal document in Arabic script. Perhaps an iqrār made by Aḥmad b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbs(?). Mentions Cairo in line 6 and may also mention zakāt earlier in the same line. Needs examination.

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Reports on a scandalous matter involving one of the supporters of Ibn al-Sadīd, one of the slaves of the king, a decree (marsūm), someone throwing something in someone's face and one of the two men getting angry (ḥaniqa) and marching off to the king, who also seems to have gotten angry. There is a cryptic warning about something in the margin. ASE

Account ledger in a mixture of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic (and Greek/Coptic numerals). Fol. 1r: Mentions two lumps of gold (faṣṣayn dhahab). One entry reads "the acquaintance of my brother-in-law al-Thiqa in the Fayyūm whose name is [...]. 7 1/4 dirhams." An Abū l-Faraj is also mentioned. Fol. 1v: The main text appears to be a donors/revenue list in Judaeo-Arabic. al-Thiqa: 3. Kāfūr: 1 (crossed out). Mufaḍḍal b. N[...]: 3. Ibn al-Sadīd: 2. Ibn Saʿd al-Mulk: 2. Abū l-Faraj: 1. "The delayed"(?): 14, 16. "We took from the house of the captive": 8. There are also a few lines of accounting in Arabic script. Fol. 2r: Mentions ʿAlī the neighbor of Ṣāliḥ and al-Zakiyy b. al-Nākhudhā. Fol. 2v: Mentions Ḥasan of Dār al-Raqīq (which may be the slave market); Ismāʿīl al-Qazzāz(?) al-Maghribī who lives on Darb al-Nā'ib; and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ḥadīd.

Condolence and business letter to the brothers Eliyyahu and Leon.

Letter in Arabic script. Ḥaḍara baʿd ijtimāʿī bi-haḍrat mawlāy al-[...] al-ajall.... Needs examination. On verso there is Hebrew literary text in a rudimentary hand.

Letter/petition. Draft. From Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-ʿIzz to Avraham Maimonides. On recto there are two efforts at the same letter. One can see the writer working out the best way to phrase things. The prose is elaborate and often rhymed ('the reason for [some lapse] was the debts (al-duyūn) and not madness (al-junūn)'). In line 13, the writer gets to the point: he asks for forgiveness for something and asks for 'the strengthening of his heart' (ijbār qalb al-mamlūk) and something that will 'console' the writer (yaslūh) given what he has lost—typical phrases in the context of grief and letters of condolence, but plausibly also just asking for money. On verso there is the draft of a letter in Arabic script to 'my brother'—so not the same letter. Only the formulaic beginning is preserved. On verso there is also a list of names in Judaeo-Arabic: Ibn al-ʿŪdī Abū l-Ḥasan and his brothers Abū l-Faḍl and Abū l-ʿIzz, and his grandfather Abū l-Riḍā. Also Abū l-Majd b. Hibatallāh.

Midrash Tehillim, and Sefer ha-Shem by Avraham Ibn Ezra.

Order of payment (or bill?) in Arabic script. Abū l-Khayr al-ʿAṭṭār is to pay 80 dirhams out of the price of the drugs/perfume. The scribe had some trouble with the pen and ink: the script deteriorates in the fourth line, a fifth line (yadfaʿ al-shay...) was started and abandoned, and there are scribbles and smudges and several fingerprints.

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Two bifolia from a ledger. The hand may be known. Dating: Likely 11th century.

Karaite marriage contract. Fragment. Mentions a mill and the elder ʿAmram. Witnesses: Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq and [...] b. Ḥayyim.

Legal documents in Judaeo-Arabic. Perhaps from a court register. It looks like there are at least 4 different acknowledgments of debt. The dates are missing in some of the entries, but they all seem to be dated between Adar I and Adar II of 1459 Seleucid, which is 1148 CE. (1) Bū Saʿd will repay 0.5 dinars per month. (2) The brother-in-law of Ibn al-Shadīqī(?) owes 5 dinars + 1/3 dinar + 1/2 qirat. (3) Yiṣḥaq al-Maghribī owes the nephew of Abū Naṣr 10 (or 30?) dirhams. He will repay 3 dirhams a week. (4) The witnesses and the son of the cantor testify that Ibn al-Amshāṭī owes a certain amount. This entry appears to be quite long and involved, but is difficult to read due to the imprint of other text on top of it. The same fragment also contains a philosophical commentary on Genesis (same side as the legal documents) and a literary text on legal procedure (other side).

Letter of condolence from Eli ha-Mumhe b. Avraham, Jerusalem, to Hesed ha-Tustari, Fustat, end of 1045 or beginning of 1046.

Literary text, on vellum. There is an ownership note mentioning Elʿazar b. Efrayim.

Seliḥot.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Abū l-Faḍl; ʿIzz al-Dīn; ʿUmar; Aḥmad; al-Ṣāyigh; Yūsuf. Possibly mentions pepper (filfil). Reused for Hebrew poetry/prayers.

One folio cut widthwise into two halves. Written by various Yemenite hands. As 3\1 One side (ab) of the folio, slightly missing from one edge. Part a: A short legal(?) document about the high price of grains in Ṣanʿāʾ. Deals particularly with the astrological causes of the famine in the year 194[.] Seleucid, which corresponds to a year in the range 1628–38 CE. Part b: Under the Title "מחזור ..", Jewish calendar prototypes: years coded מש"ה; הש"א. In a different hand, larger characters. AS 3\2 One side (cd) of the folio, probably its primary usage. A Commentary on an Unknown Talmudic Treatise on the Laws of Prohibited Marriage Originally two columns, one the subject and the other the commentary, each written by a different hand. The full width of the commentary column, and half of the subject column, are extant, missing from the bottom. (DK CATALOGUE)

A letter from Israel ha-Kohen b. Shemuel b. Ḥofni to Yaʿaqov b. Moshe. The writer announces his intention to write a Talmud commentary and recommends a letter bearer, Avraham b. Shelomo. The fragment is lost. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 181.)

Fragment of an opening to a letter to Yusuf b. Ya’aqub b. Awkal. The letter was written in Jerusalem. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #197) VMR