Geniza Lab

Account of a pharmacist listing household goods. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 585)

List of debts. In the 1st line Abu Said al-Dimyati (= Ḥalfon b. Nethanel Halevi) is mentioned as having a debt of 20 dinars. Should be included in the additional documents of India Book IV.

Accounts in four columns containing names and dates of debtors. (Information from Goitein's index cards).

List of commodities and debts. name: Abu Zikri

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī al-Ḥayy, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1057. Regarding sending goods in leather sacks. Musa returned from the Maghreb. He is planning to travel to Tripoli. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #454) VMR

Letter fragment: bottom right corner only. Mentions health, items to be sent, and regards to various people including Najīb al-Dīn (?). There is a note in the margin mentioning "your ghulām."

Recto: Letter from a teacher to a parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely late 11th or early 12th century, based on the mention of Abū l-Bishr Azhar (see Bodl. MS heb. c 50/16-17 and index of Gil, Kingdom). The writer asks to be paid his weekly salary in addition to what is still owed him from last week. He has already (unsuccessfully) applied to Abū l-Bishr Azhar and to Abū Yaʿqūb with the same request. In support of the urgency of his request, he emphasizes that his wife is severely ill (bi-maraḍ khaṭir ṣaʿb). He is not explicitly identified as a teacher, but Goitein perhaps deduced this from the fact that he is both impoverished and receives a weekly salary from the community chest. Information in part from Goitein's note card. Verso: Reused for accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Letter fragment in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshuaʿ Hanagid regarding taxation, including the fee for the police (tarsīm). Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 92.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Persian. Mentioning Abū al-ʿAlā (בולעלא), Mihrōy/Mihrwayh (מהרוי) and "the daughter of Reuben the draper" (דוכתר ראובן יבזאז). The letter is labeled "L11" in Shaul Shaked's (unpublished) classification of Early Judeo-Persian texts. OH

Half of a letter (left side of recto, right side of verso) from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a family member in Fustat. He mentions missing them during the holiday; arrangements with garments and silver; Menashshe, Shemaryah, the Rayyis; praying for his family to have success in something; that he is doing just fine; Abu l-Yusr is critically ill. ASE.

Letter from Abū l-ʿAlā' b. ʿAyyāsh to his 'brother' in Fustat. In Arabic script. The sender mentions that he is unemployed (qāʿid baṭṭāl). Needs examination. On verso there is a list in Judaeo-Arabic containing names and numbers (see separate record).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Needs examination.

Business letter dealing with shipments of textiles within Egypt. The name Abu al-Ḥasan is mentioned. addresed to Barakāt b. Khulayf.

Legal document of unknown nature (real estate?), written by halfon b. Mannaseh halevi or Hillel b. Eli. fragmentary and torn.

Legal deed from a qāḍī court, Ayyubid period. Dated: Jumādā I 592 (line 1). Line 2 reads wa-abraʾatuhu min jamīʿ dhālik barāʾa qabḍ wa-stīfāʾ. Lines 4–5: ḥamdala and ṣalwala (wa-l-ḥamdu li-llāh rabb al-ʿalāmīn wa-ṣalawāt ʿalā Muḥammad al-nabī wa-ʾahlihi wa-salam taslīman wa-ḥisbunā llāh wa-niʿm al-wakīl).

Siddur

Engagement deed by Ḥalfon b. Mannaseh. Very faded and torn

Narrow vertical strip of paper. Instructions to a scribe according to Goitein's index card, but seems more likely to be an inventory of existing documents in someone's possession. "The release of [...] and a document concerning the receipt from Tinnīs. And a document in which he attests about receipt—Hebrew. And a document for the wife of the physician, in which he attests about receipt of 25 dinars.... the question(?) of the warehouse and accompaniment(?) to Syria (al-Shām) and visiting/solicitation of Yiṣḥāq al-ʿAjamī."

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Nearly complete. The sender is annoyed at the addressee for not coming to visit either at night or in the morning. He has enclosed another letter with this one, which should be given to a woman named Naẓar, whether in al-Maḥalla or elsewhere. Greetings to Abū l-Faḍl.

Letter/petition/recommendation to a Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender asks him to help the bearer, Ibrāhīm b. Abū Dāʾūd al-Ashqar al-Bilbaysī, who betrothed (amlaka) a woman in Bilbays years ago. Everyone in Bilbays knows that he has continued to send gifts to her and her family. However, when her brothers learned that he had suffered financial losses, they tried to cancel the betrothal. Mentions a specific person who came and spread this rumor, and mentions the arrival of R. Yeḥezqel. The Nagid mentioned might be Avraham Maimonides, but there is no clear evidence. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 445.)