Geniza Lab

Booklet containing Hebrew poems/prayers, with an ownership note: "this daftar belongs to Netan'el b. Elʿazar." There are some marginal notes in Arabic script, but no Arabic-script document here.

Document in Arabic script. Reused for Hebrew poetry/piyyut. Needs examination.

Administrative document(s), probably. On one side: ʿAbd al-Muḥsin b. Ḥasan 1 dinar waẓīfa. On the other side: Muslim b. Salāma 1 dinar waẓīfa. There are also headers/footers/authentication marks.

A cantor orders a religious poem in which each stanza concludes with a biblical quotation which has as its last word "God," such as Numbers 23:27 or Exodus 1:17. He asks to get it well in time, as he was not any more as good in memorizing as he had been previously. At the head, the first two words of a poem by Judah ha-Levi. Possibly he needed the poem for a circumcision, given the biblical verse specifically alluding to midwives. Information from Goitein's note card. NB: The shelfmark has since changed, and it will take some investigation to find the current shelfmark. Goitein's transcription linked below is actually of DK 238.5 (Alt: XVI) = PGPID 9285.

Poems in Judaeo-Arabic (balligh salāmī yā dā'im...), along with copious jottings in Hebrew.

Bottom part of a letter from the cantor Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham ha-Levi. In Hebrew. Dating: 12th century? Conveying gratitude to many people by name. See bibliography on FGP for potential identifications of the sender.

Letter and panegyric from a certain Khalfūn to the Nagid. The poet's name is spelled in an acrostic in the last 5 words of the poem. Alexander Scheiber argued in 1960 (based purely on internal evidence) that the poet was [Yiṣḥaq Ibn] Khalfūn and the addressee Shemuel ha-Nagid. The note underneath the poem starts, "And seeing as my poetic inspiration (qarīḥa) has died due to all my worries and has not managed to make something worthy of our master the Nagid..." and concludes with best wishes for the holiday of Purim.

Letter from Eliyyahu Ha-kohen b. Shelomo Gaon, to Ḥalfon b. Shelomo. Note that verso has been reused for a (literary?) Hebrew tex

Family letter addressed to Moshe b. Yehuda known as Ibn Abī Kharrūba, in Palermo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th century. The letter was written by one of Moshe's siblings-in-law in Fustat, to be sent to their sister (Moshe's wife). "I also inform you, O my sister, that your brother Barakāt arrived safely in Fustat... staying here, and we have spent 10 dinars on him. Do not cut off your news from me or... from your brother Barakāt, for our hearts are relieved whenever we receive news from you... and that you are in health. I and my mother pray for the elder your father-in-law day and night... the fire is in my heart on account of my separation from you... I wish to travel to you, but my mother does not allow me, for she has no one (but me)... your maternal uncle Musallam asks after you, and your maternal uncle Abū l-Faraj as well... and your maternal aunt sends her greetings and adjures you to tell your (other) maternal aunt to send her a letter of her own... to make her happy... I heard that you sent a letter to Alexandria, but it was lost and never arrived.... Abū l-Khayr sends his greetings, and your brother Barakāt, and your maternal uncle Musallam, and your maternal uncle Abū l-Faraj... I greet you and your husband Mūsā and your sons Abū Isḥāq and his brother and your daughter Sitt al-Kull and your father-in-law and your maternal aunt." Reused on verso for Hebrew literary/liturgical text. ASE

Autobiographical maqāma by Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, ed. Schirmann. Discussed by Amir Ashur here: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/fragment-month/fragment-month-8#_ftn2.

DK 184a: Copy of a letter from Sharira b. Hananya, while he was a judge (Av Beit Din) in Pumbedita, to the communities in Spain and North Africa. Probably 962. The writer asks for their support, while in the Yeshiva there are disagreements about their Gaon – Nehemya b. Kohen Sedek. (Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, Doc. #19) VMR

It is unclear which shelfmark is meant. The only current shelfmark that might be documentary is M53 (alt: 19), which does not have images on FGP. (But M53 is literary text of הלכות הרי"ף according to DK catalogue prepared by Dr. Ezra Scwat. M=missing, so there is no photo around. AA) If XIX is intended, see instead DK 230.3 (alt: XIX) or DK 228.3 (alt: 228/B, XIX).

Circular letter from Maṣliaḥ Gaon to all the communities of the Rīf.

Letter from Maṣliaḥ Gaon to Aharon ha-Sar b. Netan'el. Opens with Maṣliaḥ's genealogy: Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen b. Shelomo b. Eliyyahu b. Shelomo (thus far all are titled Rosh Yeshivat Ge'on Yaʿaqov) b. Yehosef ha-Kohen Bayt Din Kohen Ṣedeq b. Aharon. Maṣliaḥ writes that he has sent his emissary Yefet ha-Levi and asks the addressee to assist him in his mission. Dated: Iyyar 1443 Seleucid, which is 1132 CE. The transcription available on FGP does not entirely correspond to the images available. The FGP transcription is for a circular letter by Maṣliaḥ Gaon sent to all the cities of the Rīf. This text may have come from part of the letter that was not digitized.

The first folio (including the title page) of Kitāb al-Fityān, a lost book by al-Jāḥiẓ. The little that is preserved here enumerates the qualities and manners of a proper fatā, a proper sāqī, and a proper nadīm. Note that the text is not entirely new. A portion appears also in Kitāb al-Bukhalā' (see Kevin Blankinship "Giggers, Greeners, Peyserts, and Palliards: Rendering Slang in al-Bukhalāʾ of al-Jāḥiẓ, p. 29"). This fragment has been edited by Regourd in her catalogue of the Arabic-script manuscripts in DK.

Business letter in Arabic script from the circle of Nahray b. Nissim, in Arabic script. Mentions the arrival of a certain Salmān, mentions al-Ashmunayn, Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ḥarīrī. Fragmentary and difficult to read.

Accounts for wine production, submitted by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father Eliyyahu the Judge. Similar to T-S Ar.18(1).127. This document is for the month of Av (year not specified), while T-S Ar.18(1).127 is for the month of Tishrei 1230 CE.

Letter of extremely elaborate flattery and good wishes for Purim addressed to a Jewish dignitary (rayyis al-ru'asā). There are a few lines of Hebrew, then the rest (two folios) is in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the mighty sultan and the amir Jamāl al-Dīn.

Letter to R. Yaʿaqov b. Moshe. Writer unknown.

Legal fragment. Damaged and in need of conservation. There is probably additional text (including the year) hidden in the middle where the paper has accordioned. The document involves Abū l-Munā. The witnesses include Hiba b. Naṭira and ʿAllūn b. Khalaf.