Geniza Lab

Responsa in the autograph of Maimonides.

Biblical fragment in an old-Persianate Hebrew hand.

Single phrase of Arabic on verso "في ادوم غبطة". Reused for Hebrew script.

Approximately 13 verses of poetry from the poem of the renowned Arabic poet al-Mutanabbī (d. 354/955) "حاشا الرقيب فخانته ضمائره * وغيض الدمع فأنهلت بوادره".

Long state document with extremely large calligraphic Arabic script, probably used as a performative decree, which was later cut down and reused for Hebrew script. Roughly two words are preserved per line, the most readable phrase is "فوقع بتاريخ". Mamlūk period? Needs examination.

Fiscal register, dated 3 Dhū l-Ḥijja of an unmentioned year, mentions several sums of money (Compare AIU IV.C.453, T-S NS 243.75a, T-S NS 198.61, ENA 2886.1–7, T-S NS 71.64, T-S 8H22.18, Moss. IV,252.1, T-S NS 308.41, and possibly T-S Misc.24.106). Reused for Hebrew liturgical text.

Two pages from a single fiscal register, mentions the months Rabīʿ II, Ramaḍān, Shawwāl, Dhū l-Qaʿda, and a name ʿAbīd b. ʿUmar. Reused for Hebrew liturgical text.

Fiscal document, few lines of text, something to do with the release of funds. Probably dating to the Ayyubid period. Reused for Hebrew script. Needs examination.

Literary text, compilation of poetry (dīwān). A portion from the long didactic poem (originally of around 90 verses) stretching through five pages from the dīwān of ʿAlī al-Ḥuṣarī al-Qayrawānī (d. 1095 CE) on the rawī of mīm. The title of the poem is written towards the end of the poem and before the beginning of the second poem "qaṣīdat l-Ḥuṣarī wa-hiyā li-l-ʿasharāt wa-hiyā mā-bayna tisʿīn bayt ʿalā ʿadad l-ʾaḥruf". The second poetry is about love with the rawī of 'hamza', and its first verse is أَما لَكَ يا داءَ المُحِبِّ دَواء*بَلى عِندَ بَعضِ الناسِ مِنكَ شِفاءُ.

Letter from Farajallāh to the judge al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Naṣrallāh. In Judaeo-Arabic with occasional Hebrew and with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter deals with the complicated legal case of R. Ḥasday, which the sender already described in a previous letter and repeats here. Ḥasday had made a deposit in ʿAqraba (near Nāblus?) but there was no record of it in the daftar, and the depositee died and the deposit was lost. There follows a very convoluted story. The sender refers to his main opponent as ʿAmaleq. Also mentions Amīn al-Dīn; ʿAbd al-Dā'im, Ibn Ḥabashī; the arrival of somebody from Cairo; Ibn Fayrūz; Ibn al-Fallāḥa; Saʿdallāh al-Ḥalabī; Ṣadaqa al-Ṣayrafī; Mūsā; Ajīr b. Fayrūz; al-Ḥanbalī. The sender gets to his request from the addressee and from Sayyidnā Moshe ha-Ṣefati about halfway through the text on verso (where the writing becomes larger). He wants them not to permit somebody (presumably "ʿAmaleq") access to something. He concludes with updates on various other matters the addressee had asked/ordered him about. Needs further examination.

Fragment of a ketubba. Dated: 24 Sivan 1313 Seleucid, which is 1002 CE. Groom: ʿAmram b. Maymūn. Bride: Zahra bt. Elishamaʿ. This fragment was reused in 1054/55 CE as a model for the ketubba for the groom Yoshiyya b. Neḥemya Rosh Pirqa (b. Avraham b. Sahlān) and the bride Karīma bt. Yiṣḥaq. Goitein comments ("this is surprising, because Yoshiyya was a payṭan"). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Fragment of a marriage contract of the groom Elazar and the bride Sitt al-Dar, in which the bride undertakes to bring up the groom's children. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 310, 311)

Report about selling merchandise in Qayrawan, from the beginning of the 11th century; probably for Ya’aqov b. Yosef b. Awkal. Mentions several different products, including indigo, food, wax, and pearls. It is not clear who are the owners, but mentions the names of Abu al-Bishr and Salah. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #114) VMR

Ketubba. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver ("at his best"). Groom: Elʿazar (l. 5). Bride: Dalāl bt. Maḥbūb (l. 2). In the portion preserved, Maḥbūb gives a house (or part of a house) on al-Sūq al-Kabīr (‘the large market’) to his daughter, the bride, while her mother renounces her rights (nazalat ʿan al-shiʿbud). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Legal document, probably 11th-century, attesting to the sale of half of a vineyard to a certain Sha'ul. The other half of the vineyard belongs to Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq. The vineyard abuts the public domain on three sides and the property of the Muslim Aḥmad b. מיריל (?) on the fourth side. The vineyard is located on the other side of the the river Tagus (תאגה) in the place known as ואדי לעפש (=wādī l-ʿafṣ?) in the village of אלבֿיגֿש. The bulk of the document is in Hebrew, but four lines from the bottom begins a list of all the potential defects in the vineyard in Judaeo-Arabic, which Sha'ul accepts. Goitein: "Unlike orchards, vineyards, as fields—in one document, wine- growing areas are indeed designated as "fields"—were legally the prop- erty of the government or its amirs. Therefore, a karrām, or "wine-grower," is not to be regarded as a proprietor of vineyards, but as one who leased them from the government and took care of them. Of cases like this we read in our papers, for example, about an exquisite vineyard belonging to, or being under the jurisdiction of, the governor of Alexandria, which the writer of the letter had for years tried in vain to lease. For this purpose a letter of recommendation had been sent to the governor from influential people in the capital.52 In Spain, the legal situation was different. The Hebrew documents or formularies that have reached the Geniza from there show that private persons possessed vineyards and sold or leased them at liberty. Of particular interest is one deed of sale of half a vineyard, which, after having detailed all the legal aspects of the transaction in most elaborate Hebrew, enumerates in Arabic, "in the terminology in vogue in Muslim courts," no fewer than fifteen defects and diseases that the vineyard might have and in which the buyer was prepared to acquiesce." Med Soc I, p. 123. Verso: Piyyut.

Recto (with address on verso): Letter in rhymed Hebrew prose and calligraphic script (which deteriorates over the course of the letter) to Mevorakh b. David ha-Bavli ("the leader of the Babylonian congregation," line 15) from Yehuda Sofer b. ʿEli. The main purpose seems to be to apologize for a failure to respond. The writer sends regards to Avraham ha-Rofe b. ʿEli. He adds a postscript in Judaeo-Arabic, asking Mevorakh to forward a letter to Abū ʿImrān b. Yaḥyā al-Raqqī, who it seems will then give Mevorakh a gift from the writer's son Abū l-Ḥasan. Verso: In a different hand, detailed accounts regarding transactions in lāsīn silk. The main block of text has to do with a purchase from Abū l-ʿAlā. The remaining text names many women, including the wife of Ibn Ghallāb; Sitt ʿAlam; Umm Faḍā'il; the daughter of Umm Dāwud; Umm ʿAzīza; and the sister of Tāj al-Maʿānī. ASE.

End of a legal document written and signed by Elḥanan b. Shemarya. Verso is blank.

Letter of thanks from Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Menashshe to Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq. Fustat, ca. 1120s.

Letter dated September 1040 (Gil), sent from al-Mahdiyya by Yahya b. Musa al-Majjani to Zechariah b. Tammam in Fustat. The letter deals with a financial dispute between the writer and Abu al-Faraj Yaʿaqov b. Avraham Ibn Allan. The Qayrawan Nagid Yaʿaqov. b. Amram and Rabbi Hananel b. Hushiel are mentioned in this matter. The letter also mentions mail that was sent and the state of Mediterranean maritime and land transport. (Information from Gil, Vol. 4, p. 87)

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Qayrawan. Around 1045. The writer is still in Egypt (before he moved to Byzantium) and his cousin, Nahray, did not leave the Maghreb yet. Israel writes information for Nahray about purchases he made in Egypt. He bought goods from Abu Naser, who is Hesed b. Yashar ha-Tustari. Mentions details about several people and trades, mainly of pearls and beads. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #408) VMR