Geniza Lab

Verso: Narrative in Judaeo-Arabic. Perhaps notes for a sermon. It starts by describing a stroll on the Sabbath following Pentecost to 'the observatory' (al-raṣad) to get some fresh air (natanashshaq). One of the members of the party, Elʿazar b. Shelomo asked the writer "What is the mountain of God?" The writer then expounds on the nature of the mountain of God. Dating: A previous PGP description listed this as 11th century, but it is not clear on what basis. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) ASE

Verso (earlier side): Letter from Yaḥyā to a qāḍī. In Arabic script. Opens "aṣghar al-mamālīk [...] Yaḥyā yujaddidu khidmata sayyidinā l-qāḍī al-ajall al-awḥad al-qāʾim al-mutafakkir(?)...." Needs examination.

Legal fragment (right half). Deed of sale of a house, probably from Qayrawān. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal fragment. End of a marriage contract, signed by Efrayim b. Sadoq, Shelomo b. Mevorakh and Yosef b. Nissin.

Letter from Salah b. Barhun al-Tahirti to Yosef b. Awkal and his sons Hillel and Binyamin (written 8.21.1008, received 11.1.1008), upper fragment only.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father Eliyyahu the Judge. In Arabic script, with isolated words and part of the address in Hebrew. Very little is preserved: only the first line, the address, and the last word in the right margin (al-ḍurūra / "distress" / "need").

Fragment of a court testimony in which Bishr b. Ibrahim sues Zayn concerning items in the estate of his deceased paternal uncle, Sadaqa b. Khalaf. Dated Tevet 1453/ December 1141. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Ketubba fragment. Calligraphic.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mnetions Abū l-Ṭāhir. Deals with business matters and mentions an exchange rate.

Page from a bookseller's ledger, containing many names. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Avraham b. Sughmār, from Fustat, to Nahray b. Nissim, Alexandria. Nahray traveled to Alexandria and the writer is sorry that he did not say goodbye. Mentions one dinar that the writer owes a person, the son of a person Ibn Sabra and he asks Nahray to arrange its return. Also mentions b. al-Qafsi, who is Maymūn b. Khalfa. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #610) VMR

Booklet containing Judaeo-Arabic glosses on sections of Genesis and Noah. Of documentary interest because there are a great number of biblical place names given their Judaeo-Arabic equivalents (Kittim = Cyprus(!), Tuval = China, Meshekh = Khorasan, and so forth).

Letter sent from Jerusalem in later medieval times by a woman named Jamila, the widow of Yehuda, addressing two brothers-in-law in Cairo, explaining that she could not come with the last caravan since she had visitors from Damascus who had fled from the plague, but promising she would come with the next caravan. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 115)

Bill of divorce (get). Drawn up in Fustat. Dated 14[..] Seleucid, perhaps 1453, which would be 1141/42 CE. Husband: Surūr b. Sibāʿ. Wife: Sitt al-Ahl bt. Yaʿaqov. Witnesses: Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver and Yeḥezqel b. Natan. Verso contains the attestation that the get was delivered.

Letter from Yehuda to Sulaymān and ʿAzīz. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Looks no earlier than 14th c, but this is a guess. Yehuda is spelled יהודא. The content is mostly faded or lost. The name [...] b. Yeshuʿa appears on verso; perhaps this is the address.

Legal document regarding the inheritance of the late David Ẓanuaʿ. In Hebrew. Location: Fustat. Dated: End of Sivan, 5524 AM, which is 1764 CE.

Deed of sale for a certain large qāʿa. Location: Fustat. Dated: Middle third of Kislev 5520 AM, which is 1759 CE. Currencies: Real. Written in elegant script on a large piece of paper that tapers at the top.

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon, from Tinnis, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1056. The writer just arrived in Tinnis and he is astonished to see the situation in the city: the trades have stopped and the city seems like it was destroyed. He asks a question about a shipment of linen and mentions buying wheat for his family. Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #595. VMR. Nissim also twice exhorts Nahray to look after his children, "the fire is in my heart due to their state. . . for you know their state," and to finish the business quickly for this reason. ASE.

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim. Offers details of ill-fated ships that were destroyed in a storm or met with the Byzantine navy. Of the ships that had been in al-Kanāʾis (a port in western Egypt), the only ones that had made it all the way to Alexandria were 7 ships of al-Ishfīlī, and one qārib apiece of Ibn Dayṣūr, Ibn Sindūr, Ibn al-Dajdāj, Ibn al-Jannānī and al-Jazūla — 12 in all. An unnamed enemy stopped one ship, and the others fled; and only 5 ships managed to set out on their way. Gil connects this with the 15 ships mentioned in T-S 8J27.2, his #447, and therefore understands this letter to imply that the ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ was among those that hadn't yet returned to Alexandria). Musa is preparing to go to Palestine; he asks Nahray for a letter of recommendation (this part translated in Udovitch, "Formalism and Informalism"). Also mentions the fayj, and a tax receipt for the khums related to a consignment of raisins. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, #448, and from ibid., vol. 1, sec. 315, fn) There is a companion letter to this one, T-S 8J27.2 (PGPID 2084); see there for further details of the same events.

Letter from Peraḥya b. Sahlān, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1055. Regarding the request that Nahray will deal with selling goods that the writer sent to Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #779) VMR