Geniza Lab

Booklet of four pages, listing contributions in dinars or fractions of a dinar. About seventy-two numbers preserved. The list is headed by the Nagid, who pledges 3 dinars, while the others give 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, 1/24 dinars, respectively. A number of the persons listed are known as having lived around 1100; consequently, the Nagid referred to was Mevorakh b. Saadya (d. 1111). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 502, App. C 115, first supplement. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

A hybrid letter/account beginning, "My master, may God extend your life, you asked me for the noble (?) account of Mawlāy al-Shaykh, but I could not find it." The writer explains various other business circumstances and then recreates the accounts requested (wa-hādhihi sharḥ ḥisābihi. . .).

Letter from Zikri b. Hananel, from Alexandria, to Arus b. Yosef, Fustat. Around 1080. The writer is about to travel to Mahadiya and Spain. He asks the addressee to send him power of attorney to deal with his goods that need to be send from Alexandria to Mahadiya. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #785) VMR

Fragment of a letter, mentioning many names and small sums of money (between 3–10 dirhams). A father is wished that God may increase his numbers and let him see the wedding of his sons. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 474n19.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, 1040.

Short note in dreadful handwriting in which the writer orders some wine, because he has just had blood let (wa-qad ukhrijtu l-dam). The name Avraham appears at the top.

Letter from a certain Dāʾūd to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning alimonies (15 dirhams and 3 waybas per month) which the wife of Faraḥ was being paid during the period she was nursing a boy. After she weaned the boy, the family of Faraḥ said they would pay only the money, not the wheat. The sender is fighting with them about this. The brother of Faraḥ, Sālim, left and went to the army camp (al-ʿaskar). The sender asks Eliyyahu to bring up this matter with 'sayydinā' (probably Avraham Maimonides).(Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter sent to Sitt al-Ghazal, wife of the judge Eliyyahu b. Zechariah (?), by her elder son (?), Abu Zikri, asking her to put up a newly acquired friend, Abu l-Faraj Hibatallah, and his wife. Information from Mediteranean Society, V, pp. 36, 515. Mentioned in Rustow, "Formal and Informal Patronage," Al-Qantara (2008), p. 363. [Goitein's identifications here are not completely certain. The individuals named and the content support the identification with Abu Zikri. It is not his usual handwriting, so Goitein suggests that he dictated it. Judge Eliyyahu's wife in other documents was Sitt Rayḥān. Abu Zikri's younger brother Abu l-Barakat Shelomo was married for a time to a woman named Sitt Ghazal. If Abu Zikri is the writer, could he be writing to Shelomo's wife intead ("the mother," not "my mother")? It seems that Shelomo is currently with him (lines 19-21), so he couldn't have directed this request to Shelomo. And he opens, "God give you joy with the precious boy, the master, the brother" (line 5), consistent with a letter to a sister-in-law. ASE.]

Much faded letter to a certain Shemuel in which the writer expresses his longings and writes about enemies. Needs further examination.

Fragmentary letter partially written in Hebrew mentioning other letters in which the sender already explained his case.

Fragment of a petition or report probably to the vizier (ḥaḍrat al-wizāra... al-wazīr al-ajall... ). From the upper left corner; the ends of 9 lines are preserved. In Arabic script, in a chancery hand. Blessing the power of the ruler (sulṭānhu, but possibly meaning caliph, so not clear whether Fatimid or Ayyubid). Using the "yunhī" clause typical of state petitions and reports. Reused on recto for seliḥot. MR. ASE.

Either a poem or letter in rhymed prose addressed to a dignitary, probably a Gaon, who is a Kohen.

Beautiful calendar for the year 1815/16 CE (5576) with information about each month in a medallion set in a floral pattern.

Tabular calendar for the year 1815/16 CE (5576), probably connected to the previous shelfmark.

Account of building operations ca. 1240. Written on a sheet of paper made into a booklet of four leaves, it is a record of current payments for building materials and labor. The works going on are financed from huge sums of rent deposited with the banker al-As'ad in the course of two years. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 453 #136)

Interesting accounts in Judaeo-Arabic for a construction project—carpenters for installing the door, acacia wood for the door, nails, gypsum, tiles/paving stones, the wage of the tile-layers, marble, sand, etc. Various names are mentioned as well, including al-Shaykh al-Asʿad

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic.

Most of a long letter in which the writer uses colorful language to narrate his woes of the last 10 years. The addressee's father is named Abū l-Majd. Merits further examination

Letter from a wretched Abū l-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf begging for charity from a dignitary, probably the Nagid.

Detailed accounts in Ladino, sums listed in Venezianos (probably Venetian ducats) and Muayyadis.