Geniza Lab

Memorial list for distinguished (meyuḥasot) families including: Shemaryahu ha-Ḥaver Nin ha-Geonim and his two sons including Yoshiyahu; Ghālib ha-Zaqen and his son Mevorakh and his son Ghālib who died young; R. Naḥum (?) and R. Ḥalfon and R. Yaḥyā and his three sons, Avraham, Yefet and Shelomo and his son Yaḥyā who died young and his wife; Yosef ha-Parnas and his son Yefet ha-Rofe ... and his son Yeḥezqel. Written on a reused state document (see PGPID 35347).

Fatimid state document. Needs examination. Reused for a memorial list (see PGPID 19130).

Family letter in Hebrew. The writer consoles the recipient (perhaps his brother, see line 2) on a loss. Then he writes, "From the day you gave your daughter to the man, it seems to me that I have not had a single good week due to the quarrels and indignities that are between you (pl.), because I cannot bear to hear these things. If I had been able to leave the place without anyone's knowledge, I would have left from the great pain that was in my heart. I said in my heart, 'Woe is us from the sins, I don't have... sons or daughters...." A significant portion of the letter is torn off at this point. On verso he describes how God saved him from some trouble, and it seems that the recipient has wanted him to write to his wife so that she would come back to him, but the news in the city is nothing but disasters, so he is not going to write until conditions are better. This reading is somewhat speculative, and the relationships between the writer, the recipient, the daughter, the wives, and the people who were fighting are all ambiguous. ASE.

Letter of appeal for charity. There are 10 lines of flowery Hebrew praises for the recipient followed by a space and then six lines of the Judaeo-Arabic letter have survived. The writer's son is sick and they are in need of clothing and they ask the recipient for help.

Remnants of seven lines of a trousseau list (?). The names Elazar ha-Zaken and Sitt al-Kiram appear in the first two lines, followed by an itemized list of valuable objects. There is wide space between the lines.

Recto: list of distinguished names: Saadya ha-Rofe... Yehuda ha-Nagid and his son Saadya Segan ha-Yeshivah... his four sons... Mevorakh Sar ha-Sarim ve-Nagid ha-Negidim... and his son R. Moshe. Verso: the verses about the barren woman from Isaiah 54 and 62. The fragment is a small, tapering slip of vellum, reminiscent of an amulet.

Recto and verso: Dedication of a Torah with Targum. Location: Fustat. Dated: Ḥeshvan 1403 Seleucid, which is 1091 CE. There are several names: Elʿazar b. Yosef... Yefet b. Menashshe and his mother Ḥasana bt. Saʿdān and her niece.

Recto: letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, presumably in Qalyub, to his father, presumably in Fustat, late 12th century or early 13th. "If you have met with that woman [the matchmaker, judging by the response]... tell me everything she said." Also exhorts his father to update him on the apartment and the broad shawl and an ambergris seal (?). Verso: letter from Levi aka Abu Sahl to his son Moshe suggesting to him a choice among four prospective brides, one of them a divorcee: the daughter of al-[...]abiyah, or the daughter of Hibah the glassmaker the in-law of 'Imran b. al-Marjani, or the woman who was divorced by Ibn al-Habbar (the ink seller), or the daughter of Abu Sa'd al-Levi. He also requests a bundle of firewood for 4 or 5 dirhems for the holiday (lines 11-14) and mentions that Moshe's mother has gone away to "you know where" (lines 3-5) and writes something about the broad shawl, perhaps that he already sent it on Friday (lines 15-16). Information in part from Goitein's index cards. Identification based on distinctive handwriting and phrases; several other fragments survive with Moshe's letter on one side and Levi's on the other. ASE.

Recto: the ending of a letter, perhaps to [Av]raham ha-Nagid (see verso margin), mentioning R. Yehuda and someone's daughter. Somewhat difficult to decipher. Verso: the remnants of the address and an alphabetical writing exercise. Information from Goitein's note card (previously attached to PGPID 6316, now missing).

Several folios from the Torah in Samaritan script.

Literary text (Talmud?) with a colophon giving the date of copying: Nisan 502[.] AM, which is the 1260s CE.

Letters (or letterbook?). In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter on recto is dated Heshvan 5548 AM and the letter on verso is dated Tevet 5548 AM, which is 1787/88 CE. Needs examination

Two folios of the monthly "Ha-Me'assef" edited by Ben Zion Abraham Kohenka in Jerusalem. Dated: Nisan 5658 AM, which is 1898 CE. The margins and blank versos are filled with text in Hebrew and Arabic, written in purple ink, including some sums and accounts.

Testimony or narrative about events in Florence (פירנצה). Dated: 17 Tevet 5609 AM (January 1849). A man who was known as an impious alcoholic fell ill and began screaming, while covering his face, "Save me from these cruel ones who want to eat my flesh! Save me from the evil host that wants to swallow me!" People came running to help, asking, "What do you want?" He marveled that they could not see the hosts of מ״ח(?) that were coming to torture him. He begged them to bring a man to recite Psalms to protect him from this fate, and they did so. The text ends abruptly here. The handwriting is similar to that of JRL SERIES G 54.

Letterbook, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. There are three entries in purple ink. Late, probably 18th or 19th century.

Letter. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Written in purple ink. Late, probably 18th or 19th century.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: A Monday in the last decade of Tammuz 1[4]34 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE. In which Elʿazar/Manṣūr b. Yefet/Ḥasan ha-Kohen transfers property rights for half of a well-known house in al-Qālūs to his wife Sitthum aka Sitt al-Jamīʿ bt. ʿOvadya. The full names of the couple may be found in T-S NS 323.19 (probably the beginning of this document, but not a continuous join) and T-S 12.82 + T-S 12.553 (probably a distinct document). Joins: Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Legal document, draft?, written on a page that had already been used for writing exercises in enormous Arabic script. People named are Abū l-Walīd and Avraham b. Simḥa and most of the document has to do with describing the geographical location of a certain apartment.

Legal fragment, either a will or something to do with the disposition of the property of a certain Ibn al-Raqyan (?) who is now deceased. Signed by Eli ha-Kohen b. [...]. Verso also preserves a few lines, "testament of Abū Naṣr the in-law of [...]."

Lower right corner of a get (bill of divorce), signed by Menashshe ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.