Geniza Lab

Recto: Narrative text in Judaeo-Arabic. Relays a dialogue between Dāniyāl (al-Qūmisī?) and Yūsuf involving Qaraites. Verso: Two lines in Arabic script. Perhaps ʿUmar b. Yūsuf. . .

Literary. Commentary on Kings.

Three lines of Arabic in a neat black grid.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and eastern Arabic numerals. Late. Names are prefaced by סי׳ = senyor.

Document in Arabic script. Appears to be a letter.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Late. Involves Sulaymān Bonan and Faraj Allāh b. Shabbat and various sums of muayyadis/medins.

Literary. Fragment of a haggada.

Letter signed by Yosef b. Avraham, Aharon b. Yo[..], [Yiẓḥa]q b. Aharon, and a fourth man. The content is not entirely clear. Mentions an Abū Saʿīd, a shaliaḥ, and uses the verb قشع for "see." Probably 14th century at the earliest. Goitein's attached notes do not correspond to this precise shelfmark but to multiple binders (labeled according to their Gaster shelfmarks) including BL OR10578A [alt: 1342], BL OR10578C [alt: 1344], BL OR10578E [alt: 1346], BL OR10578H [alt: 1349], and others. ASE.

Literary, Hebrew.

A few Judaeo-Arabic words in large script.

Literary. Talmudic commentary in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning Rav Hayya.

Literary, Hebrew.

Literary, Hebrew.

Fragment of a calendar in a red grid, mentioning Shavuot and the 17th of Tammuz. See Goitein's notes attached to BL OR 10578C.1 (PGPID 6310).

Informal note. Possibly in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. An order for various food items and materia medica, with the amounts listed, following a note urging the recipient to to take care of the matter and saying that the remainder of the silver will be paid. ASE.

Recto: Letter from Bū Manṣūr b. Abī Saʿd to Abū Isḥāq al-Talmid al-Muʿallim. In Judaeo-Arabic. Conveying good wishes for the high holidays. The content of the letter is mostly cut off, but mentions that something is in the keeping of R. Ezra. ASE

Verso: Literary. A Judaeo-Arabic transcription of an Arabic poem, telling the story of the falcon (bāz) who caught the songbird (ʿuṣfūr) but let it go after it begged for mercy. Goitein suggests that a preacher wished to use the story in a sermon. It is an approximate equivalent of an Arabic poem that can be found in literary anthologies. According to al-Abshīhī in Al-Mustaṭraf Fī Kull Fann Mustaẓraf, a certain Naṣr b. Manīʿ who had been sentenced to death recited this poem before the caliph. ASE ( زعموا بأن الصقر صادف مرة ... عصفور بر ساقه التقدير ) ( فتكلم العصفور تحت جناحه ... والصقر منقض عليه يطير ) ( إني لمثلك لا أتمم لقمة ... ولئن شويت فإنني لحقير ) ( فتهاون الصقر المدل بصيده ... كرما وأفلت ذلك العصفور )

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic letter with 3mm characters and 3.5cm space between lines and upward-slanting lines (Goitein: "I have hardly seen anything like this").

One side: Judaeo-Arabic retelling of the story of Joseph. The other side: remnants of an interesting design in black ink and ~6 extremely faded lines in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly documentary.

Literary. The book of Numbers with targum.