Geniza Lab

Recto: List of goods and amounts in Arabic, including pomegranate blossoms (jullanār). Verso: Jottings in Arabic.

State document, Ottoman, dated 1238 H. Ledger page connected to the Dīwān Anwāl al-Ḥarīr in Alexandria (most of the institutional title is in the second line of the heading). In a more general sense, this document is regarding the state's oversight of the production and import/export of silk (anwāl here likely means silk looms). Faded seal on the bottom of the document. Requires further examination.

Enigmatic table with entries in Arabic. Needs further examination.

Probably a medical prescription or a recipe in Arabic, mentioning hiera picra (a cathartic powder made of aloes and canella bark), chebulic myrobalan (iḥlīj Kābulī), lavender (isṭarkhūdus), sugar, and ghārīqūn (agaric).

Letter from Ṣedaqa al-Yahūdī to Umm al-Khayr bt. Nūr al-Dīn al-Ḥakīm b. [...], possibly in Bilbays (the address is damaged). In Arabic script. Dating: No earlier than 1415 CE, since it refers to the currency 'nuṣf' (half-silver). The sender tells the addressee to deliver the 'qumāsh' immediatelly, or if she hasn't done anything, the 20 half-silver pieces.

Letter in Arabic dated 1737 CE (Ramadan 1149 Hijri). There is a seal on verso. Merits further examination.

Writing exercises in Arabic, helpfully giving the date: September 1821 CE (Dhu l-Hijja 1237H)

Late accounts in Arabic.

Arabic literary fragment.

Recto: A passage from an Arabic treatise on love and lovers (ʿishq, ʿāshiq, maʿshūq). Verso: Scattered Arabic text, possibly list or accounts. Needs further examination.

Recto: The last page of the Annals of Eutychius of Alexandria (Saʿīd b. Baṭrīq al-Mutaṭabbib, d. 940), the Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria, discussing events in Jerusalem and Constantinople in the years before his death. See the Beirut 1905 edition: https://books.google.com/books?id=b6MIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PT336&lpg=PT336. Verso: A cross followed by cryptic symbols, and underneath the Arabic alphabet written left-to-right and partially in mirror image.

Probably a receipt for a rent payment by Yashūʿ (?) al-Yahūdī for his store (? ḥānūt) in ḥārat al-yahūd, mentioning the date Dec 1832/Jan 1833 CE (Sha'ban 1248 Hijri).

Late accounts in Arabic.

Recto: Legal document in Arabic script. Late Mamluk or early Ottoman (paleographic dating). Acknowledgement of debt in the name of Muḥammad b. Qāsim b. ʿAlī known as al-Ḥamawi, the mudawlib (perhaps the technical assistant, or the one who maintains the balance and other equipment) in the ṣarf (the money-changing house; the mint would probably be al-ḍarb), and the teacher Khiḍr b. [...] al-Yahūdī al-Rabbānī known as Ibn ʿAbduh. Verso (and margin of recto): Drafts for piyyutim in Hebrew. (ASE and MR)

Fragment (lower left corner) of a family letter in Arabic script ("your mother sends you her regards").

Recto: Bifolio, mainly containing an Arabic literary text, probably a fable, beginning with "yā qawm ismaʿū maqālatī" and continuing with the promised proverbs, followed by pen trials. Verso: draft of a letter beginning with a basmala and common honorifics surrounded by pen trials of the same line and other words on the entire bifolio.

Business letter or official correspondence in Arabic script. Dating: 11th or 12th century (paleographic dating). Written in a chancery hand with very large space between the lines; two lines preserved. Folded into a tight square; folds have gone both ways to judge by the ink that has bled in mirror form; the mirror-writing could yield another word or two from a third line (more dates; something else that is difficult to determine). The document concerns dates (tamr) and dye (ṣibāgh); they will be (sent?) with the people designated to take care of them (ṣuḥbat al-mandūbīn ʿalayhimā). Verso is blank except for a few Hebrew letters. (MR. ASE.)

Fatimid tax receipt dated 528H (1133–34). Five different hands: at top, 2 requests for registration, 2 confirmations of registration; lower part is receipt itself. (MR)

Fragment of an Arabic letter or petition.

Letter from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad al-[...] to Abū l-Fakhr b. Ibrāhīm al-Amshāṭī (probably Abū l-Fakhr Seʿadya b. Avraham, active 1140–72), in Fustat, the square of the perfumers (al-ʿAṭṭārīn). In Arabic script. All that is preserved is the beginning of recto and the address on verso. On the addressee, see Goitein and Friedman, India Book III, pp. 40–45.