Geniza Lab

Fragment of a late letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably ca.1800. Mentions Se. Yehiel and Se. Eliyyahu.

Fragment of a partnership agreement in Hebrew between Avraham al-A[.]ṭar and a certain Shem Tov.

Lots of dots.

Commentary on Isaiah in Yiddish (?).

Torah with Targum, Rashi, and Or ha-Ḥayyim commentaries. Printed. In Italian. Dated: 1742 CE. The fragment here is the statement of inquisitorial permission from the Riformatori dello studio di Padova under the jurisdiction of the Inquisitor of Venice, P. Frà Paolo Tomaso Manuelli. This Italian fragment can be traced specifically as page vii in the Google Books scan: google.com/books/reader?id=deBoAAAAcAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PP7. There are also biblical scraps and and at least two different handwritten fragments, and probably more hidden underneath various folds. ASE. MCD.

Jottings of many kinds in Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, and Arabic, including formulaic lines from letters in Arabic.

Jottings in Hebrew script, difficult to read, along with one page of accounts.

Late accounts in Arabic.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Probably an Arabic letter reused for jottings in Hebrew and Arabic.

28 pages of communal and financial and legal records. Pages 1 and 14 are registers of deaths, one on page 14 dated 1662 CE (5422). Pages 2–9 contain alternating entries in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic about who received how much, from whom, for what. Pages 10–13 are accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Page 15 is a fragmentary account of Ottoman rulers active in Egypt from 1659–72 CE (1070–72 Hijri), naming Gazi Basha, Usman al-Wali, Ḥasan Bey Mustafa, and others. There is also a small piece of a printed text peeping through a tear in the paper. Page 16 returns to accounts. Pages 17-19 have to do with the rents of the houses of the qodesh, listing their locations and tenants. Page 20 then moves onto the houses of the qodesh of the Musta'ribim Synagogue. Pages 22–23 are registers of births ca.1680 CE (e.g. 5436 and 5442). Pages 24–28 are mostly in Arabic script. Some of the birth and death registers are in the first person and in different hands. ASE.

4 pages of late magical prescriptions in Hebrew.

Literary work in Latin. Canon law gloss or commentary that is preoccupied with wives and the theme of divorce. “Matrimonium non consumatum separatur propter religione…” and goes on to cite [the summa of Hostiensis?] “de divortiis [book] quarto” and Innocent III’s 1201 decretal “Gaudemus.” Information kindly provided by Jennifer Speed.

A draft version of the same legal query to a jurist (istiftāʾ) as in T-S Ar.41.105 (edited by Geoffrey Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents, doc. no. 65), concerning changes introduced in Jewish liturgical practice. A major difference is that this query is addressed to the qāḍī al-quḍāt ʿImād al-Dīn (d. 624 AH, which is 1226/27 CE). A full list of variants can be found in Fenton's edition of T-S Ar.41.105 (as cited by Khan). A very imperfect edition of this text was provided by Gottheil in Mélanges Hartwig Derenbourg, p. 98. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Recto: At least two different drafts of late Arabic letters. Bottom of recto and verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic--lists of money received from various individua

Recipes and/or technical instructions in Ladino. Medical? Needs further examination.

Prognostications for the coming year in Judaeo-Arabic.

Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to Abu l-Ḥasan, sending money with the messenger and asking Abu l-Ḥasan to purchase hashish for the writer.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Calligraphic (chancery?) hand, but no wide space between the lines. 6 lines from the middle of the letter are preserved. The sender urges the addressee to look after his friend/colleague Sulaymān the khawlī (variously translated as intendant, gardener, overseer, irrigation expert). If Sulaymān wishes to go down to al-Kawm al-Aḥmar ("the red mound," a pharaonic site in Upper Egypt), then the addressee should assist him and make sure that he is honored. Whatever crops (ghulla) he asks for should be given to him.

Account in Arabic script written by Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1055. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #279) VMR