Geniza Lab

Legal document in Arabic script. Fragment (five lines from the middle section). Dating: Likely late Mamluk or early Ottoman-era. Possibly a partnership agreement. Mentions a sum of 50 dinars. Needs further examination.

Leaf from an Arabic medical treatise.

Bottom of an Arabic document, probably legal.

Recto: A faded letter (of three lines only) addressed to Ibrahim al-Yahudi al-Ḥawāyirī (?) from [...] al-ʿAṭṭār, either addressed to or written in Wikālat al-[...]. Verso, with the address on recto: Ibrahīm al-Yahūdī reused the original letter to send a letter to al-Ḥajj ʿAbd Rajw (?) regarding a business transaction. The addressee's location is given but tricky to read.

Letter in Arabic script. Dealing with family and small business matters. Dating: Perhaps 12th–14th century, based on handwriting and language, but that is a guess. The sender complains about a lack of letters for the last 15 days. 4 lines from the bottom, he (or she) tells the addressee not to be too hard on Yūsuf regarding the ʿūd (=aloeswood?) and then mentions some prices and urges the addressee to respond. On verso, greetings to various people including the addressee's father. The letter was written on Tuesday, 10 Shaʿbān. A note underneath in a different hand may record when it arrived (last decade of Shaʿbān).

Recto Letter fragment. In Arabic script, with very large letters mentioning prior correspondence. The sender appears to be asking the addressee to graciously send him the books.

Verso: Legal document, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic. A lot of text is here, but it is extremely faded. Mentions Salmān b. Ibrāhīm and merchants and perhaps a period of time.

Three unrelated fragments. Pages 1 and 2: A private account in (quite legible) Arabic, naming Yūsuf al-Yahūdī, Makārim al-Yahūdī, al-Qazzāz Abū l-Qāsim, and others. Written in at least two hands. Pages 3 and 4: An Arabic literary work. Pages 5 and 6: A curious fragment, in Arabic, of the printed minutes of some sort of meeting ([...] Diyāb al-Ḥānūtī and Ibrāhīm were in attendance at one). It could also be typewritten, but it does not appear that Arabic typewriters were commercially available in Cairo until 1904 (https://kerningcultures.com/kerned-and-cultured/arabic-typewriter). It dates from 1898 CE at the earliest to 1903 CE at the latest. It refers to "the hospital of the Tramway" (شفاخانة الترامواي), and the Cairo Tramway was inaugurated in 1896, and it refers to a recent report in the satire magazine "El-Houmara El-Minyati," which was published from 1898–1903 CE. Another possibility is that it could be lithographed and printed at the Būlāq Press (est. 1821) or its contemporaries.

Arabic literary fragment. The word "al-falsafa" appears.

State document. Draft of a formal letter or petition in Arabic. The recipient's name and/or position may be present. Needs further examination. This side was reused for a document or composition that appears to be in Hebrew (but very little remains), and on verso is a Hebrew literary work.

Leaf from an Arabic literary work in nasta'liq-like script.

Lists in Arabic of unclear significance, needs examination. All four pages of the bifolium are filled.

Fragment of a bifolium, very damaged, probably from an Arabic literary work.

Fragment of a bifolium from an Arabic literary work mentioning Amir al-Mu'minīn, very damaged. Some strings tied to the extremity of the page (not the binding) are intact.

List in Arabic of unclear significance, needs examination.

Recto: Probably a fragment of a letter in Arabic, very damaged. Legible words include "the lamp/saddle maker" (السراج)." Verso: Probably a fragment of a Hebrew literary work. Legible words include "the 37th" and "the 38th."

Recto: Four lines in Arabic, perhaps writing exercises or drafts of a literary work, since lines 1 and 3 (mentioning watermelon and squash) are identical, as are lines 2 and 4 (mentioning silver). At the bottom appears the word "faṣl" (Section) in Arabic, and "salām" in Judaeo-Arabic, and what looks a lot like the number 29 (suggesting a relatively late date). Verso: Scattered Arabic text of unclear significance, along with "He who writes to you [...] is Isḥāq al-Yahūdī al-Ḥakīm.

An amulet in quirky Arabic script. The main section is Quran 3:18.

Legal document, ishhād, in Arabic, dated 1831 CE (18 Jumāda l-Awwal 1247 Hijri). Ibrāhim al-Yahūdī owes 700 Rūmī Kuruş and has to pay the Dīwān al-Maṣlaḥa at the end of the due date. The coin referenced in this document - قرش رومي, is likely a reference to an Ottoman Kuruş minted in the core imperial provinces such as Rumelia or Anadolu. "Rūmī" is a somewhat tricky term in the Ottoman period because– although it meant Roman or Byzantine throughout Antiquity-->Middle Ages –the Ottomans began to use it on a self-referential basis. This was to reference the mantle of the Roman Empire that they took on with the conquest of Istanbul and much of the Roman/Byzantine former territory. Needs further examination.

8 small pages mostly in Arabic. Page 1: The beginning of a letter to al-Ḥājj Aḥmad. Page 2: Jottings of text from a letter. Page 3: From a medical work: "The chapter on sicknesses of the head. Headache. . . " Page 4: Enigmatic Arabic text with diacritics followed by the Hebrew "Before us, the undersigned witnesses," and then some giant Hebrew alephs. Page 5: Two lines of enigmatic Arabic followed by "The chapter on sicknesses of the h{ead}." Page 6: More chapter headings from the medical work? Page 7: Hebrew script and scribbles. Page 8: The beginning of the alphabet in Arabic, plus a Hebrew shin.