Geniza Lab

Recto: Last nine lines of a legal document in Arabic dated 555 AH, with the signatures of two witnesses. Verso: Accounts in Arabic mentioning units of weight (raṭl), with the names of various individuals, two of which are Hilāl b. al-Raṣṣāṣ and Abū l-Surūr b. al-Amshāṭī. Needs further examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Very difficult to read. Involves Ibrāhīm b. Surūr(?) b. Ibrāhīm the Jew. Might be dated 578 AH. Signatures at the bottom. Needs further examination.

Arabic poetry.

Fragment of an Arabic debt acknowledgment (iqrār) by Mūsā b. Yehuda.

Many small fragments in Arabic.

Badly damaged leaf of an Arabic literary work mentioning hallucination (wahm) and sleep.

Portion of an Arabic letter from Alexandria to Fusṭāṭ, probably to a family member. Most of what remains consists of greetings to people in the family and urging the recipient to write back with a full update and to address his/her letter to [...] al-ʿaṭṭārīn or to the market of silver/goldsmiths (sūq al-ṣāgha) to a particular Ṣayigh, so that it reaches the writer. The writer has the curious quirk of writing the sun letter twice instead of writing the definite article (e.g. في هذا تتدبير).

Letter in Arabic script to a certain Abū l-Fakhr. Dating: 11th–13th century. The sender's name appears at upper left but is difficult to read. Business letter, mainly containing requests to be sent various commodities (e.g., mentions a small qumqum and rosewater). Needs further examination.

3 bifolios from an Arabic medical treatise in beautiful calligraphic script with diacritical marks.

Bottom left corner fragment of a legal contract, late. Deed of sale. Three signatures in the form of cartouches at the bottom. Second fragment of the AIU XII.144 shelfmark.

Left half of a single line in huge Arabic script from a chancery document, possibly a decree. A suggestive reading of the fragmented line is as follows "السجل لك باستخدامك في مشارفة كله للـ[ـعساكر؟] لمصـ[ر؟", "letter for you, employing you for the complete overseeing (of the army?)".

A recipe or prescription in Arabic. Needs further examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Perhaps a deed of sale of a property. On parchment. Fragment: the beginnings of ~10 lines are preserved in additional to two lines (witness signatures?) in the right margin. Mentions Sayyid al-Ahl and Abū Manṣūr the buyer (al-mushtarī). Needs further examination.

Bottom right corner of a 14th C legal contract, probably a contract, dated 27th Muḥarram 723 AH.

Leaf from the diwan of ʿAbd al-Ghaffār al-Akhras (1804–73), a Mosul-born poet who lived most of his life in Baghdad.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār) by a certain Futūḥ b. Aḥmad. Mentions the judge in whose presence the iqrār took place, another person by the name of Yūsuf, who could possibly be the second beneficiary and the city of Fusṭāṭ. Dated: Possibly 623 AH. Concerns dealings in a drug shop. Some of the legal formulary refers to "and no drugs, nor saffron, nor any kind of drug..." Needs further examination

Official account mentioning the transfer of sums to the fisc (bayt al-māl) from the bureau of the capitation tax (bayt al-jawālī): "mablagh al-maḥmūl ilā bayt al-māl al-maʿmūr min māl al-jawālī," followed by names like wa-walī Butrus b. Yuḥannā.

Two unrelated fragments. The first is a two-sided fragment of a bifolium of an Arabic medical treatise. The second has three lines in Arabic, probably from a letter. A few loose words from which read as رخام مليح برسم بادهنج "nice marble to structure the windcatcher", and زجاج يكون برسم .... "glass....", last word could be legible and connected to another architectural element. Also mentions "سرعة سرعة", which implies that this could plausibly be a letter fragment. Needs further examination.

Bifolio from an Arabic medical treatise.

Bifolio from a narrow volume, an Arabic treatise that seems to be on medicine or regimen.