Geniza Lab

Accounts in Arabic. Needs further examination.

Bifolium from a (Qaraite) copy of the Torah in Arabic script. This section is Numbers 21. There are numerous joins. See T-S Ar.52.242 on FGP.

Recto: Legal document(s). In Arabic script. Madhhab: Mālikī. In Arabic script. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dating: The main two text blocks appear to be dated 18 Dhū l-Qaʿda 1050 AH, which is February/March 1641 CE. (Line 11 of the main text block also mentions the date 10 Ramaḍān 954 AH, which is October 1547 CE—probably a reference to an earlier document or event.) The main text block is headed by 2 elaborate signatures/endorsements together with seals; underneath there are 7 witness signatures. There is a lot of verbiage praising the issuing authorities, and the import of the document is not immediately clear. The upper text block appears to be in the same handwriting (and was completed on the same date); it mentions a Jewish (court?) physician named Ibrāhīm b. Yūsuf b. Manṣūr. This document is large and complex; needs further examination.

Recto: Long, calligraphic legal document in Arabic, from Fustat (مصر المحروسة), dated October 1649 CE (7 Shawwal 1059). It bears seven signatures along the side, a seal at the top, and perhaps the scribe's name at top left (الامر كما ذكر فيه حرره الفقير اليه سبحانه احمد ال . . .). The seal may be that of the Ottoman governor in Fustat/Cairo (Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha?): (. . . بين يدي متوليها سيدنا ومولانا الحاكم الشرعي الذي سيقع خطه الكريم اعلاه). The main protagonists are (1) al-Amīr Yūsuf b. (the late) Muḥammad, the provincial governor/inspector of the vilayet of Gaza (the word for provincial governor is kāshif—see Michael Winter, "Re-emergence of the Mamluks," in "The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society," p. 92); (2) a certain Abū Turābī; and (3) al-Muʿallim Muṣliḥ b. Binyamil (i.e. Binyamin) al-Yahūdī al-Rabbān al-Ṣarrāf [...] bi-l-Dīwān al-ʿĀlī. The document addressed numerous matters, chiefly financial; it requires deeper examination. Verso: There is a legend in Judaeo-Arabic on the outermost fold of the folded document (חוגת אלאמיר יוסף. . . ). There are also several Arabic supplements to the document on recto, at least the upper two referring to al-Muʿallim Muṣliḥ al-Yahūdī.

Late accounts in Arabic.

12 pages of an Arabic literary work, mentioning marriage and sex and childbirth. Merits further examination.

From a medical treatise in Arabic.

Tales 90–92 from "Nawādir al-Qalyūbī" by Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qalyūbī (d. 1659), in Arabic, with Hebrew translations/summaries in the margins.

From a medical treatise in Arabic, including various recipes for a medicinal powder (safūf). Headers in red ink.

Medical prescription in Arabic.

Interesting Arabic fragment with text arranged in a table, with many names of God invoked. Magical?

From a medical treatise in Arabic.

List of names (right column) and sums of money (left column) in Arabic, presumably either a donations or an alms list. Most names sound Coptic (e.g. ṣihr Būlus al-Kātib) or Muslim. Merits further examination

Small fragment of a formal Arabic letter or a state document mentioning "the diwan" (wa-ʿalayhi al-dīwān al-maʿ[mūr] and wa-suʾāl al-maml[ū]k).

Either letter or state document in calligraphic Arabic script with wide space between the lines.

Letter, fragment, business related. Needs examination.

State document, probably a decree, last three lines, written on the joyous occasion of ʿĪd al-Naḥr. Preserved lines read as "فاعلم هذا واعمل..وكتب في يوم عيد النحر السعيد..الطاهرين وسلم تسليما". Fatimid based on blessings and late Fatimid/early Ayyubid based on paleography. Business accounts on verso.

Tax receipt for the capitation of Musāfir b. Yūṣuf in New Cairo, beginning with the 'tadhkira', at the top, registration marks related to the diwān al-jawālī. Dated: 502 H, which is 1108/09 CE.

Late accounts in Arabic in a neat blue/red/black grid.

Receipt for the price of sugar collected from a certain ʿAbdūn by the messenger Aḥmad al-Ḥawlī. The document is dated Tuesday, 13th RabīʿII 859 H. Similar receipt on verso issued on the 8th of the same month mentioning goods and prices, sugar being one of them.