Geniza Lab

Bifolium from a treatise on geomancy.

Writing exercises.

Long fragment containing magical recipes.

Hebrew commentary on the Guide for the Perplexed, including on Part III, chapter I, which prefaces the discussion of Ma'ase ha-Merkava with a discussion of people who look like animals.

Fragment of a letter in Arabic. Needs examination. Cut and reused for a Hebrew literary (liturgical?) text between the lines of verso (as catalogued) and on recto.

Judaeo-Arabic instructions for making amulets to be hung up, drawing on the power of Quranic verses (e.g. 53:1 والنجم اذا هوى). There is also one line in Arabic.

Bifolium from a book of prognostications structured on the calendar and astronomical events, in both Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Writing exercises.

Several fragments from a kabbalistic and/or magical work.

Bifolium from a kabbalistic and/or magical work in Judaeo-Arabic as well as Hebrew and Aramaic.

Image not available?

Interesting Judaeo-Arabic paraphrase of Genesis 22 (the binding of Isaac). Very small bifolio on parchment with two binding-holes at the fold.

Medical recipes in Judaeo-Arabic, two folios faded with water damage but legible in most places. On the recto of the first folio the term "rūḥ / רוח" is reused in varied combinations such as "רוח אל כצרד", "רוח אל שראב", "רוח אל בארוד" (l. 7r, 10r, 13r). On the first folio's verso the unit of measure "אווק" is also in use which in medieval Geniza documents is similar to our current notion of ounces that are proportional to pounds (Goldberg, Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean, xix). In an early modern context, however, these "אווק" may indicate a much heavier unit of weight closer to 1.28 kilograms per "אווק" (Pamuk, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, 157). These units are accompanied by eastern Arabic numerals that indicate the weight of ingredients such as "wax / שמע" and perhaps "saffron / זפראן" (f. 1 l. 6-7v). Based on the script usage in this fragment it is likely that its date of recording lies between the 15th-19th centuries therfore these weights are more likely in the heavier Ottoman-era variant of "אווק". MCD.

Leaf from a Judaeo-Arabic manual for pharaonic treasure hunters, this section focusing on the area around Dahshur. Contains topographical descriptions paired with magical acts & incense prescriptions that will reveal the next steps and undo the protective charms. See Okasha El Daly's The Missing Millennium for a discussion of this genre (focusing on Arabic treatises).

84 pages of a book of segulot.

Two different fragments. First fragment: An abridgement of some of the dietary and lifestyle advice from Chapter 4 of the Hebrew plague treatise "Moshiaʿ Ḥosim" (Venice, 1587) by Avraham Yagel (a.k.a. Gallico). This page dates from after 1623, since זלהה is written after Galiko's name. The advice includes: boiling all water before drinking it or mixing it with wine; cooking all produce to "remove the disease from it"; or to pick wild herbs growing in desolate locations; to dwell in spacious, airy, and beautifully decorated houses; and not to eat too much, not to sleep too much, not to eat excessively warming foods, not to wear excessively warming clothes. On Yagel/Gallico, see Ruderman, Kabbalah, Magic and Science The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth-Century Jewish Physician, HUP 1988. Second fragment: This is labeled as "Image 2" and contains one line of Arabic script. However, the shape of the paper and the location of holes do not correspond to Image 1, suggesting that we are missing two images (verso of both Image 1 and Image 2).

Amulet in Hebrew and Aramaic (and Judaeo-Arabic as well?).

Image not available?

Betrothal agreement fragment (contains some of the same formulaic language as that edited by Ashur—Bodl. MS heb. f.56/57—in "How to Identify Prenuptial Agreements," Jewish History, 2019). There are numerous fragments in the hand of the same scribe, Yosef b. Shemuʾel b. Seʿadya (active ca. 1181–1209), e.g., Moss. VII,59, T-S 8.98, T-S NS 320.92, T-S NS 338.109, T-S AS 147.41, T-S AS 147.42. There are also larger fragments a hand that resembles his (e.g., T-S 12.141 and T-S 12.602). The date is likely ca.1200 CE. Verso contains some geomancy markings. Curatorial note: Exposition "L'Egypte au temps des Fatimids" Institut de Monde Arabe 1998.

Fragment of a ketubba. The hand of the scribe is known (one of the mid-12th-century ones). Groom: Might be Hillel b. Moshe. Signed by Yosef b. [...] ha-Levi. In between the lines, at 180 degrees, is biblical text including Deuteronomy 30:6. On verso is more biblical text including Jeremiah 50:20.