Geniza Lab

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Tax receipt with holes at the margin. General note on ENA 3944: It appears that the tax receipts under the classmark ENA 3944 were stored together throughout the Middle Ages and remained together until Adler sold his collection to JTS, at which point they were put under the same volume classmark. They had apparently been turned into a quire of reused paper at some point during the Middle Ages. Some have holes at the margin where they were apparently bound together. Whether this run of tax receipts is really from the Geniza is unclear; one of them has an Ottoman-era stamp, suggesting that the collection may have been owned prior to its sale to the Bodleian before 1910 or to Adler before 1922. MR.

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Tax receipt, Fatimid.

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Recto: Letter with petition-like language. In Arabic script. Fragment (the ends of 7 lines are preserved from the lower part of the document). Concerning farming and safeguarding of land (fī zirāʿatih wa-ḥifẓihā wa-ṣawnihā) for a particular amount of time the parties had asked for (al-mudda alladhī iltamasūhā). Then deferent petition-like language: [anhā maml]ūkuhā dhālika ilayhā wa-raʾyuhā al-muwaffaq. Then urging haste, followed by petition-like language: ...wuṣūluh surʿa surʿa fa-anā muḥtāj ilayhi... wa-raʾyuhā al-muwaffaq in shāʾ allāh.

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Tax receipt.

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Tax receipt from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb. Multiple registration marks such as 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ʿalā niʿamih', praise be to God for his benefactions, and 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh shukran', praise be to God and gratitude.

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Tax receipt.

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Tax receipt, Fatimid. Registration mark - 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh bihi athiq', praise be to God in whom I trust.

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Tax receipt.

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Note in Arabic script addressed to [al-]shaykh ʿUmar at Raʾs al-Khalīj ("the head of the canal"; there is apparently a site just south of Fustat with this name), "may God preserve him." As soon as he receives this note, he should assist the bearer Abū Saʿd the banker for the amīr (ṣayrafī lil-amīr al-makhdūm). The addressee should accompany him and diligently help him find a boat to rent passage in. "You need no exhorting in this, for he does not know the boats." Scrawled ḥamdala at the end.