Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Fragment (upper left corner). Addressed to a certain Fakhr al-Dawla (al-shaykh al-ajall, 'the esteemed elder'). The sender met with Muḥyī al-Dīn and delivered a qirṭās (can mean paper or bag), possibly containing 200 dirhams. Verso: Fragment of a different document in Arabic script. Wide line spacing. The beginnings of three lines are preserved. Possibly official correspondence. Needs further examination

Leaf from an Arabic medical treatise, discussing temperaments and anatomy.

Recto: A page from Mūjiz al-Qānūn by Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288). Verso: Alphabetical jottings in Hebrew, a doodle, and "Hippocrates: ars longa vita brevis" (ابقراط: العمر قصير والصناعة طويلة).

Leaf from an Arabic literary work, either geometrical or astronomical (mentions celestial bodies, the horizon, and angles).

Bifolium from the section on dissection/anatomy in Avicenna's Canon, including chapter 10 on the the larynx (al-ḥanjara) and chapter 17 on the muscles of the upper arm (ʿaḍl ḥarakat al-sāʿid).

Page from al-Rāzī's al-Ḥāwī fī l-Ṭibb.

8 pages from an Arabic medical treatise.

Receipt of payment for the rent of three stores (ḥawānīt) from a man called Khiḍr Zaytūn in ḥarat al-yahūd, near the waqf of Muḥammad al-Raḥlāwī (?). The total amount was 180, half of which is 90. Signed by Ṣāliḥ al-Laqānī. Dated 1220 H. On verso, in Hebrew script: "[...] Abū Ḥabīb."

Legal document in Arabic script. Dated: 14 Jumādā II 634 AH (=1236/37 CE). Certifying that Yaʿqūb al-Yahūdī b. [...] al-Māwardī and possibly one other person have received (qabaḍa) a sum of (61?) dirhams from Abū Saʿd al-ʿAtṭār. Needs examination.

Page from an Arabic medical treatise, citing Ḥunayn.

From a medical treatise in Arabic.

Mercantile letter, complete, in Arabic script from Bundar b. Eliya al-ʿAṭṭār to Abū ʿAlī Ismaʿīl b Ḥananya al-Baṣrī (in Fusṭāṭ). Sent with ʿAlī b. Ṭalḥa b. al-Ḥusayn. This is a usual business letter mentioning commodities and their purchase and selling. Bundar urges Ismaʿīl to not delay in sending him cash after the goods have been sold off as he is in urgent need of cash: "fa-ḥājatī ilaihima māssa māssa". Among the commodities mentioned are sugar, musk, and honey. Names of several trade vessels and the province of Damietta are also mentioned. Placing the names of the ships in chronology could help in dating the document.

Recto: Medical prescription in Arabic (or a page from a medical treatise). Verso: A statement in Arabic signed by Hiba b. Mufaḍḍal al-Mutaṭabbib and dated September 1260 (18 Shawwal 658). It has to do wtih a payment in "plain black dirhams" (sawād sādhij).

Legal document, late, running transaction sheet with (related?) sequential transactions, probably a bill or a receipt of goods and services. Mentions a wage - "ujra", probably the rent of transportation of the goods in rīyāl and the price of soap (ṣābūn). The document is dated. 23rd Dhu l-Qaʿda 1222 H. The name of the beneficiary is al-Khawāja Ibrāhīm ʿAdda al-Marājīnī (the coral merchant). See AIU XII.86 for another Arabic letter to the same recipient, from five years earlier. Merits further examination.

Letter in Arabic from Ṣāʿid, probably a Jewish merchant, in ʿAydhāb, to his mother and brother in Fusṭāṭ. He reports that his party left Qūṣ and celebrated Passover in the wilderness of ʿAydhāb. When they arrived in ʿAydhāb, Abū l-Ḥusayn the camel-driver (? spelled without the alif) had already departed, so they were unable to send a letter with him as planned. Ṣāʿid asks his mother to tell the teacher Abū Saʿd that the nakhuda (spelled nākhudhiya), probably the same Abū Naṣr named on verso, disagrees with his proposition (?). The writer then sends greetings to several people in Fusṭāṭ including his brother Abū l-Khayr and asks his mother to pray for him always. He then asks her to tell his brother to go to Abū l-Khayr b. Khalfa and tell him that Abū l-Surūr is with them and about to set sail with the nakhuda, and no one needs to worry on his account. He then writes (it seems) that he and his party will also be setting sail soon, presumably to Yemen or India, and may God preserve them. He then turns to addressing his brother, Abū l-Faḍl, exhorting him to look after their mother, perhaps "not to let her know" that he is setting sail, and "not to drink [...]." He concludes with asking his family to send letters to him and to the nakhuda, and gives the date: Friday the 5th of Muharram, 547 Hijri = April 1152 CE (if this is indeed the correct reading of the date). He concludes again with regards to al-Muʿallim al-Malījī and Abū Naṣr and the family of Dāwud. The first two words of the address are difficult to decipher: to madīnat al-[...]? or to sayyidat al-gharb? al-ʿarab? In any case, the letter is to be delivered to the shop of Abū l-Khayr b. Khalaf al-Ṣayrafī, who is then to give it to his brother Abū l-Faraj. ASE.

Letter in Arabic script, mentions a cloth (thawb) and the names of a few people. Needs further examination.

Arabic business letter sent from Istanbul (or written by someone named Constantine??), with the format closely resembling the Judaeo-Arabic letters ca.1800 CE. Needs further examination.

Letter in Arabic addressed to Ibrahim ʿAdda al-Marajini in Fustat/Cairo, from a certain Yusuf [...]. Dated 14 December 1802 (18 Sha'ban 1217). See AIU XII.82, another letter to the same recipient, from five years later. Needs further examination.

Letter in Arabic addressed to Muhammad Ḥasan al-ʿAttar in Fustat/Cairo, from a certain Hajj Muhammad ʿAthari (?) al-Attar. Appears to be dated 5 April 1809 (19 Safar 1224). The subject matter is business transactions the pair are conducting with Shimʿon Frances (well known from numerous Judaeo-Arabic letters, many involving his business partnership with Merkado Karo).

Recto: Letter in Arabic from Isrā'īl al-Ṣayrafī to Yaʿqūb al-Ṭawīl, appears to be dated 6 February 1797 (8 Sha'ban 1211). Verso: There is the remnant of the address of the letter on recto. There are also, in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic numerals, accounts listing names and corresponding sums of money.