Geniza Lab

Recto: Document in Arabic script recording the settling of a business account (wafāʾ), perhaps what al-Thiqa owed to Barakāt b. Salāma. Dated: 12 Muḥaram '47 AH, probably 447 AH, which would be 1055 CE. (There is also a Barakāt b. Salāma mentioned in Halper 468, an 11th-century document.) Mentions specific commodities (including al-kābulī = chebulic myrobalan) and many details about brokerage and agents' fees. Needs further examination. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script (different hand). Names (e.g. Abū Ṭāhir, Jawhar) listed alongside sums of money; also mentions 'simsār' or the trade agent/broker.

List of court cases in Judaeo-Arabic. One involves the payment of a capitation tax (jāliya), another involves a Jew who sued someone in Muslim courts. Information in part from FGP.

Recto: The end of a legal document dated Sunday, the 2nd of Tevet, 5323 (1562 CE), dealing with the obligations of a certain Daniel, signed by Eliyya b. David the ḥaver. Verso: The end of a different legal document signed Menaḥem ha-Kohen.

Fragment of a legal declaration drawn up in Fustat in the middle of Iyar, mentioning Avraham ha-Rav and Hibat Allāh.

Possibly a colophon? Describes the various chapters of a treatise on shekhitah, then says "it is completed with the help of God" and then there is the name Abu ... Ibn Hibat Allāh the son of our rabbi Yosef ha-Zaqen. On verso there is just one line that says Saadya b. [...].

Account (cuento) in Ladino and western Arabic numerals. Mentions Eliyya Palombo.

Slip of paper with two lines blessing the recipient with the blessing of Joseph in Genesis 39:2.

List of names arranged in columns. There is also a brief note about sums of money on the bottom right of recto.

Brief note from Hananel instructing Abu [...] to give the bearer 33 dirhams.

Letter fragment (from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu?) with elaborate praise and good wishes for the recipient Abū l-Faraj and his children.

Calendar in grid layout. Decorated with red crescents. In Hebrew. Late.

First document: Letter fragment addressed to Nahray b. Nissim regarding the sale of ambergris. Second document: Letter fragment addressed to Yehuda ha-Kohen ha-Sar ha-Adir. Information and transcription in Goitein's notes linked below. ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Little remains.

One of the three fragments here (BL OR 10599.19A?) is a small fragment containing Arabic script.

Document with a few lines of Arabic script on each side. Fragment of a fiscal account? Needs examination.

Probably late. A list of dozens of names arranged in two columns per side. Prefaced with "the names of the households who are invited (? maʿzūma)." Some professions are listed.

This shelfmark contains four fragments. Two are late and literary. One is so small that it preserves only a few Hebrew words. The documentary fragment is the upper right one in Judaeo-Arabic, perhaps from a letter. The first words of eight lines are preserved; they mention two kosher witnesses and the consummation of a marriage (al-dukhūl bi-hā).

See PGPID 19097.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Bayān, requesting that he let him copy a volume of responsa, either bringing it to Shelomo or having Shelomo come to his house to copy it. The tone is slightly confrontational ("because if a person says something, he must fulfill it"). On verso, a note by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, registering his expenditure for a Friday, mainly on foods. Also a note to deliver this slip to his mother (? Sittī al-Ra'īsa, with lots of honorifics). Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 231-2. ASE.

Letter fragment in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic addressed to an important person [...] b. Saadya, who may be identifiable on the basis of the titles he is given (is it Mevorakh?). Very little remains except copious blessings and praises. ASE.