Geniza Lab

Typewritten copy of a ketubba from Essaouira (Morocco), 21 December 1876 (5637), with a handwritten note at the bottom, "this is the form of the ketubbot in the Maghreb according to the custom of the inhabitants..." ASE.

Typewritten copy of a ketubba from Essaouira (Morocco), 16 September 1891 (5651), with a note at the bottom, "this is the form of the ketubbot in the Maghreb according to the custom of the Castilian exiles."

Typewritten transcription of BL OR 10653.9, which is the poetic introduction of a "Yemenite Ketubah" dated Nissan 1368 (=1057 CE?).

The poetic introduction of a "Yemenite Ketubba" dated Nissan 1368 (=1057 CE?), see BL OR 10653.8 for transcription.

The BL OR 10655 binder is full of calendrical fragments. This one is interesting because it provides conversions between the Hebrew and Islamic calendars, with the names of the Islamic months given in Arabic script.

Calendrical fragment in Hebrew script; the margins are filled with jottings in Arabic script.

Recto: Informal note from Ibn al-Sukkarī to the physician Shemuel. In Arabic script. Urging him to investigate the truth of the report of the seller (bayyāʿ) of liquid (or soft?) goods (māyiʿāt) who claims that the doum palm fruit (ḍayḥ) has a pit (farṣ) which has been harming customers. Verso: The response from the physician who says that he has investigated the matter. Very faded. Might be dated in the last line. Needs further examination. ASE

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Part of a pair with BL OR 10655.25. Mentions Da'ūd (?) ... al-Yahūdī and repeatedly mentions a sum of 1248. There are multiple signatures at the bottom as well as an inked seal.

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Part of a pair with BL OR 10655.24. Repeatedly mentions a sum of 1248. There are multiple signatures at the bottom as well as a seal. ASE.

Letter from Elazar ha-Kohen b. Shelomo b. Yehosef who calls himself Gaon son of Gaon. In Hebrew. Dating: early 12th-century (Gil). For the writer's genealogy, see Bodl. MS heb. c.50/11 and Sassoon 526 (Gil, Palestine, II, #8 and #9). This contents of the letter are somewhat opaque. He mentions Ẓoʿan (Tinnīs?), and he mentions "Rabbenu Berakhot known as al-Jaʿfarī" before writing "...many of the rabbis, and I will mention to you some of them: foremost is Rabbenu Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav ha-Gadol... all the land of Egypt is given into his hand, and after him your slave Elazar ha-Kohen b. Shelomo."

Legal document. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (bottom part only). Location: Fustat. Dated: Nisan 1421 Seleucid, which is 1110 CE. One of the parties is Hibatallāh b. Ṣadaqa. Signed by :Ḥalfon b. Berakhot and Shemarya b. Shemuel.

Recto is a cryptic text in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic referring to the month of Adar, the ʿamida prayer, and supererogatory devotions (...ḥasb al-nawāfil...). Verso contains the names of two women: כל . . בנת בארה and Maymūna bt. Fāṭima.

Letter from Barakāt b. Manṣūr, unknown location, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Arabic script, with the address on verso written once in Arabic script and twice in Judaeo-Arabic. The Arabic hand is reminiscent of a chancery hand. Fragment (top part of recto). The address reads, "to Fustat, the Market of the Perfumers, to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekhariya known as Ibn al-Rayyis al-Iskandarānī (of Alexandria) from his slave Barakāt." Eliyyahu served at the beginning of the 13th century (dated documents in Fustat range from 1222–36; his dated documents including those from Alexandria range from 1204–41.) For this judge, see also T-S AS 151.153 (a letter apparently from his wife) and the cluster of letters from Manṣūr b. Sālim (incl. T-S 10J16.14 addressed to Eliyyahu himself) about a runaway son (an internal Jewish affair, not the kind of thing about which one would approach the state, even if you knew how to write like a chancery official), and also Motzkin's dissertation on him and his family. The sender's full name in the tarjama is difficult to read; he is probably identical with the sender/scribe of ENA NS I.1.

Memorial or genealogy list. Naming the members of various families: the house of al-iskāf (the tailor)... the house of Umm ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz... the house of the mother of Ibn Maṭrūḥ (including Yiṣḥaq Sar ha-Leviim Tif'eret ha-Sarim)... the house of Maṭrūḥ (including Shelomo ha-Bavli and someone who was martyred)... etc. Continues on verso.

Recto: State document in Arabic script. Maybe a decree. Only a few words are preserved: ]لى للفراج(؟) للتقضي(؟) . . . . . صولها

Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (right side). Addressed to 'my father' (yā wālidī). Unclear if any of the substance is preserved.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Reused for Hebrew literary text betwen the lines.

Last line of a document in Arabic script. The empty space below has one column of Arabic script at 90 degrees to the main text, then four columns of symbols (Coptic numerals?). On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Bill of divorce (geṭ). Fragment (upper right corner). Location: Somewhere in Egypt. Dated: Kislev 13[..] Seleucid, which is 988–1088 CE. The wife's name is Nājiya.

Book list, many described by their opening section rather than title, perhaps belonging to R. Yiṣḥaq (see bottom of verso). Ibn Maymūn is listed as one of the authors.