Geniza Lab

Recto: List of the graves of ṣadiqim visited by Elʿazar ha-Levi of Egypt. Location: Safed. Dated: Pesaḥ Sheni = 14 Iyar 5586 AM, which is 1826 CE. About 25 sites are listed. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and eastern Arabic numerals. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Legal testimony from Fustat dated the 11th of Heshvan, 979 CE (1291 Seleucid) involving Sa'dan b. Sa'id from Tzubah (Aleppo) and Mevorakh b. Qiyam. Starting at this point, only the last few words of each line are preserved. Mansur b. Wahb and the brothers Salamah b. 'Amram and Mansur b. 'Amram are mentioned, as is the price of flax. Someone is appointed to be Sa'dan's guardian (? אפטרופא). The scribe is Efrayim b. Sadoq. There are numerous signatures. See also T-S 13J8.21, a legal document involving the same Aleppan Sa'dan b. Sa'id. ASE.

Legal testimony. Location: Fustat. Dated: Shevaṭ 1462 Seleucid, which is 1151 CE, under the authority of Shemuel ha-Nagid. A woman named ʿAmāʾim bt. Abū l-Faraj Menahem ha-Levi al-Shammāʿ b. Shemarya ha-Levi, who is the widow of the clothier (bazzāz) Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf b. Munajjā, acknowledges that she has received in full the 40 dinars of her delayed marriage gift (muʾakhkhar) from the ʿAsqalānī perfumer Abū ʿAlī Yefet b. Tiqva. Witnesses: Berakhot b. Yefet and Natan b. Shemarya ha-Kohen. The qiyyum (validation) is written in a different hand and is signed by Yaʿaqov b. Avraham, Efrayim b. Meshullam, and Mevorakh b. Natan.

Literary. Sharṭ al-Alḥān wa-Uṣūl al-Tanqīṭ by Ibn Asher (ZL). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

State document, Fatimid period. Dated: 4 Rajab 523H, which is 23 June 1129 CE. Reporting that two trustworthy witnesses from Alexandria had given testimony, and that a document had come in answer to their testimony. One of their names has been preserved: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b Ḥātim b. Ṣadaqa b. ʿUmar. Contains a registration mark (al-ḥamdu li-llāh ʿalā niʿamih). Another scribe has reused the document to copy the Fihrist of Shemu’el b. Hofni gaʾon. Details: An official document belonging to X (unnamed person: the هـ of kitab) was presented somewhere, but it needed to be verified, so two witnesses ratified it, presumably in Alexandria. The ratified document was then sent to a chancery where our writer recorded its contents, and equally importantly, registered the names of the two witnesses who had vouched for its authenticity. This is a bifolio register destined for the central Fatimid archives. Without more information on person X, and on the nature of this كتاب (was it a receipt, a legal deed, a rescript?), the document remains tantalizing and opaque, but useful as evidence of registration and archiving. Reused for the fihrist (index to the writings) of Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni (one fragment) and for Bava Metzia 49b (the other fragment: someone buying wine learned that Parzak the vizier was going to confiscate it, so he tried to renege before taking possession of the wine. R. Hisda approved: "just as they instituted 'pulling' with regard to sellers, so did they institute 'pulling' with regard to buyers"). (MR)

Fihrist (book list) of Shemuel b. Ḥofni Gaon (ZL).

Epistle from Shemuel b. Ḥofni, in Sura, to Yosef ha-Ḥaver b. Berakhya in Fustat. In Hebrew. Dating: Probably copied in the 11th century. It discusses a conflict, it seems now resolved, over monetary donations between the yeshiva of Sura (under Shemuel) and the yeshiva of Pumbedita (under Sherira). Still, some donations are appropriated entirely by one person, and others, if they do not have a specific address or are addressed to the Sages of the Yeshiva in general, are divided 50/50 "between us and our Ḥatan." It goes on on this vein and mentions a specific donation of 150 dirhams sent by a now deceased rabbi. Shemuel urges more donations (addressed correctly this time) and tells the recipient to write to someone named Yosef b. Yaʿaqov. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Official memorandum with the signature of an official called al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad. Belongs together with ENA 2697.8 + ENA 2697.9 + T- S Ar.31.58 + T-S Ar.30.245, but it's not clear precisely how. Join: Marina Rustow.

A folio from a Judaeo-Arabic epistle/treatise on Hebrew grammar, listing the Masoretic pedigree of Aharon b. Moshe b. Asher, also mentioning R. Moshe Moheh and Moshe ha-'Azzati ha-Naqdan, and then going into a discussion of rules of sheva and dagesh. The exact same text (though not from this manuscript) appears as an appendix in several editions of Diḳduḳe ha-ṭeʻamim easily found on Google Books, but the author does not appear to be known (one Russian edition from 1886 speculates Dunash b. Tamim ha-Bavli). ASE.

List of Talmudic sages.

Formularies for legal documents, including for a Palestinian-style ketubba. Location: Probably Tyre. Same scribe as T-S NS 243.28. See M. A. Friedman's edition for further information.

Letter of appeal, probably. In Hebrew. Addressed to an important personage and narrating the writer's woes. There is a large, calligraphic "I speak so that I may find relief" (אדברה וירוח לי) dividing the two blocks of text. The lower block appears to begin with self-abasing phrases such as "trample my neck with your foot," and the writer conveys his deep regrets (?) over the death (?) of the recipient's son (?) 'Amram in Tevet of the year 1187/8 CE (1498 Seleucid). ASE.

Legal document from Damietta [אי כפתור], dated the [2]7th of Tishrei 1155 CE (1467 Seleucid), narrated in the voice of a woman (judging by ואנא קאעדה in the last line of recto). The writer tells how she returned from the synagogue and found the daughters of the sister of Abū l-Faḍl b. al-Ṣabbāgh in her house. One of them (her brother's widow?) claimed that the Dāʿī told her that the writer's brother had left three notebooks in her house (belonging to him?). The next day, the writer went to the wife of Abū l-Riḍā, who told her, "my husband the Dāʿī is a good man, don't hide anything from." So she handed over the key, and the Dāʿī and Abū ʿAlī [b.] Ḥassūn went up and ransacked her library and made off with 17 notebooks. BL OR 5554A.48 is either the continuation of this document or a different document related to the same case (mentions several of the same names and is also dated the 27th of Tishrei 1155 CE). ASE.

Legal. The will of Shela b. Yefet known as Ibn al-Sukkari. No date is preserved, but it mentions the Rayyis Mevorakh. It mentions an orphan daughter and 300 dinars. The Alexandrians Abū Hārūn and Abū Saʿīd Khulayf b. Qays (?) and 'Ezra b. Hillel will be the executors.

Recto: A gripping tale of King Solomon battling the demons. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic poetry, probably related to the same story (lots of precious gems are mentioned on both recto and verso). ASE.

Account for a sale of flax, probably in Tripoli (Libya), 1025. The flax is sold by bale, of unequal weight. The bales arrived to Tripoli by sea, and some got wet. The flax belongs to members of the Al-Tahirtī family. Accounts in the same hand and possibly from the same book are also found in CUL Or.1080 J291, T-S J1.54, Moss. VIII,476.1-2. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 370.)

Formulary for letters to distinguished addressees. In Judaeo-Arabic. The second form is for begging for forgiveness on behalf of somebody. The writer switches into Arabic script for the "in sha allah" at the end of each letter; he also writes "forgiveness" as עפר rather than גפר, perhaps suggesting that these are meant to be transcribed directly into Arabic. ASE.

A folio possibly from the same original work as Or. 5554B.12, though the subject matter appears different. Recto: possibly the conclusion of a form of a letter for asking for financial assistance for places of worship. But this is very tentative - it needs further examination. It concludes, "for the Jews have hayakil, the Christians have kana'is, and the Muslims have manabir." It then switches into a passage attributed to Hunayn b. Ishaq about Aristotle and Plato and the King פסטאנס who hired them to tutor his son פסטאפורט. ASE.

A panegryic in honor of a Babylonian dignitary. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in Hebrew with ~25 lines of flattering praises for R. Nehoray. There is then a single line of content: "I inform my master that I am trying to leave this place."