Geniza Lab

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Only the ending is preserved. Greetings to Zekharya and Berakhot and to the addressee's wife. (So possibly addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge? His two sons were Zekharya and Berakhot.) The bearer of the letter is Khalūf al-Nafūsī, who had mentioned to the writer that he had קציבאת in Fustat. The addressee is asked to help him find a buyer. Khalūf is also bringing the 'khirqa' for the girl.

Letter from the lepers of Tiberias.

Legal document, fragment. Dating: ca. 1020 CE. Muʾammala bt. Shemuel b. Menashshe b. Avraham al-Qazzaz releases her sister Mulūk and other relatives (probably her sister's family) from obligations concerning the estate of her aunt Ḥusn bt. Menashshe b. Ibrāhīm including properties in a place called Tur Ruba and in Tyre, in the 'Armon' (mansion?) of Ibn al-Qazzāz. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Yemen. There are several dozen names and strings of numbers (in Hebrew characters) of varying lengths after each name.

Deed of sale. Location: Ḥamida/Ḥamuda, Yemen. Dated: 24 Av במ״ד, which is likely 2044 Seleucid, which is 1733 CE. The parties include [..] and Saʿīd and Avraham the sons of Yūsuf. Currency: gurush. Signed: Menaḥem b. Ḥayyim; Seʿadya b. Avraham. There is a note on verso with more names.

Accounts of Yaḥyā Ḥajabī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Yemen. Currencies used are gurush and zolota (a silver coin minted by the Ottomans to replace the Polish-Lithuanian zloty starting in 1690 CE).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Written on vellum spanning two leaves (and three pages) that already contained literary text in Hebrew. The first page of the letter is on a blank verso and the ending of the letter takes up the lower margin of both recto and verso of the second leaf. Describes the wretched state of the writer and the children and how nobody has been charitable toward them. The writer urges the addressee not to distance himself from them, and also asks for a maqṭaʿ (cloth). (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Literary text in Hebrew. "By Yiṣḥaq b. Seʿadya אלמנבגי." Underneath: "The scribe/writer is Shabbat b. Elʿazar ha-Melammed from the city of Ṣahrajt. Bibliography: Goitein, Med. Soc., 1:239, vi, 11 n.55. Neubauer in JQR 1894, 704 note 12.

A list of Talmudic sayings.

Letter from a woman, in Qayrawān, to a benefactor, unknown location. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century. The beginning is missing. Her children have nothing to eat or wear, and they have 'exposed themselves' (inkashafnā), that is, become dependent on public charity. "But do not suppose that [in] Qayrawān that they have compassion and give. By no means do they do this! They give to those whom they know." The wife of ʿAṭā' gave them only a couple measly garments, and when they put them on their bodies, they felt chills. She and her children all have an ear illness. The addressee evidently left 5 dinars for her with Farḥūn, although she has not yet been able to get her hands on it. When she does, she will have the community (or just her children?) bless his name every Shabbat. ASE

Kitāb al-Sheṭarot (the book of legal formularies) of Hayya Ga'on b. Sherira Ga'on. Per the Bodleian catalog, the copyist or owner is Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver.

Legal document in Arabic script. Only the bottom is preserved. On verso there is a prayer in Hebrew.

The first six leaves of a copy of the Ghurar al-Balāgha of Hilāl al-Ṣābi' — a book of formularies for letter-writing — copied in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Edited by Gottheil and discussed by Cohen in "Correspondence and Social Control in the Jewish Communities of the Islamic World," Jewish History 1, no. 2 (1986): 39-48.

Elegy on the death of the wife [actually: the mother] of the Nagid Mevorakh by Sedaqa b. Yehuda in which condolences to the Nagid and his two sons are offered.

Miscellany containing formularies for excommunication (invoking the Shem ha-Meforash) on 74/70v, flowery rhymes for letter openings, etc. On 74/72r a copy of letter of interest to scholars of pilgirmage routes: a letter of recommendation for a pilgrim who came to Salonica from "Russia" (רוסיאה) and does not know neither Hebrew nor Arabic or Greek, but only "the language of Canaan", the local language of his homeland. On 74/71r a formula to be written on the last page of a daftar of the Torah when the copying is finished.

Tafsīr on Leviticus in Judaeo-Arabic in a beautiful hand. Of documentary value because of the ownership notes (on verso of Bodl. MS heb. e 74/81): Avraham b. Yeshaʿya ha-Ḥaver and Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya (ZL) (a judge who served in Maimonides' court).

Poem by Yosef Abitur, sent to the community of Andalusia from the place of his exile.

Document in Arabic script. Possibly the draft of an iqrār or other legal deed. Written on (or reused for?) a page of magical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document. Bottom part only. Underneath, at 180 degrees, there is a jotting of the beginning of a legal document that includes the date: 10 Nisan 1549 Seleucid, which is 1238 CE. On verso there is a Hebrew elegy for 'my son' Yosef ha-Kohen and his three brothers.

List of expenses on food and crockery made on a journey. (Information from Goitein's index cards)