Geniza Lab

Palimpsest. Hebrew Midrash with Greek undertext.

Bifolium from a treatise on the laws of charity written in striking red ink.

Geonic responsa in Judaeo-Arabic. 37 folios. Hand of Hillel b. ʿEli? On folio 37r there is an ownership note: Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi, who presented the volume to his only son. On folio 37v, there are 3 lines of accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, naming Abū l-ʿAlā', Abū l-Faraj, Yūsuf, and al-Muʿallim.

Document or documents in Arabic script on verso of a page from Maimonides' Mishne Torah. There are some accounts (مما بلغ في الشهر دينارين ونصف). And there are verses by al-Mutanabbī on the east wind, copied by someone who was not a fan (lā raḍiya Allāh ʿanhu): الجزوا (الجزء) الاول من ديوان ابي الطيب المتنبي البصري(؟) لا رضي الله عنه من قوله في الصبا: أَبلى الهَوى أَسَفاً يَومَ النَوى بَدَني وَفَرَّقَ الهَجرُ بَينَ الجَفنِ وَالوَسَنِ. Needs further examination.

Legal query with Avraham Maimonides' autograph responsum and signature. Description from Penn Catalog: "The recto contains three related inquiries, in three separate paragraphs. Each of the inquiries is signed with the common salutation ושכרו כפול מן השמים; In the remaining exterior edge of the lower two thirds, written lengthwise to fit the open space, is R. Abraham's six-lines of reply, probably in his own hand. The reply starts with the headline אלגואב and is signed אברהם ברבי משה זצ״ל; The inquiry deals with the debt of an unnamed widow. Published from this source in the edition edited by Goitein and Freimann: Teshuvot / Avraham ben ha-Rambam ; Abraham Freimann and S. D. Goitein [editors]. Jersualem : Meḳitse nirdamin, 1937, p 202-204, item no. 118; The folio has been folded lengthwise into two halves, after the primary inscriptions. The verso bears a secondary inscription that fits this fold. It contains two columns of Hebrew poetry; The right column is filled by a poem in honor of a prince named Joshua, that starts מה תצרי מה תרחבי. Published from this source by Israel Davidson: Ginze Shekhṭer. New York : Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1928-1929, v. 3, p. 307-308; The left column, ll. 1-5 is a short poem that starts צורי חסדיך, published, from a different source, by S. Wertheimer: Sefer Zikhron le-rishonim ṿele-aḥaronim / Solomon Aaron Werthaimer. Yerushalayim : Bi-defus ha-Aḥim Solomon, 1909, part 3, p. 6a; Followed by Judah ha-Levi's יפה נוף (in H. Brody's: Diṿan / Yehudah ha-Leṿi (Judah, ha-Levi) ; Heinrich Brody [ed.] Berlin : Ḥevrat Meḳits nirdamim, 1910-, v. 2, p. 167 and also in Harkavy's edition: Yehudah ha-Leṿi / Albert Harakvy [ed.]. Ṿarsha : Aḥiasaf, 1893-1895, v. 1, p. 7); Under the heading אחר מאברם בן אזרא ז"ל, Abraham ibn Ezra's לאלהים כלתה נפשי (in the Diwan of Abraham Ibn Ezra: Diṿan le-Rabi Avraham ben Ezra / Aḳiva ben Yosef Eger [ed.]. Berlin, 1886, p. 187)."

Ownership note? In a prayerbook. Seʿadya ha-Levi b. Hillel ha-Levi.

Four columns from Deuteronomy.

Note in Arabic script in the upper left margin of a page of dirges. May mention Sharaf al-Umarā'.

Business letter in Arabic script. Dated: 1119 AH, which is 1708 CE. Concerning a property dispute in Damietta. On verso there is a seal as well as a ẓidduq ha-din in Hebrew. Information kindly provided by Jane Hathaway. Line 3 mentions "الامير(?) محمد اغا" and other Ottoman officials throughout, line 4 "waqf"?

Document in Arabic script. Wide space between the lines. Miniature طs above certain words (=ihmāl). May simply be pen trials. On verso there are seliḥot.

Document in Arabic script. Unidentified. Reused for lamentations for the Ninth of Av. Information from Penn Catalog.

Arabic text, undeciphered. Line four includes the phrase من الامور وحكم الله(؟). Sharing a fragment with Hebrew poetry (arhāṭ) by (or dedicated to?) Abū Saʿd b. Yisra'el ha-Zaqen (al-Tustari?), copied by his student.

Literary text with a signature: Peraḥya b. Ṭarfon ha-Kohen. The same man appears in T-S 8J11.15 and T-S 24.74 (early 12th century). Information from the Penn catalog.

Literary text with a signature: Yefet b. ʿAmram. See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h293.html) for detailed description and potential identifications of this Yefet.

Document in Arabic script. Chancery hand, huge space between the lines. Probably a state document or petition. Three lines are preserved. On recto there is Hebrew literary text.

Panegyric dedicated to Yaḥyā b. Avraham. See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h318.html) for detailed description and potential identifications.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to an important person; huge space between the lines. The handwriting is probably known. Describing a communal controversy with the blind cantor She'erit b. Yefet at its center. Needs further examination by someone familiar with liturgical controversies. On verso there is a well-preserved Hebrew poem.

Debate poem between wine and water. In Hebrew. Likely in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. Composed by Yehuda b. Eliyyahu (per the acrostic). A complete version of the same poem may be found in T-S 8K15.9 (copied in a different hand). Information in part from Penn Catalog.

Panegyric by Yeshuʿa b. Dunash b. Moshe Av Bet Din dedicated to the brothers Simḥa and Netanel b. Mesabar(?). See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h325.html) for further description and potential identifications.

Megillat Miẓrayim, here called "Megillat ha-Saṭan ha-Yaduaʿ." Retelling the events of the rebellion of Ahmad Basha against Suleiman I of Turkey in 1524, and its effects on the Jews of Cairo; A complete copy of this "Megillah", in which the Arabic translation appears in a parallel column, is found in London, British Library Or. 7768 (Margoliouth no. 1170). Information from Penn Catalog.