Geniza Lab

Recto: Document in Arabic script, small fragment. Evidently torn up and reused. Verso: Draft of an order of payment, probably. In Arabic script.

Document in Arabic script, possibly accounts.

Substantial fragment of an elaborate, calligraphic calendar, in Hebrew, giving corespondences between the Hebrew and Islamic calendars. A year does not appear anywhere, but it is quite late, probably 18th or 19th century. At the bottom there is a comment on the (level of?) the Nile on the 2nd of Tammuz, as well as a prayer for agricultural prosperity in the coming year.

Bottom part of an illuminated ketubba, probably 18th or 19th century.

Ketubba, illuminated, from Rashid, no earlier than 1740 CE (55[..]).

Ketubba, beautifully illuminated, from Cairo, dated 16 April 1821 (14 Nisan 5581) for Ḥayy Dayyān b. David Dayyān and Mazal Ṭov bt. Yehuda Dayyān. The couple are likely paternal cousins. The document is cut in the shape of a dome, with a heading depicting birds, trees, and a building structure overseen by a sun and an eye. The bride and groom sit in one room, holding hands. The border of the document is decorated with the twelve signs of the zodiac. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Deed of sale or rent? Includes the phrase "whatever he wants whenever he wants" (mahmā shāʾa minhu matā shāʾa). One of the parties is Abū l-Faraj b. Ḥayyūn al-Yahūdī al-Tājir.

Recipes, probably medical or alchemical, in Arabic script, accompanied with pious invocations and some magical characters.

Complete letter/report in Arabic script written on a long, vertical strip of paper. Looks like a report to a high official or the draft of the body of a petition in an ~11th-century chancery hand, but written on a long, thin strip (30cm x 5-6cm). Discusses extensively government service (khidma). Mentions al-Qāḍī al-Rashīd Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (probably the father of the famous poet) on v15–16, who rebukes somebody who caused trouble (fitna). The document may also discuss an appointment to the office of capitation taxes (jawālī) (r12). Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd was terrified at the prospect of being put in charge of government funds; the sender offers an excuse for him (perhaps that he doesn’t even know accounting? lā yaqtadir ʿalā istirfāʿ ḥisāb). Needs further examination. ASE

Fragment of a letter in Arabic script, including part of the address on verso.

Biblical commentary, late. The description of a ketubba under this shelfmark in FGP is probably intended for CUL Or.1080 9.19.

Seʿadya's commentary on Psalms. Note that the identification and transcription of the Persian business letter on FGP belong instead with CUL Or.1080 6.30

Letter from a woman named Archondou, in Alexandria, to her son Fuḍayl, in Fustat. Her main purpose in writing emerges at the end: she wants her son to come and fetch her, as she wants to go to Fustat. The woman's name, the use of a Greek word (τυλάριν, ?mattress, r12, 19), and the spelling of the proper names 'Archondou' (ארכודו) and 'Alexandria' (אלכסדריאן) all indicate a Greek-speaking milieu. Archondou expresses her sympathy for her son's eye disease, "from the day I heard that my eye has flowed and I have wept day and night without case" (r9–12). She too has an eye disease: "My eyes hurt very badly and I give three zuz every week to the doctor, and I cannot move from this place. If God is good to you, do me a favour and come quickly to fetch me out of here so that I do not die" (v10–14). Information from de Lange's edition. ASE.

Lease of an apartment of the Qodesh ca. 1180. Abu'l-Bayan, one of the prominent parnasim of this period, leases an apartment, which is in a tabaqa, i.e. an upper floor, to a certain Abu'l-Fadl. The apartment is in Dar al-Zajjaj, one of the compounds owned by the qodesh. The lessee is himself a parnas. The tabaqa is described as the apartment, sukn, of Makarim Ibn Sahlan. In fact, this must be understood as Makarim and Ibn Sahlan, since they are listed separately in accounts of rent, where they pay five dirhams a month each, the same sum of rent that Abu'l-Fadl, the new tenant, will have to pay. Abu'l-Bayan, the representative of the qodesh, cannot be one of the parties in the concluding formula which says "from each of the two," since he represents the court. The most plausible explanation is that the two tenants rented the tabaqa of the qodesh inhabited by them, to a third party, with the knowlesge and active participation of the qodesh. This would represent a subletting of an apartment of the qodesh. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 313 #73)

Legal document. Fragment of beautifully written old ketubba. No name, no date, no conditions preserved. No or next to no jewelry reported. Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter sent by Salama b. Asad the perfumer to Ismail the perfumer, accompanying a payment made to him and ordering eleven items, amongst which some uncommon ones. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 585, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the amirs Shibl al-Dawla (a man of the same title appears in F 1908.44I) and נאתץ(??) al-Dawla. Also mentions a man titled al-Pe'er; a peasant who covets the writer's mechandise that is "with him"; "ḥadrat al-wilāya" (the title of a wālī?).

Appeal for charity by the scholar Mawhūb b. Ḥalfōn ha-Ḥaver Ibn al-Bunduqī (“the son of the Venetian”). (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from a merchant in the Maghreb to his business partner in Fustat (might be a person from the Tahirti family). The beginning of the 11th century. Details about selling large quantity of flax and shipments of hundreds of dinars from the Maghreb to Egypt. Also mentions buying lead and other goods and details about the prices of different goods as indigo. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #137) VMR

Account of the Qodesh: payments to building workers, ca. 1045. Two fragments written in Arabic script, on vellum, the verso of a letter. Apparently, this was an intiial record of the names of the people and the itemized list for the day on which work was done, to serve as a basis for payment and the final recording. The names seem to be of both Muslims and Copts. The record covers a period of about five months, from the beginning of July to the end of November, 1045. Gil's interpretation is that the work was done at the compound of al-rayis, by which a notable of the congregation was mean. The sums due aare not mentioned since there were set rates according to professional grade. Some of the workers are sani'in, which seems to mean here the more skilled masons; some banna'in masons; there is also a sabi, an apprentice. The only payment recorded is of one dinar, which was probably an advance. The handwriting seems to be of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.208 #30)