Geniza Lab

Letter from Ismaʿīl b. Barhūn al-Tahartī (CUDL), Yosef b. Berekhya or Moshe b. Barhun al-Taharti, Qayrawān (PGP), to (Efrayim b.) Shemarya, Fustat. Discusses responsa of the geʾonim.

Poetical opening of a letter to the Nagid Mevorakh (Mevorakh b. Saʿadya, 1079-1111 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Valencia (ברנסיה). Dated: 48[..] AM, which is 1039–1140 CE. Groom: Avraham b. Yosef. Bride: פטבוניה bt. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Published by Ashtor in Sefarad 24 (1964), 71–75.

Memorandum to a traveler carrying Indian goods to Yiṣḥaq b. Bundar. India, ca. 1110.

Part of Megillat ʿOvadya, the autobiographical account of the conversion and travels of ʿOvadya the 12th-century Norman proselyte. See Goitein's article for a detailed discussion. Among other interesting features, this fragment includes two lines from the Vulgate text of Joel III, transcribed into Hebrew characters. For transcription and translation, see https://johannes-obadiah.org/, "Obadiah Memoir," II and III.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Alchemical or medical recipe containing both organic and metal substances, followed by a short history of the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus written in Judaeo-Persian. Both texts are written in the same hand. On recto there are also 2 lines from the end of an Arabic legal document in large, calligraphic script. On parchment. (Information in part from CUDL)

A leaf folded once to create 2 pages. One contains a draft of a letter and a poem and the other a faded Arabic text. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Ya’aqov b. Salman al-Hariri, from Rashid, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1060. The writer describes what he has been through while he delivered linen to Alexandria, and the ship was delayed in Rashid. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #664) VMR

Philosophical treatise. Stories of Alexander the Great and Aristotle in a calligraphic hand.

Recto: deed of partnership between Aaron b. Baqāʾ and a certain Saʿadya. Verso: jottings including the name Ezekiel b. Nathan. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Extract from Ruth 1. Verso: Fragment of a deed signed by Moshe ben Maymun, Damascus, late tenth century. The document includes a description of a piece of property that appears to have been part of a Palestinian-style ketubba and dowry. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 370-1 and CUDL) EMS

Letter regarding the payment of the capitation tax.

Letter from Natan b. Avraham, probably Fustat, to Mevorakh b. David in Qayrawan, approximately 1037.

Letter addressed to Avraham ha-Kohen Ḥemdat ha-Kohanim b. Aharon with greetings to sons Abū ʿAlī and Abū l-Surūr. Mentions various sums of money (including 30 dinars) and the Rayyis and Abū Naṣr and Abū l-Faraj. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Yeshu'a ha-Kohen b. Avraham ha-Kohen ha-Glili to Yosef b. Yeshu'a, approximately 1010.

Letter from a man, in Fustat, to his brother, probably in ʿAydhāb. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender urges him to return quickly; their mother fasts out of worry for him. Gives prices for pepper, lac, indigo, קסט מכעב, clove, red sandalwood, salsola (qāqullā).

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter from Sason b. Shemuel to a notable named Elʿazar (or perhaps [...] b. Elʿazar). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The sender alludes to his bad state and requests charity or help of some kind. There are a few lines in Arabic script on verso, perhaps part of the address. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Accounts, barely legible. Prices and commodities are mentioned. (Information from CUDL)