Geniza Lab

Power of attorney to receive four dinars from Abu al-Muna, given by Yakhin b. Elazar of Minyat Zifta to Yosef al-Miqdasi b. Allun. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter of recommendation for a poor woman.

Letter from one of the followers of Natan b. Avraham, from Jerusalem, fall 1038. Fragment.

Accounts for the distribution of bread for the same period as in T-S K15.25 (1241/42 CE), for the thirteenth through the eighteenth weeks of the liturgical year. The accounts contain only the liturgical name of the week, that of the collector (jābī al-mezonot, changing every week), the sum delivered by him, the amount spent on bread (in the seventeeth week: 28 1/4 out of 54 dirhems) and the balance. Salaries and so forth were obviously distributed by another official. Information from Med Soc II, Appendix B, #51 (p. 453).

Document with a few lines of faded Hebrew script. Perhaps a remnant of an address?

Letter to someone addressed as mawlāy al-rayyis. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Mentions al-Maḥalla and Ibn al-Ḥabrāwī. Needs further examination.

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with business matters. Mentions Ṣadaqa and Yūsuf. Verso: Possibly another document in Judaeo-Arabic, but it is extremely faded.

Legal document. Scribed and witnessed by Hillel b. ʿEli. Location: Fustat. Dated: Sunday 10 Tevet 13[..] Seleucid. The body of the document mentions a divorce that took place in Kislev 1393 Seleucid, which is December 1081 CE. The document itself was therefore drawn up between 1081/82 and 1087/88 CE. The case involves Barakāt b. Mubārak al-Tinnīsī and Ḥisāna bt. Ibrāhīm. Concerns the alimonies (two waybas of wheat, etc., per month) of a widow who was free from her obligations. It appears to be a summary of the court's ruling, and there is a note at the bottom, "We, the court/judges, received this copy and the copy of the original, and...." The former husband was from Tinnīs, and the witnesses were people from Palestine and Syria, and other foreigners. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter fragment from Daniel(?) b. Yaʿīsh to Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva. In Judaeo-Arabic.

Recto: A few words in Hebrew. Verso: A few words in Arabic script.

Tiny fragment in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning a qinyan and a payment and God.

Recto: Letter of recommendation addressed to Aharon ha-Ḥazzan. In Hebrew, calligraphically written. Headed with the title 'Rosh ha-Seder.' Requesting that Aharon look after a blind man named Shabbat who claimed to have been cheated of his allocation. Verso: A woman pawns pieces of her trousseau against loans. The date 26 May 1050 CE appears in lines 4–5. Information from Goitein's note cards. Old description: Fragments of responsum by a Gaon, dealing with children of female slaves.

Court record containing a complete list of items of a trousseau (without prices) returned to Sitt al-Hasab on the order of the Nagid. Dated Tishri 1458/ September 1146. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 386)

Letter from Ḥalfon and Yosef, probably from Ascalon, to Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen the forth (Ha-Revi'i) b. Evyatar, Tyre, approximately 1094.

Block print. Welcome placard in Hebrew with black and red flower patterns. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. Large release in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated 1130 CE. Khalaf/Ḥalfon b. Yosef Ibn Qashqūsh declares to have no claims whatsoever against Abū l-Baqāʾ Elʿazar b. Evyatar al-Ahwāzī after the settlement of the inheritance of his wife. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Legal document. Dissolution of partnership between Saʿīd b. Seʿadya and Shemuel b. Avraham. Verso: Literary text in Hebrew. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. Dating: January 1112 CE. Large and well written fragment of a document in which Daniel b. Yiṣḥaq accepts 12 out of 20 dinars due to him from one Musallam b. Efrayim. The sum was paid by the latter's brother Yosef. Dealings in the villages Būra and Ibwān, near Damietta (called Kaphtor), are mentioned. Eight signatures. Information from Goitein's index card.

Business letter from Zikrī b. Khiyār to ʿArūs b. Yosef, in Fustat. The writer informs him inter alia that the only commodity which sold well in the "West" was lac. Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria, to his relative Abu l-Ḥasan Shelomo b. Nissim al-Barqi, containing instructions about selling goods such as textiles and lead in Fustat.