Geniza Lab

Document in Hebrew. Late. Possibly a legal formulary.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. For each day of the week, lists the boats (qārib) belonging to different people (Muḥammad, Shihāb al-Dīn, Naṣr al-Dīn. . .) and commercial goods and numbers associated with them. Needs further examination.

Responsum draft. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning the division of property. Several phrases have been crossed through. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Account of building operations ca. 1240. A double leaf taken from a notebook, this document is written in Arabic script. Work on a dome is mentioned, and on verandas. Then comes the installation of a pipe and then a qa'a in which the main work is on the cieling and drainage system. A staircase made of palm trees is installed and fixed with mortar made of gypsum. Different kinds of word and nails are mention in connection with the installation of the qa'a doors. Extensive paving work is also detailed. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 457 #137)

A short pious poem (attributed to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib in the literature) in large Arabic script: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم رَضيتُ بِما قَسَّمَ اللَهُ وَفَوَّضتُ أَمري إِلى خالِقي لقد أَحسَنَ اللَهُ في ما مَضى كَذَلِكَ يُحسنُ فيما بَقي Reused for Hebrew piyyutim and lists of piyyutim.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Document in Arabic script, calligraphic with wide space between the lines.

Verso: Inventory of household goods (matāʿ) belonging to Abū Zikrī.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to Abū l-Ḥasan Sar ha-Bina. Bitter complaint of a sugar-maker that the addressee did not send him the material for his workshop (qalīl sukkar aṭbakhahu). (Information from Goitein's index card)

Document in Arabic script. The first line mentions dīwān al-ḥubūs = the waqf administration? Needs examination.

Recto: Judaeo-Arabic recipe involving starch (nashā'; not "starch of Isaac" but yuṣḥaq = let it be crushed), and some jottings in Arabic script including Coptic numerals. The text of the recipe exhibits the early Judaeo-Arabic orthographic feature of representing ḍād by dalet. See Isaacs, Medical, p. 9. Verso: Arabic jottings including Coptic numerals. Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Letters in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. Concerning family and business matters. One letter is probably the response to the other. Needs examination. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Homily. In Hebrew. Probably late. The text has been crossed through. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Homily on knowledge and justice. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably medieval. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Letter in Arabic script. The sender is a man from Alexandria who was forced to flee from that city because he was unable to pay the capitation tax for his little boy. He asks the Nagid Avraham Maimonides to instruct the judge Eliyyahu to help. He had been unsuccessful in obtaining work. See verso.

Instructions in Avraham Maimonides' hand to R. Eliyyahu to give them bread for Sabbath. Also: List of contributors (in the judge's hand) and names of recipients of alms. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 466)

Cryptic text in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. The language is poetic but it does not seem to rhyme.

Account from a druggist for a delivery to a household. In Judaeo-Arabic. He had already been paid 1 dinar weighing 21 qirat + 2 ḥabbas worth (ṣarfuhu) 36.5 dirhams (i.e., the dinar:dirham rate of exchange was 1:40). From a previous transaction, the druggist owed the customer 50 dirhams, which means that the customer's credit was 86.5 dirhams. The cost came to 89.25 + 1.75 for transport = 91 dirhams. The balance was 4.5 dirhams, to be paid to the bearer. There are 25 items (with quantities). Much different from those in T-S Ar.30.274. (Information from Goitein's note card.) It is not entirely clear from Goitein's notes who owed what to whom, so take this description with a grain of salt.

Dream interpretation. In Judaeo-Arabic. Information from FGP.