Geniza Lab

Five unrelated fragments. F1: List of names: [...] b. ʿAmram ha-Kohen; Tāj al-Dawla; Elʿazar ha-Kohen. Written in both Hebrew and Arabic script. F2: Letter fragment in Arabic script: "... wa-anā usayyir lakum kitāb al-majlis..." F3: Letter fragment in Arabic script, wide space between the lines: "...adāma Allāh ʿizzahum wa-mundhu sārū..." Jottings on verso in both Arabic and Hebrew script. F4: Letter in Arabic script. Fragment (upper right corner). In the margin mentions "his two parents, Bū Saʿīd and Sitt [...]... Khiyār and Sitt Suʿūd..." F5: Unidentified document in Arabic script.

Love poetry in Judaeo-Arabic.

Folio from a Judaeo-Arabic medical treatise, giving several recipes.

Small fragment of a legal document, with additional notes on verso, from Fustat, mid-12th-century (reshut of Shem[uel b. Ḥananya]).

Letter fragment mentioning someone's arrival from Jerusalem, "kitāb al-jamāʿa," and someone who departed when some people were sick.

Recto: Letter fragment, faded, mentioning Nissim. Verso: Piyyut.

Recto: Fragment of an Arabic-script state document or petition. Verso: Reused for a Hebrew text, probably literary. The ink has faded to silver/white.

Two different legal documents. The first is dated 1301 = 989/990 CE. Needs further examination.

Letter in Ladino, nearly complete but with numerous lacunae, from a mother to her daughter, addressed to her son-in-law Yaʿaqov Reshit (?) in Saida. The writer was expecting deliveries of several items, mostly fabrics (e.g. a cortina and a mandīl; she has also sent a vela to the addressee) but some obscure commodities as well (e.g. טובאזֿא/טובאכֿא and פאניין). However, it seems most of the expected items have not arrived. The writer repeatedly rebukes the addressee for this failure. "I will not send you anything until your sister. . . ." She is also disgruntled about learning about her new grandson through a third party: "You did not write me to tell me that you gave birth to a boy. I already found out, barukh hashem, no thanks to you. And peace. Kisses to the boys from me. And peace." Her signature seems disgruntled as well: "That which you wish to see, that I, your mother, write to you." In a postscript she sends regards to her son-in-law. Verso contains the address in Hebrew, along with various other jottings. ASE.

Receipt in Arabic script for a payment by Mūsā [ben?] Naʿīm, dated 1824/25 CE (Muḥar1240H).

Small amulet, probably, for Tamīm b. Hilāla.

Several alchemical recipes written at all angles to each other.

Recto: Literary text in rhymed Hebrew lines. Verso: Draft of the beginning of a letter in unusual Arabic script with balls at the tops of alifs and lams. Also, in Judaeo-Arabic, drafts of the phrase: "[this is to] inform Peraḥya."

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Recto preserves only the beginning, mentioning "the khaṭṭ of my master for 22 dinars." Verso preserves the left half of the address in Arabic script (min [...] b. [...] al-[...], al-Fusṭāṭ, yaṣil [...]).

Small booklet partially filled with a halakhic discussion of qorbanot, partially filled with very involved doodles.

Another 28 folios from the ledger of donations collected in the years around 1800 CE. These entries are for the year 5559 (1798/99). ASE.

Legal document, damaged, dated no earlier than 1289 CE (אלפא ושית מאה . . . ).

Probably a dowry list, quite faded.

Letter (opening only) from Shemuel b. Eli gaʾon in the hand of his disciple Yosef b. Yaʿaqov rosh ha-seder. Mentions one of houses of the exilarch, but it is not clear if this is the addressee. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #82) VMR

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, preserving ~12 lines, likely in the hand of Moses Maimonides. See Shailat's edition of the letters of Maimonides, ה2. איגרת המלצה לבן תורה.