Geniza Lab

State petition. Recto: petition to the the imām Al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh from a Jewish merchant, Mūsā b. Ṣadaqa, who was detained unlawfully after his return from India and Yemen with goods. The merchant writes that he had already registered documents in the court of the judge Jalāl al-Mulk Tāj al-Aḥkam (Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf b. Ayyūb al-Maḡribī) and asks for his property and freedom to be restored. Ca. 516-521 AH (= 1123-1127 CE). On verso there is Hebrew liturgical text. (information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. List of dozens of items for a druggist's store. Quantities and prices (the latter in Greek/Coptic numerals). Items include Indian myrobalan and Turkish rhubarb. In 11 cases wadāʿa (on commission). The quantities are small: 1/4, 2, 4 ounces. There are also several lines in Arabic script in two different hands. See Goitein's index card for further information.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Dating: Late, perhaps ~18th century. There are also copious jottings, including drafts or copies of brief letters. The scribe may even sign his name in both Hebrew and Latin script.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: 11th or 12th century. 3 bifolia.

Recto: Karaite Arabic work with Hebrew quotations in transcription. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic Bible commentary. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

A list of payments from around 1550 CE describes a payment made for “visiting the sick (bīqqūr ḥōlīm)—3 jadīd; buying clothes for the poor (kesūt ʿaniyīm)—5 jadīd." Information from Dotan Arad (2017) Welfare and Charity in a Sixteenth-Century Jewish Community in Egypt: A Study of Genizah Documents, Al-Masāq, 29:3, 266.

Account recording the receipt of various consignments of dates measured in wayba and irdabb. Some entries have been crossed through. People mentioned include al-Wakīl al-Kabīr; al-Sharīf; the ghulām of ʿAbdallāh. (Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalogue.)

Accounts in Arabic script. Dating: Looks somewhat late, perhaps 14th or 15th century (with names like al-muʿallim Farajallāh).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Neatly arranged. Mentions Yaḥyā.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Commodities include pepper and brazilwood. There is also the draft of the first few lines of a letter in Arabic script.

No item at this classmark

Account, day-to-day, of the income of a textile store. Location: Fustat. Dating: Jumada I and II 393 AH, which corresponds to April 1003 CE. After the lapse of 2.5 weeks or so, the junior partner or employee changed the silver received into gold and handed it over to the senior partner or employer. Exchange rate: 245 dirhams = 6.5 dinars (left column, line 16) and, two weeks later, 187.5 dirhems = 5 dinars (left column, line 32). (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 369.) Note that the scribe uses a variant of the aleph-lamed ligature (ﭏ) to represent 1/2 dirham.

Calendar for the holidays and liturgy.

Autograph letter from Maimonides to his pupil Ṭoviyya. The letter consists entirely of a detailed prescription of a regimen (tadbīr).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic (and some Hebrew). This document is rich with names of people, places, and commodities, and places. There is mention of R. Shimʿon and garments and the dīwān; Berakhot and Ḥevron; the broker (simsāra); flax; cloves; spikenard (sunbul); dragon's blood (qāṭir); kohl, walnut, firewood, rhubarb, aloeswood, coral, marshmallow, silk; sums labeled "the merchandise of Damascus"; muḥallab/maḥlab; pistachio; a Christian; Isḥāq; Yeshuʿa; Salāma; and Nāblus.

Account register. In Ladino. 3 bifolia. Dated 5450s AM, which is 1690s CE. On the left side of folio 3r there is reference to the sale of a copy of R. Yosef Karo's Shulchan Arukh (line 7). Needs examination.

Legal document involving [...] b. Khalaf. Illegible without special imaging.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 439–40, probably AH, which would be 1047–49 CE. Mentions Khalaf, Yūsuf b. Mūsā, [...] b. Nissim.

Praises and names of God, possibly from the introduction to a work. Information from Baker/Polliack catalogue.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and eastern Arabic numerals. Dating: Late 18th or early 19th century. The figures are organized by parasha of the week. Several of the columns are headed by the name of an individual, such as Moshe b. Naʿim, David פוורטי, and Nissim Najjār.