Geniza Lab

Several small fragments. The first is the end of an extremely faded legal document; the singatures of several witnesses are preserved.

The opening of a letter in rudimentary Judaeo-Arabic (e.g. ממלוכה אלאצרג), from one Barukh, to Shelomo (?) Nasi Galuyot Kol Yisra'el.

Legal document, damaged. Many names are legible, but the subject matter is unclear.

Letter, small fragment.

Small fragment, perhaps a genealogy or memorial list, including a lineage with an Aluf ha-Ḥaver . . . bar Avraham bar . . . Sahlān bar . . . Avraham bar . . . Sahlān bar Av[raham].

Report of the death of a Jewish woman. In Arabic script. The deceased is Saʿdiyya bt. Yūsuf al-Yahūdi. Her father, Yūsuf, is the heir. Dated: Tuesday, 8 Rajab 657 AH, which is 1 July 1259 CE. Witnesses: Hibatallāh b. Faḍāʾil; Bū Saʿd b. Yūsuf b. Sālim. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Legal document. In Hebrew. Late. Involves the Mustaʿribī congregation and Avraham Dammūhī. This document is a join to CUL Or. 1081 2.26 (found via FGP joinfinder). Needs further examination. MCD.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The main part deals with business transactions, including shipments of Marāzībī tutty and walnuts. Abū l-Faḍl b. Maʿlā is mentioned, probably identical with the Abū l-Faḍl Yūsuf b. Maʿlā of T-S 13J14.12 and T-S 13J15.3. The margin contains part of a recommendation for a poor man (the bearer of the letter?), naked and lost, "yatīm al-aḥyā'." ASE

Small fragment of a letter. On verso there is a booklist including entries such as Kitāb al-Khalīqa, Kitāb Juʿrāfiyya (געראפיה = Geograph), Divrei ha-Yamim, Kunnāsh Bū Yaʿaqov, Kitāb al-Rasā'il.

Fragment of a letter, probably 14th century or later. Needs further examination.

Letter in Arabic script. The writer is Barakāt b. al-Dayyān (presumably Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, cf. ENA 3927.1 and CUL Or. 1080 J155 for other specimens of his Arabic-script handwriting). The recipient is an older, respected relative: the writer addresses him as both 'father' and 'brother' in the protocol, where he also includes blessings for the [addressee's?] father Abū l-Thanā'. That Abū l-Thanā' is distinct from the recipient is evident four lines from the bottom, where it seems that the recipient had sent a request to Abū l-Thanā' (or to his wife?), and the writer fulfilled the request in his absence. The bulk of the letter is taken up with praises and congratulations, most likely for the birth of a child to the addressee (unless Sayyidnā al-Nāsī is a different person) after the death of a previous child. Line 15f: "By the Law, I rejoiced for his sake when [a newborn boy] took the place of the boy of our master the Nasi on Saturday and consoled his heart" (wa-ḥaqq al-sharīʿa laqad faraḥtu lahu lammā khalafa yawma l-sabt ʿalā ghulāmi Sayyidinā al-Nāsī wa-jabara qalbahu). Following the good wishes, he explains that he carried out what was requested in the letter and purchased two (ithnān) of something (or ushnān? meaning potash), but could not find anybody with whom to send them (last three lines of recto). ASE.

Accounts including names such as [...] b. Makārim, Abū l-ʿAlā', Abū l-Bahā', Abū l-Rabīʿ, and Ṭāhir. ASE

The main text of the document is mostly lost: "the congregation. . . and his brother Abū . . . they rebuked him . . . all of what happened in . . ." At the bottom, there are numerous names (witnesses?).

Legal document dated 20 March 1798 (3 Nisan 5558), Fustat, in which Me'ir ben Naʿim acknowledges an investment of 2000 muayyadis from Ṣevi Ḥayyūn.

Letter opening, preserving only the shawqiyya, from Seʿayda b. Isḥāq to a certain respected Elʿazar.

Letter fragment mentioning a Shemuel and a Yiṣḥaq ha-Dayyan. .

Recto: Letter, left side, in Judaeo-Arabic with a long preamble, greeting Eliyya ha-Sar. In the body of the letter, at the bottom, the writer requests to be send the [...] containing masā'il ḥullin. Verso: Letter, draft fragment, in a different hand, including respectful greetings and "I went to Abū Isḥāq". . .

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to a certain Abū Ṭāhir containing interesting technical details of the capitation tax administration. The writer heard from Manṣūr al-Dimashqī "may God protect him" (possibly identical with the recipient Abū Ṭāhir—otherwise how is Abū Ṭāhir connected to the story?) that he has been drawn into the matter of Mūsā b. al-Maghribī's capitation tax. Mūsā had been selling off his qumāsh (household furnishings? his wife's dowry?) when he went to the governor (al-wālī), possibly of al-Benha, and said "this man [presumably the letter writer] is my guarantor (ḍamīnī), and I make my payment in Malīj." The governor said, "Impossible! Show me your acquittances (barāwātak)." Mūsā brought the acquittances. The sequence of events becomes blurry around here due to the missing ends of lines. A speculative reconstruction is as follows: The governor said that he had been ordered to collect the capitation tax from a group of people who still owed it for "years 8 and 9" but it then transpired that the record (al-jarīda) in the tax bureau (al-dīwān) showed that someone else had already collected their capitation taxes—perhaps because they, like Mūsā, were registered elsewhere? The governor then says he will take the list to the authorities (al-sulṭān) and report that these people actually live in his district. The text in the margin is fragmentary but mentions the capitation tax farmer in Malīj (ḍāmin al-jawālī bi-Malīj) and, later, "let him pay it in al-Benha." The upper margin is lost. When the story resumes on verso, someone—perhaps the governor of al-Benha—is saying, "I will not let you off without a capitation tax payment for year 8, as the authorities (al-sulṭān) have ordered." The writer continues, "We are in a difficult situation with him [perhaps the tax farmer of Malīj]." The writer concludes by beseeching Abū Ṭāhir at least twice not to "oppose (tuʿāriḍ). . . [something or someone] that is in al-Benha." The meaning of this is not immediately clear. Perhaps the writer, in Malīj, is now facing trouble with the local tax farmer, because the governor of al-Benha is trying to transfer the tax revenue to his own district, and the writer wishes Abū Ṭāhir and Mūsā would not stir up any further trouble with the authorities. See Moss. IV,7 (L 12) for another use of עארץ in relation to the capitation tax. The references in this letter are quite opaque, and there are probably many other interpretations consistent with what remains of it. ASE.

Fragment of a legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Mentions a Moshe ha-Levi ha-Zaqen.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic.