Geniza Lab

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Bifolium. Very faded.

Drafts of dozens of documents including letters/petitions to amīrs, mostly in Arabic script. There is also a recipe or prescription.

Document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Decree of investiture; two lines widely spaced.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Consists of rubricated tables filled with names and numbers. The table on recto appears to be headed by a date (the year may be legible). The first box may read li-l-ṭibb ("to the doctors"): could this be accounts for a hospital or hospice? Needs examination.

Writing exercises in a chancery hand.

Writing exercises in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 18th or 19th century. Of documentary value because there is a copy of the beginning of a letter to a 'dear brother.'

Letter in Arabic script. Addressed to a 'brother.' The sender has recently traveled from Damascus to Cairo (ll. 5–6 where he describes the journey and l. 11 where he arrives in Cairo). Mentions 'dying' of worry together with Umm Ibrāhīm (ll.8–9). He was worried about something having to do with Dāwūd (ll. 11–12). Needs further examination. On verso there is a legal deed (see alternate listing).

Legal document in Arabic script. Deed of purchase from the Mamluk period, according to the Baker/Polliack catalogue. On verso there is a letter (see alternate listing).

Ezekiel 16:15-16,20-21, in Arabic transcription. See Khan, Karaite Bible Manuscripts, pp.54–55. Information from Baker/Polliack catalogue.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded/damaged. Mentions a lamp (manāra) and perhaps luxury items such as emerald (zumurrud) and brocade (dībāj) (recto, left column, ll. 12-13).

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentioning many names, such as Hiba Abū l-Maḥāsin, Abū l-Faḍl, Abū l-Ḥasan, Sālim, Ibrāhīm b. Salmān, ʿAlī, Barakāt, Abū l-Barakāt, al-Sharīf; Ibrāhīm Abū l-Maḥāsin; Yaʿqūb ('for the qāʿa'); al-Sharīf Ṭāhir; Abū l-Ḥasan al-Sharābī

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and perhaps a Romance language. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 16th century. Needs further examination.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentioning various people's names and commodities such as ʿūd rīḥ.

Fiscal document, probably. Entries in multiple hands, some of them beginning with ṣaḥḥa, some of them mentioning a mablagh (sum) of money.

Accounts of a merchant or druggist. In Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Very extensive, listing dozens of materia medica and related items: zinjār ʿirāqī, sakbīnaj, zanjabīl, lāzuward, khawlanjān, qurunful, ʿūd rīḥ, zinjār, kāfūr, kābulī, qāṭir, maḥmūda, isfīdbāj, urjuwān, dam akhawayn (perhaps qāṭir and dam akhawayn referred to different varieties of dragon's blood?), and many more.

Letter. Internal administrative goverment document. Six widely spaced lines (Baker and Polliack) in chancery hand. Contains some lacunae and in particular the first few lines are incomplete. Deals with property. Mentions: ahl al-[...], li-na'khadhū biyārahum, qā'id al-qawm, istawlat (or istawlada?) 'alayhā al dhilla li-taḥqīqihā, lammā waṣalat talab.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. On verso there are some accounts in Arabic script. Very damaged and faded. Only scattered words and phrases are legible. It appears to be addressed to a father (wālid). The sender complains about a lack of letters.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. There are also a few lines copied from a legal testimony in Hebrew. Dated: Wednesday, 11 Tammuz '310, probably 5310 AM, which would be 1550 CE. Currencies: fulūs, cedid, קרונה.