Geniza Lab

Minute fragment: Hebrew jotting of Job 1:1 Verso: Arabic jotting of "the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God" (راس الحكمة مخافة الله = ראשית חכמה יראת ה).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew numerals. Dated: Rabīʿ II 958 AH, which is 1551 CE. Commodities include: flax. People include: Muḥammad, Ghazāwī, Jamūsī.

Numerous drafts of the opening of a petition or an otherwise formal letter. In Arabic script. It is not clear if any of the substance of the letter is preserved, or if all this is formulary. In the margins of recto, there are also reckonings in Greek/Coptic numerals.

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: the tax-farmer Ḏāt al-Ṣafā has paid three, a half and a sixteenth (dirhams?), under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, the deputy judge Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā b. Bahār and the elder accountant Sadīd al-Dawla Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. Qūrīl. Dated: 3 Ramaḍān 402 AH, which is March 1012 CE. Verso: beginning of a draft of the document on recto. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Fragment. Mentions Yūsuf (l. 1), a boat, and a qāḍī (l. 3). On verso there is a tax receipt (see separate entry). (Information in part from CUDL)

Verso: Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: AAbū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of two, a half, a third and an eighth (dirham?) for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 25 Dhū l-Qa‘da 403 AH, which is June 1013 CE. Recto: letter (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Arabic letter - needs examination.

Business accounts? Arabic

See PGP 20592

Recto: Court record in Arabic script. Regarding a surgical operation by a physician. Nāṣir b. Jibrīl asks the Jewish physician Makārim b. Isḥāq to perform surgery on the eye of his daughter, Sutayt, which is affected by pus behind the cornea. If the operation is successful, the payment is set at 2 dirhams; if the operation is a failure, the payment will be negotiated. The document is witnessed and signed by ʿAbd al-Qawī b. ʿAbd al-Muʾṭī b. Hilāl al-Anṣārī. Dating: ca. 1250 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Verso: Letter/petition in Arabic script. Opens with the phrase "(al-mamlūku) yakhdumu majlisa mawlānā wa-sayyidinā...." The sender asks the addressee to send something with Abū l-Ḥasan, it seems his salary (jāmiakiyya) from the outgoing month.

Fragment of a legal document in Arabic script. Mentions a shop (ḥānūt), dyeing, and a period of 6 months (a lease?).

Business accounts in Arabic. Needs examintaion

Receipt for the capitation tax of Bū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Bū l-Faḍl.

Most of the fragment consists of accounts in rudimentary Judaeo-Arabic. The word ṭibbī appears in several places, but the names of the commodities are tricky to decipher. As are the names of the customers: Ab[ū] Fadl (with a dāl); Abū Riḍā al-ʿAṭṭ[ā]r; Abū Saʿd (with a shin). There is a list in Arabic script as well, headed Ṣāḥib al-Dukkān: 1/2 raṭl of [...]; 3 ounces of zayt ṭayyib (?); 3 ounces of soap (ṣābūn); 1 raṭl and 3 ounces of verdigris (zinjār); and 3 ounces of qaṭāra [=qaṭrān?]. ASE.

Governmental Documents - needs examination.

Literary jottings, probably. In Arabic script. One word in the margins is in Hebrew script.

Recto: Arabic poetry in Arabic script. The antepenultimate and penultimate lines are from a poem by Abū Tammām: https://www.aldiwan.net/poem30596.html. The rest is more difficult. Verso and a couple lines on recto: Hebrew prayers. ASE.

Recto: Deferent letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic to a R. El[. . .] called ha-paṭish ha-ḥazaq. The writer mentions that Ibn Bishāra arrived, then reports on the dimensions and prices of the two maqṭaʿ cloths.

Verso: Document in Arabic script mentioning the words al-waraq (paper) or more likely al-wariq (silver money), 28 dirhams, and a date, which looks like the beginning of Ṣafar 598 AH, which would be 1201 CE if read correctly. Needs further examination. ASE