Geniza Lab

Recto: An Arabic note with instructions. "Send to Alexandria with the ghulām of Ibn al-Falā[tī?] 5 1/2 manns of aloe wood (ʿūd), to be delivered to the faqīh Ibn ʿAṭṭīya. And send with ʿAlī b. Raḥīm and Ibn al-Maṣīṣī (?) 10 manns of fine aloe wood and 10 manns of middling aloe wood. And send with Ibn Muḥayyar (?) . . ." Verso: Judaeo-Arabic accounts, completely crossed out. ASE.

Accounts in Arabic. The names are mostly or entirely Muslims.

Accounts in Judaeo-ARabic. Dating: Late, probably late Mamluk or early Ottoman era.

Verso: Fatimid petition, right side only. With blessings for 'al-mawqif al-ashraf' and 'al-maqām al-sharīf al-ṭāhir.' Verso as catalogued, but written before the legal document on recto (see separate record).

Legal document in Arabic: acknowledgement (iqrār). Recto as catalogued, but written after the Fatimid petition on verso (see separate record). Date isn't easy to read; likely 5th century AH.

Account in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mainly foods are listed (onion, honey, raisin, bread...)

A mercantile ruqʿa for Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs (b. Yūsuf) al-Urjuwānī. Mentions a bale of lac. (T-S Ar.35.128, T-S Ar.35.269, and T-S AS 184.265 are all similar and all for ʿArūs; ENA 3957.11 is from the same genre and for Nahray b. Nissim).

Table including many numbers. In Arabic script. Accounts?

Official receipt of some sort. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. The glyph appears at the top. The hand is skilled and the margins are large, and there is a taqbīl at the end. Dating: Maybe 12th–13th century, but this is a guess. Mentions 'what Bū l-Ḥasan said to the qāḍī' (l. 5). Makes excuses and justifications about various things: "that which I think about you nothing like what you imagined..." (wa-lā fī nafsī mink mimmā tawahhamta shayʾ...). Mentions Dār al-Anmāṭ, which was a well-known market complex on the eastern bank of the Nile near the mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and the main street of Fustat (see Ahmad Ghabin, Ḥisba, Arts and Crafts in Islam, p. 241, where there is also a reference to Geniza documents cited by Gil). Needs further examination. Verso: fragment of an official-looking (fiscal?) account in Arabic script. Needs further examination.

Capitation tax receipt for Musāfir b. Yūsuf, a Jewish man whose profession is "dīwānī." Same man: T-S Ar.35.132, T-S Ar.35.174, and T-S Ar.35.217.

Capitation tax receipt for Khalaf b. Yaʿqūb.

Original use: Bottom of a Jewish legal document. Nothing is preserved apart from five signatures: -Ṣedaqa b. Avraham -Yoshiyyahu b. Efrayim he-Ḥaver -Shemuel b. Yehuda -Avraham b. Yosef ha-Kohen -Yosef b. Shelomo.

Secondary use: The blank space was filled with dense Arabic writing in a difficult hand. Accounts?

List of items in Arabic script, each with Greek/Coptic numerals after, and the grand total at the bottom. Reused on recto for pen trials (tajribat qalam) in Arabic script.

Business account in Arabic script. Maybe from a druggist. Very detailed. Mentions names such as al-Fakhr, Abū l-Khayr, Manṣūr, Saʿd, and Abū ʿAlī. Mentions commodities such as tamarind, ʿanzarūt, cumin, mastic, pepper, rosewater, seeds, cassia fistula, nails, and sorb apples (qarāṣiyā).

State document(s). The main text on recto includes a name (Muḥammad... ʿAbdallāh...) and many fancy titles (sulṭān... al-imām... sanāʾ al-mulk.. fakhr... naṣr al-mamlaka... al-faḍāʾil sayyid...). At the top there are multiple registration and administrative notes. One begins "Yuqābal..." ("let comparison with it be made"). Underneath there is a note indicating that the instruction has been completed: "Qūbila...." For other documents with a "yuqābal" note, see ENA 3918.11, T-S AS 177.472, and the second document edited by Richards in "A Mamlūk Petition and a Report from the Dīwān al-Jaysh" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/615818#metadata_info_tab_contents).

Nearly complete letter in Arabic, written by a Muslim and/or addressed to a Muslim (concludes with prayers for the prophet Muhammad), sent to somebody close to the India trader and Nagid Maḍmūn b. al-Ḥasan (active 1131–51). Unfortunately, the beginning of the letter and the address are lost. The writer reports meeting with [Abū?] l-Faraj b. al-Surūr and learning that the addressee had directed his business (? taklīfak) to the West (bilād al-gharb) and has been left without strong connections in India (bilād al-hind). He then brings up Maḍmūn b. al-Ḥasan and (it seems) how Maḍmūn has bestowed his favor on the addressee more than on others. He then explains why he has been unable to travel: his East African slave (al-ʿabd al-zanjī) died, and the [In]dian slave who was with him in Sunkhalā (= present-day Songkhla) had already departed. . . . "and I remained cut off" (? wa-baqītu munqaṭiʿ). Despite this, he is doing well (qalbī ṭayyib), and he requests a favor from Maḍmūn. In the margin he mentions the ship-owner (nākhudhā) Abū ʿAbd al-Qahhār (? this word is uncertain) Abū l-K[...]. Merits further examination. ASE.

Bifolio from a small fiscal register in codex form. Three of the four pages each contain a distinct document/entry, beginning with the trigger "balagha." Presumably documenting state revenue of some kind. Merits examination.

Construction accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably 17th–19th century. Neatly written and with many details. Some of the work is for a wind catcher (bādhanj). Also mentions ashes and quṣrumīl/kosromel/קוצרומיל/قصرميل = a kind of mortar made from sand and broken tiles and ashes.