Geniza Lab

Legal document(s). In Arabic script. Needs examination.

Legal document. In Arabic script. On parchment. One witness signature is preserved. Possibly a deed of sale, since the word "al-mushtarī" appears in l. 4.

Deed of sale. In Arabic script. The price includes the transfer tax and the broker's commission (fīhā al-naql wa-l-jaʿāla, l. 3). (Information from Khan, ALAD, p. 23.)

Unidentified document in Arabic script. Dating: Possibly Ayyubid or Mamluk-era, but this should be checked. 11 fragmentary lines are preserved from the bottom of the document. Mentions al-Rayyis al-Kāmil Amīn al-Ḥukm (at least in Mamluk times, the Amin al-Ḥukm was a qāḍī who supervised the estates of orphans). Also mentions "that day in Cairo." The name ʿImrān al-[...] appears in the last line. Needs further examination.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). Dated: Shawwāl 400 AH (May–June 1010 CE). Abū l-Ḥasan Mubārak b. Asad al-Zajjāj al-Isrāʾīlī ("the Jewish glassmaker") receives a loan of five dinars from [...] al-Shaṭranjī al-Isrāʾīlī ("the Jewish chess player"). The dīnārs are described as "red" (danānīr ḥamrāʾ). There are a few words on verso in Hebrew script that Khan describes as a pen trial. (Information from Khan and from Goitein’s index card)

Verso: Poem for a circumcision (ולמצוץ כדת...). It seems for the son of the Nagid Mevorakh (gaʾon ʿam ve-sar sarim). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Deed of sale, probably. In Arabic script. Contains part of the physical description of one of the parties: [muʿtadi]l al-qāma asmar al-lawn wāḍiḥ al-jabha wa-bi-hā ghuḍūn maqrūn al-ḥājib ashhal [al-ʿaynayn] = average stature, brown in complexion, with a smooth forehead with some wrinkles, with joined eyebrow(s), with dark brown eyes. There is one additional line in Arabic script on verso; needs examination.

Possibly a letter, copy of a letter, or some sort of narrative. In Arabic script. The layout is most consistent with a literary text, and there are distinct sections with headers in larger script. Looks tantalizing, but it is difficult to figure out what it's about. Needs further examination.

Possibly a legal document. According to Wissem Guedich in FGP it is literary (needs examination).

Legal document(s). In Arabic script. The same block of text seems to be copied at least three times, followed by witness statements. At the far lower left, after a basmala, there appears the name Muḥammad b. Ṭalḥa. Dated: Dhū l-Qaʿda 485 AH, which is 1092/93 CE. Needs further examination.

Legal document. In Arabic script. One of the parties is the daughter of Saʿīd b. ʿAllūn al-Ṣaydalānī ('the pharmacist') al-Yahūdī. Concerns a house. Needs examination.

Legal document(s) in Arabic script. One side: Legal document. Bottom part only. Written on vellum, so the text follows the curve of the fragment. There are at least three mentions of years; the document may be dated 570 AH, which would be 1175/75 CE, but this has to be confirmed. The other side: Remnants of another legal document (two witness statements) and, in large letters, a pious statement and a note mentioning the daughter of al-Sharīf Ibrāhīm b. Ṭāhir al-[...]. Needs examination.

Deed of acknowledgement (iqrār). In Arabic script. Concerns a debt of 2 dinars contracted by Abū l-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā, the Christian bath attendant (al-ḥammāmī) from ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāris [...] b. Abū l-Qāsim al-[…] (ll. 4–5). Dating: ca. 11th century CE. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Recto: List of books that have been pawned. With Abū Saʿīd b. Levi: three booklets (ajzāʾ) for 2 dirhams. With Bū l-[...]: some books of Hippocrates (kutub Buqrāṭ) for 5 dirhams. With Abū ʿAlī b. [...]: one book for 5 dirhams. With the dyer (al-ṣabbāgh): 1 book containing Kitāb al-Miʿda(?) and Kitāb al-Aghdhiya for 5 dirhams. With the physician (al-ṭabīb al-[...]): 1 book for 1 dinar. With Ibn Muʿammar(?): two books. The list continues at the bottom of the page at 180 degrees, in a different pen and ink. On verso there may be another text block of the same; there is a recipe in Arabic script, probably medical; and there are some pen trials in both Hebrew and Arabic script. ASE

Legal document. In Arabic script. Perhaps a deed of sale. Mentions (l. 6) the mound known as Kawm Dīnār in the vicinity of Birkat Ramīs ("the pool of Ramīs"), which was situated in the Ḥamrāʾ district in the north of Fustat. See Khan, ALAD, 175–76. (Information from Baker/Polliack catalogue.) Needs further examination.

Medical recipes on the both sides (Wissem Gueddich in FGP)

Magical formulae in Arabic script. (Information from Wissem Gueddich via FGP.)

Fragment of an Arabic deed of sale on recto and Hebrew pen trials citing the Book of Esther. writing exercise on verso. (Wissem Gueddich in FGP). AA

Deed of sale (Wissem Gueddich FGP). Needs examination

A fragmentary Arabic court record (needs examination)