Geniza Lab

Legal document in Arabic script. On verso, unidentified text in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Concerning 'the going up' of an enslaved singing woman (ṭulūʿ al-mughanniya). "I sent Luʾluʾ... with her another person from her place who enters the house with her and says that she is from her master, and if she enters the house and does not serve me(?). . . the judge. . . send the ghulām. . . Ṣāfī. . . ." Needs further examination. (the root טלע used here might be translated as as 'traveling from North to South along the Nile'. AA)

Mercantile letter in Arabic script. Mentions Isḥāq b. al-Wakīl, witnesses, a container of coral (qafaṣ murjān), and 700 dirhams. The letter ends in formal style on verso, with taqbīl, greetings to various people, ḥamdala, ṣālwala, and ḥasbala. Needs further examination.

Long letter in Arabic script. The two folios join directly with each other. Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. The first halves of ~7 lines are preserved. (It seems that the writing originally extended across the page, but it is entirely effaced at the ends of the lines.) Mentions various people (X adāma Allāh ʿizzahu... al-shaykh al-jalīl... mawlāy al-shaykh(?) Yaʿqūb...). Needs further examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Mentions an administrator/supervisor (nāẓir); a Muslim judge: al-qāḍī al-ajall Muḥammad al-[...] Ibn al-Khalīlī; advice to the addressee that if business dries up, he should go to any of Ashmūn, Sakhā, Abyar, or Sammanūd, and write with an update, and the nāẓir will provide him letters/documents for whichever town to ensure that he doesn't meet any opposition. Another judge, al-qāḍī al-sadīd Ibn Karajūn (or Karjūn), is involved with these business dealings. In the margin there are business instructions about particular garments (20 ʿarḍīs and 5 awsāṭ, with instructions about the colors and types). On verso there is related text in Arabic script in different handwriting ("to Abū l-Bahāʾ to deliver to al-qāḍī al-sadīd Ibn Karajūn) with information about the same garments which were specified on recto. Underneath, there are headings naming cities in the Delta (Dumyāṭ, Minyat Ghamr, al-Maḥalla, and at least three more), with sums in Greek/Coptic numerals underneath.

Draft of an official letter. In Arabic script. One side has wide line spacing and the other has narrow line spacing, but it is the same handwriting and some of the same phrases appear on each side. It is a letter to "al-amir al-muwaffaq al-manṣūr fāris al-dawla," and there is a blessing involving the Fatimid caliph (amīr al-muʾminīn).

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Fiscal? Including short notes, names and numerals, arranged in two columns on each side. Some of the language in the large text block on each side is identical on each side. Needs examination.

Bottom eight lines of an official letter in Arabic script. Ends with a ḥamdala and ṣalwala. Difficult handwriting; needs examination.

Fragments of 4 lines of a Fatimid decree. Mentions the caliph (amir al-muʾminīn) and the date (but the date is missing). The blank space on recto and verso has been reused for an Arabic literary text.

List of contributions in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. On verso there are also accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals (unclear if/how related). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

List of 31 contributors in Arabic and Coptic numerals (1, 1 1/2, 2 2 1/2, 3, 4 4 1/2, 5, 8, 9) but no denominations of coins. The physician of the hospital here is the al-Sadid of T-S K.149. Arabic was used here no doubt because the originator of the collection was a merchant who was accustomed to corresponding in Arabic rather than in Hebrew script. He also arranged collections in two noted bourses of Fustat (two collections in each bourse), one, the dar al-Fadil, founded by al-Fadil al-Baysani, originally a Fatimid official, but later chancellor and confidant of Saladin, and dar al-Za'fran (saffron house), which was adjacent to the house of gems, repeatedly mentioned in Mediterranean Society (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 508, App. C 139)

Accounts of a druggist. A complete order in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals of sixty-seven commodities of drugs/perfumes/materia medica (ʿiṭr). Filfil (pepper) is once repeated, the others are all different. Quantities range from one-fourth to one and one-half pounds. The prices are written in different ink, meaning that they might have been added by the wholesaler. Similar format as T-S NS J446. (Information from Goitein's index card)

State document. Dating: Beginning of 12th century CE. Appointment of a Christian dignitary by the government and confirmation that the ordinances of previous caliphs are still valid, mentioning al-Mustanṣir, al-Āmir and al-Afḍal. (Information Khan, CUDL, and Goitein's index card)

Bifolio of business accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals, listing several names and itemized expenses or revenues. On two of the four pages, there are anecdotes, jokes, and pieces of wisdom, making this a sort of commonplace book. One of the anecdotes/jokes is about a snake who was lying on a thorny bush and was swept away by a current. Someone saw it and said, "This ship is no good, and neither is the sailor!" The one underneath is about a woman being divorced by her husband. Needs further examination.

Draft of the opening of a petition or official letter. On verso jottings of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. المجلس السامي الاجلي المولوي المح . . في المجد وفي عمدة الملوك خاصة السلاطين وكيل ص[نيعة] امير المؤمنين . . . الله سعادته وضاعف نعمته

Business accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Including names, provisions(?) and some numerals often preceded by the word "wa-ʿindahu," arranged in two columns. Mentions the financial instrument ḥawāla. Three of the columns are crossed over by long vertical lines, and some names are crossed out by horizontal lines as well. Each column is this merchant's accounts with one other merchant, e.g., Murajjā b. [...], Ṭāhir the Jew, Dāʾūd, and Maʿānī al-Ṣayrafī. (Information in part from FGP.)

Rent receipts, late. Including list of names and some numbers and dates written out (not in numerals), arranged in eight horizontal columns separated by lines.

Ledger of a qāḍī court, possibly. Bifolio, with three of the four pages each containing a distinct deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). The date is difficult to read but appears to be in the 600s AH (approximately 13th century CE if this is correct). Each about ten lines. Needs examination. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Petition or letter from Mubārak b. Ibrahīm Ibn Sabra to Muʿtamid al-Dawla, who seems to be a Fatimid dignitary. In Arabic script. The Sender asks for (or heavily implies that he would like) a renewal of business relations. There is at least one other Mevorakh b. Avraham Ibn Sabra who appears in many other Geniza letters. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and Khan.)