Geniza Lab

Business letter in Arabic script, lengthy, ca. 1055, with a list of pharmaceutical items, spices and herbs from Fustat.

Fatimid fiscal requisition for the dīwān al-jaysh, including information about an iqtā`. Contains a request for registration and at least one registration mark.

Fiscal account. Contains multiple entries, each marked with nuqila, “it has been copied.” Khan dates this document to the same period as T-S Ar.40.37, which is dated 1134 CE and contains the same mark (Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, p. 449; Bauden, “Maqriziana II,” 110–12; Rustow, Lost Archive, 337ff.).

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Bū ʿUmar, in Upper Egypt, to his family (his son Abū l-Maḥāsin and his wife), probably in Fustat. In Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1167 CE. The sender is also known from ENA 1822A.75. In this letter he praises Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn (here called Khalaf b. Maḍmūn) for his help after the sender had been stripped of everything by the Ghuzz (a Seljuk contingent) and for an invitation to Aden, from which he would proceed to India. Ḥalfon also took care of a young woman of the sender's family, who had been divorced by her husband in Aden. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book II.)

Letter draft in Arabic script. The addressee's name may appear in line 1 (Abū l-Murajjā?) and several words of the content of the letter appear in line four before it was abandoned (mentioning a dukkān?).

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Fragment. There is one name in Hebrew script (אלמהראני); the addressee is called "my son" (yā waladī); and the writer mentions "when I left the country" (kharajtu min al-balad). Needs examination.

Deed of lease in Arabic script. The lessee is a Christian (al-Naṣrānī). On verso there is a faṣl/note probably related to the deed. Needs examination.

Recto: Literary. Page in calligraphic Hebrew from the beginning of Sefer Zmanim in the Mishneh Torah, dating the fragment to ~1180 CE at the very earliest. Verso: Notes in calligraphic Arabic script to a higher-ranked individual. There are two, oriented at 180˚ to each other. Probably drafts. The one at the top gives a string of titles (al-majlis al-sāmī al-ajallī al-ʿulwī al-dīwānī. . .), then praises for how the addressee helps those in need (... al-ṭālibīn wa-malja' al-muḥtājīn ʿindahā), then briefly brings up some matter relating to seafaring merchants (? aʿrāḍ al-tujjār al-sāfirīn). Concludes "fa-lahā waffaqahā allāh al-ra'y al-[...] fī dhālik." The one at the bottom complains that the addressee's letters have been cut off (inqaṭaʿat kutub sayyidī. . .) and requests that he please bestow the favor of continuing to including the writer in his business (fa-uḥibb an tamunna wa-tunʿima. . . bi-mā yashtaghilu bihi. . . wa-huwa waliyy bi-mā ya'mur bihi in shā' allāh). Needs further examination. ASE.

Tables entirely consisting of cells filled with Greek/Coptic numerals. Significance unclear.

Jottings of a rebuke for somebody who has forgotten everything the speaker taught him of grammar, algebra, poetry, respect, and piety. On verso, another literary text in Arabic script in a different hand.

Letter to 'al-rayyis al-ajall' in Arabic script. The sender has sent 1/8 dinar with the bearer of the note, which should kindly be parceled out to the teacher (apparently the Abū l-Faḍl mentioned further down) in payments of 1/2 dirham a day, because of the sender is absent. Verso contains pen trials in Hebrew and Arabic. Goitein's notes must pertain to a different shelfmark (Ar.40.96?).

Letters in Arabic script. Recto and verso are in two different letters in two different hands. Needs examination

Document in Arabic script. Surrounded by various jottings, including one naming the amir Sayf al-Dawla. The sheet was late reused for Hebrew piyyutim. Needs examination.

Recto (original use): Bottom of a formal petition in Arabic script, mentioning "al-thaghr" (=Alexandria?) and merchandise and the money of the diwan. يذكر فيه وصول من بيت [المال؟] . . . من المستخدمين شاهده بـ . . . . من البضائع . . . المملوك . . . ليقف عليها الراي العالي . . . . . كتاب بانه يذكر ان المجاهد ابو فضيل . . . الانفصال من اموال الديوان . . . . . . المقام العالي ومن جملة ما كان بالثغر من المستخرج ان شا الله والراي اعلا ان شا الله الحمد لله وحده وصلواته على سيدنا محمد وآله وسلم تسليما حسبي الله ونعم الوكيل

Verso (secondary use): Petition/letter of appeal for charity in Arabic script. From Manṣūr. The sender and his family have perished from illness (maraḍ, awjāʿ), poverty, and nakedness, and their rent is due. The sender reiterates in the final line that he is perishing "from the disease of arwāḥ (hemorrhoids?)."

Accounts in Arabic script and Coptic numerals (?). Bifolium from a notebook, with all four pges filled. Needs examination.

A leaf from Kalīla wa-Dimna, including an illumination of the raven and the rat (but not the tortoise) in the story.

Legal query probably addressed to a Muslim jurisconsult. In Arabic script. Concerning a Jewish woman whose husband converted to Islam and later traveled to India, where he seems to have disappeared. "Concerning a Jewish [man] who converted to Islam (aslama) and was attached to a Jewish woman, after he had converted, for a year. Then he wished to travel, and the aforementioned wife said to him, “You will not leave without giving me my bill of divorce,” to which he replied, “I won’t be gone but for a little while.” And he left and has now been missing for ten years. And she requests to [re]marry, seeing her dire economic condition, for she lacks support due to the hardships of the hour and the difficulties of the time. Is it possible that she will marry after all this time, and no news were heard from him, since he is in India (fī bilād alHind)?" Information from Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam" (2020). Verso contains piyyutim; Goitein's attached edition suggests that they may be in the hand of Ben Yijū.

Work containing two Sufi treatises (by the same hand): 1. Collections of sayings of the Sufi martyrs (especially of Abu Yazid) with occasional comments by ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Muhammad, pages 1–14. 2. Exchange of letters between al-Nūrī and Junayd on the subject of balā' (trial/affliction), pages 14–20. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.