Geniza Lab

Business letter in Arabic script. Very long. Incomplete. Mentions someone's brother who has not returned from India as expected (seven lines from the bottom of recto). Needs examination.

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. May mention the arrest of somebody. On verso there is an Aramaic targum of Joshua.

Legal document in Arabic script. Acknowledgment (iqrār). Dated: 10 Ṣafar 627 AH, which is January 1230 CE. One party is Isḥāq b. Manṣūr al-Yahūdī. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog and Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, p. 46.

Legal query addressed to a Muslim jurisconsult concerning the changes in synagogue ritual introduced by Avraham Maimonides. The senders of the query object to the innovations and hope that the Muslim government will also disapprove. See also AIU XI.258, one of the draft versions of this query. On verso there is a Hebrew liturgical text, possibly in the hand of Yedutun ha-Levi (compare Bodl. MS heb. b 13/41, written in his hand, one of the key documents of the prayer reform controversy). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and Khan.)

Recto: report to Al-Afḍal ibn Badr al-Jamālī for the attention of the amir Ḥusām al-Dawla regarding a quantity of unspecified produce that had been left unattended. The petitioner asks for new watchmen to be provided. Dating: early 12th century. (Information from CUDL)

Business letter in Arabic script from Ibrāhīm b. Hillel to Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef (who ʿAodeh thinks was in India at the time), mentioning shipments of copper, textiles, brazilwood, pepper and cardamom.

Letter from Abū l-Ḥusayn b. al-Rayyis b. Nāḥūm, in the Rīf, to his brother Abū Thābit, in Fustat. In Arabic script. Concerning the capitation tax of the bearer of the letter, who is (or was) the muqaddam of Damīra (his name may be given in line 6: النارين؟ الغاريب؟). The sender insists that this muqaddam is deserving and that they must help him. Interestingly he calls him a בעל תורה but writes it in Arabic characters: باعل تورا. In recent years, this person had paid his capitation tax in al-Maḥalla. It seems that this year he is registered as a newcomer in Fustat (and therefore exempt), but the authorities in al-Maḥalla refuse to recognize his documents. The recipient is to go to Abū l-Majd Thiqa, who is to get a certificate from the authorities in Fustat proving that he is exempt. If Abū l-Majd is unable to help, the recipient is to go to Abū l-Faraj b. al-Kohen. If it weren't for all the sender's work in the Rif, he would have come along himself to help this person. In the margin, he reminds the recipient of the books that he is supposed to send. Regards from the sender's nephew Abu Sahl. Regards to: the addressee's son Abū Naṣr; Abū l-Maʿālī and his children; Abū Isḥāq; Abū Saʿīd and his son. Goitein read the name of the sender as Abū l-Khayr and connects him to the Abū l-Khayr b. Naḥum in line 9 of T-S NS J403, a list of contributors to be solicited, ca. 1080. (See Med Soc II, App. C, #18.) MR. ASE.

Legal document in Arabic script. Dated: Jumāda II, but the year is difficult to read. This is probably not a letter as catalogued.

Mysterious document in Arabic script. May contain the phrases "ilā bustān Fakhr al-Mulk" and "ʿalayim al-juʿl al-thaqīl wa-l-ḥabs."

Legal document in Arabic script. Acknowledgment (iqrār). On verso there is a Hebrew piyyut/rahat.

Legal document in Arabic script. Acknowledgment (iqrār). On verso there are Hebrew piyyutim.

Letter or petition. In Arabic script. Surrounded by additional jottings in Arabic script (accounts?).

Calendar in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Business letter, draft. In Arabic script. Dated: 20 Shawwāl 741 AH, which is 1341 CE. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Petition to the vizier of al-Ẓāfir, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn al-Salār, regarding a fief worth 5500 dinars and a market worth 1000 faddān that were repossessed by the judge operating in Minyat Ghamr, who did not return them even after the issue of a decree by the vizier. The petition indicates that some of the grounds in discussion are cultivated with sugar cane. Dating: 544–48 AH, which is 1149–53 CE. On verso and between the lines of the petition on recto there are piyyuṭim including a seliḥa and a reshut. (Information from Khan and CUDL)

Main document: Petition or letter draft from Sulaymān b. Bunayy(?). In Arabic script. Dating: Late. The margins and verso are filled with additional documents or jottings in Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, and Arabic script. One of the Judaeo-Arabic text blocks contains a very formal taqbīl preamble addressed to someone in the government. Needs further examination.

Business letter in Arabic script from Abū l-Surūr b. Abū l-Munā to Abū l-Majd al-Dumyāṭī in Asyūṭ regarding commercial litigation in a qāḍī court decided in favor of Abū l-Bakr al-Qasṭāllānī against a silk weaver (bazzāz) and the payment of various debts using textiles as currency.

Legal document in Arabic script. Declaration (iqrār). Dating: Perhaps 14th century, on paleographic grounds. The Qaraite Mūsā b. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq b. ʿAbd al-Karīm confirms to have received from the Qaraite [...] b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Yūsuf known as Ibn Kūjik(?) something to do with the endowments (awqāf) of the Qaraite community. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog and Goitein's note card.

End of deed of sale to (or from) Abu Sa`d al-Israili (FGP)- Need examination

End of document - needs examination.