Geniza Lab

19th century letter, Verso is blank apart from a jotting which may be an acknowledgement of receipt. There also seems to be a square stamped signature at the foot of the recto (FGP)

Brief official letter in Arabic script. With a stamped seal in the margin next to the name of the issuer/sender (Muṣṭafā something). Dated: 10 Rajab 997 AH = 25 May 1589 CE. Addressed to 'all the qubbāḍ (tax collectors?)' in the district of Shubra(?), issuing an instruction concerning heads of livestock. Needs further examination.

Late legal document in Arabic involving money owed between al-Muʿallim Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-ʿIzz and Isḥāq b. Mūsā al-Rabbān, and it seems others as well. Information from Goitein's note card.

State document, probably a report to a higher official (not a petition). This is a long strip cut from the right side of the document. At top, "ṣalawāt allāh." Mentions a sum of money (mablagh); [...] b. Abū l-ʿIzz b. Manṣūr; something "al-muʿaẓẓam" (probably a reference to a document, as this is followed by al-muʾarrakh); and taqdīr ʿamal min dīwān al-Ṭ[...]. There may be a damaged date in the last line of the main text block. There are portions of two more lines after a long space, including the phrase "an yakūna." On verso there are Hebrew liturgical pieces with other material interspersed, including several references to the prayer of Ḥanna.

Recto: A letter in Arabic script regarding a suftaja (bill of exchange) and mentioning Abū Saʿd al-Tustarī and [...] b. Yaʿqūb al-Tustarī. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic for three different types of indigo: jūdī, sindānī, and ʿamtānī. Information from Goitein's note card.

Request for a fatwā (or possibly a petition or official report?). Begins with a taqbīl clause (yuqabbilu l-arḍ) and then moves to the qiṣṣa (wa-yunhī). Mentions quires (ṣaḥāʾif), a shop (dukkān), possibly its movement from one town to another, a qāḍī, an iqṭāʿ, and someone's son.

Petition from a group of people to a chief vizier (Sayyid al-Wuzarāʾ) titled "al-Kāmilī." In Arabic script. Fragment (upper half only). The petitioners complain that there is a Jewish man named Sulaymān in Fustat, the son of an Indian female slave (ibn jāriya hindiyya) who spends all his days obstructing business and frightening people in the drug/perfume market (sūq al-ʿaṭṭārīn), just like Ibn al-ʿUṣfūr used to do. (Goitein wonders if there might be a connection to T-S K25.64 and BL OR 5566B.30, which feature a troublemaker nicknamed ʿUṣfūr al-Jinn.) This man Sulaymān apparently raves about nonsense or impossible things (qawl al-muḥāl). When the Jews were resting in their houses on Shabbat, he assaulted them with "raqqāṣīn" (couriers? dancers? journeymen?) and expelled (? akhraja) their women, and frightened "us" (the pronoun slips here from "them" to "us"—an indication that the petitioners are the persecuted Jews themselves?). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Legal document. One of the parties is referred to as Jewish; with some marginalia (FGP)

Letter in Arabic script. Written in large, calligraphic script. Containing a renunciation(?) of a friendship. (Information from Goitein’s index card.) Needs further examination.

Recto: Ottoman contract of sale of land Verso: Ottoman legal contract

Legal document. In Arabic script. Dated: 8 Jumādā II [...]. A contract concerning several people, one of whom is Yūsuf b. Manṣūr b. Manṣūr b. al-Yahūdī. Appears to be complete with witnesses. Needs further examination. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Business letter in Arabic script from Yushāʿ (Yehoshuaʿ) b. Natan to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat discussing commercial information that had come to Nahray via an associate (ṣāḥib) of the qāḍī; ʿAodeh thinks this is the Tyrean qāḍī Ibn Abī ʿAqīl.

Power of attorney. Sāliḥ b. Yūsuf, a Sicilian Jew, gives power of attorney to another Jew in a qadi court. Dating: ca. 1102 CE, as the same Ṣāliḥ also appears in T-S NS J95a. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and Khan.)

Letter/petition from Bū Bakr to a notable named Burhān al-Dīn, in Fustat. In Arabic script. Dating: Probably Mamluk-era based on hand, layout, and formulary. Asking for alms. Contains many eloquent expressions of deference, including kissing the hands and the beautiful fingertips (anāmil) of the addressee (al-jināb al-ʿālī).

Recto: `Iqrar Verso: Hebrew prayer - needs examination.

Legal testimony about a commercial dispute. In Arabic script. One party is al-Ṭūsī. Someone died suddenly, and the merchants sealed his shop and the inspectors (al-nāẓirīn) came. Many more details are preserved; needs further examination. On verso there is Hebrew liturgy-

Business accounts in both Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic. The hand is probably known. Very large. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Some names such as Manṣūr. AA.

Contract of hire - needs examination.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

End of legal document, dated Dhü al-Hijja, A.H. 504. - needs examination. (FGP)