Geniza Lab

Legal document. In Arabic script. Dated: 18 Shawwāl 549 AH, which is 1154/55 CE (the reading of the decade digit is not certain, but the other two digits are very clear). In which Muḥammad b. [...] ʿĀmir b. Muḥammad rents a 'little house' (duwayra) from Faḍāʾil b. Bū l-Faraj b. Hilāl al-Yahūdī. Needs further examination.

Letter of recommendation. In Arabic script. Sent from Damascus to two high-placed addressees (al-majlisayn al-sāmīyayn) presumably in Cairo, al-Majlis al-[...] and al-Majlis al-Nūrī. Dating: Perhaps Ayyubid or Mamluk era. The letter opens with two lines of poetry. The sender then reports that the bearer, al-Ḥājj Aḥmad from the city of [...] has been living for some time in Damascus. He traveled to the Ḥijāz with Ibn Shādī Bedouins but apparently lost a sum of money and has petitioned the government for help. The addressees are asked to assist him. A ḥadīth is quoted: الخلق كلهم عيال الله واحب الخلق الى الله انفعهم لعياله نفع الله بمعروفه يوم يحتاج الناس الى معروفهم. The honorific "Sayyidnā" is used for multiple people including the addressee(s). Regards to various people, including Najm al-Dīn al-Bahnasī and Ayyūb. The Qāḍī Fakhr al-Dīn b. Abī l-Manāqib(?) was present at the time of the writing of the letter. Needs further examination. ASE

Recto: Arabic legal document, dated ywm as-sabt 20 Rajab, 550 A.H. Document in Arabic script. Needs examination.” Verso: Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic magical text (fgp)

Business letter in Arabic script to Abū l-Ḥusayn b. X b. al-Simsār (son of the broker), in Fustat, from his son. 'Aodeh's transcription is available on FGP.

Recto: Letter concerning the demolition of a building (possibly a mosque) and the sale of its timber and bricks. Verso: Letter concerning 'iqta'. Letter on recto mentions al-qadl ibn Ja'fer ibn Na'man.- needs examination.

Business letter in Arabic script from Ṭāhir b. Sālim to the shop of the ḥaver in the port of Dumyāṭ.

Petition from a woman to a high dignitary or perhaps to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil himself (one reigned 1200–18 and another reigned 1238–40). She seems to be appealing for redress against a Christian tax farmer named Abū l-Fakhr and an intricate network of his family members, including his son, his brother Abū Saʿīd, Abū Saʿīd's wife, and possibly also 2 women (slaves?) named Aqrān and ʿAlam. They are behaving in a high-handed way in the hoarding of money, saying things that shouldn't be said, and something involving timber. Concludes with a lengthy curse on anybody who comes into possession of this petition and fails to convey it to al-ʿĀdil and apprise him of its contents. Ed. Tamer el-Leithy, Marina Rustow and Naïm Vanthieghem (December 2016). (Information from TL, MR, NV, AA, and ASE.)

Letter/petition in Arabic script. The tarjama containing the name of the sender at upper left seems to have been deliberately torn away; the remainder of the fragment is perfectly preserved. The sender/petitioner excuses himself from coming in person because of his work in the shop. He asks the addressee to meet with somebody (al-amīr?) about the matter of the sender's brother. "My lord knows that my brother was one of the group (or a porter? or a bearer of a document? the word is either jumla or ḥamala), but the qāḍi heard testimony from some people that he was not one of the jumla/ḥamala." Closes with a raʾy clause, an afterthought ("please meet with him in the alley of Wikālat al-Qand"), then another raʾy clause. On verso there are several lines of accounts in Arabic script.

Letter from Ṣamṣām, a prisoner in Nāblus, to al-Qāʾid Muʿizz (according to the body of the letter) or to the heirs of Ṣārim al-Dawla, in Cairo (according to the address, which also specifies "to al-Bāṭiliyya, under the cross-street bridge (sābāṭ) of the house of Muʿizz al-Dawla"). In Arabic script. Of note, there are few details about what it is like to be a prisoner in Nāblus. The letter mainly consists of a complaint about a lack of letters and the sender's isolation and cut-off state. He may be particularly disconsolate about having to pray alone. He urges the family members to respond quickly with their news and the news of who is alive and who is dead and news of a certain Murhaf ('and spare me nothing'). Edited by Claude Cahen, “Une lettre d'un prisonnier musulman des Francs de Syrie,” in Etudes de civilisation medievale... melanges offerts a E. R. Labande (Poitiers, 1975), 83–87. Transcription and translation (into French) are available on the Arabic Papyrology Database: https://www.apd.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/apd/show2.jsp?papname=Cahen_Prisonnier&line=1. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) AA. ASE.

Recto: Hebrew liturgy. Verso: A few lines of Hebrew liturgy and a note in Arabic written by another hand - needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. From a (Muslim) spiritual authority who is firing a would-be disciple. The sender originally thought that this man was genuinely seeking the hereafter (al-ākhira), but he now knows that he is looking out only for his own, worldly benefit. There follow many lines of rebuke and exhortation, and the sender tells the addressee never to come to him again. (Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog, though they read the letter as seeking a meeting with the addressee.) On verso there is a note in Arabic script in a different hand, together with several lines of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Ayyubid chronicle. The time-span covered in the fragment is A.H. 522-573 (= 1128-78 C.E.). - needs examination.

Legal document, dated A.H. 529 (= 1134-35 C.E.). - needs examination.

Verso (original use): Petition in Arabic script. Somewhat rudimentary hand. Possibly to the caliph himself (al-ḥaḍra al-ṭāhira). The sender desires to be sent to Syria to fight (raghiba al-jihād) with the victorious army (...wa-yatajarrad ilā al-Shām fī jumlat al-ʿaskar al-manṣūr wa-yabdhul majhūdahu fī al-khidma al-sharīfa...). The addressee is asked to issue an order to the Kātib al-Jaysh ordering his deployment (tajrīd). Recto (secondary use): Informal note in Arabic script confirming the granting of a gift without any conditions.

Letter of condolence from Abū Naṣr to his brother's son ʿImrān. In Arabic script. Aodeh notes that the introduction contains formulae similar to those in Fatimid state documents. Abū Naṣr, his wife, and his sons Mufaḍḍal, Makārm, and Abū l-Khayr all offer their condolences upon the death of the young woman (ṣabiyya) Sitt Zaynihim (Aodeh reads "sayyidatuhum"). The sender excuses his delay in sending this letter by explaining that he was mortally ill, to the point that he made a will. Abū Manṣūr told the sender that the addressee had sent some bitumen (qifār), but it has not arrived. Regards to Umm Abū Isḥāq and her sister and to Abu l-Faraj. (Information in part from Aodeh)

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Dated: 525 AH = 1130/31 CE. The muqirr is Sayyid al-Ahl b. ʿAlī. Might be a debt contract. Needs further examination.

Letter from a mother to her son. In Arabic script. She bemoans her separation from him and says that she cries all night long (wa-lā yaʾkhudhnī nawm wa-lā qarār illā bākiya ḥazīna). "My son, people raise children so that they won't have to rely on other people, but you are making me rely on other people even as you are prospering (wa-anta bi-kull khayr)." Someone (Abu [...]) took her to Alexandria. She mentions Abū Yaʿqūb b. ʿAṭā(?) and two dinars and how they are were given to the synagogue(?). Needs further examination.

Letter of appeal for charity. In Arabic script. Written in two columns. Asking the addressee to exchange the writer's possessions for food. Mentions Abū ʿAlī al-Parnas and the judge Efrayim. The writer is without work "and the mice have eaten my clothing." (Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog)

Recto: Hebrew biblical verses. Verso: State document, Fatimid period. Mentioned in S. M. Stern, "Cairo as a Centre of the Ismaili Movement."

State document, Fatimid period. Mentioned in S. M. Stern, "Cairo as a Centre of the Ismaili Movement."