Geniza Lab

Acknowledgment that a legal purchase (qinyan) was made by Abu al-Fadl the cheese maker known as Ibn 'Awad that he obliged to pay half a dirham a day for certain period to Abu Hasan. Continues on verso which is too faded to read properly.

Small fragment from the top left side of a letter, addressed to the 'Great Rabbi'. Abu Nasr is mentioned.

See PGP 22522

Recto: Letter or document in Arabic script. Difficult to read - needs examination. Verso: Fragment from the middle of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender complains about the lack of letters, thanks God for some good outcome, and quotes Deuteronomy 28:67 (בַּבֹּקֶר תֹּאמַר מִי יִתֵּן עֶרֶב וּבָעֶרֶב תֹּאמַר מִי יִתֵּן בֹּקֶר) and spends the rest of this fragment expounding the verse.

Small fragment of a letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Fustat or Cairo, to his brother Yeḥezqel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No later January 1136 CE, as Ḥalfon refers to his attendance before the Gaʾon (=Maṣliaḥ), so it must have been written before he departed for Spain in January 1136. (Information from India Book 4, Hebrew description below.)

Verso: Legal document, possibly. In Hebrew. Dating: Late, probably Ottoman-era, based on the hand. Mentions various people including Yehuda b. Yaqar. Needs examination.

Recto: Legal document in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably Ottoman-era, based on the hand. Mentions Yūsuf b. Naṣṣār(?).

Official-looking letter in Arabic script. First ~5 lines are preserved. Dating: Probably late Mamluk or Ottoman era. Needs examination.

Letter from a woman to her brother Ḥusayn, the ghulām of Rashīd al-Dawla. In Arabic script. The sender may be complaining about the character of a woman (al-qubḥ alladhī kāna khulquhā), but this is unclear. She mentions not having an animal (mā lī bahīma). Mentions a period of time and rent. On verso there are also jottings in Judaeo-Arabic. Needs further examination.

Family letter. In Arabic script. Addressed to the mother of Abū l-ʿIzz (Sitt Abū l-ʿIzz), in Fustat. Reports on something to do with ʿAbd al-Salām; that some people were delayed in the addressee's location on account of the ḥajj pilgrims; then mentions Bilbays and a period of 15 days. Regards to various people, including Abū Bakr. Needs examination.

Likely the bottom of a legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Receipt in Arabic script.

Commercial letter. In Arabic script. The sender mentions various things he has sent. He may refer to unrest in Ramla (al-ʿajjāj bi-l-Ramla). He has also sent a thawb to Ramla. Needs further examination.

Recto: Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of three, a third, a sixth and an eighth (dirhams) for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 5 Ramaḍān 403 AH, which is March 1013 CE. Verso: clerical notes. (Information from CUDL)

Informal note in Arabic script. On a long, horizontal strip of paper. Dating: Perhaps 12th or 13th century. In which the addressee is asked to send the children, "for the day is short, lest they lose the benefit." Possibly the sender is their teacher. He says that they need to make progress in العزلى(?). On verso there is a pious aphorism, also in Arabic script.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. List of names in the right column, with numbers in the left column. The names include a chicken seller (dajjājī), a couple of druggists (ʿaṭṭār), a clothier (bazzāz), a sugar maker (sukkarī), and a certain Sayyid al-Ahl.

Bifolio of accounts, probably from a merchant's notebook. Written in a mix of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. (It is also possible that these are legal entries concerning dowries.) Mentions numerous precious goods, including jewelry and ambergris.

Recto: State document in Arabic script. Legible phrases include "allāh taʿālā" and "amīr al-muslimīn." Not much else is left; wide and variable line spacing.

Verso: Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Discusses at length a family in distress on account of poverty and the capitation tax; the specific details are not clear. The word "complaint" (shakwā) appears several times. The handwriting may be known from other fragments. Written by Meir b. Hillel b. Zadoq (Date: mid 12th century) from Alexandria

Legal document(s). In Arabic script. On vellum. The documents on both recto and verso concern Ismāʿīl b. Yūsuf al-Sharīf(?). The document on recto (listed as verso on FGP) may have to do with a property; also mentions something built out of brick (mabniyy bi-l-ṭūb) and something buried in it (fīhi madfūn). The document on verso may have to do with Ismāʿīl's will (mā awṣā bihī). Dated: 416 AH, which is 1025/26 CE. Needs further examination.