Geniza Lab

Informal note from Eliyyahu to a certain Kohen asking him to give Umm ʿAzīza the sister of al-Makīn one dirham so that she can buy two pullets. ASE

Verso (original use): Official-looking document in Arabic script. Maybe a receipt. Mentions "al-kharājiyya al-muwāfiqa li-[...]." Needs further examination.

List of materia medica. (Information from CUDL)

List of materia medica, with Coptic numerals. Isaacs (1994) suggests that it presents a ‘diet for invalids’. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Arabic script. The writer mentions his distress (al-shidda wa-l-ḍīqa wa-l-khawf). Later (three lines from the bottom) he clarifies that he is scared of the collectors of the capitation tax (aṣḥāb al-jawālī). The writer refers to the addressee as سيدنا القلفي and thanks him for his generosity (inʿām) and perhaps asks for more. ASE

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 Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of two, a half, a quarter and a sixth (of a dirham?) 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: Middle of Dhū l-Qa‘da 403 AH, which is May 1013 CE. (Information from CUDL)

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 Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of two, a quarter and a sixth (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: Beginning of Dhū l-Ḥijja 403 AH, which is June 1013 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Account in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning Avraham b. Hilāl.

Literary fragment.

Letter in Arabic script, with several phrases in Hebrew mixed in. The writer may be named Abū l-Faraj (upper right of recto, although this is an unusual place to sign one's name), and the addressee is his paternal uncle (or at least addressed ʿammī), probably a merchant. The writer's father recently died (first line of recto margin), and it seems there is an inheritance dispute between the writer and a woman, perhaps his sister (e.g. "may God judge between me and her," antepenultimate line of recto). The writer excuses himself for not having come in person (five lines from the bottom of recto) and then mentions someone or something coming to Fustat. Starting in the margin of recto and continuing for the remainder of verso, the writer exhorts his uncle to send him money, for which he will reap a great reward from God for supporting a Torah scholar. The margin also contains these curious sentences in a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew, "O my uncle, see that the Goyim, how will they know (yadrūna?), what they know (yaʿlamū) is that I am (? or he is?) an imām in a jāmiʿ (typically meaning mosque) or in a zāwiya (typically meaning Sufi lodge). I occupy myself in the house of God and with His holy Torah" (this reading is tentative). Much of verso is devoted to the exegesis of Deuteronomy 33:18, in which the tribe of Zebulun is understood as a tribe of searfaring merchants who support the tribe of Issachar, Torah scholars in their tents. In the version in this letter, the writer adds that whenever the ships of Zebulun were on the verge of capsizing, the prayers of Issachar would save them. (Throughout the letter the writer has emphasized his copious prayers for his uncle.) In the margin he reveals his intention of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. ASE.

Book list in Arabic script. The first two items are Sīrat Mawlānā l-Ḥākim (ṣalawāt (?) Allāh ʿalayhi) and Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā', i.e., the biography of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh and the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. ASE.

Responsum in the hand of Maimonides. See Ben Outhwaite, "Two New Responsa of Moses Maimonides." [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, April 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.34048

Document in Arabic script. Reused for jottings. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Small fragment (upper right corner). Very faded.

Arabic philosophical text mentioning "the fourth chapter... called Timaeus."

Small receipt, unclear for what. In Arabic script.

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. Too fragmentary to understand the context, but in the margin it says, "Do not delay... a single one of you. Save yourselves and save....!" Verso: Unidentified text in Arabic script. In a different hand than recto. Poetry? In the margin, it says, "Shit in the beard of whoever reads even one word of this!"

Letter in Arabic script. Very faded.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Recto: letter from a certain Abū l-Qasam (?). Verso: title page of a book of recipes used in the ʿAḍūḍī hospital in Baghdad. (Information from CUDL)