Geniza Lab

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim. 1058. Regarding different matters and people. Some of the lines are erased with a line through and a signature, probably after checking them. Also contains signs in Arabic that seem like “I informed him”. Mentions Nahray’s partners and it seems that he usually worked with a partner and sometimes two partners. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #282) VMR

Index of psalms and/or piyyutim.

Legal documents. Summaries of court records kept in the court registry. One of the entries details the maintenance payments (10 dirhams per month) that Ṣadaqa b. ʿEli must pay to his divorcee Miryam the freedwoman starting in Tishrei 1412 Seleucid, which is September 1100 CE. Another is a quittance between Ḥananel b. Yaʿaqov known as Khiyār and Ḥananel b. Ṣadaqa concerning a quantity of coral that had been deposited. In another entry what left from the a dowry of Maliha d. Yehezkel Hakohen in her husband's hand Yosef b. Ya'aqov. The couple's marriage document is found in TS 10 J 7.13 from 1090. (Information from Moshe Yagur [via FGP] and Goitein's note card. Additions by AA.)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Known hand, probably.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Header: "The ginger of Rabbenu Nahray."

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Includes a list of pawns of Abū Isḥāq b. al-Maṣmūdī.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Many dealings with a certain Aḥmad and a certain Ḥusayn; also with Abū ʿImrān the son of the sister of Hilāl.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.

Accounts in Hebrew and Ladino on dated alphanumerically on 1v and 7v as 5600AM (התר) which is 1839/1840CE. There is a large title on 1r possibly indicating that all 14 folios of this fragment, or at least this page, served as a "פנקס הכנסה והוצאה" (a register of income and expenses). In certain places the lists are organized by the weekly parsha readings of the liturgical calendar and then in other contexts the full calendar months are noted instead. On 1v there is a note in Judaeo-Spanish mentioning payment to a communal gabbay "me debe mi senyor padre 155 grushes a el anyo ke me izo de akhnasa [collection?] a el gabbay." The parsha reading system of recordkeeping is common across communal registers from earlier in the nineteenth century and in the eighteenth century. The register fragment is a rich source for tracing surnames, such as Beniste (1r), Cesana (1r, 2r), Franko (2r), Kaballero (2v), and others. A list of calculations on 7v has a peculiar entry "baqshīsh del kalsado de Kandia" ("a payment from the drunkard from Candia"). See Kohen and Kohen-Gordon's dictionary entry of Ladino for "kalsado". In the later folios, the content shifts away from entries about people's payments to inventory lists of goods such as: "asucar/sugar", "limon/lemon," portuqal/orange," "miliḥ/salt" (10v).Taken together, this register fragment represents one of the largest from the nineteenth century and holds a vast array data for further examination. MCD.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 18th or 19th century.

Accounts in Hebrew and Ladino.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.

Accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script. Calligraphic. Dated: Rabīʿ al-Awwal 417 AH, which is April/May 1026 CE. Many intricate details about transactions. The main commodity is thawbs. Fellow merchants: Abū Yaʿqūb; Abū Naṣr; Abū l-Ṭayyib Marwān; Mubārak/Mevorakh b. Hillel;

Accounts in Hebrew and western Arabic numerals. Late. Mentions 'the fattoria' several times, probably referring to the mercantile arrangement of 'factors/fattores' representing an employer. Currencies: real/reales (spelled ריאליץ) and עוט׳(?).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Curious spellings, with long vowels in unexpected places (אבין for אבן and מבורוך probably for מבורך). Does this point to a late origin?

Inventories of goods and their values. In Judaeo-Arabic. There are several subsections: (1) the thabāt(?) of the orphans/heqdesh; (2) a claim against the wife of Naḥrīr(?), beginning with an Andalusian lamp; (3) 'The remainder of this qumāsh (dowry) with the wife'; (4) something to do with the synagogue; (5) a certain deposit (al-mawdūʿ al-...); and perhaps further subsections.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Exact account of expenses for a distinguished, sick foreigner, showing also how these expenses were covered. Written by Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (active in Fustat 1125–50 CE). "Various medical prescriptions conclude with the note: "Meal—cooked chickens." How this worked out in practice is seen in the daily accounts listing the sums expended for a sick foreigner and the sums showing how they were collected, as summarized here. The list is in the unmistakable hand of the judge Nathan b. Solomon ha-Kohen, who was active in the Egyptian capital in the years 1125 - 1150, but who signed (as first signatory) a document in Tyre, Lebanon, as early as 1102. (Tyre was conquered by the Cru­ saders in 1124.) At the writing of this account he seems to have been an old man and was probably retired.4 9 The account refers to the first twelve days of the month Shevat (Jan.-Feb.). The sums refer to the silver coin dirhem. Expenditures: Daily: Bread—3/4; on Saturday a larger amount: 7/8 or 1. A chicken—2 1/8, or (mostly) 2 1/2. (Medical) potion—1. Weekly: Hot oil —1. Listed only once: Rose water—3/4. Creme—1/2. Honey—1/2. Lentils—1/4. Saffron—1/4. Nile water—1/4. Larger sums were spent on bandages, cotton, laundry, and a new cloak. The patient was probably treated gratuitously by a physician of the community. The expenditure was covered by (a) income from a house belong­ ing to the community; (b) six donations, in one case a husband and his wife—referred to as "his house"—contributed separately; (c) a collection made in the two rabbinical synagogues of Fustat (which brought only 7 dirhems); (d) 1 dinar less 1/24 (qirat), worth at that time 35 1/2 dirhems, donated by "our lord," meaning the Head of the Jewish community, probably the court physician Samuel b. Hananiah (1140-1159)." Mediterranean Society, II, p. 458; IV, pp. 232, 233.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.