Geniza Lab

Amulet to protect Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen gaʾon b. Shelomo gaʾon (1127–39 CE), destroy his political enemies, and succeed before the government. (Information from CUDL)

Letter or petition in Hebrew and Arabic, private rather than state. On verso is a detailed curse in Judaeo-Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew against whoever stole the dinar from Mashiaḥ b. Ṣemaḥ. (Information from CUDL)

Verso and bottom of recto: Amulet(s) for Makārim b. Nujūm to give him charm and grace and to silence his enemies. (Information from CUDL.)

Recto: Petition to the vizier Ibn al-Salār from an impoverished army veteran who had served in ʿAsqalān. Dating: 544–48 AH, which is 1149–53 CE. (Information from Khan.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Leaf 1: end of a discussion of the cycles of each planet and their astrological importance, followed by a description of each of the planets. Leaf 2: end of a discussion of the influence of the zodiac signs on people born in them, followed by calendrical-astrological discussions, a discussion of the planets and their servants (בול, סין, אריס, כון, בילתיי, etc) and their influence on people born in them, and a horologion with angelic names. (Information from CUDL)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Hebrew instructions for producing silver and gold, followed by Hebrew writing exercises in a different hand. At the bottom of recto there is a draft of an Arabic deed of acknowledgment (iqrār), in which ʿAwfar(?) b. Mufadḍal acknowledges a debt of 130 nuqra dirhams to his wife Kharīfa(?) bt. ʿAbdallāh the convert (al-muhtadī). In the right margin there is a draft of a petition in Arabic script in which the sender describes his distress. (Information in part from CUDL)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter in Ladino, reused for halakhic text.

Masṭara or ruling board, made from stacked, glued paper (cardboard) and string. Paper could be pressed over the raised string, leaving the imprint of straight lines for the scribe to follow. The lines have been numbered 1-11, and the margins and verso have been used for jottings and pen trials. (Information from CUDL). YU

Magical recipes for attaining love. "The first among these magical recipes is intended to ensure a great affection between a wife and her husband, erasing any animosity that might exist between them. The fragment preserves some beautiful biblical analogies.... The second recipe preserved in our fragment bears the title ‘Love’, emphasised by the drawing of a canopy over the word. It instructs the practitioner to take ‘seven leaves of laurel and grind them in old wine’, after which he is to write several magical names, perhaps using the mixture prepared earlier, or else, to write the names on the laurel leaves. The recipe ends with another biblical quotation, this time from the Song of Songs 8:7." Saar, O. (2010). T-S K12.89: ‘Like Esther in front of Ahasuerus’. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, July 2010]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55274

12 pages of astrological/medical prognostications—horoscopes for male and female. E.g., "Mazal sarṭan lineqeva. La ke su mazal es en sartan sera fermosa de forma y gorda de kuerpo y de mucha karne y buenos ojos y buena su voz y alta de kuerpo y buen kabello y ciegara de sus ojos. Y de año y medio adolecera y terna (=tendrá) mucha fazienda y engrandecera a sus parientes y ayudara a ellos y se alegrara kon ellos y no terna mala fama. Es angustiada kada hora por muchos celos de la fermosura y de la fazienda y la tacharan sus parientes u otros y su marido la kera (=querrá) bien en su koraxon y adolecera de cinco anos y de trenta y ocho y de kuarenta y nueve y de 64 y de ochenta y kuatro. Morira de enfermedad de kalientura y tiene senial en sus tetas y en sus manos y en su vientre y en su kojenturas y en su kaveza ferida." (Information from http://www.investigacion.cchs.csic.es/judeo-arabe/sites/investigacion.cchs.csic.es.judeo-arabe/files/Genizah-Al-Andalus.pdf.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Hastily written list of about 40 contributors, 18 of whom are called Rabbi. An indication of very late origin is that the father's name follows that of son without b. = like a family name. The two elders at top of verso, but without numbers, Elimelech Kohen and Eliezer, probably were in charge of the collections for two weeks. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 497, App. C 75)

Account of building operations ca. 1199. An accounting of repairs in the tabaqa of the compound called shirkat al-Dayyan R. Menashshe. The accounting, as prederved, covers a period of four days, Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and refers mainly to the preparation of mortar, and carpentry work. It is written on a leaf of a notebook, of which two fragments are preserved, this one being the smaller one. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.376 #100)

The original text may be the remannts of the lines in Arabic script on the right-hand page of image 1, which appears to be a legal document involving Abū l-Ḥasan, Alexandria, and boats. The other pages were reused for drafts of Hebrew elegiac poetry, and copious jottings in Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic, naming various people. Needs further examination. ASE.

Large, calligraphic alms list. Dating: first half of the twelfth century. According to Goitein, written for the purpose of allocating communal assistance. Cohen: "What kind of assistance was meant cannot be determined (cash?), but Goitein suggests that the numbers squeezed in between the lines represent the number of persons in each household (there are about eighty-five households) and that the entries bearing no numbers consist of households with only one person. In most of the alms lists recording the ration of loaves of bread distributed Tuesday and Friday the numbers occur next to the names of the recipients. On the reverse side, room was left for the Rum, but instead, there is a telling note: "The Rum cannot be counted." The list is headed by a ben tovim, a man from a good family.... To counteract embarrassment, this "man from a good family" was listed anonymously, though in first position on the list, a position of prestige, just before the relatives of two other persons of stature. The persons of stature are called "the head," perhaps a government clerk or a physician, so called because they often headed hospital departments. Later in the list we come upon an unusual entry, the "concealed" glassmaker, zajjaj mastur, nestled among a (poorly paid) parchment maker, a mason (another low-paid wage-eamer), and an immigrant woman (a widow, apparently) from Acre who was living in the home of one of the prominent merchants of Fustat, al-Lebdī. This glassmaker, a representative of the "working poor" and ashamed to appear on an alms list, had himself listed (or was listed by the charity overseers) both anonymously and as mastur, indicating that he normally did not seek charity. Note should be taken in this list of the many menial occupations, including a teacher, several synagogue beadles, and several kashrut supervisors. Hovering just above the "poverty line," they frequently needed supplementation from the community chest. Plenty of widows and orphans crop up here, as well as a couple of divorcees. Other "weak" persons are the ill or afflicted." (Information from Cohen, Voice of the Poor, 149)