Geniza Lab

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Literary text in Ladino.

Legal document, probably. In Aramaic and Hebrew. Dating: Maybe 11th century if not earlier. Involves someone named Yoshiyya. Extremely faded. Needs examination.

Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. Many or all of the verses begin "Yā Nafs," followed by various exhortations. Possibly related to the later "Yā Nafs" poem(s) discussed by Rachel Hasson in her September 2020 Fragment of the Month.

Account: building expenditures and revenue from rent, ca. 1039. This record contains details about sums of rent collected from "the Estate of the Synagogue of the Palestinians" for A.H. 429 and 430. It was written at the end of 1039. The revenue list mentions the first period during which Dar Qutayt was inhabited whereas before it had been empty. The building expenditures refer in part to the synagogue. The three parts of the document have found their way into three different boxes of the Taylor-Schechter Collection. Written in the hand of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 167 #11)

Popular literature in Judaeo-Arabic. Humorous rhymed prose. Dating: Likely 13th or 14th century.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. From the circle of the 13th-century Mosul Nasis. Extremely faded. The beginning and ending are missing. All of recto and part of verso are narrated as secondhand reports ("he said... he said... he said..."). Recto is a horrifying account of the Mongol (Tatar/תתר) invasion (cf. Bodl. MS heb. a 3/24 and T-S 20.128, belonging to the same circle of Mosul Nasis and possibly from the same sender). The Mongols entered the narrator's city on Simḥat Torah and plundered it, taking captive al-Nasi al-Fakhr, his wife Sitt al-Ruʾasāʾ, his brothers, his sister, and his 2-year-old son. Thousands of men, women, and children fled. By the time they reached Wādī ʿUmayr, the women were exhausted from carrying their children. The Mongols tore the children away—including the son of al-Fakhr and Sitt al-Ruʾasāʾ—and threw them on the ground as they cried out for their parents. When the letter resumes on verso, the sender (or the narrator of recto?) is describing his difficult economic circumstances wherever he has ended up (Syria? Bilbays? Fustat?). Everything that al-Nasi al-Fakhr had, clothing or otherwise, has been lost. Previously they were supported by the community or private donors ("kāna yaṣilunā mezonot") but now the people cannot spare any attention for them, even though they profess to love them. He mentions someone named Barakāt with the title al-Tifʾeret; a distinguished physician; and other notables who say that either the sender or the addressee should obtain a decree/rescript (tawqīʿ) and become the leader (muqaddam, ḥākim) of the community. There are a couple more faded lines, and the continuation is missing. ASE

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Responsum, probably from the eleventh century, regarding the marriage of Reuben with a female slave in India. See also PGPID 5544.

Responsa in Avraham Ibn Yiju's hand: legitimacy of a manumitted female slave's marriage and status of her children, Yemen, ca. 1140. See also PGPID 1347.

Poems and drafts in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. One of the poems is by Avraham Ibn ʿEzra. One of the drafts is invective (hijāʾ): והוא שוטה.... וכל מליו ... שקרים.

Petition concerning someone named Simeon (سمیون), most likely a Christian. 6 short lines and 3 long lines are preserved. May mention Yemen in l. 5. The fragment is made of two pieces of paper glued together. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Accounts/calculations in Arabic-script probably having to do with wheat, presumably by the same writer as recto. ASE.

Letter fragment (lower part) probably from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi in Qalyub to his father in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Discusses sundry small business dealings (in wine, onions, honey, garments) and mentions his delight when he learned that his sister had recovered and that his brother Abu l-Ḥasan [Yedutun] planned to come out [to Qalyub] to spend Shabbat with him. ASE

Letter from an unknown person to his or her father. In Judaeo-Arabic, with rudimentary handwriting and orthography. To be sent to the Muṣāṣa quarter of Fusṭāṭ, to the shop of [...]. The sender misses "Marḥūm," which might be a reference to a dead person, but the next sentence is tricky to figure out, and nothing else here suggests a letter of condolence. The addressee and his wife and his son Barakāt are all asked to be good to the sender (perhaps by visiting?).

Letter from a certain Nissim to his sister. In Judaeo-Arabic. In an unusual format, with the lines downslanting rather than upslanting, and the left margin used for overflow instead of the right margin. The last line of the letter is written upside down in the upper margin, and there is a (sadly faded) address on verso. Also on verso there is a Hebrew literary text. Dating: Possibly 11th century. The sender is distressed that Salmān stopped talking to the addressee and didn't marry her (? mā dakhala ilayki). Mentions "fī l-madīna" twice in line 11. Needs further examination.

Letter copies, probably writing exercises. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 18th or 19th century. There are two main letters copied here, dealing with shipments of chests and goods valued in riyals.

Note from a parent to a teacher. In Judaeo-Arabic. The text is quite clear, but it's difficult to figure out what the sender is trying to say. He might be reprimanding the teacher or making a proposal. There is also one line in Arabic script at 180 degrees and on verso some text from the Haggada. Needs examination.

Letter or letter draft. In Hebrew. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 15th century. Quite deferential. The sender refers to a ship and something he sent with Raḥamim and warns the addressee not to give it to just anyone who asks. There are also various jottings, pen trials, and practice signatures on both recto and verso.

Letter from Netanel ha-Levi b. Moshe ha-Shishi, in which he complains about his father paying him 25 dinars to stay home and study instead of seeing his friends. This is another version of BL OR 5566B.30, translated and discussed by Goitein in Med Soc V, pp. 427–28. See also Goitein's index card.