Geniza Lab

Deed of manumission of a slave. Only the bottom left corner of the document is preserved (or perhaps the entire left half of a very short document).The owner is named Mevasser b. Yefet. There are no details about the freedperson. Signed: Tamīm b. Shemuel ha-Kohen; Seʿadya b. Khalfān.

Recipe (nuskha murakkab) in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 12th century. Probably for ink, based on the ingredients and instructions and the phrase "ilā an yasīr fī qawām al-[ḥi]br" (third line from the bottom). Ingredients include oak galls (ʿafṣ), gum arabic (samgh ʿarabī), Cypriot vitriol (zāj qubrusī, misspelled קרבסי in the document), an unknown ingredient in a lacuna, a bit of saffron, a bit of rock salt (milḥ darānī, also known as andarānī), lapis lazuli (lazuward). The ingredients are soaked in water; some green myrtle (or myrrh, if myrtle is unavailable) is also involved; and there is also a stage of leaving it out in the sun. At the end of the process, you sprinkle it with a bit of sugar candy (sukkar nabāt) or sugar syrup (jullāb). ASE

Letter addressed to a certain Abū l-Faṭḥ (according to the internal address) or to the perfume/drug shop of Abū l-ʿIzz (according to the external address). In a mixture of Arabic in Arabic script and Judaeo-Arabic. The Arabic-script hand and spellings are somewhat rudimentary, while the Hebrew-script hand seems more practiced. The sender is agitated about having misplaced the bag (kharīṭa) containing the Torah codex and the fūṭa garment. He suspects the camel drivers might have taken it—"Wālī and his rabāʿa"—maybe the head driver is named Wālī and "rabāʿa" refers to his workers? In any case, Wālī has announced a reward of three dirhams for whoever returns it. The sender asks the addressee to complain about them (the goods? the camel drivers?) to 'the ustādh,' likely a government official. He asks the addressee to send the skins/hides (al-julūd, misspelled اجلود). The main part of the letter concludes with greetings for the addressee and Khalaf. There is a postscript (or possibly a response?) in Judaeo-Arabic, which repeats verbatim some of the information from the main part of the letter but also has some differences. "If the fūṭa is not with you on the maṣṭaba, the mukārīs (animal drivers) have taken them... Wālī said that he will give 2 or 3 dirhams to whoever returns it. I told him to have it delivered to the shop, and they will pay you whatever they lost." In this section, it says that the muṣḥaf will arrive with Khalaf, and the fūṭa—with God's help. ASE

Recto: Aphorisms in Judaeo-Arabic in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. Strangely, for an often-humorous poet, he includes "the one who abandons laughter [is rewarded?] with fear (of God)" (apparently a variant of the still-current من ترك الضحك منح الهيبه). Verso: Wine poem in Judaeo-Arabic, also in Nāṣir's hand.

Account of the Qodesh: payments to workers and revenue from rent, ca. probably 1043. The recto of this leaf contains details of different sums paid to building workers. The heading refers to sums collected by the workers employed in the building operations of the qodesh. The names are of Muslims. The verso has some details on collections of rent. The handwriting is that of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 197 #24)

Letter from a man to his brother. In Judaeo-Arabic, in a lovely hand. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Refers to the addressee's pilgrimage the preceding year; Qayrawān; how the sender's wife died in giving birth to a son, while he himself was away in Byzantium; how her mother and family sent to recover her dowry (raḥl), valued at 200 quarter-dinars; how he subsequently married a minor girl (ṣabiyya saghīra) who is now pregnant (wa-hiya minnī [fī ḥāl]). (The phrase "...qām al-ḍawʾ" also appears here—the full first word and the meaning are unclear.) The sender has set up a shop in the square of the perfumers, and he is in good health. He refers to a woman (probably their mother) who is in good health and yearns to see the addressee's face. There are a couple lines of business matters at the end (mentions 1000 mithqāls of something and a ship). ASE

Ketubba fragment. Only a small portion of the overall document is included but a portion of the bride's name Fāʾiza is legible. The groom's name appears solely as [...] b. Shelomo. MCD.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter of recommendation from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides, to be read in the synagogue, on behalf of a pregnant woman who has no money to support her sick son. ASE. Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 67–104.

Legal query, draft. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning the purchase of half of a house in Muslim courts. On a reused Aramaic Targum.

Ownership note: "This daftar belongs to Ḥasan ha-Zaqen the shaliaḥ of our master David ha-Nasi" the exilarch.

Legal testimony. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Mazara, Sicily. Dated: Sunday, 10 Sivan 4898 AM, which is 1138 CE. Signed: Yosef Shemuel ha-Sofer and Moshe b. Yaʿbeṣ(?). Seʿadya b. Mevorakh Jazā'irī appeared before the court bearing a power of attorney from Berakha b. Yosef Ibn al-Sartī(?). The power of attorney may have guaranteed the goods (ʿilab?) of Ḥayyim b. Reuven for 40 rubāʿīs. Someone's daughter is mentioned. The document is long and very well-preserved, and there is a large bibliography on FGP.

Legal testimony, draft or abandoned. Needs examination.

The Principles of Grammar by Joshua ben Avraham. In Judaeo-Persian. Published by Nehemya Allony, along with two joins.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

List of books compiled by Joseph b. Jacob ha-Bavli as part of the introduction to the commentary on Saʿadya Gaʾon’s Siddur. Mentions works and commentaries by a large number of Jewish scholars. (Information from CUDL)

Account for Siwan 1494 sel. ca. 1183. This very orderly written list of revenues and expenditures covers the revenue from 18 apartments and compounds, the total being 205 dirhams. The expenditure section lists several ordinary items, but in the main gives details of sums spent on repairs in Dar al-Nagid. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 339 #85)

Account for Tammuz and Av 1494 sel. ca. 1183. Only the revenue part of this account is presevred. It contains the sums from 22 apartments and compouns, the total being 374 dirhams, to which 15 dirhams are added, from the account of the preceding month, all of which is to be handed over by the parnas. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 342 #86) Written by Shemuel b. Saadya. AA

Decree, possibly of al-Malik al-Ashraf. Partially transcribed by S. M. Stern.

Book list in the hand of Shelomo ha-Levi, mentioning, among other items, Mishna tractates and their gemara (occasionally specifying the type of script), a commentary on Jeremiah, the Sefer Pitronot ha-Ḥalomot, the megillot, biblical books, a treatise on the leap-year, Arabic books, a commentary on the Prophets, and a commentary on Esther in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)