Geniza Lab

A copy of a petition or some sort of patronage-related letter (khidma) from Abū Manṣūr b. Abī Naṣr. Written on a bifolium. Mentions verses that the sender has composed for the addressee. Contains a number of explanatory marginal glosses, one of which quotes al-Rayyis al-Qāsim. One folio carries one line of a different text in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning Aḥmad and ʿAbd al-Hādī and some numbers. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Revenue from rent in Damascus, date unknown. Leaf of a notebook, recording revenue from rent from shops and apartments belonging to the qodesh of Damascus. The reconstruction of several such shops is mentioned, carried out under the direction of the beadle Na'im b. Benyameen. One of the apartments was inhabited by people who came ffrom the Maghrib. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 229 #39)

Letter addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge (c/o the shop of the sons of al-ʿŪdī). In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner). Mentions the month of Ramaḍān and the Muslim holiday (presumably ʿīd al-fiṭr). It is difficult to gather much more from this fragment without a join.

Recto and top half of verso: an Aramaic Ahava piyyuṭ for the feast of Šavuʿot. Verso: a list of halakhic books in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning the Mišna, Halaḵot by Isaac al-Fāsī, Talmud (Yevamot), a halaḵic midraš on Parašat Tazriaʿ (Leviticus 12:1-13:59) and books by Hai Gaʾon and Samuel b. Ḥofni Gaʾon. (Information from CUDL.)

Legal records. Four pages (bifolio) in the handwriting of the judge Natan b. Shemuel. Dating: ca. 1150 CE. The first page consists mainly of memorial lists, while the other three contain digests of many documents to be issued by him. One of the entries according to Goitein's index card (but this portion does not exist on the digitized fragment—perhaps the shelfmark has changed): Sitt al-Iraq bt. Yaʾir the wife of Abū l-Maʿālī Netanel gives her son Abū Saʿd one quarter of a house in the Darb al-Zanājiliyyīn ('the street of the canister makers') and the other quarter to her daughter Sitt al-Banīn. Her husband has the right to live in the house but has to keep it in repair.

Recto: a mainly grammatical commentary on Ruth 3:15–4:8. In the following colophon, the text is referred to as Alfāẓ Megillat Rut and the scribe’s name is given as Aaron b. ʿEli ha-Kohen. Verso: the first paragraph of verso appears to be a Judaeo-Arabic book list, mentioning Numbers, a quire with the text of the weekly portion meṣoraʿ (Leviticus 14:1–15:33) and Saʿadya. The second paragraph is in Arabic script. The colophon is in large square characters. Recto and verso are in different hands. Verso is barely legible. (Information from GRU catalogue via FGP.)

Letter from Munajjā Muqaddasī, who has left Egypt (or Fustat), to a certain al-Shaykh al-Mukarram/Mukrim. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 13th or 14th century, but this is a guess. Much of it is formulaic, conveying profuse expressions of his longing for the addressee and a promise to spare no effort in fulfilling any of the addressee’s requests. The sender left Fustat without having any errands to fulfill on behalf of the addressee, so he asks to be honored with one. He is preoccupied on account of the female slave (? al-waṣīfa) and perhaps how much money she sold for. Regards to the addressee’s brother and to Hibat Allāh (Information in part from CUDL.)

Document in Arabic script. May be legal, as the lower left portion looks like a witness statement. But needs examination. On verso there is an inscription related to a book, with unusual orthography and vocalization. "Commentary on Daniel according to the Peshaṭ, by Yishmaʿel b. Avraham Ibn Kuchak."

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Document in Arabic script. Possibly a fiscal state document, recording amounts of money associated with the operations of al-maṭābikh al-maʿmūra (the kitchens or dyeing workshops?). The name Khalaf b. ʿAlī appears at the upper left. On verso there is an ownership note for a book ("this daftar belongs to Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham"). Needs further examination.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Ownership inscription of a book that belonged to Mevasser b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi. The book was then purchased by Nadiv b. Saʿadya ha-Levi in 1469 of the Seleucid Era (= 1157 CE) and later inherited by Shelomo b. Shemuel ha-Levi. In the top part of recto, there are Judaeo-Arabic notes in which an unidentified person recorded all the items of titillating gossip that (s)he and his or her brother "Ab" heard mainly from Abū l-Khayr. (1) Abū Manṣūr used to think that your father was מכשוף אלדאר אלכומר, the meaning of which is not entirely clear. (2) The "family" of al-Raḥbī does not observe the laws of purity (טומאה וטהרה) and sits in front of him exposed in a diaphanous gown (ghilāla), and al-Raḥbī drinks on the Sabbath. (3) Ibn al-Baṭṭāl sits with al-Raḥbī and curses you with "the Z and the Q" (from "zawj qaḥba," the worst curse possible; see Ibn Taymiyya, Minhāj al-Sunna, https://lib.eshia.ir/11366/1/458) and al-Raḥbī joins in the cursing even as he pretends to be among those who love you, but "promise not to tell that I told you." (4) [Some days later in Suwayqat al-Shamʿ or al-Jāmiʿ]: Al-Raḥbī said that someone was his "son" in Alexandria; the rest of this tidbit is cryptic and mentions a certain Kohen; (5) ʿUqayb said that al-Raḥbī told him that Ibn al-Baradānī fornicated (fasaqa) with the juwayra (presumably a diminutive form of jāriya, female slave, perhaps implying that she was also a minor) whom he redeemed from captivity, "and he is even more wicked than that" or "could there be someone more wicked than that?" (פיכון רשע ארשע מן האדא). (6) ʿUqayb said something about running into Ibn al-Baṭṭāl. (7) He said that Abū ʿImrān cursed me with a curse that would be too long to tell. (8) Among the various things he said about Abū Isḥāq and his brother-in-law. . . . [this one is tricky to figure out, and involves a drunk Ibn Kulayb and a house known by the name of Samāʾ al-Mulk]. (Information in part from GRU catalogue via FGP.) ASE

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. There are two lines from the end of a letter, it seems asking for instructions. This is followed by three lines in the same hand but with a different pen/ink, mentioning Ḥalfon ha-Kohen, Sayyidnā ha-Nagid, a certain Tamīm, and the blessed holiday. This fragment also contains Leviticus 7:37–8:2 on recto and verso, written perpendicularly to the letter. (Information in part from GRU catalogue via FGP.)

Recto: deed in which a man and his sons gift a house to an adult woman, ʿAʾisha (known as al-Wuḥsha), the daughter of the owner. Mentions Abū l-Qāsim ʿUbaydallāh, Abū Manṣūr Jaʿfar, and Abū […] Hibatallāh. Witnessed by ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad Ibn Khalaf and ʿUbaydallāh Ibn Rajaʾ. Ca. 11th-12th century. Verso: list of books in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning a Massekhet Berakhot by Isaac al-Fāsī. (Information from CUDL)

P1: Legal document. Arabic script, badly rubbed, with signatures of witnesses at the bottom of the leaf (in a different ink). P2 recto: ownership note of a book belonging to Ḥalfon ha-Kohen b. Moses he-Ḥaver. P2 verso: one line of Arabic script. (Information from GRU catalogue via FGP.)

Booklist? The hand of Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Rosh ha-Seder.

List of 28 people, some of whom are known to have been active in the middle of the 11th century, including Abū Isḥaq b. Ḥujayj, Abū Naṣr b. Ṣaghīr and Dosā b. al-Lādhiqī. Other names (some quite unusual) include: the Nasis Abū l-Ṭayyib and Abū l-Ḥasan; Ibn Furāt; Ibn Naḥum; Ibn Zaffān; Ibn Azhar; the sons of ʿAllān; Ibn Abū Ṭarbaq(?); Ibn Shuʿayb; Ibn Warmāj(?); Ibn Natan; Ibn al-ʿIjla; Ibn al-ʿIjl; Abū l-Khayr b. Khayṭ(?) al-Barrāda(?); the sons of al-Bahūdī; Ibn al-Papa; Ibn al-Arjawānī; Ibn al-Baghal ("son of the mule"). This list is written on a bifolium; the other pages contain a sermon using imagery of a “shepherd of flesh and blood” and drawing comparisons to God as the shepherd of Israel. The list and the sermon are in different hands. (Information in part from GRU catalogue via FGP.)

Letter from Avraham b. Seʿadya he-Ḥaver to Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. Binyām. In Judaeo-Arabic, with one line in Arabic script on verso. Asking for news from Cairo regarding the capitation tax (here called kharāj). Greetings to various people. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

List of 72 people to be solicited. Dating: Last third of the 12th century. Arranged according to their business address such as "The Great Bazaar" (a, l. 2), "The Surayya" (a, l. 13), "Bazaar of the Threads" (b, l. 8), "[Street of the] Dyers" (b, l. 11), "The Money Assayers" (c, l. 10). Four persons are noted together with their brothers, one with his brother-in-law. One firm is called "Sons of." Several groups of people belonging to the same profession appear together, such as four mustaʿmals, persons employed in a government workshop (all in the Bazaar of the Threads), three labbāns or dairymen, three sabbāks or metal casters employed in the mint, or three money-assayers. At least five names of a very specific character, such as Durrī the ghulām of the Nagid (see Med Soc I, 133) or Manṣūr of the family of the scarf makers (maqāniʿī) are identical with those in T-S K6.149, and at least eight recur in T-S K15.6. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix C, #31.)