Geniza Lab

Ownership note in a book belonging to Merayot b. Yehuda b. Efrayim b. Yaʿaqov b. Shemuel b. Avraham b. Liviṭi the convert. Above and below the name of a new owner is written: Sālim b. [...]. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter(s). Dating: late 18th or early 19th century. Most of the fragment contains literary-seeming Hebrew text, but this is followed by a note with regards to various family members signed by David ha-Levi ʿAjamī and another note signed by the well-known merchant Meir ben Naʿim, whose wife has just had a baby boy.

Letter from Yehuda b. Yosef Ibn al-Haniyy al-Andalusī, in an unknown location, to Abū l-Faḍl Ḥesed b. Sahl al-Tustarī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1040 CE. The purpose of the letter is to make progress in settling business accounts.

Treatise on the laws of impurity, with ownership notes. In Judaeo-Arabic: "property of al-Muwaffaq b. Moshe." In Arabic script at the bottom, a much later note indicating transfer of ownership to Abū l-Ḥasan b. Qaṭīna (? قطينا)

Three words of a decree probably: fa-lammā intahā ilayhi. Reused for copious jottings in Arabic script and Hebrew script, including elaborate designs with micrography, including a wheel with spokes (the text in the wheel is also found in T-S H5.95 according to Maagarim: במוסף בהוסיפי תחן תמור נתח גם כי בער אנכי ולא כמפותח.... One of the jottings says "Yedutun ha-Levi" (a cantor active in Fustat 1190s–1230s), but this does not appear to be his handwriting.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Listing mainly foods, such as sumac, ṭaḥīna, meat, and pomegranate. Written on a bifolium, on the bottom right quarter of verso. The remainder of the fragment contains piyyuṭim, including one poem by al-Ḥarizi. (Information in part from CUDL.)

See T-S NS 110.14 for description.

On bottom of f. 2r are accounts or a list mentioning precious and base metals including silver, red arsenic, and mercury in Arabic script. F. 1r and 2v: collection of piyyuṭim on the story of Joseph in Genesis 44. F. 1r contains a midraš from a qerova of Yannai to the seder ויגש אליו יהודה. It is followed by the first 8 lines of the yoṣer אח מכרתם בנעלים by Solomon b. Sulaymān (Zulay: by Pinḥas ha-Kohen), the final four of which are added in a different hand. F. 2v contains 2 piyyuṭim including the qerova מרגלים אתם שמעו ונבהלו by Simeon b. Megas. F. 1v: explanation of the ṣiṣit, which are compared to the number of the cherubim. F. 2r: yoṣer שבויה ממרומים by Samuel the Third. (Information from CUDL.)

P2 f.1 followed by P1 f. 1 and P3 f. 2: Birkat ha-Mazon. P3 f. 1, P1 f. 2 and P2 f. 2: qaddiš. P4: Judaeo-Arabic letter sent by Ismaʿīl to al-Šayḵ al-Ḥaver David ha-Kohen, mentioning the elder Abraham and Damascus. Also mentioned: עלי בן פתוח, אלשיך סבאע The letter starts on the current verso. A line of address in Arabic script is found on recto. P5: The cover page and beginning of birkat ha-mazon, copied by Mešullam b. Yefet. (cudl and AA)

Accounting of the qodesh ca. 1247. The recto contains the lists of revenue from rent for the month of Siwan. The verso has a list of expenditures made during the same period. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.471 #142) Probably written by Shlomo b. Shmuel b. Saadya. AA

Fol. 1v: Booklist mentioning a Torah and a Targum, sheʾiltot of R. Aḥa, responsa and treatises by Hayya Gaʾon, a Bible commentary by Ibn Sarjado, talmudic tractates, works by Saʿadya Gaʾon and others. Note that the date 1024 CE is for the text on recto, not for this booklist. However, the booklist is unlikely to be much later, since the latest author mentioned is Shemuel b. Ḥofni (d. 1013). Fols. 1r and 2r: a discussion of the rules pertaining to בגדכפת and אויה, probably from a version of Hidāyat al-Qārī. The preserved text is on the rule אתי מרחיק and the vocalisation of the word בן. According to the colophon on P1 recto, the copying was finished on Sunday, 13 Sivan 1335 of the Seleucid Era (= 1024 CE). (Information from CUDL and Allony.)

Colophon of a codex, probably a Bible. Yosef b. Ya'aqov b. Yosef (ha-dayan ha-mumheh) b. Shemaryah (bayt din) b. Menahem buys a muṣḥaf on 16 Marheshvan 1136 (Wednesday 14 October) the day on which the prisoners arrived (from?) Jerba. Cf. 10J15.16. See also MJ II 339(7). Information from Goitein's note card. There is further writing that is difficult to read at the bottom of the page at an angle to the main text.

Account of the compound of the Jerusalemites ca. 1191-93. Personal notes of the panason, in which they recorded rent payments by six tenants of Dar al-maqadisa. Several payments are in dinars and some of them seem to be advance payments. The accounting is written on a double leaf from a notebook, in two different scripts, one of them quite awkward, and the other obviously the work of a skilled writer. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 369 #97)

Court record from Minyat Ghamr regarding the rent for a shop and involving Shelomo the cantor and Abraham son of Al-Marḥūm.

Accounts, probably for wine sent to the castle (burj), with sums of money in silver of good quality and mentioning the names of Yaʿaqov Ṭayyib and Moše Ṭayyib.

Recto: geomantic designs consisting of series of horizontal dashes organised in groups of 4 lines each and laid out in two columns. At the end of the second column there are four lines in Ladino mentioning a Sabbatical year. Verso: jottings, including the name Abram. Information from CUDL.

Beginning of a report to a Fatimid caliph. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Involving a woman. (Or perhaps this is a petition from a woman to an unidentified addressee, opening with blessings for the caliph.) On verso there are five lines of Judaeo-Arabic poetry (refers to love and then "if there is a poet among you, let him prophesy") and Coptic numerals. (Information in part from CUDL)

Leaves from a 17th-century booklet of popular medicine in Ladino. Information from CUDL.

Recto: Petition, probably. In Arabic script. 8 lines from the middle of the document, wide space between the lines. Written on a long, narrow sheet. The sender asks for a favor from the graces of the addressee ('al-makārim al-mawlawiyya) in eloquent language. Needs further examination. On verso there is a letter of condolence in Hebrew.

Verso: Letter of condolence in partially rhymed Hebrew. Mentions a Shelomo. Full of interesting phrases ("he lay for many days, and on that day he rode a cloud..."). Someone has tweaked the terms of relationship and pronouns, e.g., writing "my son" above "my father" or replacing "groom" with "elder"—probably tailoring the template for different contexts of bereavement. On recto there is an Arabic document (see separate record).