Geniza Lab

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description

Liturgical.

Folio 1: Haggada. Folio 2: The book of Numbers, including its conclusion and verse count, followed by a note in Judaeo-Arabic that mentions "the Tāj that is in the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat."

Leaf from a court ledger. At the top of recto: Contract of debt. Abū l-Munajjā b. Abū Manṣūr ha-Kohen owes Abu al-Makārim b. Barakāt al-Khāmī 230 dirhams to be paid in installments of ten dirhams a month. Dated: Tuesday, 20 Shevat 1471 Seleucid, which is January 1160 CE. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Leaf from a court ledger. On recto, written at 90 degrees to the other text blocks: Draft of the deathbed will of Abū l-Ḥasan. Dating: ca. 1160. He gives sums of money to rayyis Abū l-Najm, his son Abū l-Nabaʾ, and to the Nezer. He gives 1/6 of a house in Fustat to his older sister, Sitt al-Ḥasab, the widow of the rayyis Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, and 1/12 to his brother's son. To his younger sister, Sitt al-Riyāsa, he gives two houses in the Zuwayla quarter of New Cairo. He also manumits his two female slaves, Gharaḍ and Kashf (still a minor, so she will remain with Sitt al-Riyāsa until she comes of age, at which time she can decide to stay or to leave). Written by Mevorakh b. Natan. Goitein's index card indicates that Abū l-Ḥasan was the son of Abū l-Faḍl Shela ha-Levi Sar ha-Leviim; another document relating to the same family is Sitt al-Riyāsa's trousseau list, found in Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.25r–26r (PGPID 2725). (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 456.)

Letter on vellum to Ali Abi Sulayman (? this description and transcription belong to a different fragment).

Leaf from a court ledger. On recto: Testimony of compliance with an order issued by the head of the Jews, Netanʾel ha-Levi. Dated: First third of Shevaṭ 1471 Seleucid, which is 1160 CE. To wit: Manṣūr al-Dhabbāḥ, a ritual slaughterer and cantor, was brought before the court and instructed to behave properly, to be nice to people, not to argue with those who tease him in the presence of gentiles, and to follow the usual laws of slaughtering. He promised to obey these instructions. (Information in part from Goitein, Mediterranean Society. II, p. 225.)

Letter from Yom Ṭov and Shelomo Kastiel (? קשתיאל) to family members including a mother. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, perhaps 15th or 16th century. Needs examination

Letter from Rachel b. Avraham Zussman, in Jerusalem, to Yaʿaqov Katz, in Venice. In Yiddish. Dated: 16 Heshvan 5327 AM, which is November 1566 CE. Sent via Rachel's son Moshe in Cairo, who evidently never forwarded it to Venice.

Note in Arabic script. Mentions a maqṭaʿ cloth, but maybe also materia medica such as tamarind. Needs further examination. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Recto: Draft of either a legal document or a text on legal procedure in general, mentioning requiring an opponent to take an oath, and orphans. Verso: Fragment of a document in Arabic script.

A list of at least 42 books of poetry, all called Dīwān or prefaced "min shiʿr [X]." In Arabic script. Poets named include: Ṭarafa, ʿAntara, al-Farazdaq, al-Shammākh, al-Quṭāmī, Abū Nuwās, Ibn al-Rūmī, Kushājim, Ṭāhir al-Ḥaddād. Underneath most entries it says جز واحد (one volume); some, such as the Dīwān of Ibn al-Khāzin al-Kātib, are labeled as two volumes (جزان). (Reading kindly provided by Boris Liebrenz.) (Information from Goitein's index card and Med Soc V, pp. 425, 627 note 51.)

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Mentions "I have a friend named ʿUmar." Verso: Letter in Arabic script in a different hand. Mentions "your friend in Cairo" and regards to various people such as Hājj [...].

Three documents in Arabic script. Tax receipts?

Accounts of Abu Zikri Tabib in the hand of Nahray b. Nissim (Goitein) or Yehuda b. Saadya (Gil). A leaf folded to four pages, of which the last one is blank. All three pages are crossed out. Dated 1065 (Gil). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 901, and Goitein's index cards)

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1065. This account was written as a draft. Mentions the money that Yehuda b. Se’adia owed and payed. Yehuda was the Nagid of the Jews in Egypt. He was a doctor but was also involved in the trading business, especially of pearls. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #297) VMR

Court decision in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Sulayman ha-Kohen al-Naqqad suspected the trustworthiness of al-Rasuy in matters of money, and the latter gave oath to the former. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 341)

Court record of three sessions concerning the same case dealing with two merchants, Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Saadya and Saadya b. Ishaq. Shelomo had sued Saadya for eight dinars, but when Saadya failed to appear for the final hearing, he was informed that if he did not attend the court session the following week, he would have to pay a fine of five dinars. According to the third record he did appear and paid the eight dinars. Written in Fustat. Dated Adar-Iyar 1410/ March-May 1099. The second record is in the hand of Avraham b. Shemaʿya. The first and third were written by Hillel b. Eli. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 110 at n. 31, where he mistakenly cites this as T-S Misc.24.137.1, for which see PGPID 4209; this shelfmark is cited in Med. Soc. II, p. 573 n. 17, but Goitein's summary must refer to a different, still-unidentified shelfmark. We have retained all index cards and both transcriptions under both PGPIDs.)

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Quite faded. Mentions that all slaughtering in Damsīs has been put on hold; asks the addressee to obtain a fatwā in response to some query; mentions Ibn al-Munajjim; mentions an illness.