Geniza Lab

Marital agreement between groom David b. Efrayim ha-parnas and bride Mubaraka bat Farah ha-Kohen, listing early and later additional payments for the ketubba, trousseau items, and stipulations regarding residence of the couple.

Accounts, probably. In Arabic script. Each entry is headed with a day of the week.

Legal formulary, mainly in Judaeo-Arabic.

Three lists of contributors, the first for the lighting (in the synagogue) with wax candles. Mostly in Arabic script. See Goitein's note cards and Med Soc III, 492–93.

Beginning of the book of Exodus, surrounded by jottings in Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew.

On recto rhymed verses, probably from an opening of a letter. On verso verses from the Prophets, in a big, childish hand

Decree. In Arabic script. Only a few words are preserved here (...ʿalā ikhtilāf...). Reused for a dirge by Yosef Ibn Avitor. (Information in part from FGP.)

Recto: Document in Arabic script. Dated, but the date is difficult to read. List of crops (qamḥ, shaʿīr, fūl, others) and quantities. Headed with a paragraph naming Abū ʿAmmār(?) b. ʿAbd al-Ghaniyy(?) b. Ismāʿīl and mentioning the dīwān. Likely state/tax related. On verso there are Hebrew piyyutim. Needs further examination.

Recto: A few words in giant, calligraphic Arabic script: mawlāy al-shaykh al-jalīl. . . . Verso: Rhymed Hebrew maxims about the months of the years, including Tammuz, Sivan, and Av (the last, roughly translated, "in like a lion, out like a lamb").

Note addressed to Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking the addressee to give 10 nuqra dirhams to the bearer, Abū l-Faraj. Dated 13 Rabīʿ al-Awwal, [...]. The remainder of this large fragment is filled with jottings in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment in Hebrew. Very deferential; blesssings to the addressee's sons. On verso there is Hebrew piyyut.

Letter fragment. Introduction in Hebrew, body in Judaeo-Arabic. Little of the content remains. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Marriage document. Small fragment. In Aramaic. Dated: [...]3. Involving [... b.] She'erit ha-Kohen.

A legal query regarding contradiction between two testimonies, sent to Yehuda Hakohen b. Yosef Rosh Haseder (also known as 'ha-Rav'). Qayrawan 11th century. A business dispute between two partners leads one of the parties to write a bill of release in front of two witnesses, approved by the court. The witnesses approved their signatures but didn't mention anything regarding the content of the bill of release. According to Jewish law, if the writer of the bill will bring another testimony that supports his claims, it is void. Sometime later the writer of the bill brought another deed with the testimony of the two former witnesses, and this deed contains a condition that make him void. There are few problematic issues in the deed: 1. The same witnesses testify in both deeds; 2. the dates of both deeds are identical, but in both the court approval is later to the time of testimony. . After a long halakhic discussion the Rav ruled that the bill of release is accepted .

Monograph, Rabbinica; fol. 1: specimen writ of divorce, with a few instructions in Judaeo-Arabic; fol. 2r: unidentified Judaeo-Arabic text, possibly from a preface; fol. 2v: blank (Data from Brody hand list)

Responsa, Documentary; most probably a series of exegetical queries concerning BT Shabbat; also, in Arabic script, a decree concerning payment of taxes. Judaeo-Arabic/Hebrew/Aramaic: probably series of exegetical queries concerning BT Shabbat; Arabic: decree concerning the payment of taxes (data from Brody hand list)

Monetary account. Late

Monetary account. Late

Letter from Abū l-Faḍl to his father Abū l-ʿIzz. In Judaeo-Arabic. He opens with the verse Psalms 16:8 followed by three verses of Judaeo-Arabic poetry expressing his longing. (These verses are discussed in Mohamed A. H. Ahmed, "An Initial Survey of Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah," Al-Masāq (2018).) Either the bottom half of the letter was torn away, or the letter was never finished. On verso there are various jottings, including some accounts in Arabic script.

On recto monetary account, with some of the entries crossed out. On verso a love song