Geniza Lab

Very damaged and faded fragment of a letter written by Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Halfon.

Minute fragment of an account

Account

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves Abū l-[...] b. Yosef and someone known as Ibn al-Quṣayyir(?) al-Zayyāt. Mentions conflict or distress and Darb al-Kharrāṭīn.

Tax receipt? For [...] al-Yahūdī. Sum: 1/6 dinar. Needs examination.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to one of his brothers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Faded and damaged. Large fragment (right side of recto). Greetings to Sitt Naʿīm.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Reused for Hebrew poetry.

Petition. In Arabic script, in a beautiful chancery hand. Portions of 4 lines are preserved. Includes the raʾy clause (fī hādha l-bābi ʿālī l-raʾyi in shāʾa llāhu). On verso there are liturgical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic followed by a prayer in Hebrew (attributed to al-Zinjārī?).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded. Perhaps a letter of gratitude; the sender is very deferential. On verso there is Hebrew poetry (with several lines crossed out and interlinear corrections).

Recto: Portions of two lines of a grand document in Arabic script, perhaps a decree. In the massive space in between the lines, there is a Hebrew dirge for Rabbenu Barukh. On verso there is more Hebrew text, perhaps blessings for those who donate money (ha-mitnadvim).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. This portion preserves only a long, elaborate introduction and a few words of the body. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Two folios of this 12-folio manuscript of the Book of the Calendar Controversy, about the disagreement between Jewish leaders of Palestine and Babylonia on how to calculate the calendar year in 921/2. This led the Jews of the entire Near East to celebrate Passover and the other festivals, through two years, on different dates. The controversy was major, but it became forgotten until its late 19th-century rediscovery in the Cairo Genizah. The two folios found are T-S NS 194.92, the second, and T-S 8K4, the fifth. Stern supposes that the manuscript is twelve parts and that extant here are the second and fifth parts because of comparison to parallel manuscripts.

Accounts of a grocer. In Arabic script. Recording what Abū l-Manṣūr al-Ḥaver purchased. The goods include eggplant, meat, turnip, leek, carrot, and garlic. Payments range from 1/4 dirham to 2 dirhams (for the meat). The other three pages of the bifolio contain Birkat ha-Mazon for weekdays.

Leaf 1: Passover Haggada. Leaf 2: recto has two lines in Arabic script. Needs examination.

A piyyut is written between the lines of what seems to be an Arabic state document - needs examination.

Official letter, six fragmentary lines in Arabic, recycled by ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen of Jerusalem (d. ca. 1055) for a Piyyuṭ which dates the state document around that time. Needs examination. See also PGP 23556 and 34769.

Unidentified document in Arabic script. Fiscal accounting? Personal letter? Two different documents glued together? Reused by the same Hebrew scribe as T-S NS 111.63 and many other documents. Needs examination. See also PGP 23556

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Fragment (first three lines only). The muqirr is Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Bū Saʿd b. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, a Jewish goldsmith (ṣāʾigh). Reused for Hebrew text on verso.

Hebrew liturgy is written on top of an official Arabic state document, with only few words preserved - needs examination.