Geniza Lab

Letter fragment (lower right corner). In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably from Yefet b. Menashshe to Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (it looks like Yefet's handwriting, and he greets Sitt Naʿīm). May also mention someone named Ibn ʿUmayr. There are references to sundry small business transactions.

Letter of a woman, regarding her marital problems. Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138). The join was created by Oded Zinger. Might be connected to T-S NS 226.113.

Legal record in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100–38 CE). Very damaged. Might be details of the execution of a will. Parties include Salāma b. Saʿīd, Dāʾūd, and Hiba. Mentions a sum of 20 (dinars?), "5 for Furayj who is in Malīj and 5 for Saʿīd who is in [...], and the children all release each other, and everything in the house belongs to Dāʾūd."

Legal approval between Yehuda b. Nissim and Abu al-Hasan b. Khulayf al-Iskandrani regarding shipment of silk(?). The fragment is damaged.

Few unidentified letters

Many minute fragments, mostly of legal deeds written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (1100-1138).

Judaeo-Arabic poetry, probably.

A bookseller keeps books, some of them borrowed from others. (Information from Goitein typed text and Goitein's index cards)

Small fragment containing an unidentified text in Judaeo-Arabic. There are some legal-sounding phrases and possibly the beginning of a hijri date, but the format looks more literary.

Draft or notes for a legal document concerning an inheritance. In Judaeo-Arabic. There are also some accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Petition from Ṭāhir b. Isḥāq, a poor man from Alexandria, to the amir Qarāqūsh. In Arabic script. Ṭāhir had rented a shop in Alexandria from a Christian, and confirms that he has paid all the installments of the rent and would like to be released in order to return to his family. Ca. the very end of the 12th century, as this was the time that Qarāqūsh served as regent for the young son of the Fatimid vizier after his father’s death, before he himself field in 1201 CE. On the margins of recto there is a Judaeo-Arabic passage on the uniqueness of God on the fact that he created the earth and the sky, but was not created Himself. On verso there are isolated blocks of text probably copied as a writing exercise, they include liturgical paragraphs and biblical quotations in Hebrew and the continuation of the Judaeo-Arabic text on recto. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

Magical instructions of some kind. In Judaeo-Arabic.

Draft of a letter from Wāfī b. Iṣḥaq b. Eli al-Majānī, 16 July 1059, written at the back of an earlier letter from his father Iṣḥaq b. Eli al-Majānī. Badly preserved. Mentions flax, myrtle and sandalwood and suggests that the recipient opens a shop. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 114.)

Letter from Iṣḥaq b. Eli al-Majānī (al-Mahdiya?) to his son Wāfī (Fustat?), probably spring 1059. Badly preserved. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 114.)

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī al-Ḥay (Tinnīs) to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat), ca. 1062. Mūsā reached Tinnīs by land because he was scared to travel by ship while carrying money. The letter contains a detailed account of wares that he sold or bought, especially pellitory (Anacyclus Pyrethrum) and flax. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 509 and Goitein notes linked below.)

Accounts, probably. In Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. There are also a few lines (at 180 degrees) in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning a funduq. The main text on recto consists of prayers to be recited by pilgrims to the Temple Mount.

Acounts, 3 lines of Arabic text (accounts) on f. 1r. Liturgy: ʿAmida for Ḥanukka. (Information from CUDL)

Recto, left side: Legal document. Probably a draft. In Judaeo-Arabic. There are three different text blocks, all belonging to the same document, oriented at 90 degrees to each other. Dated: Sunday night, 20 Ṭevet 1578 Seleucid, which is 1266/67 CE. The scribe gives his name, but it is difficult to read (Sh[...] b. Elʿazar?). The document seems to be setting the conditions for the marriage of Abū Saʿd b. al-Rayyis and Thiqa bt. Abū l-Riḍā b. al-Tifʾeret. On verso there is Hebrew poetry or piyyuṭ.

Recto, right side: Document in Arabic script. Perhaps a receipt or accounts of some kind (there are discrete sections and Greek/Coptic numerals and a piece of a date). Needs examination.

Morning benedictions for weekday services is written between wide lines of an Arabic official letter (verso)