Geniza Lab

Horoscopes in the name of Ilyās al-Ḥakīm, including prospects for currying favor with government and the effectiveness of medicines. On reused paper containing vestiges of enormous Arabic script in red ink (most visible on Image 2).

Long magical spell/amulet for Baghīḍa bt. Ḥā'iza, with the purpose of making Mufaḍḍal b. ʿIrāq fall in love with her and marry her without delay.

Letter in difficult Latin script, possibly Portuguese. The address on verso is in Hebrew: to David Ṣarfati, from R. Yiṣḥaq Alpa[...], from צאפט to Fustat.

Legal document. Dated: Ḥeshvan 4813 AM, which is 1052 CE. The witness names may be legible ([...] b. Shemuel and Dāʾūd b. [...]). Probably very little of the document itself is still legible. Partially erased and reused for piyyutim by Joseph b. Abitur. (Information in part from CUDL.)

The beginning of the book of Shemot along with other calligraphic Hebrew jottings.

Legal document. Palestinian ketubba. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Stylized letter in Hebrew to David b. Hezekia the Nasi. Verso: The address and several different blocks of writing in Arabic script.

Letter from Shemuʾel b. Eli gaʾon, in Baghdad, in the hand of Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. ʿEli Rosh ha-Seder of Irbīl, second half of the 11th century. Deals with just judgment. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #81, and from Amir Ashur and Marina Rustow)

Introduction of a letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter from Zekharia b. Gdalia b. Ayash, from Zahrajt, to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy, Alexandria. Around 1063. Regarding deliveries of money, especially one of seven dinars that Habub b. Haban from Safukas sent, and asks to buy spices and perfumes and sell them for him In Alexandria. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #719) VMR

Bifolium from a medical treatise giving recipes for various powders (safūfāt).

Late family/business letter in Hebrew signed by Yehuda Duran, mentioning goods sent from Fustat/Cairo to Venice, and discussing several female family members. The writer asks particularly about Ṣulṭāna bt. Yūsuf Abū l-Khayr.

Letter: draft(s) in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya (11th century), in Fusṭāṭ, probably to the Gaʾon Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Jerusalem. One draft contains a report, in Hebrew, on a joint Karaite-Rabbanite collection made in the capital of Egypt on behalf of the Jews of Jerusalem to assist them with their taxes. Ezra b. Yishmael b. Ezra is mentioned, and the document refers to Yusuf ibn ‘Awkal with his honorific title ‘Rosh Kalla’ (‘head of the assembly’ of students at the biannual scholarly convention in Baghdad). (Marina Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, 196, 278; From a Sacred Source, 309-10; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:472) Another draft explains that, contrary to the malicious and false accusations made against him to the gaʾon by some members of the Jewish community in Fusṭāṭ, he will indeed be sending a generous donation for the Jerusalem academy in response to a fundraising mission by the gaʾon’s son Avraham. Efrayim also mentions that he retains the support of an influential Fatimid official, the Qaraite David ha-Levi b. Yiṣḥaq, who will also be sending a donation. Written on the verso of an Arabic -script letter discussing philosophical theology and mentioning the raʾs al-mathība (see PGPID 33676).

Long Hebrew letter of condolence to Seʿadya ha-Ḥaver upon the death of somebody (his father?). The writer describes the physicial and emotional agony that came upon him when he heard the news, and how the whole congregation cried out and donned black "and the garb of the Ishmaelites" (ולבשו הכל שחורים ויתעטפו בעטיפת ישמעאלים). Some parts of the letter are rhymed, and others are filled with biblical citations.

Opening of a letter in Hebrew to a group of important people, with wide space between the lines. The beginning of the body of the letter in Judaeo-Arabic is also preserved and says, "When we sent to you [copious praises . . . ben] Sasson ha-Dayyan."

One of a pair of letters written by Umm Sitt al-Nās to family members when she had been thrown out of her husband's and mother-in-law's house. The match was identified by Oded Zinger. The other letter is T-S 10J9.13, addressed to Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Sabra, whom Goitein identified as her maternal uncle and as Mevorakh b. Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn Sabra. That letter gives the background of the situation and how Umm Sitt al-Nās had had to leave her own family's location and move in with the husband and mother-in-law. "First, we all moved into one house. Soon my mother-in-law began to work against me, isolating me from everyone and putting enmity against me into the heart of her son. The least she did was that she said to me: 'Go away and become like your notorious mother.'" Umm Sitt al-Nās then probably alludes to her mother (the sister of both the addressee and the mother-in-law) when she writes, "You remember well how everyone reacted to your sister Baqā'." A man—perhaps the writer's husband or perhaps her father-in-law (per Goitein)—then accused Umm Sitt al-Nās of adultery with her cousin (ibn ʿamm). Ultimately she was turned out of the house, "naked and lost." She has been staying with a widow who took her in, and she wishes to travel to her uncle and stay with him, as she has no one else to turn to. The present letter is addressed to her brother Abu ʿUmar Ibn Sabra and does not add a great deal of new information. She requests 20 dirhams (like she requested from her uncle). She begs him for a letter and for news of their younger brother, who also has not written to her. For more, see T-S 10J9.13 and Goitein's translation and discussion of the other letter in Med Soc III:175f.

Literary work in Hebrew and Aramaic citing biblical verses.

Leaf from a medical work attributed to Makārim b. Isḥāq (see tag).

Fragment of a document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

28 pages from a cookbook in Catalan. The hand is 15th-century according to Eleazar Gutwirth. Many recipes for dishes containing meat and fish. Soups and baked goods, too. It is interesting to note that pork is mentioned several times. Information kindly provided by Ilil Baum via a discussion on Facebook, 01/2021.