Geniza Lab

List of names of poor persons, without numbers. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 456)

NB: This is not the correct shelfmark. Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. "Obtained [i.e., sums cashed from tenants] during the [Muslim] month Dhū l-Qaʿda corresponding to Nisan 1554 [Seleucid; both months began on March 24, 1243]." Only thirteen names preserved, ten of which are identical with A 95, dated 1247 CE. The only sum preserved (5, in Coptic) is also identical with that paid by the relevant tenant four years later. (Information from Med Soc II, App. A, #154.)

Notes on communal expenditures, with a summation of first five lines: 82.5 dirhams, besides the capitation tax. Also some names of notables: al-Samawʾal, al-Nafīs, probably expected to pay the alms for women and disabled persons. Mentions the names Ibn al-Shāʿir and אלרעשוש. (Information from Goitein's index card.) See Med Soc II, Appendix B, sec. 88.

Recto: fragment from a Karaite ketubba for Ghāliyya bt. Yosef b. Abraham and Thābit b. Yaʿaqov. The bride’s father acts as her agent. Dating: ca. 11th century. Verso: unidentified text. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's note card.

Recto: fragment from a Karaite ketubba for Ḡāliyya bat Joseph b. Abraham and Ṯābit b. Jacob. The bride’s father acts as her agent. Ca. 11th century. Verso: unidentified text. (Information from CUDL)

Right upper corner of lucidly written list of contributors, the first thirteen each donating 2 dirhams. All names appear in abbreviated form. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 491)

Legal document. Fragment (lower right corner). Dated: [..]99 AM, most likely 4799 AM (=1038/39 CE) or 4899 AM (=1138/39 CE). The document mentions Elʿazar ha-Zaqen and was signed by Yefet b. Yakhin ha-Levi, [...] b. Shabbat, and Mevasser b. Yeḥezqel (according to the qiyyum/validation). Unclear if any details of the case are preserved.

Legal document. Dated: 1488 Seleucid, which is 1176/77 CE. Mentions Berakhot ha-Ḥazzan, Yefet, and Yosef ha-Melammed. Refers to money changing hands. Some signatures are here, but they are very damaged. More information could probably be extracted with some effort.

Judaeo-Arabic translation of Isaiah 17:9–12. (Information from Shivtiel/Niessen catalogue.)

Legal document in Arabic script. Involving Ibrāhīm b. Sulaymān al-Yahūdī. Dated: 25(?) Jumādā II 6[..] AH. The rest of the date should be legible; the words are strangely elongated. Perhaps 684? There are additional pen trials/jottings in Arabic script, and two doodles of candelabras. Needs further examination.

Letter from a certain Aharon to Eliyyahu the Judge about a lack of success of a collection made for himself. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Fragment (right part only). Sitt al-Kull (named 2 lines from the bottom) makes a declaration that involves the will of the widow of Pinḥas ha-Zaqen (perhaps her sister–see 12 lines from the bottom). Mentions "my sister's son Abū ʿAlī"; sums of 58 dinars, 14 dinars, and 29 dinars; and two female slaves that she left behind (or just daughters? jāriyatayn). The margins and verso have jottings in Arabic script and poetry in Hebrew. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Survey of households, recipients of alms. Written on a leaf, 8 by 6 inches, folded so as to form four pages, each originally containing data about 33-34 families, a total of about 135, of which about 110 are preserved, many defective. The list is important inasmuch as it mentions the number of persons in each household. It was no doubt prepared in order to form the basis for weekly distribution of bread to the needy and to community officials. The names of the assistant judge Jephthah, the beadle Tahir, and the cantor Abu Sahl put the list at the beginning of the thirteenth century, preferably after T-S NS J.98, where Tahir receives 14 loaves, indicating that he still had a large household, whereas here only one child lives with him, and a son of his is listed as a separate family. The average size of a family of relief recipients is 2.4. For a realistic appreciation of this breakdown one should keep in mind that most of the persons listed must have been elderly people who either no longer had a family or whose older children (from the age of ten) were seeking their livelihood out of their homes. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 460, App. B 74 [dated 1200-1240])

Letter from Avraham the son of the Gaon to Sahlān b. Avraham. (Identifications by Gil; whereas Goitein says that it is written in the "unmistakable hand" of the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda.) Mainly in Arabic script, with some Hebrew mixed in. Dating: ca. 1045 CE. The sender mainly details the honors and appointments that were given out during the month of Tishrei. He refers to the "Av Bet Din" and his brother "ha-Shelishi," who are probably (Gil says "certainly") Yosef and Eliyyahu, the two sons of Shelomo Gaon (hence the estimated date). On verso there is a draft of a piyyuṭ in the handwriting of Sahlān b. Avraham (hence the identification of the addressee). (Information from Gil.) NB: Goitein published this fragment in "New sources on the Palestinian Gaonate," Baron Jubilee Volume (1974), but at the time it was called "T-S NS 320.16." Perhaps the confusion arose because Goitein understood these two fragments to be part of the same document. His index card for this manuscript is also located under that shelfmark. The index card currently attached to this shelfmark must be referring to a different manuscript. It says, "Ṣadaqa b. Moshe ha-Levi buys from Yosef b. Shelomo for 25 dinars Tawfīq (a female slave) whom the latter had originally bought from another Jew for his daughter Sitt al-Ahl."

Unidentified document in Arabic script. Line two of recto contains a ḥamdala. Needs examination.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Mentions people such as Abū l-Qāsim, al-Neʾeman, and Shemuel al-Ṣiqillī. Mentions commodities such as pepper.

Document in the form of a legal query addressed to ha-Dayyan ha-Mufla. Asking about the meter (min ayy al-aʿārīḍ/al-buḥūr) and any metrical deviations (ziḥāf) of a Hebrew poem by a deceased poet which begins מי זאת... (based on Song of Songs 3:6). Probably מִי זֹאת כְּמוֹ שַׁחַר עוֹלָה וְנִשְׁקָפָה by Ibn Gabirol; identification kindly provided by Fred MacDowell. The querier also asks if there is anything on the pattern of "meshuhemet" (משוהמת), a category of words criticized by Moshe Ibn ʿEzra in Kitāb al-Muḥāḍara (see Aurora Ossorio, "Shem Tov Ibn Falaquera: From Logic to Ethics," Comparative Literature Studies 45 no. 2 (2008), 165–81).

Petition submitted to the Fatimid caliph al-Mustanṣir upon his accession in 1036 CE. Requesting that he confirm the appointment of Yosef ha-Kohen, a judge of Alexandria. Goitein writes that the script and style are identical with Halper 354. (Information from Gil, Goitein, and Rustow, Heresy, p. 94 n. 58.) Alternate possibility (from DIMME database): Arabic-script draft of a testimony to be submitted to the government, written by Efrayim b. Shemarya in 1016 CE. On verso there is a legal deed in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya in which two partners release Yeshuʿa b. Seʿadel from all claims.

Legal document. A very thorough release that involves Abū Zikrī al-Kohen. Unclear if any more details of the case are preserved. (NB: There may be Goitein notes somewhere, but they are currently missing.)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Revenue from rent. Dated: Dhū l-Qaʿda [644 AH] = Nisan 1558 Seleucid, which is March/April 1247 CE. Small fragment, recording payments for one month, and containing the names of 13 tenants. (Information in part from Gil, Documents, doc. #141, pp.470f.)