Geniza Lab

Either legal document(s) or a letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic, in a Sefaradi hand. Refers to firewood, arrangements of labor, and an agreement.

Legal fragment (upper right corner). Dated: Ṭevet 157[.] Seleucid, which corresponds to 1259–68 CE, under the authority of David I Maimonides.

Accounts in Ladino. Resembles T-S AS 153.80.

Legal document, small fragment. In Hebrew. Written on parchment, with strings still attached. Location: Qiryat Ono. Dating: Probably no later than early 11th century. Published by Mordechai Akiva Friedman in 1982. AA

Letter from a man to his 'brother'. In Judaeo-Arabic, rudimentary script and spelling. He informs him that he has "fallen" into the ḍamān (tax farm) of Minyat Badr (near Tinnīs) with Abū Saʿd and that he cannot leave, otherwise he would go up (presuambly to Fustat/Cairo) in person. He has sent some money for purchases and sends regards to various people. ASE.

Court record wherein it is stipulated that a husband who travels to the Rif is required to stay home for two weeks and is not permitted to absent himself for more than a month, during which he has to pay his wife her expenses every week. If he fails to do so, he has to deliver to her the final marriage gift immediately and in full (that is, divorce her). She promises to fulfill her duties in order to avoid divorce. The right side of the document is broken off and it is impossible to determine the extent of the document lost. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 190)

Letter from Ṭahor b. Avraham to Ḥananel b. Shemuel the judge (and father-in-law of Avraham Maimonides). In Judaeo-Arabic. See his other letters T-S 8J26.8 and T-S 8J40.9.

Court record. A husband is approving in the Jewish court a gift he gave to his wife in a Muslim court. Written by Avarham b. Nathan Av (Date: 1098-1114).

Strong censure from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides that the addressee had left a guest recommended by him without food on Friday and Shabbat and, in addition, the addressee's son had insulted him. He summons both father and son to his court, urgently. Infromation from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from Barakāt to Samaw'al. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very deferential. Little of the substance after the introduction remains. The letter has been cut into the shape of a circle.

Small piece of the decorated rim of a document, perhaps a ketubba. "The happy season" and fleurs-de-lis.

Literary, probably. Mostly in Hebrew but with many words that are not Hebrew.

Amulet with tehillim.

Legal fragment dated 1272/73 CE. Possibly drawn up in [Benha] al-ʿAsal.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

A list of phrases in Hebrew with their initials in the lefthand column.

Letter of petition from a man to a potential benefactor: 'I hereby inform you that I have been in good health, "concealed" among the people (mastūr bayn al-nās). Then when my hand became paralyzed (infalajat), I was left without a means of making a livin[g].' When capitation tax payment came he had to go into hiding in his house, and so he asks for assistance." Cohen, Poverty and Charity, 42-43. See also Goitein's note card. The writer has been hiding in the house for 55 days. Only Abu l-Fakhr the son of the judge and Ibn [...] al-Amshati have come to his aid, each one giving him 5 dirhems. He bribed the capitation tax collectors with 5 dirhems and already spent the other 5. He needs food. ASE.

Liturgy.

Letter fragment to a distinguished person (yeḥid ha-dor), perhaps the Nagid. In Hebrew.