Geniza Lab

Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions commodities such as garments and oil.

Letter from Yedutun ha-Levi to his brother Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Identification based on handwriting and the mention of "your brother Abū Isḥāq." In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragmentary (left half of recto). The sender reports that he conveyed some information to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd. Then: "... he will take it, and I will hopefully be with him... on a day when he is in town... the dīwān... [and we do not know] if he has arrived in Fustat or Cairo... he did not do it. And your brother Abū Isḥāq... they did not say much about you... and you will hear everything that the people said... with the Rayyis, and he did not do it...the congregation... [and do not cut] off your news from me." On verso there are a couple words in Hebrew script. ASE.

Letter from an unnamed woman, in al-Mahdiyya, to her brother, probably in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is concerned with family matters. She insistently urges her brother to come home. E.g, "Do not think, O brother, that the longer you stay in that land, your money will increase and your livelihood will multiply. O brother, the profit in you being well is [greater?]... than you being in a foreign land... and your money will not increase as much as you think." She alludes to the loneliness of their mother, especially after their brother Yosef married and moved to al-Jibāl (the mountain region of Tunisia), where he now has two boys (possibly twins), and after another brother, Mevasser, got married in Palermo earlier that year to the daughter of their relative Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Mazmīzī. She sends greetings (twice) from her husband and her children Zikrī, Farrāḥ, Barakāt, and Umm al-Yaman. She reports that she has taken Zikrī out of school (the kuttāb), and he is now working as a dyer. Their brother Yosef recently came to visit her in al-Mahdiyya, and he is doing well. Abū l-Muʿammār their brother-in-law sends his regards; he recently traveled to Sicily without bringing any goods with him. Join: Oded Zinger. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) ASE

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Headed by ישועת יי כהרף עין (a non-biblical phrase) and לקי = לישועתך קויתי ייי. Addressed to 'the boy' Sulaymān b. Yehuda. None of the substance of the letter is preserved.

Legal document. Fragmentary (left side). May be a contract of debt for 140 dirhams. Mentions a house, Sitt al-Nās (possibly the daughter of Abū Isḥāq), and her husband.

Legal document. Tiny fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Someone will not require an oath from somebody else.

An order from Abū Zikrī Kohen. Khalīl is to give the bearer 1 raṭl of linseed oil (zayt ḥār). Cf. T-S NS 31.11.

Most of the fragment seems to consist of Hebrew literary text, but there are also two lists of names (some of them unusual): ʿEzra, ʿAbīd, Isḥāq, Dāʾūd, Zaqzūq, Saʿid, Sulaymān, Manṣūr, Ḥalīma, Huwayd, Salāma, etc. Dating: Looks lateish, probably no earlier than 13th century.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document. Perhaps an inventory of an estate. Refers to witnesses going to somebody's house, and lists numerous valuable items. Mentions Barakāt al-Katnānī (? אלכתנאני).

Letter from a man, probably in al-Maḥalla, to a friend or family member, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. He asks if a certain commodity sold in Fustat. The sender greets his father and mother; his brother ʿImrān and his family; Sitt al-Bayt; the wife of his paternal uncle; the addressee and his family; and Aharon. They must not tell the sender's father that he might be traveling to Alexandria, since that would make him worry. The addressee is to convey a complaint to the "[R]aʾīs" about a group of misers (qawm shiḥāḥ) who can barely be made to pay. The sender complains that the money he can make in al-Maḥalla does not even suffice to hire a riding animal. He is not sure if he should travel next to Alexandria or to Sammanūd and Damīra. ASE

Betrothal (erusin) contract. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Listed in Amir Ashur's dissertation, p. 355.

Bifolio from an account ledger in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly accounts of a grocer, or grocery lists and other notes of a customer. Dated: There are entries for most of the days in the range Thursday, 14 Ramaḍān through Thursday, 28 Ramaḍān 433 AH = 7–21 May 1042 CE. Numerous foods are listed, e.g., eggplant, green almond, onion, mulūkhiyya, starch, cucumber (faqqūs), eggs, apple, herbs (baql), meat, 10 pounds of offal (buṭūn), "oiled pegs" (? awtād madhūna), and something called צֿעפי or קטוע אלצֿעפי. There are also some additional notes, including a boxed note on Friday the 15th which mentions going to the bathhouse; that the faqīh will spend something; and that "he said, until I write you a ruqʿa after the sabbath." On Sunday the 17th: "because Barakāt has not slaughtered."

Book list. In Judaeo-Arabic. The entries include: al-Uṣūl; the Maqāmāt, both in Arabic and "Hebrew" (this could mean either Hebrew or Judaeo-Arabic); a book of midrash; a book of aqāwīl.

Tiny fragment of a legal document. Looks like the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Phrases include: "...for food... and two dinars and dirhams... with them for her mother [...]..."

Cheque signed by Abū Zikrī Kohen (to be added to the list of checks in India Book 5). Khalīl is to give the bearer 3 ounces of soap. AA

Responsum? It discusses ritual purity, but the layout looks like a letter. Needs examination.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals. Listing mainly materia medica. The first column is the name of the good; the second column is the weight; the third column is apparently the price.

Fragment of a letter from Ṭoviyya b. ʿEli ha-Kohen to his cousin and/or brother-in-law the judge Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Mentions the upcoming holiday of Shavuʿot; the Gaon; Abū l-Faḍl b. ʿUmayr. Very little else is preserved. ASE

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew numerals. Dating: Late, probably 16th century. Mentions Yehuda קאשטורו, perhaps a variant of the surname Castro.