Geniza Lab

Contains Piyyut, calendar calculations and some Arabic text- needs examination.

Accounts in Arabic script, probably. Reused for the binding of a diwan of Hebrew poetry, including at least one poem by Yehuda ha-Levi.

A muwashshah by Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, ed. Schirmann.

Recto, right column: petition by Muslim b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār to a Fatimid judge regarding an endowment consisting of some shops that Muslim granted to his wife Khulla bt. Fahd. Since she did not use the endowment, nor appoint an agent, and she is now dead, the petitioner is asking for a ruling from the judge regarding the endowment. Recto, left column: edict ratifying the validity of the document. Dating: Ca. 11th-12th century. On recto there are Hebrew piyyuṭim. separated with גירה. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Legal document in Arabic script. The year may be legible in the top (damaged) line. Needs examination.

Document in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Small fragment. On verso there is Judaeo-Arabic poetry retelling the story of Yosef.

Letter fragment in Arabic script. Reused for Hebrew liturgical text. Needs examination

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (bottom half only). The sender is planning to travel to al-Shām the next day and he asks for money to cover the expenses of travel. It pains him to have to ask, because he has expended 200 dinars since coming to Egypt, and he has never asked for money from the addressee before this.

Megillat Esther with scattered Arabic text in the margins, possibly just jottings.

Calendar for years 4756–4757 of the Era of Creation (= 995-996 to 996-997 CE) and 4760-4761 of the Era of Creation (= 999-1000 to 1000-1001 CE). The calendar includes information on the length of the variable months and intercalation, on moladot of all months, on days of the week of beginnings of months, festivals and fasts, and on the time of tequfot. The calendar also mentions that the tequfa of Nisan 4761 of the Era of Creation (= 1000-1001 CE) is the beginning of a new 28-year cycle of tequfot. (CUDL)

Letter 2, of which only one folio is preserved, is a pro-Babylonian response to a Palestinian polemic on the calendar of 921/2 and on the Four Gates. The folio begins with the end of the refutation of the Palestinians’ second argument. The Palestinians were arguing against the Four Gates, with a rather spurious claim that the Four Gates are incomplete because they only account for four days of the week (the days on which the New Year is allowed to fall). This letter responds that in the Four Gates, every period of time ends where the next one begins, so that the full week is covered from end to end; moreover, some days of the week are mentioned more than once in the Four Gates (fol.4r:1-5). The third argument concerns the rule of 641-642 parts. Our author misinterprets the rule as applying equally to Nisan and to Tishri, which enables him to refute it easily (fol.4r:5-14). After this begins a misplaced text, which belongs before the beginning of this folio. Here the author finishes his refutation of the first argument, and refers to the distortion to the Four Gates through the addition of 641 parts to all the limits (fol.4r:14-16). After begins the second argument (fol.4r:16 – 4v:19). After the end of the misplaced text, the text resumes with the third argument (fol.4v:19-21).

Recto: calendrical work explaining the principles of calendar reckoning. Verso: petition in Arabic. The remains of three lines of the calendrical work copied on recto are found on verso, written between the lines of the Arabic petition. (Information from CUDL)

Calendrical calculations, mentioning dates of the creation of the world, and of the creation of Adam. The beginning of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic is found in the margins of the verso, copied in a different hand and written inverted in relation to the main text. The letter mentions Abū l-Faraj b. Abū ʿImrān(?) Sulaymān b. Abū Manṣūr. Verso also contains pen trials in Hebrew and Arabic characters. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: calendrical work in Judaeo-Arabic explaining the rules of calendar reckoning. Verso: letter in Judaeo-Arabic with introductory rhymed praises in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: calendrical text discussing the months of Marḥešvan and Kislev. Verso: jottings.

Maimonides’ Mishne Tora, Qiddush ha-Ḥodesh 10:5. (Information from CUDL)

A brief narrative of the calendar controversy of 921/2 appears within a treatise or manual in Judaeo-Arabic on the Jewish calendar, which was composed and written only a few decades after the controversy. The author is unknown, but appears to be an outsider and might even have been non-Jewish. One bi-folio of this manual has been preserved, T-S NS 98.47. The purpose of this manual is to provide essential guidance on how the rabbinic calendar is constructed. The calendrical data in the manual relate to ‘cycle 249’, a 19-year period beginning in 954/5CE.

Calendrical or astrological work mentioning the months of January (יונאריס) and February (פבראריס) and the calends (קלנדס). Information from FGP.

Calendrical information for the 19-year cycle 259 (beginning in 1142 CE) and 261 (beginning in 1180 CE). Jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script. Jottings in Arabic include a date copied several times, 1419 (= 1096-7 CE) or 1417 (1094-5 CE). (Information from CUDL)