Geniza Lab

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer reports that he is preparing to travel on Friday morning, so he bids farewell to the addressee, Abū l-Ṭāhir Tif'eret ha-Soḥarim ('the glory of the merchants').

Legal declaration in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Involves a story of Abū l-Bayān and Abū l-Baqā' and various sums of money.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. In the lower entry one Yosef al-'Adani is mentioned (l. 7r).

Late letter draft (fragment) in Judaeo-Arabic that is probably 18th or 19th c. The contents of the draft include the common opening phrase that appears in the body of correspondence "בעד מזיד אלסלאם עליכום" (l. 1r). Further down the draft mentions "the Ashkenazim" or "אלאשכנזים". MCD.

Informal note to Abū l-Riḍā, involving someone named Raḍiyy al-Dawla, a copy to be made, and Abū l-Faraj. Verso has the remains of single word in large, calligraphic Arabic script.

Legal document from Jerusalem. In Hebrew. Dating: Iyyar 1483 CE (5243). Scribe; Yom Ṭov b. Yosef Imanuel. Shalom and Yiṣḥaq and a third person declare that they were forced to sign a previous document due to the coercion of the parnasim. This Shalom may be R. Shalom Ashkenazi, who is known to have been active in Jerusalem in 1481 CE. Information from Avraham David's edition (via FGP).

Small fragment in Judaeo-Arabic (recto) and Arabic (verso). Probably a letter.

Small fragment in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic. Probably a letter. The name Eliyyahu appears.

Small fragment in Judaeo-Arabic (recto) and Arabic (verso). Probably a letter.

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic letter addressed (in Arabic) to Abū l-Ḥasan Bishr b. Hilāl al-Baghdādī. The writer refers to his illness ([mā] anā ʿalayhi min al-wajaʿ).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Probably medieval. The last few lines ask the addressee to meet with 'sayyidnā.'

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

30 pages of a notebook of lined paper, filled with names and numbers arranged according to days of the wee. Probably 19th century (this is a guess, not based on any date written in the pages). One of the pages (labeled Leaf 28) has entries for the synagogues Talmud Torah and Rabbi Yishmaʿel.

The leather cover of a booklet. On the inside, there are a few lines of an account in Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document from Baghdad. In Hebrew. Probably 17th century. The date appears to read Iyyar of חתכ, which would be 1668 CE, but this seems an unusual way to write the year. The content has to do with ʿĀṣī b. Maṭīra's commitment to pay a certain total each year to the community. Needs further examination.

Recto: Late account in Hebrew characters. Verso: Jottings in Arabic script.

Late letter in Hebrew (and perhaps another language as well). Fragment. Needs examination.

Late letter in Hebrew. Fragment. Needs examination.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic on a bifolium that is suggestive of the existence of a broader ledger (which is also attested to by this fragment's joins). The owner of the ledger mentions being in Alexandria in the year 1583 CE (Iyyar 5343) in the middle portion of the verso and in the same entry mentions "Ibrāhīm Basha" which may constitute a reference to a state official. At the top of the verso, the scribe also mentions a transaction with one Yiṣḥaq b. Rozel in which silver medin coinage is in use "מיידי". One half of the recto is severely discolored and the other includes a wide array of daily financial entries where "jadid" (or "cedid" in Ott. Turkish) coinage may be in use (l. 3r). MCD.

Bifolium from a notebook. One and a half pages are filled with a poem in Ladino involving a husband and wife and a knight, with refrains which are different from each other but which all end with "yo." The remaining two and a half pages are filled with accounts in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning the year 1581 (Elul 5341) and 1582 CE (Elul 5342). Merits further examination.