Geniza Lab

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script.

Letter addressed to Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century. There are somewhat unusual phrases after the address: בלג פדית and ישע יוחש. Mentions a caravan; the rotting of the names of the wicked; and a gathering of the elders of "the two cities."

Notification by the court referring to a decision made in July 1238 and announcing that the collector of the alms for the poor was empowered to make the necessary arrangements for the payment of a certain elder’s need. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Fol. 1 verso: List of names in two columns, accompanied by various sums. Fol. 2 verso: accounts of the elder Shalom Sujaryyir. Fol. 2 recto: personal account for the week ending on Shabbat naso. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 601) EMS

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script.

Responsum from Shelomo b. Yehuda Gaon, in the hand of his son Avraham, regarding levirate marriage, Palestine.

Letter. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The name Aharon b. Efrayim (b. Shemarya?) appears in the upper margin. Mentions Kanīsat al-Shāmiyyīn.

Letter or petition in Arabic script. Wide space between the lines. Thin vertical strip with portions of 6 lines preserved.

Recto: Letter/petition to Avraham b. Yaʿaqov ha-Ḥazzan. In Judaeo-Arabic. This is either intended for the eyes of Mevorakh or simply mentions previous petitions submitted to Mevorakh. It is a complaint about the excesses of Shela the Judge and his brothers and sons, who have seized power over the community in Alexandria by "violence and lack of government control(?)" and are behaving in ways unbecoming of judges. (See Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, Princeton University Press, 1980, 243.) Join: Oded Zinger. EMS. ASE. Verso: Draft of a court record after the death of the well-known ʿEli ha-Kohen ha-Parnas (b. Ḥayyim/Yaḥyā), confirming that his nephew has received the 20 dinars willed to him. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE

Legal document. Five lines from the middle of the document. Involves a deceased Shela.

The beginning of a letter of recommendation from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides, for a man named Eliyyahu "who has no tongue [in Arabic] or in Hebrew." The name Ṣedaqa ha-Ḥazzan appears on verso. Bibliography: Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 67–104.

Cover page for accounts of the Iraqi synagogue for the year 501 AH (1107/08 CE) submitted to Mevorakh b. Saʿāda al-Isrā'īlī al-Mutaṭabbib Rayyis al-Yahūd (=Mevorakh b. Seʿadya). On the other side there is a literary text with wide space between the lines. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century. The sender asks for news of a trader in Yemen should anyone arrive from there. There are various Muslims (a qāḍī and a faqīh from Bijāya) who are mentioned. A portion of a name is preserved on verso: Yosef Kohen.

Short note to Muwaffaq, accompanied by quantities of “hindi” and “lādan” (labdanum), instructing the addressee to sell them. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Court record mentioning Yehuda ha-zaqen, Ḥalfon ha-zaqen, Avraham ha-zaqen, Meshullam, and Abu Yaqub. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 602) EMS

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Account of the qodesh, ca. 1120. Revenue from different people is listed, mostly without specifications. The sums seem to represent money of the qodesh deposited with different parnasim. Sums of rent from the compound of al-Masasa, apparently "the compound of the Jerusalemites," are explicitly mentioned, and also from "the compound of the orphan girl," mentioned in T-S NS J292 verso. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 242 #43)

Petition to Avraham al-Nafis from Bu al-Faraj. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 602) EMS

Letter fragment. Mentions the brother of the Rayyis Abu l-Najm, Ibn Munajja, Zayn al-Din b. al-Sawwaf. In the margin, "abstain from soft bread and water." Handwriting resembles T-S Ar.54.66, but not a match. See Goitein's index card.