Geniza Lab

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: 11th or 12th century. One of the goods mentioned is sandarac resin (sandarūs, here spelled ṣandarūṣ).

Folio from a court notebook. Location: Minyat Zifta. Dated: 1140/41 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. There are 3 betrothal (erusin/qiddushin) documents (all edited in Ashur's dissertation) and a 4th document concerning a debt (unedited). Document #1: Fiancé: Natan(?) b. Avraham ha-Kohen. Fiancée: [...] bt. Yosef ha-Kohen. Early marriage payment: 10 dinars. Delayed marriage payment: 40 dinars. Witnessed by Shabbetay b. Avraham (active 1135–78) and Yeshuʿa b. Shemuel. Document #2: The fiancé Yefet b. Yaʿaqov accepts the condition that he will not make his future wife move away from Minyat Zifta. Witnessed by Yeshuʿa b. Shemuel. Document #3: The fiancé is named Yefet. The document is too faded to discern many of the details. Mentions "laʿb" (playing musical instruments? games? gambling?). Document #4: Concerns the remaining money owed to Tammām b. Nissīm by a certain Abū l-Faraj.

Letter/note from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. He wants to know if the addressee has purchased the book of Psalms yet (al-muṣḥaf al-tehillim). If so, Shelomo will send him some of the money. He also apologizes for his delay in coming in person and paying the rest of the money. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 614) EMS

Letter probably addressed to Moshe Maimonides, based on the importance of the addressee and the blessing for his son Avraham to occupy his office. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender fulfilled the addressee's orders to approach each family of the Jews of Ashqelon, even though this brought him a degree of humiliation (zilzul). (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 614–15). EMS.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 12th or 13th century. Mentions pepper; ʿAbd al-Dāʾim al-Dujājī; Cairo; Alexandria.

Both sides of this folio are filled with miscellaneous jottings mainly in Judaeo-Arabic written in an idiosyncratic (unique?) cipher. Dating: no earlier than mid-13th century, based on handwriting and formularies used, plus the citation of a poem by al-Būṣīrī (dates: 1213–95). There are also two lines from the opening of a petition written in Arabic script, a few scattered words in Arabic script, and a single word(?) written in Hebrew script (כסתבאן). The text is written higgledy piggledy in various directions, and some Hebrew letters are represented by more than one glyph—perhaps the scribe was using these pages to develop the cipher. The contents include: (1) the alphabet written several times, both right to left and left to right; (2) the scribe's signature several times, al-faqīr Isḥāq al-yahūdī; (3) two verses from Qaṣīdat al-Burda by al-Būṣīrī (أمِنْ تذَكُّرِ جيرانٍ بذي سلمِ); (4) some legal jargon (jarā dhālika fī ākhir jumādā al-thāmī(!) sanat ar[...]; (5) and two pornographic sections, one of which ends "all this is lies" (כל הדה כדב). ASE

Bill of divorce (geṭ). Location: Fustat. Dated: Sunday, 7 Ḥeshvan 1445 Seleucid, which is 1133 CE. Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Also signed by Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Husband: Yeshuʿa b. Mevasser. Wife: Diyār bt. Yefet. Verso is blank (i.e., lacking confirmation that she received the geṭ). Goitein's index card notes that the Diyār bt. Yefet in ENA 4011.6 (ca. 1158 CE) is probably a different person.

Recto: Beginning of a letter/petition addressed to a judge named Peraḥya. In Judaeo-Arabic, with three Hebrew biblical citations at the top. The sender has sent this letter with his son Yosef, who is in difficult circumstances—something happened that made it impossible for him to live in Fustat, let alone earn a living there. It seems that Yosef wants to travel to al-Shām now. In the missing continuation, the sender presumably asks Peraḥya to help him. Verso: Beginning of a letter from 'your paternal uncle' to a younger man named Efrayim. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender reports that he came down with a stomachache (tukhma) and nearly died and everyone despaired of his health—but now he is better.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Someone named Natan/Hiba makes a declaration of some kind.

Recto: Legal fragment (lower right corner). Dating: First half of 11th century. Signed by Yefet b. Ṭoviyya ha-Levi. The validation is signed by Efrayim [...] and the cantor Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. Verso: End of a letter, or maybe just a draft of a letter.

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. The hand may be known.

Deed of manumission of a female slave. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Monday, 5 Kislev 14[0]8 Seleucid, which is 1096 CE (if indeed there is no decade digit in the missing lefthand margin). The owner's name is Menashshe b. Yaʿaqov. The slave's name starts with תוכ or תומ. Witnesses: Avraham b. ʿAmram and Aharon b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. On verso there is an attestation that she received it before witnesses (but this attestation is not itself signed). There are also several more lines of unidentified Hebrew script on verso. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 547 and from Goitein's index cards).

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. The hand may be known.

Informal note addressed to a certain Abū ʿAlī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Verso is a draft of recto. The addressee is asked to go to the sender's mother and collect the 1 5/8 dirhams that are with her. He should purchase 3 fat pullets for 1.5 dirhams, lime (laymūn akhḍar) for 1/8, and throw in a bit of saffron. The text is damaged and there are slight discrepancies between recto and verso, so these quantities are not certain. The mother is probably sick and all this is intended medicinally.

Fragment of a ketubba of a second marriage (or at least for a non-virgin bride, based on the ʿiqqar ketubba payment of 12(.5) silver coins). The groom is named Moshe. Part of the dowry list is preserved and a mention of Dār al-Wazīr, likely as a landmark for a property description. EMS

Legal document. In Hebrew. On parchment. Fragment (lower left corner). Dating: Probably 10th or 11th century. One of the parties is named Nissim b. Barukh. No details of the case are preserved except for release formulae. Signed: Maymūn b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen; Shemuel b. Yehuda.

Tadhkira (memorandum, bill of lading) drawn up by Nahray b. Nissim for Yehuda b. Khalfa. Complete and well preserved. Needs to be edited.

Letter in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe. Probably addressed to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, since their other brother Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya is mentioned three lines from the bottom. Fragment (left side of recto). Reports on various business transactions. Mentions a bag (kharīṭa) containing tutty and something else (מנד?); scammony (maḥmūda); kohl; Byzantine wormwood (afsantīn rūmī). Mentions someone named Makārim.

Legal note in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. No date preserved, no signatures. Stating that 'her mature son' Ibrāhīm b. Rabbenu Yiftaḥ ha-Dayyan (ZL) acknowledges that he has no claim on a book possessed by Abū l-Barakāt (perhaps Shelomo himself). Niessen and Shivtiel identify the book as Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. ("The Ḥibbur" typically refers to the Mishneh Torah in this period; see T-S K6.170, ed. Allony, The Jewish Library, #99. Information from Amir Asur.) EMS. ASE.

Business accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Itemized list of expenses, mentioning things such as the city of Rashīd and 'inspectors (mufatishshīn).