Geniza Lab

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment: bottom half only. The sender reminds the addressee to take care of the quicksilver (זאוק/zāwūq) stored in clay vessels. He is worried that the vessels will break, and it is currently valuable in his location and in demand among the Byzantines.

Bifolio with several different sorts of writing; probably mainly business accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Mentions the name Yosef b. Ṣeror b. Naṣrallāh. There is a note addressed to al-Ḥakīm Yaʿaqov, which mentions ʿAmmār. There are instructions in Hebrew involving flour, water, and sulfur.

Deed of sale. In Arabic script. Mūsā b. Yūsuf b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz buys livestock (mentions "two ewes" at the beginning of l. 4) from [...] b. [...] b. Abū l-Ḥasan b. [...] b. Ismāʿīl al-[Yahū]dī (this might be a list of multiple sellers). Needs further examination. On verso there are a few words of (mirror-image?) Hebrew script.

Legal query or responsum. In Judaeo-Arabic. Apparently concerning a brother whose two sisters each own a share of a house, and he swore that he would not enter his sister's house; which portions of the house may he enter?

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to a dignitary (ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad). Conveying gratitude for something and apologizing for burdening the addressee with a favor. Most of the substance is missing. The name Avraham appears in the last line on verso.

Letter addressed to Abū Kathīr Efrayim al-Ḥibr (=Efrayim b. Shemarya), in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Narrating a communal event (or controversy?) involving a procession up a mountain (the Mount of Olives?): “the Rayyis didn’t go up the mountain… going up the mountain… the horns and drums… the qāḍī went up with him… the qāʾid… they prayed a Yoṣer… (then more about liturgy?)… it would be too much to explain… madhhab… copies… I sent… and peace.” Needs further examination.

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Mentions [...] b. Yaʿaqov; Yiṣḥaq ha-Melammed b. Ḥayyim [al-Nafūsī]; Avraham b. Shemʿaya ha-Ḥaver. The next line states that the contract was copied (perhaps this is the copy) verbatim and checked against the original. Possibly the names in the first two lines are the names of the witnesses who signed the original document.

Letter addressed to [Na]tan ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver (=Natan b. Shelomo?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Only pieces of the first few lines and 7 lines in the upper margin are preserved. The upper margin mentions M. Menashshe and M. Yeshuʿa and a poor man named Yūsuf and a dinar.

Opening of a letter from Mūsā b. Isḥāq b. Barhūn to Abu al-Faḍl Sahl b. Ḥasan b. Salāma al-Sukkarī, Fustat. Mentions the purchase of two hides and the delivery or arrival of something in an Andalusi ship. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #701) VMR

Accounts (or grocery list or recipe) in Arabic script. Mentions items such as gum (ṣamgh), salt, and pepper, and their quantities underneath. Reused for Hebrew literary text (including several verses from Leviticus).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. Perhaps a contributors list. Several sephardic and/or Italian names.

Fragment of a letter from Ḥayyim b. Amar Madini, probably from Palermo, to Barhun b. Ishaq al-Tahirti, Qayrawan. Around 1045. Information about civil rebellion in Palermo and details about goods in Sicily: figs, pepper, wheat, and barley. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #648) VMR

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions something or someone hopefully arriving in Rashīd. Unusual handwriting with exaggerated loops, e.g., on ל and צ.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 16th century, as the largest portion concerns the expenses of Moshe לחמית traveling to Jerusalem (taraqqi al-quds); the same man appears in Moss. IV,93, which dates to ~1557 CE. The stations of the journey are listed: Khānka(?), Bilbays, קורן, Ṣāliḥiyya, Qaṭyā, and ʿArīsh (the expenses in these locations are not itemized); then Gaza with ~19 distinct entries; then Ramla with ~45 distinct entries; then גיב, then Jerusalem. The purchases in Gaza include firewood, shīrīn (=sweets?), fodder (ʿalīq), laundry straw, chickens, rice, eggs, coffee. The purchases in Ramla include all the same and more. The tables on verso are clearly written but inscrutable—perhaps this is an accounting shorthand. Merits further examination.

Bifolio in Judaeo-Arabic. Perhaps originally from a ledger of business accounts. Containing detailed records about the flooding of the Nile in 1054 CE and 1055 CE, as well as descriptions of the celebration of the opening of the canal (al-Khalīj) by the caliph Maʿadd Abū Tamīm al-Mustanṣir Billāh, the vizier al-Yāzūrī (called Sayyid al-Wuzarāʾ), and the latter's two sons Khaṭīr al-Mulk and Ṣafiyy al-Mulk. The dates are given mainly according to the Islamic and Coptic calendars, but Rosh Hashana and Sukkot (of the year 4815 AM) are also used as reference points. This document is apparently uncited in the literature. See T-S AS 144.187 for a much later example of a similar account. ASE

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Mercantile letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th century. Quite damaged/faded. Regards to Abū l-Faraj at the bottom.

Bifolio of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. The date (including the year) appears at the top of each page, but is difficult to decipher (perhaps 639 AH?).

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.