Geniza Lab

Small fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. "What have you done with the fūṭa?... please try to send it to her..."

Small fragment from the top of a deed of acknowledgment (iqrār) made by ʿUthmān b. ʿUmar al-Ṣiqillī (cf. T-S NS 297.58).

Small fragment of a letter in Arabic script. Mentions Khalluf b. Mūsā(?) and silver.

Business letter to Abū l-ʿAlāʾ(?) [...] Ibn Shaʿyā. In Arabic script. Dating: 11th or 12th century. The paper is almost completely preserved, but the text is damaged, faded, and a difficult hand to begin with. Mentions names such as Abū Naṣr and Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā. Needs further examination.

Fragment from a document in Arabic script, probably legal or at least dealing with legal matters. Mentions a house, testimonies, and assertions about what is in the hands of whom.

Small fragment from the bottom of a legal document in Arabic script. Witness signatures partially preserved.

Fragment of a (marriage-related?) legal document in Arabic script. There is a portion of a trousseau list and the name Yaʿqūb b. Bābār. Needs further examination.

Small fragment of a legal document in Arabic script involving [...] b. Hārūn al-Yahūdī (and?) a supplier to the mint ([mū]rid bi-dār al-ḍarb). There are a few words in Judaeo-Arabic in the upper margin.

Liturgical blessings in Arabo-Hebrew. Unlike most other Arabo-Hebrew texts, which are biblical. Needs examination. Join: Alan Elbaum. It reads roughly as follows: יתב]רך חסידי(?) האלהים[ ישתבח מושל עולם בדבו[ . . . ברוך . . . . . . . . ברוך . . . . . . . . . . ------------------------- יתברך טה . . . . . . . . בהיר בשחקים . . . עוללים ויונקים ברוך שמך //אין כמוך . . . . . . עמקים// עושה משפט לעשוקים ---------------------------- יתברך יושב הכרובים ישתבח . . . . . . . . . כבים אין כמוך . . . . . . . . . מים בעבים . . . משביע רעבים . . . . . . ---------------------------- יתברך כונס(?) כנים(??) מהים . . . . . . . . . . הים [אין] כמוך . . . . . . . . ברוך שמך . . . . . . . ןקים ----------------------------- [יתברך] . . . . . קות ישתבח . . . . . אין כמוך סומך . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A few words in Arabic script. Possibly a blessing and a jotting of an address of a letter? It refers to a woman named Sitt al-Naẓar bt. [...] and then "his brother Shela."

Bottom of a legal document in Arabic script. Maybe a deed of sale, as 'al-mushtarī' ('the buyer') is mentioned at the bottom. Mentions [...] b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿAllān. There is an additional piece of parchment stitched onto the bottom (with the original thread still in place) with at least one additional witness statement/signature.

Witness signature from an Arabic-script legal document. The document itself is not preserved.

Fragment from a large legal document in Arabic script. Mentions Abū l-Riḍā b. Hilāl the Jew in the first line. Very damaged. Needs further examination.

Recto: Judaeo-arabic list of materia medica, such as ammonia, camphor and saffron, with quantities in Hebrew numerals. Verso: list in Arabic script, jottings and Coptic numerals. (Information from CUDL)

Letter addressed to Abū ʿImrān, in Fustat. In Arabic script. Reporting that the addressee's son (also named Abū ʿImrān?) arrived with nothing but [...] and a kind of fūṭa garment. They set him up with al-Qazzāz (the silk weaver), but then he ran away and was gone all day. When he came back, the sender took him into his own shop. Then he ran away again, and they chased him, but couldn't catch up with him, and now his whereabouts are unknown. The other details of the letter are still obscure; needs examination. There are a few lines of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals on verso, probably unrelated.

Fiscal account (?) dated 533 AH = 1138/39 CE. Small. Refers to something related to the caliph al-Ḥāfiẓ ("...al-Ḥāfiẓiyya...").

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: the people of the town of al-Shūbays have paid two and a half (dirhams?), under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, the deputy judge Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā b. Bahār and the elder accountant Sadīd al-Dawla Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. Qūrīl. Dated: 22 Jumādā I 403 AH, which is December 1012 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Fiscal account. Needs examination.

Document(s) in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Maybe a lease - mentions money and a period of 3 months. Needs examination.