Geniza Lab

Genealogical list written in childish letters. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Receipt. In Judaeo-Arabic. A teacher, Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū l-Riḍā al-ʿAṭṭār confirms that he has received 12 dirhams for teaching 3 children for the duration of the months Av and Elul. The pupils are the son of Hilāl the water carrier (al-saqqāʾ), the son of the daughter of Khalaf the rice miller (daqqāq al-ruzz), and the son of the daughter of Miska. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 559 and from Goitein's index cards.) On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

On recto a fragment letter from [...] Fasi the cantor b. Shelomo the cantor to Efraim b. Shemaria. On verso fragment from a letter written by Efraim b. Shemaria, probably connected to recto.

Literary text. In Hebrew. Identified as a work of Isaac Israeli by Adiel Breuer (FGP).

Letter in Arabic script. Very neat hand. Approximately 5 lines are preserved, consisting almost entirely of conventional greetings. On verso there is a draft of a letter to some dignitary in Hebrew.

Business letter in the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen Sijilmāsī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions people such as Wafiyy al-Dawla, Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Farrāsh; Abū l-Maʿālī; the addressee's brother; and Abū l-Qāsim b. Munqidh. Mentions "the canal" (al-khalīj) and al-Buḥayra. (Information in part from Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter from a man, probably in Damietta, to his mother, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. To be sent to the Muṣāṣa neighborhood, to the shop of [...] al-[...] al-Yahūdī. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century. The sender reports that he has opened a shop with "the physician" (al-ḥakīm), where they will work together for a period of 1 year, from Sukkot to Sukkot. There seems to be a dispute between the physician and an in-law of the sender (יקום יצארב הו ויה ויקול לה איש לך פי דא). The sender makes inquiries about a fancy robe (khilʿa) and big turban (biqyār) and asks his mother to go to the judge (al-Dayyān) and have him send a letter to the physician in Damietta, to be read to the heads of the community. There is also some issue involving a silk girdle (zunnār ḥarīr) and an oath. Regards to the mother's entire family. ASE

Business letter. Fragment (lower part of recto). In Judaeo-Arabic. The scribe has a distinctive shorthand for Allāh (antepenultimate word of last line of recto & penultimate word of second line of verso). Dating: 12th century. The sender is a trader in spices (e.g., nard (sunbul) and galangal (khawlanjān)) and garments (little turbans (ʿumayma)). He reports on the prices of goods in his location and tells the addressee not to come, alluding to the danger of the road. He has enclosed another pair of letters to be forwarded to Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān b. Abū Zikrī (Yehuda Kohen).

Letter describing two meetings with physicians. At least part of the letter is addressed to the sender's mother. The first meeting was a visit to Maimonides, who discussed medical topics with the writer, who intends to being a course of study in medicine as soon he sorts out an issue with his brother and maternal aunt. The second was with another physician who visited the writer, checked his pulse, examined a flask of his urine, and prescribed barley water (kashk shaʿīr). Mention is made of a trip to Alexandria. The fragment mentions others and their wealth and very large debts: Abū Manṣūr, Abū l-Maḥāsin, Rīḍā al-Dawla, Ibn Hillel. It also mentions several distinguished physicians apart from Maimonides. (Information in part from CUDL)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Fragmentary (top part and bottom part are missing). Concerning a house. Needs examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with some Hebrew. Dating: Probably not long after 1470 CE, and certainly no later than 1570 CE; in the course of reprimanding the addressee(s) for stirring up baseless hatred and communal strife, the sender notes that the first temple lay in ruins for only 70 years on account of idol worship, fornication, and murder, while the second temple has lain in ruins for "1,400 years and change" on account of baseless hatred (sinʾat ḥinam). Mentions Yaʿaqov ha-Turgeman ha-Soḥer.

Partnership/investment agreement. Location: Fustat. Dated: 13[.]4, probably 1384 Seleucid, which would be 1072/73 CE. (1334 and 1394 Seleucid are also technically possible; the decade word is very faded.) In which Avraham b. [...] acknowledges receipt of 70 dinars from a woman named Mulūk [...] bt. Yiṣḥaq. Profits and losses will be split 50/50. Avraham is connected to the mint (Dār al-Ḍarb), as that is listed as one of the places where the money could potentially be stolen.

Letter from ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣadaqa, in Būṣīr, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1045 CE. ʿAyyāsh is about to finish the phase of buying linen in the Delta region. The letter contains details about the type of linen he bought and complains about the difficulties he had. Verso: Account by ʿAyyāsh for business with his partners. Also mentions a Christian person named Yahnes (Yohanan). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #475) VMR

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 13th or 14th century, but this is a guess. Mentions numerous amirs (including Shams al-Dīn, Saʿd al-Dīn, and Fakhr al-Dīn), qāḍīs, a wālī, and a nāẓir. It seems to involve a matter of rural produce, possibly tax farming, and legal claims. Someone threatens to expose the writer and the wālī, and he retorts, “Even if you went down and the angels (peace be upon them) went down with you, you couldn’t prove a thing against us.” Join: Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Fragment of a writ agency, written in Tyre, 1012.

List of names accompanied by sums of money and/or quantities of wheat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Presumably a contributions list, as it begins with Sayyidnā and 3/4 dinar. Other names include: Hiba al-Mūrid; Abū l-Riḍā b. Hilāl; the widow of al-Najīb; Abū l-Faraj al-Tājir; Ibn Ghulayb; his brother-in-law Abū Zikrī al-Ṭabīb; al-Kohen al-Siqillī; Abū ʿAlī al-Bilbaysī b. al-Bustānī; Ibn al-Muṭrib Ibn Nufayʿ; al-kātib b. al-shammāʿ; Ibn al-Nāqid; Ṭayyib b. al-Sarjās(?); ʿEli al-Parnas b. Abū Saʿd; Abū l-Faraj b. Ḥātim b. ʿAllān; Abū l-Faraj al-Ghuzūlī; Ṭayyib al-Bazzāz; Hiba al-Simsār b. Kallām.

Letter in Arabic script. Fragmentary (right side of recto). Probably commercial in nature. The sender's name looks like [...] b. Ibrāhīm b. al-Faraj. Reused for Hebrew literary text.

Popular literature or midrash in Judaeo-Arabic. Quoting Mishnah Sotah 3:4; BT Sotah 22b. (Information from Shivtiel/Niessen Catalog.)

Letter in Arabic script. Probably commercial. Needs examination. Reused on verso for Megillat Esther-related text in Hebrew.

Rabbinica; account of a legal dispute; verso: blank. (FGP)