Geniza Lab

Legal document. Fragmentary (bottom part). Mentions someone agreeing to receive merchandise, and a power of attorney. Signed by Mevorakh b. Seʿadya, but presumably not the famous one, because the handwriting and spelling are very poor.

Letter from Avraham, son of the Gaon, to a business partner in Fustat.

Fatimid-era petition. From Muʿammar [...] al-Tūnisī. In Arabic script. He is in trouble on account of the capitation tax and says he does not have enough money to buy food and that he wishes to return home to his frail mother. Begins "uʿlimu/uʿallimu," perhaps a clue of lower status or earlier period.

Business letter from Sulaymān b. Shaʾūl to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Mūsā b. Sughmār. In Arabic script, with the address in Judaeo-Arabic (indicating that the bearer of the letter was a Jew). The sender expresses anguish over news from the Maghrib, including the death of colleagues and the loss of merchandise in ships. He is also dismayed at the news that 'the young man, the kātib, Ibn al-Maghribī," has separated from the addressee; Sulaymān urges him to help this young man however he can. (Information from Aodeh.)

Medical. List of simples (materia medica), including unripe grapes, pomegranate, zinc, pearls, sandalwood, saffron and camphor (FGP) Judeo Arabic

Legal document. Partnership agreement (copy). Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: 1112 CE (based on T-S Misc.28.263). Goitein records that this fragment is from a copy of the document from which T-S Misc.28.263, also in this documentary corpus, emerged. Both fragments refer to the renewal of a trading partnership worth 3,750 dinars for which profits are divided equally, and the partners are granted an allowance for their maintenance. The parties are Berakhot b. Yaʿaqov; Abū l-Wafāʾ Tamīm b. Ḥalfon. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 260.)

Fiscal account? A once-gigantic piece of paper, missing top and bottom and some of left side but still 34cm wide. Fa-qāla, fa-qālat, etc, yā Abū l-Malik. Verso: accounts in three columns, including an amount of money in dinars.

Letter from Mūsā, in Damīra, to Abū l-Faraj al-[...]. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender, an absent husband, reprimands his wifeʼs family for accusing him publicly of neglecting her (from Oded Zinger's PhD, p. 261). To refute their claim, he says that he gave her 12 dinars for the holiday, and took her with him to Damietta. He sends greetings to some members of the family. AA.

Commercial letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to [...] b. Dāʾūd. Dating: 11th century. Damaged and faded. Mentions ships; the government; the sender's distress about something; the departure of Ibrāhīm; Palermo (Siqilliyya) and al-Mahdiyya (7 lines from the bottom). Uncited in the literature. Needs further examination.

Legal document. The welfare official Eli ha-Kohen who was in doubt whether he could arrange the marriage of a proselyte freed woman with a Jewish man, was given a guarantee by the mother of Saʿd al-Mulk that she would take up the matter for him should any difficulty arise. Dated: Sunday, 23 Av 1402 Seleucid, which is August 1091 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 358, 507)

Petition from Abū ʿImrān, probably in Bilbays. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 13th century. The document concerns Abū l-ʿIzz al-Qazzāz and Hibatallāh and a convoluted case involving two mandīls and payments and a power of attorney. Needs examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: perhaps 15th or 16th century. The sender is probably in Istanbul (r10); also mentions Antalya and two other locations in the next line. The letter is long and well-preserved, discussing numerous family and business matters. Commodities (all on verso) include lemon balm (taranjabīl), lapis lazuli (lāzuward), carum (aṭrīlān), dried okra (bāmya nāshifa), something whose price is "like that of pearl from Bā[...]," musk, ambergris. Needs further examination.

Letter from ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣadaqa, in Alexandria, to Barhūn and Nissim b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Taherti, in al-Mahdiyya. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Summer 1050 CE. Some of the matters discussed are identical with those in T-S 12.545, suggesting that the two letters were written around the same time. ʿAyyāsh reports on goods that he bought for the brothers; mentions "the calamity that happened to the Tustaris," probably referring to the murder of Abū Saʿd Avraham and Abū Naṣr Ḥesed, the sons of Sahl. ʿAyyāsh requests goods from Sousse, Spain, and Sicily. He discusses the bringing the bones of a deceased person from the Maghrib for burial in Jerusalem; the deceased person in question may be the brothers' father, Yiṣḥaq b. Barhūn ha-Taherti. (Information from Gil.)

Probably a draft of a deed of sale. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe? The document contains a very long description of a house. The buyer is a woman; the names Asad/Arye and Shumʿān/Shimʿon appear in her identification. Needs examination.

Legal document. Probably a partnership agreement. Dating: Shortly before Ṭevet 1422 Seleucid, which is 1110/11 CE. The capital may be 50 dinars. Maḥfūẓ and Abū l-Munā comprise one party; Yaʿaqov and Yosef comprise the other party. Mentions several locations including Cairo, Shubrā Damsīs, al-Khandaq(?), and al-Minya. The partnership may have to do with dyeing (8 lines from the bottom).

List in the hand of the scribe of App. B 25, part 2, and App. B 33, part 1. Distribution of 23 jukhaniyyas to thirteen women, seven men, and three persons defined as 'acquaintance of' or 'the house of.' The names of three (e.g., the laborer employed by the beadle and parnas Salim) are crossed out and nine bear the sign resembling an Arabic final m (probably tasallam 'received') as in App. B 25 and 33, with which our fragment might once have formed one document. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 456, App. B 64 [dated 1100-1150])

Letter from Binyām to Abū Saʿīd b. Abū Naṣr. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. (Same sender and addressee as DK 232.2, where Goitein identified the sender as Binyām al-Rashīdī and his location as Alexandria.) The letter contains many details about trade in materia medica. Many are identical with the ones in DK 232.2 (e..g, אסארון, אבר, קטנה). The bottom part of the letter is missing.

Legal document. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli? Dated: 1411 Seleucid, which is 1099/1100 CE. In which someone declares to Abū l-Faḍl Yosef something about 3/4 of a house in Fustat.

Liturgical text (qiddush?) for Passover. Signed: Shelomo b. [...]. Dated: Friday, 7 Nisan 1606 Seleucid, which is 1295 CE.

Fragment of a dispute concerning testimony, probably from a letter, mentioning [Sal]ma b. Mandar, Ishaq b. Khalaf and Rosh Kallah. AA