Geniza Lab

List (calligraphic) of male persons, intended recipients of charity. With one exception ('he paid 1/4 dinar') no amounts are indicated. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, p. 441, App. B 9 [dated 1040-1060])

Letter, possibly a draft, to a certain Sulaymān, inquiring about various business transactions and whether the addressee had taken the two copies of the Halakhot in the writer's possession. Verso is filled with Judaeo-Arabic jottings.

Letter from Meʾir b. Hillel b. Ṣadoq to Netanel b. Ḥalfon. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: second half of the 12th century (this can probably be narrowed). In which Meʾir narrates how 'Zuṭa' (the Gaon Netanel ha-Levi) attempted to force him to accept the post of judge in Alexandria in return for annual payment. The addressee is asked to mediate between the writer and the Gaon Netanel. It seems that the addressee was the Gaon's representative (nāʾib) in Alexandria. (Information from Frenkel; see also Goitein's index card.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Business letter, from Khayyār b. Salmān Raqqāq (the parchment-maker) to [. . . b. Yaʿq]ūb. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th-century, but needs further examination for identification of the people named. T-S NS J38 may be in the same hand.

Letter from an unknown writer, in Damascus, to an unknown addressee, in Fustat. The letter is in Judaeo-Arabic and the address is in Arabic (the names of writer and addressee may be legible with further examination). The purpose of the letter is to remind the addressee of the love between them and to remind him of his promise to come stay in Damascus with the writer. On verso, in addition to the address, there are two medical prescriptions.

Legal document regarding the settlement of the dispute between Zayn al-Dār and her (?) mother Ḥusn (?) bt. Sulaymān. The substance of the dispute was possibly recorded on the bottom part of the document, now missing.

Letter in which Arus b. Yosef mentions accounts of the export of five qintars of wool worth thirty dinars from Alexandria to Almeria in Spain. The trader had to pay six dinars for freight, half in Alexandria and half on arrival in Spain. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp.105, 344, 419)

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1053. A draft that was copied later. Nahray marked the dinars that he used for payment. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #291) VMR

Private accounts written by Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1058. Regarding trades of gems. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #284) VMR

A mother buys her little son the privilege of reading the book of Esther in public, Damira in the Nile Delta, February/March 1244.

Large legal document (drafts?) at least partially in the hand of Meʾir b. Hillel b. Ṣadoq. Dated: Thursday, 1 Tammuz 4940 AM = 26 June 1180 CE. A man named Moshe b. Shelomo who had inherited from his wife 8 out of 24 shares of a house in the neighborhood of Ḥammām al-Akhawayn, which had belonged to his father-in-law Hillel b. Avraham b. Elishaʿ, gives two shares to his mother-in-law Sitt al-Tujjār bt. Yaʿaqov b. Ḥananʾel as a gift and leases the remaining 6 shares to his two sisters-in-law (Sitt al-Kafāʾa and Sitt al-Turaf the wife of Elʿazar b. Nadiv) for a 5-year period ending Iyyar 4945 AM (= 1185 CE) for a total rent of 15 dinars, which sum he renounces to them. In the margin (in another hand), these shares are given to them as a gift. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) Oded Zinger identified that T-S NS J20 and T-S 12.477 are from the same document; Alan Elbaum identified that T-S AS 168.232 bridges the gap and joins the two larger pieces. Merits further examination.

Private accounts written by Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1058. Details several small amounts of money and their sum – 250 dinars. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #285) VMR

Settlement between a husband and his wife, Fustat, 1334.

Business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century, based on the locations (e.g. al-Mahdiyya and Sicily) and people named. Fragment: Right side of recto and right side of verso only. People named include: [...] Makhmūrī, Elḥanan, Abū Ibrahīm b. [...], Shemeul b. Sigla (?) b. Surrī, Khallūf b. al-Sh[...], the writer's brother Yehuda, and the writer's brother-in-law and his son Maṣliāḥ.

Legal document containing the wording of the vow to be made by Bū Isḥāq Ibn Kathīr. Also mentions ʿOvadya b. Aharon and the wife of the baker. Deals with custom duties (maks), mentioning a shop, money changers and 'The Apple House' (Dār al-Tuffāḥ). Money (dirhams and dinars) are weighed and kept with different men. Among many other things, Bū Isḥāq must vow that he reported all of the profits from the sale of a special kind of watermelon (al-Burullusī) and that he embezzled nothing "except what a mosquito (baʿūẓa) can carry." Join: Alan Elbaum. ASE.

Letter from a certain Yūsuf, in an unknown location, to Abū Isḥāq and Abū [Rabī?]ʿ, in Fustat, behind the mosque. The letter is in Judaeo-Arabic and the address in in Arabic. The letter consists entirely of expressions of longing and the "spiritual and physical pains" afflicting Yūsuf ever since the departure of the addressees. He concludes, "Do not rebuke me for writing these letters, for my mind is preoccupied and the messenger was in a hurry." ASE.

List of 20 pledges made in Coptic numerals during 6 weeks [MR Cohen: one week skipped, hence actually encompasses a 7 week period]. Among the donors only 2 persons, father and son, were called haver, and the grandfather, too, had borne that title. Reverse side superscribed 'Received,' noting 16 items, among them '220 through the Nagid' '225 anonymous gift' but only 3 contributions from overleaf. Since 2 persons are listed as living at the Gate of the Breach, Kharq, of (New) Cairo, the list might refer to that city. MR Cohen: in right margin, many entries preceded by a final mem, in a more faded ink, presumably standing for tasallam, paid. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, pp. 496-497, App. C 70.) This document is sometimes erroneously cited as T-S NS J250.

Memorial list.

Legal document, fragment, regarding a drug business in Fustat to last for a period of two years. Dating: After 1188, based on the Selucid date of 15[..], and probably from the years 1188–95, based on the name of Sar Shalom ha-Levi appearing on verso. There are many other fragments in the same handwriting (see Joins Suggestions on FGP). ASE.

Letter from an unknown writer, in an unknown location, to Ibrahīm b. Isḥāq, in Fustat. The letter is in Judaeo-Arabic and the address is in Arabic. Only the beginning of the letter is preserved. The writer received the addressee's letters via Umm Thābit and paid three dinars. Other people mentioned are Ibn Sharjāz (?) and Abū Rāshid. ASE.