Geniza Lab

List of names, including Milāḥ bt. Sitt Aʿdāhā, Abū l-Faraj b. Taqiyya(?) and Sitthum bt. Sitt al-Ahl.

Document in Arabic script. One line is preserved and some letters of a second. There are two fragments under this shelfmark, unclear if they belong together.

Bill of divorce. The date, location, and names of the husband and wife are not preserved. Signed: Hillel ha-Ḥazzan b. ʿEli and ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Or possibly a legal testimony. Mentions an argument and something that happened 'in the middle of the house' and the synagogue and Friday night.

Legal fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Very faded. Mainly foods: ṭaḥīna, leek (karrāth/kurrāth), carrot (jazar), onion (baṣal), pepper (filfil), taro flower (zahr qulqās), almond (lawz), and lote (nabiq). On recto, there is part of the qiddush for Passover.

Legal fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Involves Sitt al-Kull.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions coral (3 lines from bottom). Needs examination. On verso there may be a Hebrew literary text.

Letter, probably. In Arabic script. Only a few words. The phrase "wa-l-ḥāl salāma" ("all is well") is legible.

Responsum of Avraham Maimonides. Autograph. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentioned in India Book I, p. 276.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

Recipes in Hebrew with some Ladino mixed in.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.

Legal or state document. In Arabic script. After the basmala: "[...] in the name of Jurayj(?) b. Ḥayyūn from the money/property of...." Needs further examination. Reused on recto for Hebrew liturgical text for Rosh Hashana, probably related to the Zikhronot of the additional service. (Information in part from JRL online catalogue.)

Document in Judaeo-Arabic. Detailing financial arrangements. Handwriting of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe?

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very rudimentary hand and spellings. Mentioning a waṣiyya (advice/exhortation). Requesting an urgent response. Regards to the addressee's siblings and mother and to the writer's sister and her children.

Letter fragment. In Arabic script.

Medical prescription, for menstruation. It recommends a three-day course of powdered substances, to be taken in admixture with wine. The materia medica are equal parts of kohl, dried cane (Acorus calamus?), and black cumin (Nigella sativa), which, like 'menstruation' at top, receives its Hebrew name. The verso, B 5664-2, bears a partially preserved prescription in the same hand. For materia medica used by the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II, pp. 261-72.

A partially preserved medical prescription that mentions burnt goat-horn, eggplant, and a cup of wine. The recto (B 5664-1), in the same hand, bears a complete prescription, for menstruation. For a prescription that includes burnt goat-horn, see Sabur b. Sahl, Aqrabadhin al-saghir / The Small Dispensatory (trans. Oliver Kahl, 2003, p. 50). For the materia medica of the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II.

Minute fragment from a list. Abu Nasr is mentioned. AA