Geniza Lab

Legal document. In Arabic script. Dated: 16 Rabīʿ I 911 AH, which is August 1505 CE. Starts with a basmala, authorizing a trade (bayʿ) of some sort (al-bayʿ ... al-mushtamil ʿalā l-ījāb wa l-qubūl wa l-taslīm).

Letter from Manṣūr(?) b. [...] possibly to a younger relative Yūsuf (وينهي ان المملوك مشتاق الى خدمة ولده يوسف). In Arabic script. Looks like a chancery hand and the document opens with expressions of patronage, but it does not seem to be a petition. The sender has been protecting the interests of the addressee (والمملوك حامل هم المولا من جهة...) with regard to Abū l-Faḍl Fakhr al-Dīn, who may have arrived in Fustat from the Fayyūm. The addressee is told that he might still catch him if he comes quickly. The next section is about Jalāl al-Mulk, who may be trying to take over Yūsuf's fief as ḥāshir (tax collector), and he (or somebody else ) is spreading bad rumors about the addressee (...جلال الملك عمل في حشارتك له ويقبح عليك...). The margin mentions the arrival of ʿIzz al-Dīn b. al-Zandī(?), and the addressee is urged to come with him. Verso is almost entirely greetings. Abū l-Ḥasan sends regards. Regards to Abū l-Faḍl, to a paternal uncle, and to a woman and her children. Hiba sends his regards. The addressee is urged to respond quickly, send a report on the taxes he has collected (? والمدعى اكتب عن الذي حشرته) and not to pay attention to ignoramuses (ولا تسمع كلام الجهال). He is urged again to act quickly so that they can kill two birds with one stone (ونعمل شغلين في شغل) and to try to meet with Fakhr al-Dīn. ASE

Legal query addressed to a Muslim faqīh. In two drafts. In Arabic script. Concerning a Jewish man who teaches medicine in public and in the antechamber (dihlīz) of his house. Is he permitted to teach "things in Hebrew" "from his religion" alongside the medicine that he teaches? One of the drafts adds that the teaching of medicine is "for the benefit of Muslims and others." This fragment also has geomancy markings, miscellaneous jottings, and the following text: "These are the materia medica that I need: aloeswood 1/2 ounce; Indian boxthorn 1/2 ounce. The itemized sum mentioned in the large daftar is 1,160 (or 2,160?) and a quarter and kharrūba and a ḥabba."

Letter from Abū l-Khayr Mūsā. In Ottoman Turkish. Mentions a Jewish banker (sarrafi) in line 2. Needs examination.

Literary text in Arabic script. Repeatedly mentions amīr al-mu'minīn.

Letter(s) or official document(s) in Arabic script. Narrow space between the lines on one side (this part mentions a fortress/qalʿa), wide space between the lines on the other (this part addresses somebody as "al-jināb al-ʿāl" and mentions his iḥsān and ṣadaqāt). Needs further examination.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Unusual layout. There are also the remnants of the bottoms of a few words in gargantuan Arabic script (from a decree?).

Biblical translation in Arabic, written in Arabic script. Exodus 2:3–9 and 2:12–17.

Arabic, literary.

Arabic, literary.

Arabic, literary.

Arabic, literary.

Arabic, literary.

Arabic, literary.

Arabic, literary.

Arabic, literary.

Literary text in Arabic script.

Medical treatise in Arabic script.

ENA 3960.6–10 are five distinct but related Mamlūk-era legal documents in Arabic script, all dated 909 H (1503/04 CE), and involving the same people (e.g., Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Khwājā Yūsuf b. al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Tājir al-Saffār(?) al-Ḥalabī) and the same witnesses (Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. [...] and Ismāʿīl [...]). The document is a deed of sale pertaining to jawārib (stockings) of different colors. The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgment which is also a sub-genre of with Islamic legal manuals (shurūṭ al-fiqh). It is an iqrār (acknowledgment) of ghubn (defect) and barāʾa, meaning that the buyer acknowledges and accepts any (possible) defects in the object of sale (ghubn) and the seller is ‘innocent’ (hence barāʾa) of any allegation of defect, or effective defect, in the object. (For reference, see Asyuṭī, Jawāhir al-Ūqūd). The style of mentioning the price of the object of sale (jawārib in this case) as 14 dīnārs and its half seven dīnārs is a typical fashion of indicating prices in a sale deed to avoid any errors. The document is dated 18th Rabīʿ al-Awwal 909 H/19th September 1503 CE. The other five documents bear similar clauses with a variation in objects of sale and prices. They are as follows: ENA 3960.6: 66 medins (nuṣf) for 20 red and yellow sufras, ENA 3960.7: 69 medins for 20 red and yellow sufras, ENA 3960.8: 6 dinars and 8 medins for 10 Aleppan shaylas, ENA 3960.9: 14 dinars for 15 black mayzars and 30 sufras, ENA 3960.10: 14 dinars for 100 red and yellow Aleppan …(?)

Legal document in Arabic script. Dating: 16th c?