Geniza Lab

Ink recipes. In Arabic script. One uses red anemones (shaqā'iq al-nuʿmān, Anemone coronaria). This work may be derivative of عمدة الكتّاب وعدة ذوي الألباب, which is attributed to al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs (https://al-maktaba.org/book/31950). But there are also substantial differences.

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 [...]). This document is a deed of sale pertaining to 66 medins (nuṣf) for 20 red and yellow sufras. The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgment which is also a sub-genre of 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 and its half is a typical fashion of indicating prices in a sale deed to avoid any errors. The document is dated 14th Rabīʿ al-Awwal 909 H/23rd September 1503 CE.

ENA 3960.6–10 are five distinct but related legal acknowledgments (iqrārs) in Arabic script, all dated 909 AH (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 [...]). Each of them needs further examination.

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 [...]). This document is a deed of sale pertaining to 6 dinars and 8 medins for 10 Aleppan shaylas. The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgment which is also a sub-genre of 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 and its half is a typical fashion of indicating prices in a sale deed to avoid any errors. The document is dated Rabīʿ al-Ākhar 909 H/September 1503 CE.

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 15 black mayzars and 30 sufras for 14 dinars. The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgement which is also a sub-genre of with Islamic legal manuals (shurūṭ al-fiqh). It is an iqrār (acknowledgement) 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 and its half is a typical fashion of indicating prices in a sale deed to avoid any errors. The document is dated 20th Rabīʿ al-Awwal 909 H/21st September 1503 CE.

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Bottom of a legal document in Arabic script, four and a half wide lines on paper with 3 final signatures, each in the shape of a cartouche. Dating: Probably Ottoman-era. A transaction of 4,000 Egyptian medins (half-dirhams) is mentioned. Needs examination for content.

Beginning of a petition -tarjama, basmala, formulae, on the right side 4 lines diagonally- from a Jewish woman (al-mamlūka [...] Abū l-Majd Ibn al-Ḥaver). In Arabic script. She seems to be trying to fend off a man who wants to marry her but who already has a wife and children. In the margin, she quotes from the Torah "the son of my sister took my right...". The tarjama is legible but the name is hard to make out. Needs examination.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Made by Q[...] b. Mūsā al-[...], "one of the captains of the victorious fleets" (aḥad quwwād al-asāṭīl al-manṣūra). It seems that he owes 9 dinars to Mūsā b. Abū l-Faraj. Needs examination.

Arabic script (VMR)

Accounts in Arabic script. Unclear if private/mercantile or fiscal. Needs examination.

Document in Arabic script. In some ways it is formatted and reads like a letter, but all of the content has to do with legal matters. Mentions names such as Abū l-Majd and Abū ʿAlī. Needs examination.

Letter from a physician in Arabic script giving detailed instructions for the care of a sick man, especially about diet, baths, and regimen. It concludes in the margin, "By God! Take care of him... [do not let him eat?] chicken until he becomes stronger, God willing, praise be to God alone." Excerpts of the surviving text: "[he must not be excessive?] in anything, not air, not food, not drink, and not bathing. As for his food.... pomegranate syrup and bread and sugar. And he should be cautious in the bathhouse and not tarry there too long, rather he should enter for one hour and not.... shave his hair and pamper him and serve him and wash his hands in pomegranate blossom(?)...." ASE

Fragment of a legal document in Arabic script, with an addendum on the back concerning the same case. There are also notes in the margin in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Needs examination for content and dating (looks Fatimid).