Geniza Lab

Bill of divorce. Location: Minyat Zifta. Dated: Tuesday, 23 Iyyar 1436 Seleucid, which is 1125 CE. Husband: Ḥalfon b. Moshe. Wife: Banāt bt. Sibāʿ. Written and signed by Avraham b. [...]; also signed by Levi b. Avraham. There is confirmation of receipt on verso.

Bill of divorce. Dated: Tishrei 1421 Seleucid, which is 1109 CE. Written and signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel the Spaniard. Husband: Ḥasan b. Hiba. Wife: Fāḍila bt. Ḥusayn. Also signed by Berakhot b. Shela ha-Kohen. On verso there is confirmation of receipt. On verso there are also accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals listing items such as lemon syrup (murammal laymūn sāʾil) and mastic.

Upper fragment: Beginning of a bill of divorce written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. No details preserved.

Lower fragment: Bill of divorce. Written by Natan b. Shemuel. Dated: Sunday, 25 Shevaṭ 1456 Seleucid, which is 1145 CE. Husband: Makārim b. Moshe. Wife: ʿAmāʾim bt. ʿAmram. One of the witnesses is Yefet b. Shemarya. Torn down the middle. No confirmation of receipt on verso.

Bill of divorce (get). Dated: Friday, 20 Kislev 1457 Seleucid, which is 1145/46 CE. Written and signed by Natan b. Shemuel. Also signed by Ṣedaqa b. Yefet ha-Levi. Husband: Avraham b. Yakhin. Wife: Dalāl bt. Yosef. No confirmation of receipt on verso.

Bill of divorce. Dated: 13[..] Seleucid, which corresponds to the range 988–1088. Husband: Manṣūr b. Ṣāliḥ. Wife: Sittūna bt. Ḥalfon. Written and signed by [...] b. Efrayim. Also signed by [...] b. Shahrīr(?).

Decree fragment: one line on verso. wa-ri'āyan li-kum[ ]. Cut, reused, and bound in a Hebrew script literary text: 15 lines plus notes on recto, 13 on verso. Ink seems to show through the page (i.e. no palimpsest). Not a join with ENA 979.2, but they are probably from the same decree and reused context. Reading the Hebrew might indicate whether these two are conescutive pages--and therefore perhaps consecutive lines of the decree.

Decree fragment: one line on recto. 'adal(a) followed by tooth+loop (fragmentary word). Cut, reused, and bound in a Hebrew script literary text: 12 lines on recto, 9 on verso. Ink seems to show through the page (i.e. no palimpsest). Not a join with ENA 979.1, but they are probably from the same decree and reused context. Reading the Hebrew might indicate whether these two are conescutive pages--and therefore perhaps consecutive lines of the decree.

Responsum regarding synagogue ritual written in a late hand.

List of names and sums. On the back, list of names and weights of a commodity?.

Letter fragment in Arabic script. The text on verso is likely the address: ... الخادم محمد بن علي كلامها املى — so maybe Muḥammad b. ʿAlī dictated the letter? Reused for an Aramaic targum of Zekharya.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Late.

Legal fragment. In Hebrew. Dating: Late; the date in the document is torn away, all that can be read is Wednesday [...]9 AM. Location: Fustat. The document involves ʿOvadya and Moshe.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Abū Ṭālib, a qāḍī with many concerns, and Manṣūr. Possibly the early handwriting of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, but this is not at all certain.

Exegesis of Parashat Vayishlaḥ. Late. There are some jottings in the margins.

Legal query, probably to Avraham Maimonides and possibly in Shelomo ha-Melammed b. Eliyyahu's hand.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to a certain Moshe. Dating: Late, based on handwriting. The writer may be a woman: Sitt [...]. The handwriting is dreadful. The letter mainly consists of regards and expressions of preoccupation, but needs further examination.

Legal deed in large square thick letters

Recto: Account in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. Verso: Pen trials in Ladino.

Arabic script. One part of it looks literary. There is also a string of titles addressing someone (al-qurashī . . . al-ajall); there are some drawings; and there is what looks like a signature in Arabic script.*