Geniza Lab

Letter in Hebrew. Late. Mentions Elʿazar Castro.

Accounts in Hebrew script. Language unidentified. Late.

Business letter addressed to Abū l-Khayr b. Mufaḍḍal al-Yahūdī al-Bilbaysī(?), in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Maghrebi hand. Dating: Likely ca. 13th century. Consists almost entirely of detailed business instructions, mentioning many commodities and their prices.

Amulet in Arabic script with a humanoid figure, magic squares, and seals.

Letter(s) in Judaeo-Arabic. It is not immediately clear if recto and verso are in the same handwriting or not. On recto, the addressee is a woman. The sender (presumably male) mentions something "red and white," and he hopes to come in person soon. He tells her not to worry. Mentions how "you know my love for you" (ואנתי תעל[מי] מחבתי לך), so probably a traveling husband to his wife back home. Mentions Abū l-Waḥsh and offers *(to bring with him?) anything the addressee desires. Verso: Also a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Urges a quick response, which should be sent to the goldsmiths' market (sūq al-ṣāgha). The sender swears by God "apart from whom there is no God" (billāhi alladhī lā ilāha illā huwa). Greetings to Abū l-Maʿālī(?) b. [...] and his son Abū l-Bahāʾ.

List of goods, maybe from a dowry list

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. In at least two different hands. Mentions purchasing coal and cleaning something and digging a hole. Also mentions names such as Ibn Isḥāq and Sāliḥ b. Yāqūt.

Tax receipt. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Note to Yosef ha-Shofeṭ. mainly praises

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Accounts in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Late"Daftar of the עושור." Location: Abū Qīr. Dated: the year זלץ(?).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Illegible. Hebrew script, extremely faded. One word is והוציאם, and at least some words are vocalized.

Subsequent use: Draft of a formal letter containing polite phrases and blessings written out multiple times (e.g., ḥaḍrat mawlāyya al-shaykh al-jalīl). 'Addressed' to Abū Naṣr al-Faḍl b. Sahl (al-Tustarī). There are ~4 'senders' listed, whose names are prefaced with 'khādimhā': one is ʿAlī b. [...] and one is Ṭībān b. Khalaf.

Jottings and writing exercises signed by a certain Barakāt b. Nissim in a nice square Judaeo-Arabic hand.

Letter. Rhymed blessings as appear in the beginning of many letters - the top two lines look like the text of an endng of a letter.

Accounts in Arabic script, surrounded by Hebrew jottings and pen trials. FGP calls this a testimony from 1208/09 CE, which must be referring to a different fragment.

Verso (original use): Petition in Arabic script in a chancery hand. Fragment from the middle of the document. Refers to the well-known Jewish leader [Daniel b.] ʿAzarya al-Dāʾūdī (second half of the 11th century) and to the addressee's benefactions in the administration of the Fatimid state: "...wa-bi-sāʾir aʿmāl al-dawla al-Nabawiyya wa-tummimat al-niʿma ʿa[lā ...]... al-ṭāhir...." Then asks for a mighty decree confirming the continued benefaction of registering something (bi-manshūr muʿaẓẓam muqirr bi-dawām niʿmat ithbātih) in the Majlis al-Ḥimāya and at least one other majlis. Rustow has translated ḥimāya in another context as "law enforcement" in Lost Archive p. 209, and Bauden notes that the term can refer to a tax of circulation on the Nile ("Le Transport de Marchandises et de Personnes sur le Nil," p. 125 note 117). See also Claude Cahen, “Notes pour l’histoire de la ḥimāya" (1956) and Jürgen Paul, "Ḥimāya Revisited" (2020) (https://journals.openedition.org/anisl/7518?lang=en). See also T-S Misc.8.67 for a similar-looking Arabic-script document involving Daniel b. ʿAzarya (but not a join). On the other side there is a Judaeo-Arabic letter by the same scribe who wrote T-S K25.244 (and several others), known to have been an ardent supporter of Daniel b. ʿAzarya (so it is probably related).

Recto (probably the secondary use): Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of the same supporter of Daniel b. ʿAzarya who also wrote T-S K25.244. Probably related to the Arabic-script petition on the other side. This too is a petition/report presumably sent to a dignitary, asking him not to remain silent in the face of suffering.