Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. The sender gives an account of his travels ("then I went out on the open sea (al-bahr al-māliḥ)...").

Verso: Letter opening or draft. In Hebrew. Filled with honorifics lines of poetry for a dignitary (ha-paṭish ha-ḥazaq, ẓofnat paʿneaḥ, etc.).

Recto (secondary use): Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic naming people such as Barhūn and Abū l-Khayr and Yūsuf. Dating: shortly after 1047/48 CE. The hand may be known (probably the addressee of the original letter).

Verso, with the address on recto: Top of a letter in Arabic script. Mercantile? Dated: 439 AH = 1047/48 CE. Reused for Judaeo-Arabic accounts (see separate record).

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. There are also blocks of text in paragraph form.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Late.

Medical prescription. In Arabic script. Reused for accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, extensive. Dating: Likely 11th century. Many names are mentioned, including Barhūn and al-Dustarī (=al-Tustarī) and Bunyām al-Ḥazzan. Commodities inclue ambergris.

Letter from a parent, unknown location, to a son, in Fustat/Cairo. In Ladino. The writer tells the son to write more often, which should not be so difficult for him because people arrive in his or her location every day from Fustat/Cairo (Miẓrayim). The writer asks if he received the 10 reals that she sent him with Yehuda Canbiador (קאנבייאדור, the money changer). The writer mentions the daughters of their baʿal ha-bayit (לאש מוגאגאש די מי בעל הבית)—perhaps meaning her husband, but this is not completely clear. The writer lists various items that he or she has sent to the son and how much they cost (in muayyadis). ASE.

Recto: Two lines in Arabic script, probably a petition to a Fatimid vizier "al-Wazīr al-Ajal Ṣafiyy Amīr l-Mumineen wa-khāliṣihi". In Judaeo-Arabic, between the lines and upside down, "God guard the servant of the Shaykh Abū ʿImrān." Verso: Prognostications in Judaeo-Arabic. If the year is born in Gemini (الجوزاء): harvests will be rich, the Nile will flood, the cattle will die, a skin disease will break out, and the Byzantines will set sail and their ships will founder. The noblest kings will die and fitna will break out. There will be many refugees. It ends "allāhu aʿlam bi-l-ghayb" (only God knows the unknown). ASE.

Letter fragment by a certain Yaʿaqov recounting the episode that led him to break off his partnership with others in a wine press. While he was doing business in silk in Alexandria, his partners had sold a donkey and a mule and swindled him, however, he chose not to bring the case to court. He invites the recipient to spend the holiday with him. Mentions Abu l-Ḥasan, Abu l-Fadl, Zikri, Zikri’s nephew, and Ḥasan the messenger.

Fragment of a business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dictated.

Mysterious document. In Hebrew. Late, probably 17th century, after the death of ʿAzarya Ze'evi. The document itself is extremely faded and nearly imposible to read from the digital image. It contains evocative phrases such as "like the custom of merchants"; "who imposed their religion"; "succour us out of the city" (2 Samuel 18:3). Signed: Yehuda Esperial (אישפיריאל); Yisra'el b. ʿAzarya Ze'evi (ZL); Yiṣḥaq Ṣabāḥ.

Letter from Shemuel Erusi (? ארוסי) to Shemuel Ibn Sīd. In Hebrew. Dated: 12 Av 5374 AM, which is 1614 CE. The writer denies the accusations that he has calumniated the late, great rabbi Shemuel Kazini (? קאזני) of Crete. He asks the addressee to send letters to Shemuel's sons Moshe and Shabbetay informing them that the rumor is false. Information from Avraham David via FGP.

Business letter from Saʿāda b. Yūsuf to Yūsuf b. [... b. ʿAwkal?]. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: probably 11th century. Needs examination.

ENA NS 39.2: Accounts in Ladino in western Arabic numerals dated on the verso most likely as 28 Nisan [54]92 or 23 April 1732. The accounting format on the recto is orderly and may be a fragment from a broader commercial ledger. The dated passage on the verso might not be directly associated with the recto yet is in the same hand and offers useful information on the coinage involved: "mayedes / מאיידיס" or Ottoman silver medin. The last two lines of the verso also mention an unknown commodity related to cloth that can be transliterated as "crisales de panyo" or alternatively "carisales de panyo." MCD.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably late. Possibly a join: ENA NS 39.21 + ENA NS 42.28.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning Ibrāhīm who has not yet completed the aqāwīl, also mentioning boats arriving from all over the place and a high demand for ginger. Looks like the same handwriting as ENA 2727.57.