Geniza Lab

The documentary portion of this shelfmark is the marginal note on the lower fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. "On Sunday morning, I had 2 3/4. On Sunday, there was spent from it one cake(?). On Monday. . . . "

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, with two lines in Arabic script. Dating: Late. These are written in the spaces around various blocks of text containing Hebrew literary text.

Recto: Large fragment of a late (18th/19th c) business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: A short note signed by Yisakhar Groso (?) and Yehuda b. (?) Nissim Masīs.

Fragment of an official letter from Fustat addressed to a certain town in the Rīf (or perhaps a circular), exhorting them to be generous and assist the bearer with the payment of his capitation tax. For if they do not, he will go to prison for a long time, and it will be difficult to free him. Whatever they are able to do on his behalf, the cantor of the town should send a letter with a report. ASE

Fragment from the bottom of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. The writer asks for tidings of the Nagid Abū l-Ḥ[asan?]. Abū l-Faḍl told the writer that he had sent some dinars and some wax to the writer with a certain judge. The wax is to be given to Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Iskandarānī.

Business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. The name Abū Saʿīd is clearly legible in the address, and the rest might be legible with effort. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Mentions various sums of money and commodities, including copper and turpeth and myrobalan.

Letter from Perahya Yiju, in Egypt, to the Nagid complaining about Avraham Ibn Yiju, probably around 1156.

Family letter in Hebrew. May be in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. The writer sends wishes for the recovery of a woman in the care of the addressees (possibly from an illness of heart rather than a physical illness—ואתם חכמים תדעו לרפות את לבה . . . הקבה ישים רפואתה על ידכם). He adds the conventional "may I be a ransom for you." He discusses the matter of a קוטרוס—a qonṭres or writing-book? On verso he mentions someone who needs to pay the capitation tax but does not have any money; sends regards to his uncle ʿImrān and his wife and her "gevira"; and sends more well wishes to the ailing woman, רפאה שוכן {מ}רומה; and sends regards to his uncle Moshe. ASE.

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly a loan contract. Involves a certain Ṣadaqa and an Abū. l-Surūr b. ʿUlla(?). Needs examination.

End of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic; mostly formulaic.

Fragment (lower left corner) of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably medieval. Contains several evocative phrases, but mostly meaningless without a join

Legal document, fragment, in Arabic script, mentioning the property of the deceased in Fustat and Giza. This inheritance was attested in the presence of the chief justice, [al-A]jal Qāḍī l-Quḍat, testimony.

Letter in Hebrew, draft, addressed to the congregation(s) of Fustat (or Egypt).

List of names. In Hebrew script. Maṣliaḥ... Yehuda... Avraham... Shelomo... Seʿadya... Yakhin... Mevasser... Yefet... ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad...

Recto: Small fragment of a Hebrew letter. Verso: Piyyut.

Letter addressed to Farajallāh the cantor. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably ca. 14th century. Bears a motto at the top usually seen in the documents of the latter day Maimonideses, e.g., Yehoshua Maimonides. But the handwriting is not that of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. The addressee is to inform Surūr al-Iskandarānī al-Kohen and his son that the two mandīls that the cantor sent from Alexandria have received an offer of 40 dirhams. If they wish to sell them, they should make a declaration before witnesses. If not, they must report immediately to the court. The matter is urgent, because "[fines?] are heavy upon us" concerning "the house of Moshe Rabbenu" (the shrine at Dammūh?). "The remainder of the 4 dinars" is mentioned in the margin.

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic family letter. The writer mentions his mother and a sick woman; the money that he took; and al-Shaykh al-ʿAzīz Abū Zikri.

Fragment of a business letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably medieval. Mentions business in corals.

Small fragment of a letter of recommendation for a poor teacher who has lost his living and now needs charity.