Geniza Lab

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. This portion preserves the formulaic ending only. The addressee's in-laws send their regards.

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (identification based on handwriting). In Judaeo-Arabic. Asks the addressee to obtain a responsum (fatwā) and mentions a competing cantor who prays badly. Needs further examination. ASE.

Recto (secondary use): Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably mid-11th century. Deals with business matters. Twice mentions Dāʾūd b. Shaʿya (see Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, #514–#517).

Verso (original use): The end of one line in calligraphic Arabic script from a state document, perhaps a decree. . ال الديوان عرضا فدل على صورة ماله(؟)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Listing many names and numbers.

Accounts in Arabic script. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer defends himself for having to refuse a request of the addressee (he cites a version of a couplet of Arabic poetry that some sources attribute to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib: אדא סאלת אלי כרים חאגה ואבא פלא תעתב עליה בח[אגב] | רבמא אמתנע אל[...] ומא בה בכל ולאכן סו חין אלטאלב), then expresses astonishment that the addressee would even ask such a thing. The letter becomes very faded at the bottom, but he seems to discourage the addressee from taking some matter to court, because the judge will not award the desired sum of money. ASE.

Unknown genre. Small strip of paper, only few words survived, mostly deals with book binding and production. On verso what looks like a remain from a list of a book seller? Arabic characters are written on the top of the paper. Judeo-Arabic, Arabic. AA

Fragments of citations from al-Mutanabbī in Judeo-Arabic. (Information from Cecilia Palombo)

Business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Addressed to someone in Fustat (whose name may be legible). Dating: Probably 11th century. Deals with the shipping of goods; mentions Salmān the ghulām of Ibn [...]; textiles, garments, copper.

Letter of appeal for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer explains that the family has no money for the coming holiday and no wood or oil; they have never been among the takers but always among the givers; there is someone in the house who is seriously ill (wajaʿ/wajiʿ ʿalā khuṭṭa). On verso there is a piyyut.

Recto: Accounts in Arabic script. Verso: Lists of household items in Judaeo-Arabic. No values given. There are separate lists for garments (... mukhmal; niṣfiyya jadīda; thawb; ʿamāmatayn) and for utensils/furnishings (ṭāsa; kursiyy; ibrīq).

Letter fragment (right part only) in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: possibly 13th century or later, based on the use of the shorthand "אלממ." The writer asks the addressee to deliver a sum of [dirhams] nuqra to a certain person and apologizes (presumably for a delay). He records two lines of a piyyut that he had perhaps been asked for.

Recto: Letter fragment (upper part only) from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (identification based on handwriting). In Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to a group of people, it seems. He states that he is in good health and mentions the woman known as 'al-kabīra.' Verso: Letter fragment (upper part only) in Arabic script. Addressed to Ṭāhir. Mentions a matter of two dinars. ASE

Letter fragment (lower part) from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a family member in Fustat, regarding small-scale business dealings. He tells the recipient what pharmaceutical goods to buy him with the money that he has probably sent with the messenger as well as whatever money the kerchief fetches: mercury; labdanum; shells of mahaleb (?).... ASE.

In Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded. Identified by Danzig as a responsum, but there is no sign to support this identification. AA

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Little of the content remains.

Recto: Legal document, possibly a court record. Regarding an engagement (shiddukhin). Fiance: Yefet b. Binyamin b. Refa'el ha-Levi ha-Talmid. Fiancee: Fāḍila bt. Bū l-Khayr Binyamin b. Faraḥ. Verso: One line in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly connected to recto, mentioning the money due to a wife (muqaddam, mu'akhkhar, ʿaml(?), and kiswa). There are also several unidentified lines in Arabic script. Information from Amir Ashur via FGP.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. The only name surviving in the address is Musāfir b. Hiba al-Sabīʿī, which is presumably an Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew al-Sheviʿi, 'the seventh. This person must be identical with Musāfir b. Wahb (=Araḥ b. Natan 'the seventh'), and he is probably the addressee of the present letter (compare T-S Ar.39.126 for Musāfir b. Wahb's Arabic-script signature and T-S 13J22.23 for a Judaeo-Arabic letter of his; neither hand resembles the hand of this letter). As for the content: the writer mentions the addressee's maternal uncle Abū l-Faḍl and a letter from a court to a court (or from a judge to a judge) and someone obtaining what is due him. Regards to 'all the children'; mentions someone's sister. ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Little of the content remains.