Geniza Lab

Recto: Business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with the copying of quires (karārīs) for Sayyidnā al-Nasi. Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān told the writer that the addressee had sent 4.5 dirhams, but the money never arrived. Verso: List in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. The writer excuses himself from attending in person on account of an illness (lines 7–8). Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Very damaged. Unclear how it is related to recto.

Financial receipt (waqf related) with a seal, probably late Ottoman based on the Indic numerals, 18th/19th century.

Mercantile letter, in Arabic script. From Ifrāyim b. Ismaʿīl to Abī ʿĀbd Allah at the Dār al-Wakāla. The writer mentions sending several commodities along Mubārak al-Ḥalabī and urges that their names be registered in the Dīwān, al-Dīwān al-Ṣināʿa, and al-Dār al-Wakāla.

Verso: Tax receipt from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb with a registration mark al-ḥamdu li-llah ʿalā niʿamih. The name of the jahbadh is Mikhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ. On recto is also a fiscal account (either reused for the tax receipt or was later reused) with multiple streams of accounts, each beginning with "al-dālla minhu".

Petition to a higher official asking for a horse "oḥḍur taḥtahu faras mulkihi wa-huwa ḍaʿīf nāqiṣ l-ḥāl", "yaḥmiluhu ʿalā faras" with an innovative taqbīl formula "wa-huwa yujaddid taqbīl al-arḍ wa-yasʾal al-inʿām" - "the slave renews the kissing of the ground" (a variant of this formula also appears in T-S Ar. 39.487).

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Only the formulaic ending is preserved. Regards to Abū Zikrī b.(?) Sar Shalom.

Recto and three lines of verso: Note in Hebrew addressed to some important person. The hand and spellings are very rudimentary. The writer seems to be inviting the addressee to join him and R. [Mi?]khael to do something together. Verso: Note in Judaeo-Arabic, perhaps the response, mentioniong R. Yiṣḥaq and Abū l-Khayr and traveling somewhere.

List of some sort in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Bill of sale for a slave. Abū al-[Man]ṣūr al-Kohen purchases a female slave named Ṭ[...] for the price of 25 dinars.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script, regarding financial matters "innanī katabtu ilā marʾ(?) lahu ʿindahu danānīr", concerning a teacher (qad addanī muʿallim l-ṣabīyy). Also mentions Cairo. Needs examination. Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer urges the addressee to help him again with money for rent for the qāʿa where he lives, because his landlady, the sister of al-Najīb "has destroyed me from all that she demands [it] from me."

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dealing with business matters. Mentions 25 qinṭārs of something and ginger (zanjabīl).

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Possibly 11th century. Mentions the owner of the boat (ṣāḥib al-markab) and Alexandria.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions goods such as high-quality knives and a red kerchief.

Amulet against scorpions: same spell as the ones in T-S AS 143.26, except with two more magical names and no illustration. On verso there is a list in a cryptic script. See Gideon Bohak, "Some 'mass-produced' Scorpion-amulets from the Cairo Genizah," in A Wandering Galilean (2009), 35–50.

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

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Persian. Needs examination.

Legal document(s) in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Maybe a draft of a deed (or deeds) of sale. Recto describes a house, its features, and its location: al-qāʿa al-muʿallaqa... khazānatayn... al-ṣaṭḥ al-ʿālī... mā bayna salālim hādhihi l-qāʿa... al-khashab al-kharṭ al-dāʾir... al-ḥāra al-maʿrūfa.... Verso refers to 'the boundaries mentioned in this document.' A house (perhaps one of the boundaries) was previously known by the name of Abū l-Surūr, subsequently by the name of Abū l-Faḍl Sahl, and probably ultimately by the name of [...] Ismāʿīl al-Isrā'īlī.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic: names, numbers, some crossed out.