Geniza Lab

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Little of the content remains; mentions [ar]bāb al-dawla.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with business matters; mentions quantities of goods and prices.

Legal fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably a release. Someone, possibly an orphan, agrees to release his paternal uncle from any claims

Recto: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: Doodle of a knight on horseback. There may also be some Arabic text, crossed out.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic in a late hand from the 16th-19th centuries with entries designated according to the "masruf / expenses" of individual people such as Mu'allam Muḥammad (l. 1v). On the recto quantities of coinage in Ottoman cedid are listed as well as goods such as wax and eggs. There is also mention of a "muhtasib / מחטסב" a market overseer in the Ottoman empire whose significance is also widely attested in scholarship regarding the medieval economy. MCD.

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Needs examination for content.

Letter of appeal for charity. Draft. In Judaeo-Arabic. On verso there is also a maxim: "Indeed the world is a market, containing . . . merchants who gain profit and those who are idle." Translation slightly uncertain.

Two columns of accounts, business or private, for Naṣr b. Simwāl, one under "lahu" 'he is owed' and second under "ʿalaihi" 'he owes'. 'ʾAjr' in the upper right hints that it could be related to rent. There is a date towards the upper left 'for year 1' (501? 601?). Needs examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions a ruqʿa numerous times; difficult to figure out what is being discussed.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Very damaged. Mentions somebody "prostrated on the bed (firāsh)," meaning someone who is very sick. Also mentions the Jews and justice.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Extremely faded.

Left fragment: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. There is an address: to [...] al-Dawla Moshe ha-Zaqen ha-Sar the tax farmer (ḍāmin), in Damīra. But it is not entirely clear that this address belongs with the note on the other side, which is a letter of recommendation. The addressee is asked to help reconcile the bearer, al-Shaykh al-Makīn, with his wife "and listen to his complaint (shakwā), [because] he is a good boy and his father is a good man. . . and you know his intellect and his piety." The writer later states, "Maybe I will come to Fustat," implying that the addressee of the letter of recommendation is in Fustat (rather than Damīra). But needs further examination. (Information in part from Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Right fragment: Small fragment of a ketubba written in the Palestinian style. In the hand of the ḥaver Shemuel b. Moshe, the same scribe as ENA NS 77.354. Location: Probably Tyre. Dating: ca. 1028–54. See M. A. Friedman's edition for further information.

Calendar. in Hebrew.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very damaged.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with business in brazilwood and perhaps kohl/antimony. Mentions Banīn the boy of al-Maḥālī(?).

Newly treated and encapsulated, must be examined

Newly treated and encapsulated, must be examined

Newly treated and encapsulated, must be examined

Newly treated and encapsulated, must be examined