Geniza Lab

Judaeo-Persian. Some recognizable words like זעפראן and קרנפל suggest some sort of recipe or materia medica.

Poems for a groom named Moshe b. Yosef ha-Levi. Dating: Late, based on the hand.

Literary text in Judaeo-Persian.

Letter from Mordekhai ha-Levi Mizraḥi, probably in Meron or Safed, to Moshe Ḥayyim and Yiṣḥaq Ḥayyim, unknown location. This fragment also contains the end of the letter from ENA 2634.2 (dated: 7 Av, 5656 AM, which is 1896 CE). Written in Hebrew, by a professional Ashkenazi scribe. The writer is a maker of amulets and segulot who has gone at least partially blind. He complains about his tremendous expenses paying for the scribe who had to repeat the amuletic drawing "50 times" and paying for a postal delivery (הפוסטה), because he initially trusted Agha Baba Tehrani to deliver the letters and amulets, but that man absconded and failed him, leaving no option but to use the post. (All this seems to be by way of exhorting the addressees to reimburse him for his pains.) He mentions the same ʿEzra from the preceding letter and Avraham Dayyan in the context of the amulets and segulot for conceiving a male child. ASE.

Accounts in Hebrew script. In Judaeo-Persian? Dating: Late, probably 18th or 19th century.

Official document of some kind. In Persian? There are eleven different seal imprints. Dated: 1201 AH = 1786/87 CE according to the last line of the document itself. One of the inscriptions at the top is dated 28 Rabiʿ I 1266 AH = 11 February 1850 CE. Needs further examination.

Letter from Mordekhai ha-Levi Mizraḥi, probably in Meron or Safed, to Agha Meir b. Eliyyahu, unknown location. The letter continues onto the upper part of ENA 2634.1. Dated: 7 Av, 5656 AM, which is 1896 CE. Written in Hebrew, by a professional Ashkenazi scribe. The writer is a maker of amulets and segulot who has gone at least partially blind. In this letter he describes in detail how to make an amulet for a woman to conceive a male child: it should be engraved on refined silver, the person who makes it must be in a state of purity and fasting, and a human figure should be drawn with the appropriate dimensions (including a large belly) and filled in with the appropriate letters. Psalm 121 should be engraved underneath the figure and the priestly blessing above the figure. When the time of birth comes near, the pregnant woman should dress herself entirely in linen, and the boy should be dressed only in linen until age 3, and even better if that continues until age 10. The addressee is also to light oil lamps for the soul of Rashbi and R. Meir Baʿal ha-Nes. Mordekhai reminds the addressee in a roundabout way to send him money (lirot) for his pains. He also seems to instruct the addressee to name the newborn son Mordekhai after him. He asks again for money, for he and his son Yiṣḥaq are in difficult straits. He also mentions a certain M. ʿEzra b. Yaʿaqov Dā'ūdī in the addressee's location. ASE.

Engagement deed. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Persian. Groom: Yaʿaqov b. Agha Yiṣḥaq. Bride; Jawhar Khanom bt. Aharon. Currencies: toman and maybe mithqal (מתקליס).

Zemirot in Judaeo-Persian in honor of Rashbi. The surrounding fragments are part of the same work. Some of them have interlinear Hebrew and Judaeo-Persian translation.

A Bible commentary in question and answer style.

Very faded, seems like a late literary piece

Geonic responsa. Published by Marmorstein, p. 10-12. The scribe is the one known to write many such rotolus for the owner known as Ibn al-Baqra (early 11th century). On recto a responsim marked as no. 4 (see Otzar Hageonim, Ketubot, p. 211, no. 532). At the bottom another responsum contonues on verso (the begining and end are missing) concerning the blessing on the wine before and after the meal (Otzar Hageonim, Berakhot, p. 96 no. 264). AA

Responsum on the type of vellum used for writing tefilin. Glick attributing the hand erroneously to Yosef b. Ya'aqov Rosh Haseder, but it is clearly written by Shlomo b. Shmuel b. Sa'adya (first half 13th century)

Recipes in Arabic script, probably medical (one is headed "for urinary retention"). Dating: Late, based on the hand and the paper. There follows a very peculiar table in which each box is headed with the phrase "the number of letters." Needs examination.

Table filled with Arabic script. The y-axis is days of the week and the x-axis is times of day. Each square of the grid has the name of a celestial body (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc.) There is further Arabic script below the table and on verso.

Prayers in Arabic script.

Tables for divination in Arabic script. Late.

Literary text(s) in Hebrew. In the margin, in Arabic script, a possible reference to a judge named Abū l-Barakāt: عند سيدنا القاضي الاجل ابي البركات

Many jottings of different kinds. The hand may belong to one of the well-known 12th-century Geniza scribes. Includes a section on ophthalmology mentioning the properties of "al-ʿinabiyya" (= the grape-like layer = the uvea).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Written on parchment, in a scribal hand, in a narrow column on the verso of a page of piyyuṭim (in the hand of the same scribe?). Most of the letter consists of polite formulae. The sender urges the addressee to help him in something involving cutting parchment for a bible.