Geniza Lab

Narrative text in Judaeo-Arabic. At least two stories are here, both involving legal matters. The second one involves a man with 10 sons and something to do with an oath and 50 dinars.

Letter from someone possibly named Yaʿqūb addressed to a physician. In Judaeo-Arabic. There are two lines in Arabic script on verso, apparently lines of poetry expressing longing for the addressee. Dating: Perhaps 13th century. The writer asks for more of a certain collyrium (ashyāf al-natwā), possibly because it is selling well. But he is not so greedy as to need the (proprietary) recipe for it. Cf. DK 316, a letter from the physician Ibrāhīm to the physician Yaʿqūb, in which Ibrāhīm divulges the recipe for the collyrium for "al-natwā" that he obtained from Abū l-Bahā. There is no clear evidence that the two letters are directly connected, but both are referring to the same medicine. ASE.

Letter from Avraham b. Abū Zikrī to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Describing business travel and reporting on transactions. Mentions someone called al-Rashīd and Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Sulaymān. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Quittance, large but faded, from Yakhin b. Mevorakh ha-Levi. Seven signatures, mostly faded or fragmentary. 11th century.

Detailed trousseau of Bint Menahem (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 403, and from Goitein's index cards)

List of contributors, pledging 1, 2, or 3 dinars, mostly from the well known families Ibn Shay'a, Ibn Saghir, and Bahudi, or prominent notables such as Abu Zikri Hayyim b. (Ammar) Madini (of Palermo) and Abu Zikri (Yahya) b. Menashshe (see Bodl. d79.35). The donations were probably for helping the poor with their capitation tax (see T-SK15.94v). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 476,. App C, sec. 12)

Cheque in the hand of Abu Zikri ha-Kohen. See Goitein Nachlass material linked below.

Letter, fragmentary, with little preserved. Mentions 'the sages of the yeshiva, the tannaim, the scribes, and the student[s]'.

Letter. A Hebrew address is all that survives from a letter written by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, the judge, to the school of higher studies (Heb. midrash) of Yiṣḥaq b. Ḥalfon, in the period of Avraham Maimonides. (Information from Frenkel. See also Goitein, Med. Soc. 5:418, 624, no. 16)

Letter, calligraphic, to the two sons of Yeshua (one is named Abū Naṣr), probably asking for help. It looks like the sender may have used a pre-prepared template, since the script deteriorates (and gets smaller) about halfway down the page, following an opening section with generic verses and blessings.

Letter in Hebrew. Small fragment from the upper right corner. Aharon the cantor is mentioned. Might be a letter of condolence since the word תנחומות appears.

Court record regarding inheritance. mentioned Aharon and an orphan. Bibliography: Zinger, Ginzei Qedem 13. Probably an indirect join with Moss. VII,43 + T-S Ar.53.53.

Two or three different documents stuck together. (1) Ketubba. Only a few words from near the beginning are preserved. (2) Draft of a legal document concerning the estate of the late Rūma bt. [Bin]yām b. Aharon ha-Kohen died. Her possessions are to be given to her son according to certain conditions. (He might still be a minor, and other people are specified to look after money.) Mentions the names [...] b. Salāma Ibn Rūḥīrjān (the same family name appears in T-S 24.76) and Khalaf. (3) Possibly accounts of the Qodesh. Same hand as the note about Rūma's property. Refers to the rent of various people in different dwellings; the patrolmen (al-rajjāla) on [...] Shabbat; the ground rent (ḥikr) payment which is somehow connected to Nārūz (the Coptic New Year); a raqqāṣ possibly named ʿIwāḍ.

Bill of divorce. Written by Shemuel b. Seʿadya (1165–1203). Husband: Avraham b. M[aymūn?]. Wife: Miryam bt. Ḥabīb ha-Maʿaravi.

Ketubba fragment. The groom is Avraham.

Letter from Sibāʿ, unknown location, to the cantor Abū Naṣr known as Al-Damghar(?), in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly the same handwriting as T-S AS 152.67. Mainly on family matters. The sender left Fustat on Tuesday and arrived in his current location on Friday.

Letter from Yehuda b. Eliyya he-Ḥaver to Abū Naṣr Elʿazar b. Yosef. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper part). The sender asks the addressee to pay 10 dinars to 'my brother' Abū ʿImrān, the bearer of the letter. He inserts some phrases typical of powers-of-attorney (תסלימה תסלימי וקבצה קבצי).

Engagement Agreements. Two sides of what appears to be a page from the court notebook from the 1330s. In side A there are two engagement agreements, the first in the righthand side of the page and the second begins in the lefthand side of the paper and continues on the verso. The writing is faded and difficult to decipher.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Contains only a few formulaic phrases from the ending. Mentions Avraham.

Legal document. Tiny fragment. Signed by Elʿazar b. Evyatar.