Geniza Lab

Verso (probably original use): fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Small vertical strip from the left side. Mentions [...]m b. Yiṣḥaq and niṣāfī (a kind of garment). Recto (probably secondary use): accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals

Dowry list of a wealthy bride. The sums given at the bottom are: Muqaddm 20, Mu'khkhar 30 and everything 676 (reading uncertain), meaning that the nedunia is 626. At the bottom of the list is the name Yeshu'a ha-kohen b. Ghulayb. It is not clear whether he is the witness or the groom. This man also appears in ENA 4010 44. On the other side of the page is a piyyut.

Verso, with the address on recto: Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Salmān, in Alexandria, to his sister, in Qayrawān. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address written in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. The writer describes his fortunes ever since arriving in Egypt, including his month-long illness in Fustat, which exhausted much of his capital. But he was able to recuperate from the illness and enter business again. He is now torn between whether he should bring his flax merchandise to al-Mahdiyya or al-Lādhiqiyya, or whether he should return to Fustat to take a job with Abū l-Faraj b. 'Allān. He refers to his wife as "the mistress of my heart," and to his daughter as Sutayt (little mistress). This letter ought to be read together with Mosseri IIIa.11, written by the same writer to his mother (ed. Gil, Ishmael, #661). Gil published eight other letters by the same writer: Palestine, III, #506–07 and and Kingdom, IV, #660–65. Information in part from Goitein's index cards. ASE.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Two pieces of paper were glued together. Addressed to a qāḍī. The introductory portion ends with a ḥamdala, ṣalwala, and ḥasbala. Then the substance of the letter begins two lines from the bottom. Needs examination.

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: 1169. Location: Fustat. Likely in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan b. Shemuel. Onetime business partners Abū al-Faraj Yeshu‘a and Abū al-Riḍā release one another from partnership obligations. Line 13 refers to the “oath of partners”, in which the partners swear that they have not engaged in malfeasance or negligence with partnership assets. This phrase is a statement made at the termination of a partnership, particularly where partnership assets have been lost; reports of partnership profits are often more frequent and are often performed during the life of the partnership. The release clauses pair “loan” (qarḍ) with commenda (qirāḍ) because of the linguistic relationship between the two. The release clauses are mutual. Signed by [unclear] b. Ya'aqov ha-Melammed. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 51-53)

Memorandum (tadhkira) involving bringing something to Fustat, mentioning the name Abu Sa'd, on the back of a page of a literary work on the geology of stones written by Abu Yosef Ya'qub b. Imran.

Petition in Judaeo-Arabic from Yaʿqūb b. Abū l-Yaman to the Nagid. The writer was sick for 8 months and is hiding at home because of the capitation tax. Now a holiday is approaching and he is asking for help. On the back is a short account.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic which seems to be an Arabic poem about dealing with the sultan. On the back is the name Yosef b. Avraham written twice.

Verso: Power of attorney (שטר אורכתא) in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. A certain Yaʿaqov appoints Abū Saʿd b. Zandavir (?) ... al-Amani as his agent. On recto there is a document in Arabic script (see separate record).

Poem of praise to a certain Yosef.

Letter/panegyric in rhymed Hebrew. Full of flatter for the addressee and pious phrases. On the back (written in a different hand), a name is mentioned twice: Yefet al-Sharābi (preceded by the greeting ḥayyāk Allāh).

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Yisrael suggests Nahariyya to get out of a deal he made and asks for money to buy clothes. The letter includes the news that the "Rosh" - Daniel b. Azarya is coming to Jerusalem, via Nablus, and about his meeting with Eliyya ha-Kohen, son of Shelomo Gaon. August 24, 1052. VMR

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Recto opens in the middle of an interesting story: "Six Venetian ships arrived, bearing great bounties (niʿam ʿaẓīma), and all of our 'companions' (aṣḥābnā) [who] arrived in them honored you. They made profit by supplying (tarābaḥū fī l-ziyāda) the Byzantines (al-Rūm) and brought about terrible results....: the Muʾminīs sold for 52 2/3 per 100, and the tutty(?) sold for 4 1/6 and a dāniq per ounce. The (value) which they supplied (zayyadū) to the Byzantines in this transaction and to the government was over 2,000 dinars, and all of it was to them. They completely ground the economy to a halt (? aksarū al-ḥāl jamīʿah), outside and inside, and all by the desire of 'our friend' (ṣāḥibnā), and how he does not turn a blind eye but rather demands that everything be as it should be. And not every person can tolerate the humiliation (dhilla) and treachery (jabīna). This is what happened. The saffron sold for 50 and 51...." Further down, mentions the mint (Dār al-Ḍarb) and gold. Verso mentions a young woman (al-ṣabiyya). Then, "When I received your excellence's dear letter, I stopped everything until receiving confirmation from you in this, and I went to him and rebuked him very much about this. His excuse was the matter of Ibn Yeshuʿa, until he should finish the work...." Then there is further explanation of this work which hasn't been done and how the craftsmen are idle. Goitien summarizes recto, "A group of merchants connived with the (Jewish) Rūm, so that only the latter and the government made great profits." There is also Goitein's partial handwritten transcription and notes in the attached documents. The word מומניה is difficult; Goitein suggests but doubts maʾmūniyya (=rice porridge or almond ḥalwa) and then wonders if it could be a variant of mūmiyāʾ (pissasphalt, "mummy"), but this too would be a strange way of writing it. A third possibility which Goitein does not mention—it may refer to the Muʾminī dinars minted by ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, the founder of the Almohad dynasty, and this exchange rate of 52.67:100 would be plausible based on information from Ibn Jubayr (e.g. https://shamela.ws/book/11203/26). If this is the correct reading, the letter probably dates to around the second half of the 12th century.

Fragment of a ketubba. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan (part of his signature survives). Some of the items of the dowry and their values are listed. Goitein's index card emphasizes that as this an inventory (as opposed to a dowry list?), the prices are real. The sum of thirty dinars according to the custom of the land is mentioned. Witnesses: Berakho[t b. Yefet] MKTM, Yishaq b. [...], Menashshe b. [...], Mevorakh b. Natan. On verso there are jottings of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

List of items in Arabic script together with Greek/Coptic numerals

Address of a letter from Thābit b. Hibatallāh to the amir Asad al-Dawla [wa-Man?]ṣuruhā al-Juyūshī al-Afḍalī. In Arabic script. This was reused for Hebrew text (Psalms) on recto. The name Yosef b. Elʿazar also appears in Hebrew script on verso.

Note about books that were given to a person named Mordechai. late

Letter of thanks from Manṣūr to Khalaf. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script.

Legal document regarding ritual slaughter from Damascus

Legal deed regarding the division of the inheritance in 2 equal shares.