Geniza Lab

Accounts in Arabic script. On verso there is a literary text in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Faded. Chastising the addressee for something (it is not entirely clear what). "That which you did, an enemy wouldn't even do it to himself. Yā subḥān Allāh... family... they come and eat... people... you feared for yourself that you couldn't appear..." On verso there are jottings in Arabic script and Hebrew script.

On one side there are accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. On the other side there is what looks like an address of a letter in Arabic script, mentioning al-Muʿizziyya (=Cairo) and Ḥārat al-Zuwayla.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. Table of expenses, including several items of food (meat, chicken, olives, oil...)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Crumpled and faded. Mentions a power of attorney (wikāla/wakāla), someone who signed something (saṭara ʿalā), "min al-ṭaraf," the number 24, and an aforementioned house (al-dār al-madhkūr). Reused on verso for a copy of the beginning of Genesis.

Literary text(s) in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter or report, probably. In Arabic script. Small fragment, with the beginning of 6 lines. Includes the word (or title) al-thiqa. Reused for a copy of Genesis on verso.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 11th century. The handwriting may be known. Mentions 15 dinars and 27 qintars of something and ships that are in need of a captain/rabbān (l. 8).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. On vellum. Dating: First half of the 11th century, as it mentions the ship of Ibn Daysūr (cf. Bodl. MS heb. d 66/15, T-S 10J19.19, and T-S 8J24.10). Deals with the trade in silk. Gives many numbers. On verso there are accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Small fragment. Mentions Meshullam. Witnesses: Moshe b. Shela; Mevorakh b. [...].

Court records, possibly. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. There are various entries about different matters, including several deceased people and their surviving offspring, inventories of property, and a narration of things two people said to each other.

Document in Arabic script. Likely a letter (seems to be a first-person narrative: wa-waṣaltu... wa-dakhaltu...). Very faded. Needs further examination.

On recto, possibly a draft of a letter in Arabic script. Mentions Abū l-ʿAlāʾ the brother(?) of Saniyy al-Dawla. In the margins of recto, the name Elʿazar b. Yefet appears twice (probably pen trials).

Bifolium from an account book. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Mentions mainly Muslim business partners such as Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar b. Muḥammad and (possibly his brother) Abū l-Qāsim; Ibn Abū Shākir; Abū Bakr b. Badīs; ʿAbdallāh b. Zīrī. Sums are large: 300 dinars, 150 dinars, 25 dinars. Also mentions Abū Yaʿqūb and various quantities of maqṭaʿ cloths. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Fragment containing some Arabic script in the margin, which is difficult to read. There is also a Hebrew literary text involving marriage payments.

Letter fragment in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Lower right corner. Mentions a qāḍī Abū ʿAlī; [Ibn al-]Qaṭā'if; the diwan; the policemen (al-rajjāla) being after somebody; a document and somebody acknowledging (muqirr) something; the sender asks for help. Related to T-S 8J17.31?

Small fragment with Arabic script.

Letter from Khayr b. Yūsuf Ibn S[...] to Abū l-Ḥasan Mevorakh, in Fustat. The letter is to be delivered to Fusṭāṭ, al-Murabbaʿa, the shop of Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-Ḥasan. The letter is in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Opens with blessings for the addressee's sons Abū ʿAlī Yefet and Abū l-Makārim Nadiv. Conveys congratulations for the holiday. The sender ran into his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Yūsuf—the bearer of the present letter—on Saturday and was very distressed on his account. There is a postscript on verso in a different hand: "The bearer of this letter, Abū Shahwān, is our neighbor, and we are distressed on his account." The addressee is instructed to give him a dinar's worth of saffron and a dinar's worth of "qarāṭīs."

Letter addressed to the Nagid Mevorakh b. Seʿadya. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Consists almost entirely of flattery and blessings. On verso there are words of condolence for Mevorakh's late brother (Cohen suggests that this is Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Seʿadya and that the phrase "fakhr ahl al-ʿilla" means "pride of the medical profession"; see Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 134). Join: Alan Elbaum.

Letter from Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen b. Aharon to Moshe b. Maṣliaḥ. In Judaeo-Arabic. He reports that he has arrived safely after a terrible Nile voyage when the boat sprang a leak and everyone almost drowned. The silk has been selling well, but not the garments. He tells the addressee to look after the children. Abū Isḥāq is doing well. He reminds the addressee to have the craftsman (? spelled both sāniʿ and ṣāniʿ here) do something. He offers to send some flax for this purpose. Regards to Sitt al-Gharb, Sitt al-Banāt, and Sitt al-Nās.