Geniza Lab

Arabic, literary. Maybe astrology.

Letter in Arabic script. Dating: Ottoman-era. Seal imprint and maybe a filing note on verso.

Detailed accounts for food expenditures in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. One of the notes refers to Ibn al-Dayyān (=Shelomo b. Eliyyahu?).

Unidentified text in Arabic script. Vaguely reminiscent of a block-printed amulet.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Business letter from a certain Manṣūr. In Arabic script. Giving detailed instructions about modest sums of money. On verso and in the upper margin, accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Decree fragment. The beginnings of three lines are preserved on recto (mentioning al-Ramla): الرملة وف . . م . . من ظهر . . وتحصيله اليه. The ends of two lines are preserved on verso: . . . ه كما هو اهله . . . Reused for an unidentified text in Arabic script written in between the lines.

Report or legal document in Arabic script. Dated: Jumādā II 1010 AH, which is 1601 CE. In the upper part mentions various people al-Ḥājj Muḥammad Ibn Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Manārī and gives their tribal affiliations. Mentions the village of al-Muʿayṣira (المعيصرة) in the vicinity of Homs and قطيا (maybe the town of that name in Sinai). The contents have to do with mercantile goods, including silk and tamarind. Needs further examination.

Arabic, literary. Some section headers in red ink.

Document in Arabic, unclear content, left half only, with sewing holes at left, top, and diagonally across the upper left corner. Likely an official document. Mentions "bi-Miṣr al-Maḥrūsa."

Legal deed: iqrār (deed of acknowledgment) in Arabic script for Sulaymān b. ?, right half only, sewing holes in the right margin.

Recto: register of receipts of some kind? Mentions wheat and fava beans. There are several distinct entries, each with a different person's name, and each dated 5[..] AH. Verso: Letter in Arabic script, potentially related to recto. Needs further examination.

Magical text about the angels (e.g., Metatron). In Arabic script, in two different hands.

Legal document in Arabic script. On verso accounts in Arabic script and the draft of a beginning of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, perhaps Mamluk-era. Needs further examination.

Recto: Fragment of a legal document in Arabic script. Very neat handwriting. Only the beginnings of the lines are preserved. Mentions a broker in the market (al-simsār bi-sūq al-[...]) and Muhadhdhab al-Yahūdī. Verso: Later legal document in Arabic script. Mentions a banker (al-Ṣārifī) and several other names. Dating: Looks late, probably not earlier than 13th century, but needs further examination.

Accounts in Arabic script. Many names mentioned.

Official letter in Arabic script. Ends of 5 lines are preserved. Content unclear. The red/black border decoration on verso is very similar to T-S 12.459 + T-S G1.55 + T-S G2.150 + Halper 164 (might even be a join, though the text on recto does not match).

Arabic, literary.

Receipt of some kind for Ibrāhīm b. [...]. A period of one year is specified. There is a word that looks like "halīlaj" (myrobalan), but this does not seem to fit. There is a filing note in Judaeo-Arabic at the top: zuqāq al-Turmus al-Maʿmūra ... the year '59.

Letter from Abū Manṣūr to [al-Shaykh] al-Makīn al-Ṣayrafī, in Qūṣ (here called "thaghr Qūṣ"). In Arabic script, elegantly written. The sender opens with respectful greetings and wishes to be reunited. He says that when he left Qūṣ. . . and went out onto the 'baḥr' (probably the Nile here), then mentions "in Fustat" and "al-Rayyis Dāʾūd" and "al-Rayyis Abū l-Bahā." The last line seems to refer to (someone's brother?) Abū l-Najm who is in either the army (al-jaysh) or prison (al-ḥabs). (This document may relate to the cluster of letters from Manṣūr b. Sālim, frantic about his son Abū l-Najm who ran off from home and spent time in the army and at one point was rumored to be traveling to Qūṣ.) ASE