Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Lower part only. Needs examination.

Verso: tax receipt from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb

Letter or copies of letters, each starting with a basmala. Letter starting at the bottom of verso is addressed to the Abbasid al-Manṣūrīya (al-Mawqifa al-Manṣūrīyya al-Saifīyya).

Left fragment: Letter in Arabic script. Not a chancery hand, but it sounds like a petition or official letter in some ways. Conveys praises and blessings for the addressee and for the caliph and the prophet Muḥammad and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Mentions فخر الملك سعد الدولة تاج المع[الى] Fakhr al-Mulk Saʿd al-Dawla Tāj al-Maʿ[ālī]. Dating: mentions the number 491, presumably the year 491 AH = 1097/98 CE. On verso there are tables of Greek/Coptic numerals.

Right fragment: Letter fragment in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Arabic script (VMR)

Fragment, 11 lines in a chancery hand with not very legible script. Mamlukī names in pretty naskhī script on verso. Perforations of binding.

Arabic script (VMR)

Petition in Arabic script. There are multiple senders, one of whom may be the Jew Abū [...] (line 2). Much of the readily legible text is very formulaic. They refer to khurūj al-amr al-ʿāl ('the issuing of the elevated command').

Tax receipt, Fatimid. One registration mark; 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ḥamd al-shākirīn'. Written in the month of Jumād al-Ukhrā of an undeciphered year. Blank verso. Perforated for binding.

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Tax receipt, Fatimid. Two registration marks; 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāhi l-muwaffiq li-ḥamdihi' and 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ḥamd al-shākirīn'. Blank verso. Perforated for binding.

Arabic script (VMR)

Tax receipt, Fatimid. One registration mark; 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh al-wāḥid al-ḥaqq'. Blank verso. Perforated for binding.

Arabic script (VMR)

Letter in Arabic script. Begins with a basmala and taqbīl. Addressed to a certain Muḥammad called Samiyy al-Dawla Jamāl al-[...] (an amīr titled Samiyy al-Dawla also appears in a legal document: T-S Misc. 22.280 dated 4th Shaʿban 438 H/3rd February 1047, ed. Khan, ALAD, no. 55). The sender refers to his emotional state (wa-baqiya qalb al-mamlūk....; another possible reading is wa-yashfī qalb al-mamlūk). In the margin, the sender expresses his hope that a certain woman is in good health, and everyone under the addressee's care. On verso, refers to "a tremendous headache" and awaiting something. YU. ASE.

Jottings of accounts and calendrical notations in a mixture of Arabic script, Greek/Coptic numerals, and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century, based on handwriting. Alt description: A curious mix of notes, scripts, and a tidy hand of archival notes in Hebrew script on 18th C documents on verso. Notary's notepad?

Letter from Abū l-ʿAlā b. Hiba Abū l-Ḥasan(?) to Abū Saʿīd b. Abū Naṣr al-Mafjār (?) mentioning a letter that contained information regarding a mysterious trunk (ʿayba). The sender reports that the trunk is now with Abū l-Bishr. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Fragment (upper left corner). Seems to be an acknowledgment by the Rabbanite Jew named [ʿUmar?] b. Ibrāhīm known as Shams al-Dawla(?) in which he undertakes to pay support to a Rabbanite Jewish woman (presumably his wife or divorcee). Mentions paying daily a sum of silver (fiḍḍa) and providing food (ṭaʿām) and possibly water (?? inṣāf mā, but this could also say ayḍan fa-mā). Mentions children in the last line.