Geniza Lab

Notebook, probably belonging to a 15th-century Byzantine merchant, filled with records of various transactions. The language is primarily Hebrew but the months are Julian (אפריל ,דסמבר etc.). Many business partners are named, at least some of whom have Greek names (e.g. Manolis on folio 5). The accounts may include Judaeo-Greek on folios 1 and 15. See folio 26 for the probable dating.

Notebook, probably belonging to a 15th-century Byzantine merchant, filled with records of various transactions. The language is primarily Hebrew but the months are Julian (אפריל ,דסמבר etc.). Many business partners are named, at least some of whom have Greek names (e.g. Manolis on folio 5). The accounts may include Judaeo-Greek on folios 1 and 15. See folio 26 for the probable dating.

Talmud, apparently in a 14th or 15th-century Byzantine hand. See folio 26 for the probable dating.

Literary, probably. Very faded. See folio 26 for the probable dating.

Literary, probably. Very faded. See folio 26 for the probable dating.

Letter in Hebrew. Needs examination. See folio 26 for the probable dating.

Medical recipes in Judaeo-Arabic. Using various kinds of myrobalan (halīlaj kābulī, balīlaj, amlaj). The second is for 'the great iṭrīfal' (a common medical term derived from Sanskrit triphala).

Letter in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Letter draft and jottings in Arabic script.

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: Likely 11th or early 12th century.

Translation of Numbers 1–3 (somewhat jumbled up) into Arabic, in Arabic script. Mostly a translation, presumably Karaite, with occasional transliterations at the beginnings of verses.

Legal document in Arabic script. Perhaps an iqrār made by Aḥmad b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbs(?). Mentions Cairo in line 6 and may also mention zakāt earlier in the same line. Needs examination.

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Reports on a scandalous matter involving one of the supporters of Ibn al-Sadīd, one of the slaves of the king, a decree (marsūm), someone throwing something in someone's face and one of the two men getting angry (ḥaniqa) and marching off to the king, who also seems to have gotten angry. There is a cryptic warning about something in the margin. ASE

Account ledger in a mixture of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic (and Greek/Coptic numerals). Fol. 1r: Mentions two lumps of gold (faṣṣayn dhahab). One entry reads "the acquaintance of my brother-in-law al-Thiqa in the Fayyūm whose name is [...]. 7 1/4 dirhams." An Abū l-Faraj is also mentioned. Fol. 1v: The main text appears to be a donors/revenue list in Judaeo-Arabic. al-Thiqa: 3. Kāfūr: 1 (crossed out). Mufaḍḍal b. N[...]: 3. Ibn al-Sadīd: 2. Ibn Saʿd al-Mulk: 2. Abū l-Faraj: 1. "The delayed"(?): 14, 16. "We took from the house of the captive": 8. There are also a few lines of accounting in Arabic script. Fol. 2r: Mentions ʿAlī the neighbor of Ṣāliḥ and al-Zakiyy b. al-Nākhudhā. Fol. 2v: Mentions Ḥasan of Dār al-Raqīq (which may be the slave market); Ismāʿīl al-Qazzāz(?) al-Maghribī who lives on Darb al-Nā'ib; and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ḥadīd.

Condolence and business letter to the brothers Eliyyahu and Leon.

Letter in Arabic script. Ḥaḍara baʿd ijtimāʿī bi-haḍrat mawlāy al-[...] al-ajall.... Needs examination. On verso there is Hebrew literary text in a rudimentary hand.

Letter/petition. Draft. From Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-ʿIzz to Avraham Maimonides. On recto there are two efforts at the same letter. One can see the writer working out the best way to phrase things. The prose is elaborate and often rhymed ('the reason for [some lapse] was the debts (al-duyūn) and not madness (al-junūn)'). In line 13, the writer gets to the point: he asks for forgiveness for something and asks for 'the strengthening of his heart' (ijbār qalb al-mamlūk) and something that will 'console' the writer (yaslūh) given what he has lost—typical phrases in the context of grief and letters of condolence, but plausibly also just asking for money. On verso there is the draft of a letter in Arabic script to 'my brother'—so not the same letter. Only the formulaic beginning is preserved. On verso there is also a list of names in Judaeo-Arabic: Ibn al-ʿŪdī Abū l-Ḥasan and his brothers Abū l-Faḍl and Abū l-ʿIzz, and his grandfather Abū l-Riḍā. Also Abū l-Majd b. Hibatallāh.

Midrash Tehillim, and Sefer ha-Shem by Avraham Ibn Ezra.

Order of payment (or bill?) in Arabic script. Abū l-Khayr al-ʿAṭṭār is to pay 80 dirhams out of the price of the drugs/perfume. The scribe had some trouble with the pen and ink: the script deteriorates in the fourth line, a fifth line (yadfaʿ al-shay...) was started and abandoned, and there are scribbles and smudges and several fingerprints.

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Two bifolia from a ledger. The hand may be known. Dating: Likely 11th century.