Geniza Lab

Legal document. Fragment (upper right corner). Wide space between the lines, in which someone has copied some of the text as writing practice. [...] bt. Yosef the wife of Bishr b. Mubārak testifies something to do with giving something to a man and a guardian and selling something. On verso there is poetry in Arabic script.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. Very faded.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender seems to be imploring the addressee to resume his correspondence, for "I used to be like a son to you." (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Isma’il b. Farah from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1060. The letter deals with shipments of goods that arrived in Alexandria and have being sent to Fustat. Mentions difficulties in selling wax. Nahray sold Isma’il’s old wheat and bought new wheat for him. In Alexandria, they are expecting the first ships (the letter is from the beginning of Tamuz). Mentions details about ships that left the Maghreb but still on their way. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #497) VMR

Fragment of a letter from Efrayim b. Shemarya, around 1030. Writes about the events in Mount of olives, and some words about the ban on the Karaites and the authorities' response, that is known from Shelomo b. Yehuda's letters. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 pp. 598-599, #327). VMR There is Efrayim b. Shemarya's Arabic hand in the margin and dispersed throughout the letter.

Letter from the Jewish community of [Minyat] al-Qā'id (?) to a certain Abū Isḥāq (?). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment only.

Letter in Hebrew. Small fragment.

Letter in Hebrew, possibly begging for charity. Probably late. Needs examination.

Beginning of a petition from the wife of Abū ʿAlī al-Sukkarī to an unidentified ḥaver. In Judaeo-Arabic. Written in a crude hand. She says that she is a sick woman and presumably goes on to ask for help, but the continuation is lost. In the upper margin, there is a jotting in Arabic script (a basmala?) and a copy of the first words of the letter, in a different hand and ink. Verso contains a Hebrew blessing. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter in Hebrew with wide space between the lines. Fragment.

Letter from someone calling himself Ra's al-Kull (in the address) to somebody in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Needs examination.

Small fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Only the opening greetings are preserved. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in Ladino. Fragment from the end of the letter. Mentions Damietta, and includes well wishes for numerous contacts and family members.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother or brothers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner of recto). He complains about separation and neglect. (Information in part from CUDL)

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Mentions Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Yaʿaqov.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic to Wuhayb b. Avraham and Saʿīd b. [...]. Fragment.

Tiny fragment containing an order for an ounce of ʿaqīd (a dense sugar syrup). In Judaeo-Arabic. From Abū Zikrī Kohen? There is also some text in Arabic script.

Letter of recommendation for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks the addressee to arrange a collection (jibāya) to raise funds for the letter-bearer, the cantor Elʿazar b. Yoshiyya. The congregation should also solicit from people who are absent from the synagogue. Ends with the motto "Yeshuʿa."

Legal testimony. Fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Involves a certain Manṣūr. There are pen trials in Hebrew and Arabic on verso.

Torn fragments from a court record regarding claim of inheritance of 31 dinars, between Ḥasūna and Manṣūr b. Efrayim her uncle. It seems that one of the parties went to Gentile court regarding this claim. The letters are quite strange looking. Join: Oded Zinger. AA