Geniza Lab

Medical recipes in Judaeo-Arabic, two folios faded with water damage but legible in most places. On the recto of the first folio the term "rūḥ / רוח" is reused in varied combinations such as "רוח אל כצרד", "רוח אל שראב", "רוח אל בארוד" (l. 7r, 10r, 13r). On the first folio's verso the unit of measure "אווק" is also in use which in medieval Geniza documents is similar to our current notion of ounces that are proportional to pounds (Goldberg, Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean, xix). In an early modern context, however, these "אווק" may indicate a much heavier unit of weight closer to 1.28 kilograms per "אווק" (Pamuk, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, 157). These units are accompanied by eastern Arabic numerals that indicate the weight of ingredients such as "wax / שמע" and perhaps "saffron / זפראן" (f. 1 l. 6-7v). Based on the script usage in this fragment it is likely that its date of recording lies between the 15th-19th centuries therfore these weights are more likely in the heavier Ottoman-era variant of "אווק". MCD.