Geniza Lab

Document in Yiddish. Dated: 5637 AM, which is 1876/77 CE. Recto: This fragment is a page of the accounts book of the Bikur Holim [Visiting the Sick] Society of Cairo for the year 1876–77. The Yiddish text lists the expenses of the Society for the year, but the fragment does not include the actual amount for each item. These expenses include those for staffing (for the Jewess of the hospital, the sexton, Doctor Hess), for laundry and cleaning, for repairs and upkeep, for ink and paper, and for postal fees. It lists costs for sending patients to the hospital as well as expenses incurred for handling the deceased, including costs for candles placed beside the corpse, cost of guarding the corpse and of cleaning the hospital after a death. A few specific family names are listed, including Shpiglman, Herman, Hess and Perets. Place names listed include Warsaw and Keshenof [probably Kishinev] The ledger page is signed by Yosef Berkovitsh who held the accounts of the Society. The page is stamped with the official stamp of the Ashkenazi Bikur Holim Society, which reads (in Italian): Società Soc{c}orsale de{gl}i Am{m}alati {della Communità} Israelitica Tedesca in Cairo 1867. Verso: This Yiddish fragment is a list of accounts receivable from people who have paid or are owing payment. Amounts are listed in 4 columns but the column headings are missing so it is unclear what each figure represents. Only a few family names are listed, including Stoler, Eynbinder, Zoger, Kats, Shmikler, Avtsi. Most entries are only by personal name. The amounts listed seem to refer to dues [uncertain - using the abbreviation Kh”d], pledges, circumcisions, guarding [the infant prior to circumcision], weddings and being called to the Torah on Passover. Information kindly provided by Agnes Romer Segal, January 2021.

Informal note (with a legal purpose) in the hand of Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef Kohen addressed to a judge called 'Rabbenu ha-Rav.' In Judaeo-Arabic. Abū Zikrī reports that as he was passing by the hospital (māristān) he saw a young man (al-ṣabiyy) delivering a court summons in the hand of al-Nezer (=Natan b. Shemuel) to his legal rival Abū Saʿīd b. Qaṭṭūs. Abū Saʿīd refused to obey unless an official court messenger (rasūl) delivered the summons. Abū Zikrī butted in and told Abū Saʿid to comply, and Abū Saʿīd said he would do so. But shortly afterward, the young man caught up with Abū Zikrī and told him that Abū Saʿid didn't comply. On verso there are a few words in Arabic script (and possibly more than a few words—they are currently covered by a sheet of paper). (Information from Goitein's notes and from Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Statement from the Jewish hospital in Cairo to a supervisor that the social center in Cairo will not be providing morning meals – June 28 1965CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 52) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 60). MCD.

Notice from the president of the board of directors of the Jewish hospital to supervisor Mr. Eliyyahu Ḥayyim of the social center in Cairo to maintain responsibility over providing the free daily breakfasts despite the prior notice – 4 July 1965 – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 52) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 63). The prior notice is likely MIAC 196– dated June 29, 1965 –ordering the cancellation of these breakfasts. MIAC 52 is the latest dated document in the Rabīʿa's museum catalogue and therefore may represent the most recent document from the genizot of Cairo that is held by an archival institution. MCD.

Autograph letter from Avraham Maimonides to his "dear son" (i.e., congenial pupil) Yosef. In Judaeo-Arabic. Avraham excuses his absence from a student's recent wedding, saying, "The night of your wedding was the night of my turn to be on duty at the hospital, and I could not at that time put it off for reasons it would take too long to explain" (translation from Mark Cohen, “The Burdensome Life of a Jewish Physician and Communal Leader,” p. 135).

Letter from a sick man to a physician. In Arabic script. The verso is written at 90 degrees to the recto, which is unusual, but appears to be the same handwriting and the same letter. Mentions: "on Sunday... you wrote us a copy/prescription (nuskha)... my mother(?), another time to you, and compound for her... she/I entered the bath after two days... by your religion, prescribe me a medicine that will benefit me... I have / she has perished, we are all prostrated, I have no one to go out and bring me anything, and (your) kindness will not be lost on God the exalted. They said to me that it/he is a piece of flesh (qiṭʿat laḥm = a common phrase for describing a wretched sick person)... obtain(?) for me from the hospital (al-maristān) palm ointment (marham nakhlī, cf. T-S 8J20.26 and Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.22), and if I recover / she recovers... {your} kindness will not be lost on me. I salute/greet you (qaraʾtu ʿalayka al-salām)." ASE

Petition from the Jewish physician Sulaymān b. Mūsā. In Arabic script. He reports that he "was raised among the physicians of the hospital (māristān) in Old Cairo, and he is one of the sons of the physicians who are employed there, and he has attended. . . .” The continuation is missing. He is presumably leading up to a request that he be formally employed at the hospital himself. On verso there is part of a medical notebook dealing with ophthalmology. Recto contains a list of simples used for curing eye complaints and follows roughly the list found in ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, Tadhkirat al-kaḥḥālīn (ed. Hyderabad 1964, p. 347). Simples mentioned include antimony, sarcocolla, ceruse, acacia, lichen, gum of sal ammoniac, myrtle, melitot, galbanum, onions, borax, lettuce seeds, zinc oxide, and egg white. (Information in part from CUDL.)