Geniza Lab

Recto: The main text is a Judaeo-Arabic sermon/exhortation that in order to avert the evil decrees and the plague and the economic depression, all members of the community must repent of their sins. There is to be a series of three fasts incumbent on all except pregnant and nursing women. All members of the community who are not otherwise occupied are to attend minḥa at either the synagogue of the Turks or the synagogue of the Egyptians. Every individual is also to give pidyon (redemption) money, including for babies in their mothers' wombs, 18 silver coins per person. The language is heavily colloquial, essentially modern. There are two additional blocks of text in harder-to-read handwriting. Needs further examination. Verso: The back of the original document was reused for documents of betrothal.

Late accounts of some kind, perhaps funds collected from different individuals and congregations. The trader Merkado Karo is mentioned, placing the date ca. 1800 CE (one of the lists is also headed "in the year 55[..]"). In the same list on verso, many of the synagogues of Cairo/Fustat are mentioned, including the Portuguese Synagogue (קק פורתוגיזס), the Turkish Synagogue (תורקייה), the Synagogue of the Egyptian Jews (מצריים), the Synagogue of [Yaʿaqov] Abū Shaʿrah (אבו שערה), the Capousi Synagogue (קאפוסי), and the Zamiro Synagogue (קק זמירו), presumably identical with the Radbaz = David ibn Abi Zimra Synagogue. For the location and other information on several of these synagogues, see R. J. H. Gottheil, "A Cairo Synagogue Eleventh Century Document", JQR XIX (1907), 467–539. There are several more mentioned here that are not named in the Gottheil article.

28 pages of communal and financial and legal records. Pages 1 and 14 are registers of deaths, one on page 14 dated 1662 CE (5422). Pages 2–9 contain alternating entries in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic about who received how much, from whom, for what. Pages 10–13 are accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Page 15 is a fragmentary account of Ottoman rulers active in Egypt from 1659–72 CE (1070–72 Hijri), naming Gazi Basha, Usman al-Wali, Ḥasan Bey Mustafa, and others. There is also a small piece of a printed text peeping through a tear in the paper. Page 16 returns to accounts. Pages 17-19 have to do with the rents of the houses of the qodesh, listing their locations and tenants. Page 20 then moves onto the houses of the qodesh of the Musta'ribim Synagogue. Pages 22–23 are registers of births ca.1680 CE (e.g. 5436 and 5442). Pages 24–28 are mostly in Arabic script. Some of the birth and death registers are in the first person and in different hands. ASE.

Recto: The first few lines of an Ottoman-era legal document, bearing two seals and an annotation in a different hand, opening with an invocation of the Porte (bi-l-bāb al-ʿālī aʿlāhu) and pertaining to a certain Hanbali judge named Aḥmad b. Aḥmad Ḥijāzī al-Ajhūrī. Verso: In Hebrew script, the name of a syangogue or congregation (קק סקאלבין?).

List dated 1593 CE (referring to Elul 5353 and the beginning of 5354), headed "the remainder of the houses of the qodesh of the Musta'rib congregation. It then gives street names and lists of people, perhaps the tenants of the qodesh. Some of them have notes about rent payments as well--how much has been paid, how much remains to be paid. The list may be useful for cross-referencing people and locations from other 16th-century documents.

Colophon in Judaeo-Arabic. The work (...ʿalā madhhab al-[???]...) was completed in Rabīʿ I 1023 AH, which is 1614 CE, in the synagogue of al-Ḥakham ʿAṭiyya. There are several additional text blocks.

There are several different entries, and each seems to involve rent payments for the qodesh of the Synagogue of the Mustaʿribim. Quite faded, merits further examination. Two of the entries are dated 5349 and 5351 respectively, so the document was produced ca.1590 CE.

Short note by the gabbai Avraham Yuʿbaṣ affirming that Kasīm (?) Meyuḥas will rent a house in "darb al-midrash" (reading ḍarb as darb) somehow reated to the synagogue of the Mustaʿribim from the 7th of Elul II until the end of Elul of the year 1779 (5539) for 300 a month, yielding a total of 2100. The number 1050 is also given, perhaps a down payment?

Late legal document in Hebrew regarding a partnership (one of the partners is named Faraj). It refers to the quppah of the synagogue of the Musta'ribim (קק מוסתערב).

Accounts for the months of Tishrei and Heshvan. Income is listed from individuals as well as from two synagogues: that of R. Hayyim [Capousi] and the Turkish Synagogue. Verso: Writing exercise.

Receipt for a night in the dormitory of a synagogue and the Zionist man was staying in Cairo – 15 July 1949CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 107) – in Arabic and Hebrew. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 70). MCD.

Receipt from a synagogue of the Ashkenazi Jews in Cairo – 1943CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 158) – in Hebrew and French. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 69). MCD.

Announcement on an important meeting of the Jewish communities of Egypt at the site of the Ismaʿīli Synagogue in Cairo, on the finances of the communities – May 19 1947CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 167) – in French. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 51). MCD.

Announcement for the Day of Geniza on which old prayerbooks unfit for repair will be transferred to the cave in the Bassatine and the process will take place at 8:30am from the Ustāḏ Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter after the "Shahrit" [morning] prayer – Sunday 18 December 1949CE / 27 Kislev 5710AM – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 200) in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 43). An original scan of this announcement is available in Al-Janiza wa-l-maʿābid al-Yahūdiyya fī Miṣr (p. 200). MCD.

Letter from the Grand Rabbinate of Cairo to Kẖawaja Nesīr Bēsaḥ president of the Heliopolis synagogue (Maṣr al-Jadīda) regarding the person known as Levi ʿArūsa, who dares to slaughter poultry despite that he does not have the requisite method for slaughter – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 209) – in Arabic and Hebrew. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 38). This may be a reference to the Vitali Madjar Synagogue in Heliopolis whose construction was completed in 1924. MCD.

Announcement to the members of the Jewish community of Cairo on the occasion of the yearly visit to the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat – undated – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 217) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 40). MCD.

Announcement written in Yiddish from the committee of Ashkenazi Jewish synagogues of Cairo about the reservation of places in the main synagogue and urging those who have not reserved that it is required without a lease and for the late-comers to reserve their places by noon on Sunday October 2 1921CE – undated, but before October 1921CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 221) in Yiddish and French. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 37). MCD.

Account statements for the Shabbat Aḥīm Synagogue in New Cairo – 1923-1924CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 227) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 74). MCD.

Invitation from the Jewish community of Maḥallah al-Kubra for a visit to the synagogue of "Ḥayyim al-Amshaṭī" – 5 April 1950 – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 246) – in Arabic and French. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 54). MCD.

Letter written in Tel-Aviv to a person named Marko inviting him into the agreement with the contractor Albert Ḥanān Lilbet[?] in the restoration and repairs of the synagogue – August 22 1943CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 261) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 71). MCD.