Geniza Lab

A list from a greengrocer or druggist? Or a shopping list? In Judaeo-Arabic. Written in a crude or at least hasty hand. Many names of foods and herbs are given along with some people's names. Items include sumac, chard (salq), rue (sadhāb), green onion (baṣal akhḍar) or alternatively another kind of onion (baṣal [...]), mulūkhiyya, taḥīna, coriander, linseed oil (zayt hār), olive oil (zayt ṭayyib), honey ("from the kitchen/factory (maṭbakh) of Bū [...]"), saffron (followed by the name Bū Manṣūr), mastic (followed by the name Bū l-Faḍl), pepper (followed by the name Bū ʿAlī b. Bū Daʾūd), and cinnamon (followed by the name Saloman [sic!] al-ʿAṭṭār). In line three the writer seems to offer an option: "and if we/you think best (wa-in kān narāhu [or yarāhu?]... or mulūkhiyya...."

Accounts of a druggist in a medieval hand, with materia medica listed on the right together with their quantities and/or prices, and names of customers listed on the left. "What was sold from the dukkān of Abū l-Munā b. Ḥasan on the date of Tuesday, the 21st of Dhū l-Ḥijjah."

Accounts of a druggist in a medieval hand.

Account in Judaeo-Arabic listing many materia medica and foods.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic mainly for materia medica.

Recto: Medical recipes. In Judaeo-Arabic. The first includes ingredients such as Indian salt, anise, and chicory water. The second (for headaches and for excessive moisture in the head and the eyes) includes ingredients such as sugar, Socotrine aloe, turpeth, and myrobalan. Verso: Story about al-Ma'mūn and ʿĪsā. In Judaeo-Arabic. The page opens with some medical language—so it is possible that the recipes on recto are part of this story.

List of goods and their quantities or prices/weights in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentions numerous materia medica: barbārīs, jullanār, tamr hindī, ghārīqūn, bizr shāhtaraj, ṭīn rūmī, etc. Some entries are crossed out.

Letter from Ṣedaqa b. Aharon (?) the druggist to Abū Saʿīd the druggist, ordering materia medica, including, fine Iraqi saffron; aloe wood (ʿūd); aged camphor (kāfūr); Iraqi turpeth (turbid); Iraqi sulfur (kibrīt); and something Hamadānī (?). He adds a recommendation for the bearer ('from a good family') in a postscript. ASE.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The main part deals with business transactions, including shipments of Marāzībī tutty and walnuts. Abū l-Faḍl b. Maʿlā is mentioned, probably identical with the Abū l-Faḍl Yūsuf b. Maʿlā of T-S 13J14.12 and T-S 13J15.3. The margin contains part of a recommendation for a poor man (the bearer of the letter?), naked and lost, "yatīm al-aḥyā'." ASE

Document in striking red ink. Appears to have the form of a letter (opens with "that which you desire to know:") but consists of a long list of materia medica and numbers. Perhaps an inventory of a drug store?

Inventory of a part of a drugstore prepared by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu - see Goitein Nachlass material

Letter from Binyām (Binyamin) of Rosetta, probably in Alexandria, to Abū Saʿīd the gallnut merchant, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Containing urgent instructions to sell or to send certain drugs, metallic dyes, and medical plants, ca. 1120. See Bodl. MS heb. d 66/52, esp. r8–10, for their identities. Goods named in this letter include afsantīn (wormwood); kundus (baby's breath); zunjufr (cinnabar); sunbul (spikenard); quṣṭ (=qusṭ, alecost or costus); martak (litharge); salaqūn (red lead); jullanār (pomegranate blossom); qiṭna or qaṭina (a cryptic term which may simply be a derivative of cotton, but in this form means 'omasum' according to the dictionaries); אבר (either abār, meaning lead, or ibar, meaning "needles"); khaskhāsh abyaḍ (white poppy); 1000 dūdīyya li-l-misk (Goitein suggests astringent kermes worms); qurashiyya (Goitein suggests "odoriferous claws"; Lisān al-ʿArab says it is a type of wheat); and asārūn (asarabacca), which [in Rosetta, probably] is going for 1 dinar, due to demand from the Andalusians. The writer will promptly send money, or if the addressee desires, he may take the payment from Abū Naṣr b. Shaʿyā. Information largely from Goitein's attached notes. Cf. T-S NS 321.60, same sender and same addressee. ASE.

Table of materia medica or perfumes and their value in dinars. In Judaeo-Arabic. Items include three kinds of aloe (ʿūd), ambergris (ʿanbar), perfume (? ʿabir), ben oil (bān), and two kinds of saffron. Verso: Block of text in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 12th or 13th century. Ordering drugs (ḥawā'ij ʿiṭr), some of which may be read on verso, such as quince syrup and rose syrup.

Note in Judaeo-Arabic. Written in a crude hand. Probably an order for numerous materia medica (including one cryptically called "the beauty of Joseph / ḥusn Yūsuf"). The writer will send payment on Monday. And "regarding the eggs I owe you, I sent them to you on Sunday with the woman."

Recto: The first part is a description of a plant (ḥashīsha) that is effective against toothache. Its branches and leaves are like those of the eggplant plant; it has something on its branches that resembles a white mulberry but it is actually a fine thorn pod that latches on to anything it touches; indeed it cannot be touched due to its roughness; it has no fruit except for this white mulberry-like thorn. The second part is a wine recipe, translated by Goitein (Med. Soc. IV, p. 260): "Take two and a half dirhems' weight of each of the following: lichen (shayba), ginger, pepper, and barley flour, and half a dirhem of saffron. Mix all these together, pound them and bind the mixture with the same quantity [weight] of Egyptian bee honey and put it aside. Put two and a half dirhems' weight of this, together with one dirhem of colophony (qulfūniya or qalafūniya, a resin extracted from a pine tree or a terebinth), into each jar and plaster it over (wa-tulayyis). Leave it in the sun for seven days, after which it can be used. If you wish to have vinegar, put only one and a quarter of this stuff into each jar and leave it in the sun for eleven days. (Information in part from Ekaterina Pukhovaia.) ASE

Business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender addresses a certain Avraham and a certain Abūn (both on recto). Most of the commodities mentioned are materia medica, including balm seed (ḥabb al-balasān), chebulic myrobalan, rhubarb, and kohl. Very faded. There are also remnants of a few words in very large Arabic script, perhaps from a state document. ASE

Recto: Medical prescription in Arabic script. Beginning with dragon's blood (dam akhawayn). Verso: Difficult to read, but also a document in Arabic script.

Letter addressed to Abū l-Ṭāhir al-ʿAṭṭār (the druggist). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century. Concerning the India trade. Giving details about 15 or so spices and their prices in Fustat. The writer first assures the addressee that his children are well and that many people are traveling from Fustat. He orders a couple mystery items: רבע פילס נרזד and גוז אצטראמי טואל. Information from Goitein's attached notes.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Appears to be the handwriting of Yiṣḥaq b. Simḥa Nīsābūrī. Dating: 11th century. Mentions ships from various places including three from al-Mahdiyya and others from al-Andalus. The writer had three successive illnesses over the last month and a half, but he is now better and back to work (al-yawm anā mutaṣarrif), "unless another one comes over me." The writer has sent with Abū l-Ḥasan al-Mazīdī a flask of quince oxymel (sakanjabīn safarjalī) and a "nice" flask containing an unripe-grape rob (rubb ḥiṣrim) and a little quince. Alas, "the ḥiṣrim here is not like the Levantine ḥiṣrim" (cf. T-S 13J23.17, also featuring ḥiṣrim shāmī). Further down, the writer discusses the price of silk.