Geniza Lab

Note to Moses Gaster, in Hebrew, concerning a delay in the delivery of a crate.

Modern letter in Hebrew and Yiddish. Probably from Gaster's personal archive.

Legal document. Location: Tehran ('on the river Zu l-Qarnayn'). Dated: Tuesday, 16 Av 5673 AM, which is 1913 CE. Concerning the sending of a bill of divorce from Mashiaḥ/Masīḥ b. Shelomo to his wife Sulṭāna bt. Eliyya Shākī. It seems that the agent appointed to deliver the get, Yeḥezqel b. Yehuda, is appointing Nūrallāh b. Moshe to be his agent. There are witnesses listed in the document as well as witnesses underneath, and a seal in purple ink with both Hebrew and Arabic script.

The bill of divorce that is the subject of JRL Gaster heb. ms 1636/12a.

Prayer for Moses Montefiore, composed by Shabbetay Elḥanan טריויש in 1840/41 CE. Printed in Trieste in 1845/46 CE. There are many additional names in the document.

Prayer for Queen Victoria, Albert, and Edward Prince of Wales. Calligraphic, multicolored, in the shape of an orb, and written in both Hebrew and English. Almost certainly from Gaster's personal collection rather than the Cairo Geniza. There are four other blocks of text from various parts on the other quadrants (to be folded into a siddur?).

Table of contents of a literary work: sermon(?) funebre, sermon moral, orden de la oracion, sermon penitencial, vindiciae judeorum, A Short Demurrer to the Jewes, Collection of Testimonies Concerning Religious Liberty. Probably not Geniza.

Two or three amulets containing remarkable illustrations: a demon with a tail, tutu, scepter, horns, and curly hair; a seated woman; and a man being swallowed by a fish. The text surrounding the images is mainly in Hebrew, but there is also Arabic script and possibly some Judaeo-Persian. Gaster acquired these items from Tehran via Alfandary Bros., Oriental Merchants, April 1914 CE; this shelfmark also contains Gaster's provenance notes and the original letter he received from M. Alfandary accompanying the shipment.

List of notables of the Karaite community. Location: Probably Chufut-Kale, Crimea (and not Cairo, as catalogued). Dated: 18 Iyyar 5565 AM, which is 1805 CE. The list begins with the Av Bet Din Binyamin Agha b. Shemuel Agha, on whom see Nemoy, "Isaac ben Solomon on the Karaite Creed," JQR 80 1/2 (1989), 49–85.

Letter or letters. Ashkenazi. Dating: 1836 CE. Needs examination.

Non-Geniza. Letter addressed to the Qaraite judge Shemuel b. Avraham, in Troki. Dating: Probably 5560 AM, which is 1800 CE.

Non-Geniza. Legal document or documents. Dating: Catalouged as 1779 CE.

Non-Geniza. Letter from Moshe b. Simḥa, in Lutsk, to Shelomo Yedidya, in Troki. Dating: Catalogued as 1726 CE.

Non-Geniza. Letter from Shemuel to Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham, in Ponevezh (Panevėžys). Dating: Catalogued as 1739 CE.

Non-Geniza. Letter addressed to Shalom b. Simḥa, in שאטא/Szaty/Šėta. Dating: Catalogued as 1735 CE.

Non-Geniza. Letter to Avraham b. Aharon of Troki. 1680 CE. (Information from NLI.)

Non-Geniza. Letter from Avraham b. Simḥa, in Kukeziv (Ukraine), to Sar Shalom b. Simḥa, in Novgorod. 1719 CE. Information from NLI.

Hebrew medical treatise, including Chapter 18 on the development of the embryo.

Non-Geniza. List of historical events spanning the years 1680–1730 CE involving the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. In Hebrew.

Non-Geniza. Letter from Avraham b. Yaʿaqov to Yehuda b. Moshe. In Hebrew, Ashkenazi hand. Dated: 10 Adar II 5570 AM, which is 1810 CE.