Geniza Lab

Document, in a very faded Arabic script. Mentions a few commercial accounts, probably a receipt or just pen trails. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter with petition-like language. In Arabic script. Fragment (the ends of 7 lines are preserved from the lower part of the document). Concerning farming and safeguarding of land (fī zirāʿatih wa-ḥifẓihā wa-ṣawnihā) for a particular amount of time the parties had asked for (al-mudda alladhī iltamasūhā). Then deferent petition-like language: [anhā maml]ūkuhā dhālika ilayhā wa-raʾyuhā al-muwaffaq. Then urging haste, followed by petition-like language: ...wuṣūluh surʿa surʿa fa-anā muḥtāj ilayhi... wa-raʾyuhā al-muwaffaq in shāʾ allāh.

Verso: Tax receipt from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb, with holes at the margin. Registration mark - al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ʿalā niʿamih, praise be to God for his benefactions.

Tax receipt.

Tax receipt from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb. Multiple registration marks such as 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ʿalā niʿamih', praise be to God for his benefactions, and 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh shukran', praise be to God and gratitude.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Fragment (upper right corner). With text in the margins. Begins with a basmala and the phrase 'mamlūk al-ḥadra al-sāmīya' (the slave of the lofty presence). The addressee is a high official as he is referred to as the protege (ṣanīʿa) of the caliph (ʾAmīr al-Muʾminīn). Text in the margins reads partly as "بالبركة انجاز هذا ال… قالله يعين على … في خير وعافية".

Tax receipt.

Tax receipt, Fatimid. Registration mark - 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh bihi athiq', praise be to God in whom I trust.

Tax receipt.

List or table listing a bunch of names on both sides. Needs examination.

Note in Arabic script addressed to [al-]shaykh ʿUmar at Raʾs al-Khalīj ("the head of the canal"; there is apparently a site just south of Fustat with this name), "may God preserve him." As soon as he receives this note, he should assist the bearer Abū Saʿd the banker for the amīr (ṣayrafī lil-amīr al-makhdūm). The addressee should accompany him and diligently help him find a boat to rent passage in. "You need no exhorting in this, for he does not know the boats." Scrawled ḥamdala at the end.

Fragment, few lines a very faded script. Mentions silver pieces (waraq). Needs examination.

Tax receipt with holes at the margin. General note on ENA 3944: It appears that the tax receipts under the classmark ENA 3944 were stored together throughout the Middle Ages and remained together until Adler sold his collection to JTS, at which point they were put under the same volume classmark. They had apparently been turned into a quire of reused paper at some point during the Middle Ages. Some have holes at the margin where they were apparently bound together. Whether this run of tax receipts is really from the Geniza is unclear; one of them has an Ottoman-era stamp, suggesting that the collection may have been owned prior to its sale to the Bodleian before 1910 or to Adler before 1922. MR.

Tax receipt. Few names on verso.

Accounts, probably Ottoman/Turkish with two seals. Needs examination.

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

Medical recipe in a beautiful hand, from a literary text. Mentions antidote (tiryāq) and wheat flour (daqīq al-ḥinṭa).

Tax receipt for jizya in the name of Bū Naṣr al-Yahūdī for the year 514, beginning with addā and containing a registration mark.

Tax reciept for jizya in the name of [..] b. Ghālib with two registrations marks; 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh al-muʿīn al-dāʾim', praise be to God who is the steadfast supporter, and 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh waḥdahu karīm niʿamuhu', praise be to God who is one, generous are his benefactions. Dated 514 (517?).

Tax receipt, late Fatimid, for the jizya payment of a Jewish person (name difficult to read), with registration mark - 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh al-wāḥid al-ḥaqq', praise be to God who is One and He alone is the truth. Dated 562/1166-67. MR, YU.