Geniza Lab

Magical fragment in Aramaic and perhaps some Judaeo-Arabic.

Magical fragment in Arabic script. It seems for ḍarabān (throbbing) of something.

Magical fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. For getting rid of an enemy.

Book of legal formularies and some literary text. Bifolium. The spaces remaining at the bottom of two of the pages are filled in with magical spells, one for calling down eternal fire on your enemies ("sure; good; tested").

A transliterated Latin prayer (borrowed from a Christian thief-catching ordeal), an Arabic version of a gnostic saying of Secundus the Silent Philosopher, a Hebrew praise of God, an Aramaic recipe for path-jumping and the beginning of an Aramaic recipe (for revelation?) to be performed before the Torah-ark (קדם ארונא) of the synagogue. Information from GRU catalog via FGP and Bohak, "Catching a Thief," (2006).

Amulet to protect Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen gaʾon b. Shelomo gaʾon (1127–39 CE), destroy his political enemies, and succeed before the government. (Information from CUDL)

Verso and bottom of recto: Amulet(s) for Makārim b. Nujūm to give him charm and grace and to silence his enemies. (Information from CUDL.)

Magical recipes for attaining love. "The first among these magical recipes is intended to ensure a great affection between a wife and her husband, erasing any animosity that might exist between them. The fragment preserves some beautiful biblical analogies.... The second recipe preserved in our fragment bears the title ‘Love’, emphasised by the drawing of a canopy over the word. It instructs the practitioner to take ‘seven leaves of laurel and grind them in old wine’, after which he is to write several magical names, perhaps using the mixture prepared earlier, or else, to write the names on the laurel leaves. The recipe ends with another biblical quotation, this time from the Song of Songs 8:7." Saar, O. (2010). T-S K12.89: ‘Like Esther in front of Ahasuerus’. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, July 2010]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55274

P1: f. 1r: description of a dream dated 525 AH (= 1130 CE); f. 1v: alchemical recipe called ‘the operation of mixture’; f. 2r: invocation to God. P2: f. 1r: alchemical recipe (continues from P1 f. 1v); f. 1v: calendar in which the Hebrew months of Sivan and Tammuz are mentioned; f. 2v: invocation to God and separate letters. P3: leaf 1: magical words and description of their use, with a mention of the city of Damascus; calendar mentioning Jewish festivals (Passover, Ḥanukka). P4: f. 1r: sequence of letters arranged according to the abrade; f. 1v: on the substitution of letters in words according to the Kabbalah; P4 leaf 2: calendar with mention of Hebrew festivals (continues from P3, leaf 1). P5: f. 1r: very damaged, only a few letters legible; f. 1v: list of some of the months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2r: description of movements of the sun (first 8 lines) and list of some months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2v: badly rubbed. P6: f. 1r: description of celestial phenomena; ff. 1v, leaf 2: on the reckoning of the days of the festival with mention of the leap year. P7: ff. 1r-2v: mention of a musical instrument in Arabic and Hebrew; f. 2r: mention of Rabban Gamaliel and reckoning for the rising of the New Moon. P8: unidentified Hebrew text. P9 recto: alchemical recipe involving the use of vitriol; verso: Arabic (separate letters and words and unidentified partial text). (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba, Palestinian, dated to the 10th or early 11th century. Reused for a magical text in Hebrew. Unusually, the later scribe also wrote over the text of the original ketubba. See Ginsburskaya, M. (2009). A Ketubba in Palimpsest (T-S K23.3). [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, December 2009]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55272

Magical spell in Hebrew, written in a cipher. Khatun the daughter of Qatzur adjures the jinn in her house to tell her where the gold coins are hidden. Similar ciphers may be found in T-S K5.7, T-S Misc.10.60, T-S Misc.11.91, T-S Misc.22.218, T-S K24.23, and ENA 3211.1–2 Information from Gideon Bohak, “Cracking the Code and Finding the Gold: A Dream Request from the Cairo Genizah,” in Juan Antonio Álvarez-Pedrosa Núñez and Sofía Torallas Tovar, eds., Edición de Textos Mágicos de la Antigüedad y de la Edad Media (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2010), 9-23.

Aggressive and erotic magical spells. Formulary. In Judaeo-Arabic, written in part with a cipher. Information from FGP

Magical fragment, perhaps. Unidentified alphabet or cipher.

Recto: Accounts in Arabic. Verso: Formulary for a love spell in Judaeo-Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.

Magical or esoteric text. Mainly in Hebrew and Aramaic.

A magical recipe with a drawing, entitled מצדת שפטים. Judaeo-Arabic translation and commentary of Deuteronomy 3:21-24 on f. 1v. (Information from CUDL.)

Magical fragment containing elaborate and vehement curses.

Formularies for curses.

Magic recipe.

Magic recipe.