Geniza Lab

Letter in Arabic script. The writer mentions his distress (al-shidda wa-l-ḍīqa wa-l-khawf). Later (three lines from the bottom) he clarifies that he is scared of the collectors of the capitation tax (aṣḥāb al-jawālī). The writer refers to the addressee as سيدنا القلفي and thanks him for his generosity (inʿām) and perhaps asks for more. ASE

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of two, a half, a quarter and a sixth (of a dirham?) for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: Middle of Dhū l-Qa‘da 403 AH, which is May 1013 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of two, a quarter and a sixth (dirhams?) for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: Beginning of Dhū l-Ḥijja 403 AH, which is June 1013 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: the ware-house keeper has paid the sum of two and a half (dirhams?) on behalf of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 10 Ṣafar 404 AH, which is August 1013 CE. Verso: beginning of an Arabic letter to a judge (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Recto: very damaged text of a makhzuma (ledger of receipts). Verso: makhzūma (ledger of receipts) submitted in Rajab 495 AH (= April-May 1102 CE) by Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, representative of a sugar cane extraction factory and a honey factory, to the office of supervision (dīwān al-ishrāf). The makhzūma is witnessed and signed by ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī. The accounts are for the kharājī years 490 and 491, corresponding respectively to 493/94 AH and 494/95 AH. The makhzūma was so named apparently owing to the fact that it was sealed or strung together with other leaves by 'piercing' (khazama). (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of 3 and a half and a sixteenth (dirhams?) for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 13 Jumādā II 403 AH, which is December 1012 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of 3 and a half and a sixteenth (dirhams?) for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Fakhr al-Dawla Abū l-Faḍl Jaʿfar b. Ibrāhīm b. Sulaymān. Dated: 30 Jumādā I 403 AH, which is December 1012 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Petition to the Ayyubid sultan al-ʿĀdil regarding the capitation tax. Dating: ca. 596–615 AH, which is 1200–18 CE. The petitioner asks that his tax rate be modified from the middle rate (2 dinars), which he cannot afford to pay, to the lower rate. On verso there are some Hebrew poetical texts (possibly piyyuṭ) mentioning Iṣḥaq Khanāf (?). (Information from Khan and CUDL)

Account for Shevat and Adar 1495 sel. ca. 1184. This is a single leaf from the notebook of Shemuel b. Saadya, written in two columns. A revenue list beginning in the first column continues in the upper part of the second one, and is followed by a list of expenditures. There are 19 items of revenue preserved, with a total for the two months of 441.5. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 359 #91)

List of about ninety persons receiving subsidies for their capitation tax obligation, similar to T-S K15.14 + T-S K15.66, Apps. 4-5. Many names and sums are identical. As in official documents from the Fatimid chancelleries, a blank space, three times as wide as the height of the script, is left between the lines. Thus, no doubt, the list was destined for public display. Col. I, l.2 'from the collection, pesiqa' is added because of a special circumstance. It was found that the person concerned was unable to pay even the very reduced rate of 1/4 dinar imposed on him. Verso col. II, l. 11: Yahya al-Majjani, 9 qirats. probably the well known merchant, in dire straits that year and in need of assistance with his capitation tax. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 440, App. B 6, dated 1040-1060)

List, long, irregularly written, mostly effaced, of males. In many cases sums like 1/3, 1/4 (dinars) 5 qirats added; in other instances, a well-to-do person such as the prominent banker Abu al-'Ala b. Sha'ya stands security (II, approx. l. 27). In several places the words 'may God have mercy upon him' are added, meaning the capitation tax had to be paid for persons who had died in debt to the state. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 455, App. B 59; verso = App. C 14)

List: “Register (thabat) of the names of the elders who...” written upside down on the reverse side of a list of payers of incomplete capitation taxes (see T-S K15.94). The superscription is nearly entirely effaced but the word ‘jarida’ (also register), mostly used on lists of the poor, is clearly visible in the second line. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 2:476) EMS

Petition to Saladin from ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yaḥyā, the Jew, a resident of Malīj, in the province of al-Gharbiyya, in the Delta. Dating: ca. 564–89 AH, which is 1169–93 CE. The petitioner complains about the tax collectors, who forced him to leave his family and job and to work for them, and asks for the issuing of a rescript that would allow him to go back to his town and family. On verso is an answer to the petition maintaining that since ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yaḥyā had some experience as a tax collector, he could not avoid this service. Also on verso is a work on calendar reckoning mentioning the maḥzorim, the moladot and the different kinds of Hebrew year; names of the months of the year in the Julian(!) calendar and the numbers of their days are written vertically on the leaf. There are also a few draft lines of some phrases contained in the petition that appears on verso, and a list of figures in the marginalia. (Information in part from CUDL)

Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Abū l-Majd is to expedite the payment of 81 dirhams to the Muslim Judge Shams al-Din. This is the remaining balance due for the capitation tax of the poor for the Muslim year 614 (ended March 29, 1218) for Shams al-Din. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Verso: Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Abū l-Majd is to send to al-Shaykh al-Thiqa quickly ('and by any stratagem') the payment of 35 dirhams, the remaining balance due for the capitation tax of the poor(?) for the Muslim year 614 (ended March 29, 1218) to the diwan of the Sultan. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Verso: Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Written in a mixture of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dated: 2 Iyyar 1529 Seleucid, which is 1218 CE. The cantor al-Makīn is to give the bearer, Faḍl al-Rashīd, a sum of money for the sake of 'jibāyat al-jawālī' (fundraising in order to pay capitation tax(es)). T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Verso: Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Abū l-Majd is to give the judge 20 dirhams apparently on account of the closure of the ritual slaughterhouse on the 9th of Av 1529 Seleucid (=1218 CE). T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Verso: Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Abū l-Majd is to give 10 dirhams to Yeshuʿa for teaching Ibn al-Ziftāwī through the end of Pesaḥ 1529 Seleucid (=1218 CE). T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic with some Arabic script. Abū l-Majd is to give 11 dirhams to Yeshuʿa as maintenance from the rent of the compound. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Abū l-Majd is to give the bearer 30 dirhams from the waqf of al-Muhadhdhab for somebody for teaching poor and orphaned children. The late R. Yeshuʿa is somehow involved. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)