Geniza Lab

State document. Petition in Arabic script, opening only. Probably a draft. It consists of an "I kiss the ground" (taqbīl) clause followed by ~10 extravagant titles and some blessings and a plea for indulgence, then "wa-yunhī," then nothing. ASE.

State document, Fatimid period. Petition or report to a vizier (beginning only), possibly under al-ʿAḍid (see line 4, where the blessing uses the verb ʿaḍada; thanks to Lara Balaa for this observation). (MR)

Bottom of a petition. In Arabic script. Dating: Perhaps Ayyubid-era, based on the titles. The addressee (the caliph or vizier?) is asked to issue (or have issued) "the noble rescript" (al-tawqīʿ al-karīm) to al-Qāḍī al-Muwaffaq al-Sadīd Sayf al-Dīn(?). Might mention "the doctors" (الطب). Reused for Hebrew jottings. Needs further examination.

Petition from a woman to a group of men, presumably communal leaders: [...] wa-sādatī wa-l-ʿazīzīn ʿalayya wa-ʿindī. She says "I am perplexed (wa-anā ḥāʾira) and do not know [...]." She mentions her small daughter (and a female slave (waṣīfa)?), her father, and a man who was very sick. AA. ASE.

Recto: Petition, fragment. Perhaps involving the plunder and occupation of a house (....al-bayt wa-nahabū... ikhrājuhum ʿanhu... fa-mā li-l-mamlūk illā marāḥim al-mawlā...). The form of the ra'y clause that appears here (wa-l-ra'y aʿlā) is typical of Ayyubid-era petitions. Mentioned several times in Geoffrey Khan's work (Khan, Historical Dev, 21; JRAS 52; ALAD, 315 n43, 373, 396). AA. ASE.

Opening of a petition (or report) to the caliph al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh, mentioning Ḥusayn b. Yasīr. Dating: 1021–36 CE. On verso there is an Aramaic targum to Isaiah 22. (Information from Khan and 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)

Opening of a petition to an Ayyubid sultan, possibly Al-ʿĀdil I (13th century). On verso there is a piyyuṭ, possibly for Yom Kippur. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

Letter or petition in Hebrew and Arabic, private rather than state. On verso is a detailed curse in Judaeo-Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew against whoever stole the dinar from Mashiaḥ b. Ṣemaḥ. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Petition to the vizier Ibn al-Salār from an impoverished army veteran who had served in ʿAsqalān. Dating: 544–48 AH, which is 1149–53 CE. (Information from Khan.)

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)

Recto: Petition or report to a Fatimid vizier, ending only, including raʾy, ḥamdala and ḥasbala. 5th century AH/11th century CE. Possible join with T-S Ar.22.140 which uses the same titulature. Verso: Hebrew poetry.

Petition from Ṣāliḥ al-Khaybārī, a Jew from the community of Baghdad, to the Fatimid amīr Tāj al-Dawla. In Arabic script. Ṣāliḥ petitions regarding a miserable situation into which he fell after a pledge made to Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b. Ḥasan. As a consequence, Ṣāliḥ was imprisoned for six months and is still in debt for 300 dinars. In order to repay his debt he was given the task of producing a tunic out of two pieces of Persian fabric, one yellow and one white. This task has not yet been completed, and Ṣāliḥ seems to be seeking the amīr’s understanding and support in this delay. Dating: ca. 11th century. On recto and between the lines and in the margins of verso, there is a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on passages from Genesis, including the days of the creation, the creation of men and the incident of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Report to a Fatimid vizier. Khan published T-S K25.221 as the end of petition, but it's impossible to know whether it's a petition or a report. If this join is correct, it's a report. The two fragments are the same size, format, layout and titulature. The differences in the hand on the two documents could be an artifact of the fact that the text on T-S K25.221 is the end of the document and is formulaic, so less carefully written. T-S Ar.22140 was reused for a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on Isaiah 54:1 and 1 Samuel 1:11; T-S K25.221 was reused Hebrew poetry, headed כפיף, and for Arabic accounts. Join: Marina Rustow. (Information from Khan, from CUDL and from Marina Rustow.)

Petition concerning someone named Simeon (سمیون), most likely a Christian. 6 short lines and 3 long lines are preserved. May mention Yemen in l. 5. The fragment is made of two pieces of paper glued together. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Petition opening to a vizier of al-Ḥāfiẓ. Dating: 531–33 AH, which is 1137–39 CE. On verso there is a Hebrew liturgical text. (Information from Khan.)

Letter/report/petition addressed to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Concerns Ḥāzim the tax rallier (ḥashshār) who was placed under house arrest (tarsīm) and relieved of his duties. Someone else took over his position, which was agreeable to the Jews of the area (aṣḥābnā) until the new administrator (ʿāmil) Abū l-Fakhr arrived, who began oppressing the Jews. A cantor known as al-Peʾer opposed him and was also fined or subjected to tarsīm. The next part is damaged, and the bottom part is missing.

Fol. 2v: beginning of a draft petition to the caliph al-Mustanṣir from a man seeking employment in the caliph’s service. Dating: ca. 427-487 AH (= 1036-1094 CE). On the other pages, a portion of a masoretic treatise discussing qere-ketiv and mappiq in final he. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Deed in which Abū Saʿd Efrayim b. ʿEli the Jew acquires the lease of a plot of land in Fusṭāṭ from Abū l-Futūḥ Ghālib b. Fahd, the clerk in charge of government foundations, under the supervision of Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿUbaydallāh al-Qāʾifī. The property abuts the cemetery, a plot rented by Abū l-Ṭāhir b. al-Bayān, a plot rented by ʿAdwa bt. ʿAskar, and the house of Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥākim. Dated: Ṣafar 509 AH (July 1115 CE). Witnessed by Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿUbaydallāh al-Qāʾifī, Ibrahim b. Aḥmad b. Manṣūr, Al-Ḥusayn b. Musāfir b. al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad, ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. Hibatallāh, and Murshid b. Yaḥyā Ibn al-Qāsim al-Madanī. Contains a phantom petition. On verso, the son of Efrayim, Abū l-Ḥusayn ʿEli b. Efrayim b. ʿEli the Jewish sawduster, transfers the leasehold of the property sold on recto to his son ʿAlī, by way of his uncle Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn, known as Ibn Ḥayyūn the cashier. Dated Shaʿbān 532 AH (May 1138 CE). Witnessed by Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Qāʾifī and Hibatallāh b. Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad b. Jābir. (Information from Khan, from CUDL and from Marina Rustow)

Recto: Petition or letter. In Arabic script. Dating: late 11th century. Excerpts: "...the Jews, in accordance with that which is known of him and is famous of his... vulgar people (aqwām min al-ʿāmma) [met] with your excellence... their place with him, and from those who help... against them from him, obstruction of joining the noble procession (? al-taʿarruḍ li-liqāʾ al-mawkib al-saʿīd) and raising up petitions (rafʿ riqāʿ)... Daniel b. ʿAzarya al-Dāʾūdī... and the sect of the Qaraites (ṭāʾifat al-qaraʾiyyīn)... headship (bi-l-riyāsa)...." Needs further examination.