Geniza Lab

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Bū Sahl (Menashshe) Ibn (al-)Qaṭāʾif to his brother Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Menashshe Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Fragment (upper left corner of recto). The sender has sent a package containing 3/4 (ounce?) Byzantine wormwood and 1 1/2 ounce scammony. Mentions various other business matters. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Recto: accounts, listing expenditures, tax, rubbish collection and sums paid by several individuals; names mentioned include Ibn Ṭarwīl, Hillel and Yiftaḥ the cantor. Verso: Arabic jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Love and/or wine poetry in Judaeo-Arabic. The layout deceptively resembles a letter.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Might be a Maghribī mercantile letter of the 11th century. The sender congratulates the addressee on the occasion of the marriage of a young woman. Mentions Alexandria and various business matters. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Beginning of a letter. (Information from CUDL)

Greetings at the end of a letter, quoting Deuteronomy 1:17. The writer sends regards to Abū l-Barakāt (probably Shelomo b. Eliyyahu) and Sitt Rayḥān (Shelomo's mother). (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter dealing with several business matters, mentioning Abū l-Karam, Sālim b. Nissim and Saruq b. Sanīnāt (or Sunaynāt); Arabic jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Small piece of a legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: probably accounts. Verso: probably Judaeo-Arabic, but almost illegible. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a legal document, mentioning Ibn Abū l-[...]ān and Bāb(?) al-Ḥarīr (silk) in New Cairo (al-Muʿizziya) and Fustat. Also specifies a sum of cash. (Information in part from CUDL)

Accounts or reckoning, mentioning names such as Muḥammad and Ḥusayn. Dating: Late, probably Ottoman-era. (Information in part from CUDL)

Legal document mentioning Abū Faḍl and a certain Yefet. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. (Information from CUDL)

Accounts, mentioning R. Avraham. (Information from CUDL)

Short list, mentioning Barakāt b. Mūsā and Abū l-Ḥasan. (Information from CUDL)

Accounts in Ladino and western Arabic numerals. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (horizontal piece from the middle). Dating: Possibly 12th century based on hand, but that is a guess. The sender reports on some conflict probably involving public prayers. "...[they said] they would tell the judge and the teacher, but they didn't... the 9th of Av... pray, and I was shocked, because I had already reconciled with them—since for a long time I have prayed [...] and there was a great dispute between us, and we agreed that I would [...] but they I could not do the mufāsara(?)... the door until he prayed, and then..." On verso (labeled recto on CUDL), he writes at length about his sorrow at being parted from Rabbenu, and how Rabbenu said he would honor him with a letter, but he has received no letter from him since Purim. He asks for a letter from the addressee. He mentions his dead father (ואלדי נע). Regards to Abū Saʿd. The text in the margin mentions Rabbenu again and the judge Yosef. (Information in part from CUDL)

Legal document referring to various sums of money and individuals, such as Abū ʿAlī, Abraham ha-Sar the doctor and elder, Abū l-ʿAlā, Abū Naṣr, Abū l-Ṯanā (known as Ibn ʿAmmār) and a certain Nathan. (Information from CUDL)

Small fragment with part of a list of names, including Yosef Hibat[allāh], Ḥalfon b. Y[efet?], ʿUthmān, and referring to the Palestinian Yeshiva (Geʾon Yaʿaqov). (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: list of names from a family, possibly for tax purposes, under the heading ‘the house of al-Malījī, the teacher’, mentioning Abū l-Ḥasan Yefet; his children; his brother ʿImrān and his son Mufaḍḍal; Shela and his brother Fakhr; Joseph and his son Yeshuʿa. Verso: List in Arabic script with a similar layout. Mentions Sharaf al-Dīn; 1/4 raṭl of some commodity; and apples. Written in the margin: "in the hand of the leader (al-raʾīs) Abū l-Bahāʾ from..." (Information in part from CUDL)