Geniza Lab

Document in Arabic script. Includes the phrase "qad tuwuffiya." Reused for Hebrew literary text.

Letter draft in Arabic script addressed to a Fatimid qāḍī and dāʿī. Needs examination.

Accounts in Arabic script. Various sums are given in dinars. Goods include coral. People named include Isḥāq b. ʿAllūsh and Abū l-Surūr Yūshaʿ(?) b. Natan.

Accounts in Arabic script.

Magical fragment. From top down: 1 line of names in Hebrew (Elʿazar, Hillel, Shela, Yefet, ʿEli); 4 rows of magical symbols; 1 line in Judaeo-Arabic, "the [r]esponse to a letter from the land of the Franks"; 4 lines in Arabic script, an invocation of God (who split the sea for Moses and destroyed [Pharaoh], etc.) to do something (taḥill?) to fulāna.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script.

Letter from Yeḥiel b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Ẓarfati, in Jerusalem, to an unknown addressee, in Alexandria. The letter consists of a halakhic discussion, mostly in Aramaic, perhaps a responsum. It concludes with a report that Yeḥiel arrived safely in Jerusalem. Verso: Apart from the address there are jottings or accounts(?) in Arabic script. Information in part from FGP.

Letter in Arabic script addressed to al-Mawqif al-Ashraf and ʿIzz al-Dawla. Maybe Fatimid official correspondence. Mentions the amīrs Shujāʿ al-Dawla, Majd al-Dawla, and the city of Tripoli. The writer mentions sending a delegate/appointee to the amīr Shujāʿ al-Dawla, but the latter refused to accept him and sent the delegate back claiming that he hadn't received an amr (order) from al-Haḍra al-Muṭahhara (=Fatimid Caliph). The writer then sent the delegate/appointee back to the amīr Shujāʿ al-Dawla with a copy of the Noble Letter which was sent in this regard. He also mentions the case of the amīr Majd al-Dawla and explains that Ibn Dardār or someone else hadn't messed up but rather the cause was what he had mentioned in the previous letter. Deserves further historical inquiry into the names of the officials and especially for the light it may shed on administrative practices e.g., نسخت الفصل من الملطف الكريم الوارد في معناه. Al-Maqrīzī attests that the al-Mulaṭṭaf was a royal letter issued by the Caliph (al-Iṭṭiʿāẓ, vol.2, pg. 153). Reused for Hebrew literary text.

State document, possibly a decree. Suggests orders conferred upon an authority 'hayʾat (?) l-muṭālaʿa wa-l-āʿmāl bihā'. There is Arabic script in another not-so-elegant hand and a few words in Hebrew script towards the end. Needs further examination.

Arabic text in a scribal hand. Late. Written in the margins of a Hebrew/Aramaic literary text. الله تعالى . . . شرف الدين شرف العلامة مفتي(؟) الامام...

Business letter in Arabic script. Likely from Maʿtūq al-Yahūd. Dating: Probably 19th century. Mentions al-Muʿallim Bakhūr and al-Muʿallim Nissim. An irdabb (of wheat?) is selling for 110 gurush. Mentions Būlāq. Mentions various sums of money: thousands and tens of thousands of silver. The حاخام باشه is mentioned several times, once in the phrase "do not go to the hakham bashi!" There is also the intriguing phrase "we do not follow the Franks; we follow you" (4 lines from the bottom). Needs further examination.

Letter. In Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 18th or 19th century. Dealing with various business matters, after a long deferential introduction. Needs further examination.

Document in Arabic script. Two very narrow vertical strips filled with rudimentary Arabic script. Likely magical, but this is based entirely on appearance rather than reading any of the content. (MR) The name of God appears very often and is sometimes followed or preceded by a shahāda. A prayer or incantation? (YU)

Letter. In Arabic script. Dating: Ottoman-era; repeatedly refers to the "shāwish" (=çavuş). Needs examination.

Document tied to finances that according to FGP could be connected to state procedures. Dating: Ottoman-era. This designation seems feasible given the appearance of "diwan" on both the recto and verso (l. 3r, 11v). On the verso, the first few lines mention the act of payment and "miqdar/مقدار" or an "amount" or "quantity" (l. 3v). It may be from a literary treatise concerning financial relations with the state. It is filled with bureaucratic jargon referring to several different bureaus (e.g., Dīwān al-ʿUmūm and Dīwān ʿUmūm al-[...]," which is opposed to Nuẓẓār al-Furūʿ) and to "protecting interests" (عدم تعطيل المصلحة) and "necessary expenses" (المصاريف الضرورية). Needs further examination. MCD. ASE.

Business letter. In Arabic script. Dating: Ottoman-era, based on overall appearance and use of the honorific "effendi." There are several lines of accounts at the bottom. Long, well-preserved, and relatively easy to read (lots of diacritics provided). Needs further examination.

Letter addressed to al-Shaykh al-Ajal al-Raʾis Abū ʿĪmrān Mūsā (Shelomo b. Mūsā al-Mahdāwī in al-Mahdiyya) from his business associate (Peraḥya b. Yosef in Fusṭāṭ) regarding diminution of his wages and distribution of work. He expresses his fear of being left with nothing if he is asked to vacate the store. He pleads that he be associated with Nāṣir so that he isn't left without a place or position when the master decides to assign new duties and extend his benevolence today as revealed to him by ẓāhir. Towards the end, he extends greetings to the addressee's father and a Shaykh al-Ajal Abū l-Ḥasan. See also T-S 10J14.16.

Marriage contract between a Rabbanite man Khalfā b. Saʿūd, son of Farajallah b. Nafīs and a divorced Rabbanite woman Fāṭima. The marriage was commemorated upon the agreed sum of 7 dīnārs of Sulṭānī al-jadīd and 400 half Sūlaimānī dirhams.

Literary text in Arabic script.

Literary text in Arabic script.