Geniza Lab

Blessings on the Fatimid caliph al-Āmir bi-aḥkām Allāh (1101-31 CE) and on the Gaon Masliah b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, head of the Jerusalem Yeshiva, which then had its seat in Cairo. The postscript includes Masliah’s cousin Eliyyahu the Fourth and his three sons, which the writer indicates should be inserted right before the blessing for Masliah; the date of composition was likely between 1127 and 1131 CE. (“Prayers from the Geniza for Fatimid Caliphs, the Head of Jerusalem Yeshiva, the Jewish community and the Local Congregation,'' in Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica, Presented to Leon Nemoy...Bar-Ilan University, 1982, 49-57) EMS See also Moss. L.62

Report from a Fatimid official. Dated: Dhū l-Qaʿda 495 AH (August–Sept 1102) — but this reading might be incorrect. Talks about the cutting off of the roads. From 1102 to 1107 there was a Fatimid campaign out of Ascalon against the crusaders.

Official correspondence in Arabic script. Maybe a petition (at least in the sense that the sender is buttering up the addressee and asking for a favor). Mentions "his (the sender's?) brother who is in Fustat...." On verso there is Hebrew literary text (hand of ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen? See PGPID 23556). Needs further examination.

Petition in Arabic script.

Petition in Arabic script.

Draft report containing two taqbīl and narratio (inhā’) sections. The first section mentions local residents impeding access with stones. Reused for Targum Onqelos of Numbers 28:26-31

Petition addressed to a Jewish dignitary. Dating unknown. The document is mainly in Arabic script but interspersed with biblical quotations and phrases in Hebrew. The petitioner seems to have maintained himself by selling goods 'in a corner,' but he was driven out, perhaps by 'the brokers.' The addressee previously tried to help him, but his rivals (especially Abū l-Alāʾ Binyamin(?) and Abū l-Majd) continued to prevent him from exercising his trade. The request is similar to the request in BL Or. 5566B.19. Needs further examination. ASE

Petition. In Arabic script, in a beautiful chancery hand. Portions of 4 lines are preserved. Includes the raʾy clause (fī hādha l-bābi ʿālī l-raʾyi in shāʾa llāhu). On verso there are liturgical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic followed by a prayer in Hebrew (attributed to al-Zinjārī?).

Petition. In Arabic script. Mentions a man from Tiberias, wicked people (fa-kathura fasāduhum), people who mentioned that they had entered Fustat, and the preoccupation of the hearts of the community (jamāʿa). Needs further examination.

Petition from Ṭāhir b. Isḥāq, a poor man from Alexandria, to the amir Qarāqūsh. In Arabic script. Ṭāhir had rented a shop in Alexandria from a Christian, and confirms that he has paid all the installments of the rent and would like to be released in order to return to his family. Ca. the very end of the 12th century, as this was the time that Qarāqūsh served as regent for the young son of the Fatimid vizier after his father’s death, before he himself field in 1201 CE. On the margins of recto there is a Judaeo-Arabic passage on the uniqueness of God on the fact that he created the earth and the sky, but was not created Himself. On verso there are isolated blocks of text probably copied as a writing exercise, they include liturgical paragraphs and biblical quotations in Hebrew and the continuation of the Judaeo-Arabic text on recto. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

Petition. Small fragment. Contains a taqbīl clause (and not much else). Reused for a text in Judaeo-Arabic (prognostications or dream interpretations?).

Letter in Hebrew. Fragment, only the first few lines are preserved. Calligraphic and formal style. Probably the beginning of a letter of appeal.

Recto: A private petition in Arabic script, 12th–13th century. For the formula, cf. T-S G1.26 (in Judaeo-Arabic). Verso: Three draft lines of a letter in Arabic script, followed by jottings consisting of the drawing of an elephant, a scale of justice, and a quotation from an Arabic poem of al-Zawzanī (d. 1039) transcribed into Hebrew letters, followed by a quotation from the Mishnah.

Petition addressed to a dignitary. In Arabic script. The petitioner may be named Abū ʿAlī b Abū Bakr al-Bazzāz (the clothier). Needs further examination.

Letter in Arabic script in a chancery hand—likely a report or petition. Three and a half lines are preserved. Recommending a certain man who is one of the traders entering (or importing goods into?) Egypt and who is a good man. In the last line, the official titles wulāh and ʿummāl are mentioned. Reused on verso for Hebrew literary text. Needs further examination.

Petition. In large Arabic script, wide space between the lines, in a chancery hand. This is a small fragment from the lower right corner of the document, with clauses deferring to the addressee's wisdom and the beginning of a ḥamdala & ṣalwala. On verso there is a short prayer/blessing (poem?) for Meʾir b. Shelomo in Hebrew.

Petition from Ḥātim to Nuwayr al-Dīn(?) In Arabic script. Dating: Perhaps Ayyubid or early Mamluk-era. The first ~6 lines are preserved.

Petition from the Jewish physician Sulaymān b. Mūsā. In Arabic script. He reports that he "was raised among the physicians of the hospital (māristān) in Old Cairo, and he is one of the sons of the physicians who are employed there, and he has attended. . . .” The continuation is missing. He is presumably leading up to a request that he be formally employed at the hospital himself. On verso there is part of a medical notebook dealing with ophthalmology. Recto contains a list of simples used for curing eye complaints and follows roughly the list found in ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, Tadhkirat al-kaḥḥālīn (ed. Hyderabad 1964, p. 347). Simples mentioned include antimony, sarcocolla, ceruse, acacia, lichen, gum of sal ammoniac, myrtle, melitot, galbanum, onions, borax, lettuce seeds, zinc oxide, and egg white. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Petition of a widow whose only remaining son had been killed by the Ghuzz (Seljuks), while her four other grown-up sons had died as well, and herself being unable to work. She appeals to the Jewish community for appropriate clothing for the holidays. The letter is written calligraphically by Hillel b. Eli (1066-1108). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 501; III, pp. 238-239)

Petition submitted to the Fatimid caliph al-Mustanṣir upon his accession in 1036 CE. Requesting that he confirm the appointment of Yosef ha-Kohen, a judge of Alexandria. Goitein writes that the script and style are identical with Halper 354. (Information from Gil, Goitein, and Rustow, Heresy, p. 94 n. 58.) Alternate possibility (from DIMME database): Arabic-script draft of a testimony to be submitted to the government, written by Efrayim b. Shemarya in 1016 CE. On verso there is a legal deed in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya in which two partners release Yeshuʿa b. Seʿadel from all claims.