Geniza Lab

Recto: Legal deed in Arabic script. (Abū l-)Faḍāʾil b. Khalaf al-Yahūdī al-Ḥarīrī, the tax farmer of the silk, has to receive 474 dirhams from Khalaf, a sum composed of the price of a certain kind of silk worth 425 dirhams, plus other dues from Khalaf, to be pain on 10 Dhū l-Ḥijja 544 AH, which is 10 April 1150 CE. The document was written on the last day of Dhū l-Qaʿda 544 AH, which is 30 March 1150 CE. On verso (see separate record) there is an acknowledgement made by the Jewish court concerning the content of the Arabic deed, signed by Shelomo b. Seʿadya and Avraham b. Natan ha-Kohen. (Information from Goitein's index card and Med Soc II, 614n30.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.34 as ENA 4011.33.

Copy of a petition to the caliph al-Ẓāhir (matn only) against acknowledgement of the Iraqi authority in Palestine. Dating: original document ca. 1030, but this copy may be several decades later. Discussed in Khan, JRAS, p53; Rustow, Heresy and elsewhere; Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 347. Previous description (Goitein's?): Shelomo b. Yehuda to al-Mustansir defending his position against Yūsuf al-Sijilmasi, the Iraqi leader in Palestine. In the same hand as ENA NS 13.15 and T-S K25.244.

The part written with a wider pen resembles business accounts, while the part written with a thinner pen looks like a portion of a legal document. Dated: Monday, 25 Jumādā I 423 AH, which is May 1032 CE. The two text blocks might be unrelated, but it is tempting to read the upper portion as the inventory of an estate (the تركة repeatedly referred to underneath), while the lower portion includes witnesses' statements about the sale/auctioning of the estate. Mentions Aḥmad b. Hibatallāh al-Wakīl. The last sentence states that ʿAlī b. Musāfir will return to his wife after something to do with this inheritance. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) Two names visible are ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Yaḥyā.

Fragment of a draft (?) of a petition opening with the taqbīl clause repeated twice (once in isolation) and followed by the caliphal honorific titles: amām al-maqām al-nabawī al-ṭāhirī al-muʿaẓẓam al-sharīf. The actual addressee seems to be a vizier whose titles follow after wa bi-l majlis al-sāmī; al-Sayyīdī al-Ajallī al-ʿĀlī al-Jūyūshī al-Sayfī al-Nāṣirī al-Kāmilī. Probably dates from the late Fatimid period. The petition also has a marāḥim formula "ilā l-marāḥim al-ʿamīma wa l-faḍāʾl al-karīma" (For details on this formula see: Khan, ALAD, pg.396). Further investigation is required to determine the identities of the caliph and addressee in question. On verso there is a single line with a ḥamdala and ṣalwala in Arabic script (perhaps originally from the bottom of the petition? Or from another document that has gotten glued on here.) And there is a cryptic text in Judaeo-Arabic with diagrams of dots and sticks, maybe some kind of technical/magical instructions.

Astrological text in Arabic script, with interspersed words transcribed into Judaeo-Arabic (late hand) in the spaces between the lines. This demonstrates that even some Jews who could write Judaeo-Arabic very well couldn’t read Arabic or the transcriber was beginning to create an edition in Judaeo-Arabic for non-Arabic readers. The names of the planets in Arabic are transcribed as is in Judaeo-Arabic and not translated into Hebrew which could be because the entire scientific literature of that period was in Arabic.

Petition, late Fatimid period given the blessings on a vizier, from a certain Ibn Mūsā (no forename given) concerning a Jew named (2) Bū l-Faraj who took another Jew named (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq to court repeatedly over a debt. The unstated request seems to be that vizier to whom the petition is addressed should either (a) pay (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq’s debt or (b) apply force or (c) imprison him until he pays. The (1) petitioner goes on to state that if a (a-prime) different guarantor (ḍāmin) steps in to pay (3) Ibrāhīm’s debt, or if local officials step in to (c) seize his property, the vizier will be informed. If a (a) guarantor steps in, (3) Ibrāhīm will presumably have to pay more. If (a) the vizier pays on his behalf, it would not cost the debtor more; so de facto the vizier must decide whether to pay or apply force. But if the situation changes — if a guarantor steps in to pay the debt, or the treasury (al-māl, short for bayt al-māl) steps in to seize the debtor's assets, the petitioner will inform the vizier. Perhaps the petitioner is a Jewish communal official who has run out of enforcement options, so now seeks help from the state in resolving the situation as expeditiously as possible. MR

4 pages from the medical text of the infamous medieval Persian polymath Muḥammad b. Zakarīyyā al-Rāzī (d. 925 or 935 CE) entitled al-Ḥāwī fī-l-Ṭibb. The pages are from the section of 'Hospital experiences' at the end of volume 2 and the second folio is from the end of volume 3 and the beginning of volume 4.

Literary text about al-Khansāʾ and her brother Ṣakhr. ٍSeems like an adapted narrative with few a selected elegiac verses from al-Khasāʾ’s dīwān, could be pages from a literary book of jāhiliyya poetry. No matches come up if you Google snippets of the narrative and even some of the poetry—could it be otherwise unattested? ASE, YU.

Decree to a lower official commanding him to retrieve bricks and everything belonging to the government from a certain location (a ruined mosque?); and from other ruined mosques; and to assert the government's authority over the aforementioned mill.

State document, Fatimid, probably a decree fragment, 4 lines. Begins with وعاد بنجابتهما وحسن in a dual tense suggesting that it was addressed to two officials. The second line is crossed out and seems like a pen-trial of the first line. The third line mentions appointment in a position for someone (caliph?); wa lahu mutnaṣṣibīn, and the expectation that the appointees will strive for the duty; wa fīhi mujiddīn, and ascertain something; wa-li-yataḥaqqa. The last line mentions their accountability to the task assigned; masʾūlān ʿanhā muṭālibīn.

Decree fragment: one line on verso. wa-ri'āyan li-kum[ ]. Cut, reused, and bound in a Hebrew script literary text: 15 lines plus notes on recto, 13 on verso. Ink seems to show through the page (i.e. no palimpsest). Not a join with ENA 979.2, but they are probably from the same decree and reused context. Reading the Hebrew might indicate whether these two are conescutive pages--and therefore perhaps consecutive lines of the decree.

Decree fragment: one line on recto. 'adal(a) followed by tooth+loop (fragmentary word). Cut, reused, and bound in a Hebrew script literary text: 12 lines on recto, 9 on verso. Ink seems to show through the page (i.e. no palimpsest). Not a join with ENA 979.1, but they are probably from the same decree and reused context. Reading the Hebrew might indicate whether these two are conescutive pages--and therefore perhaps consecutive lines of the decree.

Fragment of a letter in Arabic script. 4 lines preserved, with the continuation written at an angle in the margin. Some phrases: ...فضلا عما . . . اه اذ كان جميع ال . . . . . . . فالله تعالى ذكره يطالب كل من يحكي المحال فيذكر ملائمه وبيده الافعال والكتب الذي امتلكت الاوسية وصنعت آخر(؟) غلا[ته؟] بجملة مال. "...may God the exalted punish anyone who speaks the impossible and describes its attributes(?). He has the operations(?) and the documents which the estate/domain (al-ūsiya) possessed and its cro[ps?] produced, a lot of money..." These readings are tentative. In the margin, mentions wheat and barley and someone's name. On recto there is a faded biblical-sounding Hebrew text.

Letter or official correspondence in Arabic script. Fragment (right side only). In the last line: ...ʿādāti l-ḥaḍrati l-muqaddasati ḥarasa llāhu [muddatahū?].... On verso, there is literary text in Hebrew.

Amulet in Arabic script with a humanoid figure, magic squares, and seals.

Tax receipt. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Recto (probably the secondary use): Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of the same supporter of Daniel b. ʿAzarya who also wrote T-S K25.244. Probably related to the Arabic-script petition on the other side. This too is a petition/report presumably sent to a dignitary, asking him not to remain silent in the face of suffering.

Verso (original use): Petition in Arabic script in a chancery hand. Fragment from the middle of the document. Refers to the well-known Jewish leader [Daniel b.] ʿAzarya al-Dāʾūdī (second half of the 11th century) and to the addressee's benefactions in the administration of the Fatimid state: "...wa-bi-sāʾir aʿmāl al-dawla al-Nabawiyya wa-tummimat al-niʿma ʿa[lā ...]... al-ṭāhir...." Then asks for a mighty decree confirming the continued benefaction of registering something (bi-manshūr muʿaẓẓam muqirr bi-dawām niʿmat ithbātih) in the Majlis al-Ḥimāya and at least one other majlis. Rustow has translated ḥimāya in another context as "law enforcement" in Lost Archive p. 209, and Bauden notes that the term can refer to a tax of circulation on the Nile ("Le Transport de Marchandises et de Personnes sur le Nil," p. 125 note 117). See also Claude Cahen, “Notes pour l’histoire de la ḥimāya" (1956) and Jürgen Paul, "Ḥimāya Revisited" (2020) (https://journals.openedition.org/anisl/7518?lang=en). See also T-S Misc.8.67 for a similar-looking Arabic-script document involving Daniel b. ʿAzarya (but not a join). On the other side there is a Judaeo-Arabic letter by the same scribe who wrote T-S K25.244 (and several others), known to have been an ardent supporter of Daniel b. ʿAzarya (so it is probably related).

Document in Arabic script. Possibly a letter, or possibly a magical text related to verso: wa-yaʿ[..] al-baḥr li-dhālika wa-hāja wa-lā yastaṭīʿ aḥad ʿalayhi. . . .

Letter fragment from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī(?) addressed to a certain Amir. Only the first few lines are preserved. ASE.