Geniza Lab

Accounts. (Information from CUDL)

Probably a letter. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Maimonides, Mishne Tora, Hilkhot Sheḥiṭa 6:6-8 with Judaeo-Arabic note. Verso: jottings in Arabic, including the name of a doctor al-Ḥasan Hibat Allāh Mufaḍḍal al-Yahūdī. (Information from CUDL)

The recto begins with citations from 2 Kings 23:30 and 24:6, noting the deaths of the kings of Judah, Josiah and Jehoiakim. This is followed by a list of citations (beginning, apparently, from 1 Kings 14) noting the deaths and burials of the kings of Israel. The verso consists of the list of the kings of Judah from Shelomo to Josiah, each with a citation from Chronicles, beginning with some form of the root קבר, noting the death of the king. (Information from CUDL)

Numbered and tabulated list of 22 biblical and rabbinic passages relating to the Sabbath, each referenced by means of a short lemma. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a longer legal document, probably describing a gift or series of gifts made by a father, David, to his daughter. He is formally giving her sums of money in dinars and a house, which is described in some detail. Reference is made to the city of Tyre. (Information from 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.)

Recto: Maimonides’ autograph draft of a 3-line poem he composed and included at the beginning of his philosophical work ‘Guide for the Perplexed’. Verso: letter in a different hand (not that of Maimonides) to Joseph b. Judah (possibly Ibn ʿAqnin, a student of Maimonides). The letter continues overleaf(?), along with diverse jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment from a Karaite betrothal formulary, for use in Jerusalem. (Information from CUDL)

Leaf from a Karaite book of formularies. Recto: divorce formula, continued for 2 lines on verso, with Arabic jotting in the margin. Verso: marriage formula. The date given in the margin, in the same hand and ink, is 1314 (= 1002 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Leaves from a Qaraite book of formularies. 7 leaves (2 bifolia and 3 separate leaves). One folio contains a divorce formula, and two folios (edited by Olszowy-Schlanger) contain a marriage formula. Formula to be used in Jerusalem [?]. There is also an Islamic text in Judaeo-Arabic, concerning the beginnings of Islam and the Prophet Muḥammad and containing part of a very interesting genealogy: بن هاشم بن عب[...] بن اليوسع بن نبا[...] بن فهر بن كنانة بن [...] بن قيدار بن اسمعيل [...] بن رعو بن فالغ بن [...] نوح. Information in part from CUDL and FGP.

Recto: draft Karaite deed of release, dated 1029 CE. This document continues for 15 more lines on the verso. Verso: continuation of the document on recto, and a second document written inverted in relation to recto, a draft Karaite betrothal deed, in Arabic script, in which Abū l-Ḥasan Daʾūd b. al-Faraj ʿImrān al-Levi ha-Kohen (i.e. David b. ʿAmram) is betrothed to […] bat Abū l-Faḍl. The bride’s father is her agent, and one of the witnesses to his appointment was Abū l-Ḥasan b. al-Jabāwi. The betrothal took place on Wednesday 15 Av 1344 ‘of the era of Alexander’ (= 1033 CE). Both recto and verso are shown to be drafts by their interlinear corrections and lack of signatures. Information from CUDL. See also Goitein's note card.

Leaf 1: end of a discussion of the cycles of each planet and their astrological importance, followed by a description of each of the planets. Leaf 2: end of a discussion of the influence of the zodiac signs on people born in them, followed by calendrical-astrological discussions, a discussion of the planets and their servants (בול, סין, אריס, כון, בילתיי, etc) and their influence on people born in them, and a horologion with angelic names. (Information from CUDL)

Hebrew instructions for producing silver and gold, followed by Hebrew writing exercises in a different hand. At the bottom of recto there is a draft of an Arabic deed of acknowledgment (iqrār), in which ʿAwfar(?) b. Mufadḍal acknowledges a debt of 130 nuqra dirhams to his wife Kharīfa(?) bt. ʿAbdallāh the convert (al-muhtadī). In the right margin there is a draft of a petition in Arabic script in which the sender describes his distress. (Information in part from CUDL)

State document, Ayyubid period. Petition to an Ayyubid ruler regarding the appointment of military personnel: ʿUmar b. Masʿūd, leader of the archers in Alexandria of long experience (since the day of al-Kāmil) is asking that two boys he trained be employed in his unit. Mid-13th century. On verso are the Hebrew piyyuṭim במה אקדם ומה אמר אליך and Abraham ibn Ezra, אם רח אבנים כחי, and a draft of the basmala and tarjama of the document on recto. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: calendar reckoning for the year [4]814 of the Era of Creation (= 1053-1054 CE), mentioning the Hebrew months and their new moons, with calendar reckonings for other years. Verso: two different letters. The first is a business letter mentioning the city of Alexandria and a certain Ibn Mahdī, referring to the trade in oil (mid-11th century). The second is also commercial, and refers to Abū Sa‛īd Mūsā Ibn Barhūn, Ibn Yūsuf and Abū l-Ḥasan. (Information from CUDL)

P1: f. 1r: description of a dream dated 525 AH (= 1130 CE); f. 1v: alchemical recipe called ‘the operation of mixture’; f. 2r: invocation to God. P2: f. 1r: alchemical recipe (continues from P1 f. 1v); f. 1v: calendar in which the Hebrew months of Sivan and Tammuz are mentioned; f. 2v: invocation to God and separate letters. P3: leaf 1: magical words and description of their use, with a mention of the city of Damascus; calendar mentioning Jewish festivals (Passover, Ḥanukka). P4: f. 1r: sequence of letters arranged according to the abrade; f. 1v: on the substitution of letters in words according to the Kabbalah; P4 leaf 2: calendar with mention of Hebrew festivals (continues from P3, leaf 1). P5: f. 1r: very damaged, only a few letters legible; f. 1v: list of some of the months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2r: description of movements of the sun (first 8 lines) and list of some months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2v: badly rubbed. P6: f. 1r: description of celestial phenomena; ff. 1v, leaf 2: on the reckoning of the days of the festival with mention of the leap year. P7: ff. 1r-2v: mention of a musical instrument in Arabic and Hebrew; f. 2r: mention of Rabban Gamaliel and reckoning for the rising of the New Moon. P8: unidentified Hebrew text. P9 recto: alchemical recipe involving the use of vitriol; verso: Arabic (separate letters and words and unidentified partial text). (Information from CUDL)

Description of disasters, famines and frightful events due to happen in each of the Jewish months, mentioning the Jews and their slavery, the Arabs and their need for food, and the River Nile and its drought. (Information from CUDL)

Predictions of events that will happen if the tequfot of Tishri and Nisan occur in particular hours of the day or night, in the form ‘if the tequfa happens on the first hour of the night, a murder will take place among the people [...] and the doors of the wealthy will be closed’. Mentions the angel Yaqfiʾel. (Information from CUDL)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals concerning "Dīwān Maṭābikh al-Mulk," which sounds like the government office in charge of royal sugar refineries. Dated: "four," "five," and "six" Hijrī, probably 704–7 AH (=1304–7 CE), but could plausibly be 604–7 or 804–7. Every section starts with the sentence ‘and they also had […]’. Mentions a receipt (wuṣūl) in the hand of ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm. (Information in part from CUDL.)