Geniza Lab

Recto: geomantic designs consisting of series of horizontal dashes organised in groups of 4 lines each and laid out in two columns. At the end of the second column there are four lines in Ladino mentioning a Sabbatical year. Verso: jottings, including the name Abram. Information from CUDL.

Beginning of a report to a Fatimid caliph. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Involving a woman. (Or perhaps this is a petition from a woman to an unidentified addressee, opening with blessings for the caliph.) On verso there are five lines of Judaeo-Arabic poetry (refers to love and then "if there is a poet among you, let him prophesy") and Coptic numerals. (Information in part from CUDL)

Deed in which Hiba b. ʿAlī b. […], the carpenter, leases a shop from al-Ḥasan b. Makkī b. Abī al-Ḥadīd, who in turn had been leasing it from his maternal uncle, Ibrahim Ibn al-Fatḥ. Dated Muḥarram 410 AH (= May-June 1019 CE). The verso has the names ‘Isaac and Yefet, sons of Ḥalfon’ in Hebrew script. (Information from CUDL)

Decree of the caliph al-Ḥākim to the Qaraite community in Fusṭāṭ and elsewhere, granting them administrative independence from the Rabbanites, on the basis of the differences between the two communities regarding law and ritually kosher food. Dating: ca. 386–411 AH, which is 996–1021 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: the warehouse keeper has paid the sum of six and an eighth (dirham?) on behalf of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 3 Dhū l-Ḥijja 403 AH, which is June 1013 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Fol. 2v: beginning of a draft petition to the caliph al-Mustanṣir from a man seeking employment in the caliph’s service. Dating: ca. 427-487 AH (= 1036-1094 CE). On the other pages, a portion of a masoretic treatise discussing qere-ketiv and mappiq in final he. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Deed of sale for the purchase by Ibrahim b. Mūsā b. Ṣaliḥ the Jew of two houses and irrigated land to the north of Fusṭāṭ from Dāʾūd b. Azhar b. Ibrahim b. Azhar the Jew. Dated: 6 Ṣafar 498 AH (= 1104 CE). Witnessed by Al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī al-Anṣārī and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Ṭāhir b. Ismaʿīl. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

A magical recipe with a drawing, entitled מצדת שפטים. Judaeo-Arabic translation and commentary of Deuteronomy 3:21-24 on f. 1v. (Information from CUDL.)

Leaves from Maimonides' Judaeo-Arabic draft of his Arabic treatise on sexual intercourse, commissioned by the Ayyubid prince Taqī al-Dīn Umar. Maimonides prescribes various concoctions to increase Taqi al-Din Umar’s vigour and recommends a diet that avoids ‘cooling’ foods (long pepper, galanga, ginger, aristolochia, cinnamon, anise, clove, mace, and nutmeg are recommended but lentils, vetch, and cold vegetables such as cucumber, donkey cucumber, melons, garden orach, spinach and especially lettuce are to be avoided). A drink of iron water boiled with the ox tongue herb, lemon peel, beaten carnation, wine and honey, is suggested. He also advises moderation, as the sexual act itself was ‘enfeebling’. (Information from CUDL.)

A commentary on poetry, and piyyuṭim, including one by Hayye Gaʾon on the topic of circumcision. F. 1r begins, after a בשמ׳ רחמ׳, ‘A synopsis of some verses of (the poem) את ערובת by Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen “filled with light” (i.e., blind) al-Danūrī b. ʿAlī, in the hand of Efrayim b. ʿAzarya, known as Ibn Faḍlān (?)’. Later references to al-Danūrī in the text indicate he is dead. (Information from CUDL.)

From a collection of poetic works by Abraham ibn Ezra, including a mi kamoḵa אל בפלא אשורנו בלבי, with a rubric ולה גירה and numbered 110, and an epistle written to Samuel b. Jāmiʿ, which is numbered 115 in the margin. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Yoshiyya Gaon to Efrayim b. Shemarya, in Fustat. The sender's name is partially preserved at the top of the letter, in a different hand to the body of the letter. Dating: Ca. 1020 CE. Written in Hebrew, with the address in both Arabic script and in Hebrew. Mentions another letter in Hebrew and a different letter in [Arabic, presumably]. Also mentions Ṭuviyya ha-Ḥaver. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-Mānī, in Constantinople, to his father-in-law Yosef al-Baghdādī, in Egypt. Dating: Probably first half of the 12th century, based on the probable mention of the same writer in T-S 13J21.17 (there referred to as Abū ʿAlī the son-in-law of the Ḥaver al-Baghdādī, the pancake-maker). In this letter, Abū ʿAlī recounts how he met his wife, Yosef's daughter, when they were both in captivity. He is trying to solve his financial problems by sending a power of attorney and accessing some of his inheritance. He refuses to accede to his father-in-law’s wishes and divorce his wife. (Information from CUDL and from Ben Outhwaite, “Byzantines in the Cairo Genizah,” in Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, ed. Nicholas de Lange, Julia Krivoruchko, and Cameron Boyd-Taylor.)

Letter sent from Jerusalem from Rachel b. Avraham Zussman of Prague, in Jerusalem, to her son Moshe, a scribe in Cairo. After opening the letter in Hebrew, Rachel switches to Yiddish. She refers to her desperate financial situation as well as a plague that has afflicted both Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem. She also mentions that the situation in Safed (Ṣefat) has improved. Dated 1567 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Report to al-Afḍal. The join between T-S NS 201.132 and T-S AS 116.410 + T-S AS 103.49 + T-S NS 209.47 is very probably but it is not a direct join. On verso, liturgy for Yom Kippur in the hand of the same scribe as T-S NS 325.232 + T-S 16.114 + T-S 24.57. Joins: Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from CUDL.)

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.)

Acounts, 3 lines of Arabic text (accounts) on f. 1r. Liturgy: ʿAmida for Ḥanukka. (Information from CUDL)

Acknowledgment of a debt of 10 dinars contracted by Ḥammūd b. Hāshim, the miller, with Ibrāhīm b. Ḥajīj, the Jewish middleman. The document states that Ḥammūd will pay back 2 dinars on Rajab of the year 420 AH (= 1029 CE), and the remaining sum in monthly instalments of 1 dinar each, starting from Shaʿbān of the same year. (Information from CUDL)

Three drafts of a testimony concerning the qualifications and good conduct of the physician Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū Sahl b. Ibrāhīm (=Yedutun ha-Levi?). The witnesses confirm his trustworthiness, good health and moral values, religious devotion, reliability, probity, charitableness, and integrity. No witness statements are present in the document. Ca. 13th century. (Information in part from CUDL and Khan.)

Part of letter (possibly a draft) mentioning medical material. Possibly a request for medical supplies by a druggist of pharmacist (Information from CUDL)