Geniza Lab

Very tiny note in Arabic script, in the same type of hand as many of the early 5th/11th century tax receipts. Some contain the mystery mark (backwards ط). All are dated after the formula kutiba. ENA 3971 13–24, 31 and 34.

Very tiny note in Arabic script, in the same type of hand as many of the early 5th/11th century tax receipts. Some contain the mystery mark (backwards ط). All are dated after the formula kutiba. ENA 3971 13–24, 31 and 34.

Very tiny note in Arabic script, in the same type of hand as many of the early 5th/11th century tax receipts. Some contain the mystery mark (backwards ط). All are dated after the formula kutiba. ENA 3971 13–24, 31 and 34.

Very tiny note in Arabic script, in the same type of hand as many of the early 5th/11th century tax receipts. Some contain the mystery mark (backwards ط). All are dated after the formula kutiba. ENA 3971 13–24, 31 and 34.

Very tiny note in Arabic script, in the same type of hand as many of the early 5th/11th century tax receipts. Some contain the mystery mark (backwards ط). All are dated after the formula kutiba. ENA 3971 13–24, 31 and 34.

Receipt in the hand of Abu Zikri Kohen: saḥḥa lil-shaykh Abū l-Surūr dirham wa-niṣf la-ghayr. Old IB: 229f. There is a line or two in Arabic script on verso in a fiscal hand, probably part of a tax receipt (cf. also ENA 3971.13–24, 31, 33, 34).

Medical prescription or recipe in Arabic script. Possibly sharāb rummān, a pomegranate syrup. The penultimate line reads, "The whole body should be anointed with the oil of violet (banafsaj) and almond (lawz)." Hebrew literary text on verso.

List in Arabic script. Accounts?

State document, probably. In Arabic script. Dated: Rabīʿ II 425 kharājiyya, which is roughly a year or two prior to 1034 CE. Mentions some sums of dinars and perhaps khuddām. Needs further examination for content. There is a drawing of a boat. On verso there is a Hebrew alphabet and atbash.

Recipes in Arabic script mentioning lead and fire. Possibly alchemical. Needs further examination.

Arabic poetry. With a popular character: it has extremely short verses with dense rhymes: (1) wa-starhabūhā al-ruhbān. . . wa-staqsamū [..] al-ṣulbān. . . (2) yā ṣāḥ ludhdh bi-alwāḥ wa-nhaḍ [...] al-afrāḥ [...] al-mirāḥ [...] al-aqdāḥ. The latter poem is full of conventional love imagery and reminiscent of Yemeni Shabazian poetry (but there is nothing to suggest that this fragment is late or that it has any connection with Yemen or even with Jews). There is also what may be a name of a woman: Ghālī bt. al-Dawālī.

Islamic prayers/formulae in Arabic script. Not all of the text blocks are easy to read, but at least three begin with "Allāhuma ṣalli ʿalā Muḥammad" and continue with praises for Muḥammad.

Template fragment of a divination/magical charm starting with a few words of prayers followed by a spell: "fulān b. fulān". Then: 'blind his heart and block his vision and mute his tongue'.

Recto: Medical prescription in Arabic script. Beginning with dragon's blood (dam akhawayn). Verso: Difficult to read, but also a document in Arabic script.

Fragment in Arabic script. Astrological/esoteric. Listing the auspicious and inauspicious properties of every day of the month, e.g., which days are good for going before the court (al-dukhūl ʿalā l-sulṭān), which are good for different maladies.

Accounts and sundry jottings in Arabic script and Coptic numerals, all in the margins of a literary text in Arabic script.

Arabic script (VMR)

Arabic script (VMR)

Literary text in Arabic script. The adventures of Alexander the Great.

Arabic script (VMR)