Geniza Lab

Beginning of a court record. Cairo, 1495/6. (Ashtor, Mamluk, p. 121) Corrected in comparison with Goitein's typed transcription and the photocopy of MS. (Z.F.)

State document, Mamluk period, 1442. Draft of a petition from the Jewish community of Fustat to the Mamluk government concerning the malpractices of ‘Abd al-Latif the physician, head of the Jews, who is reported to have sold portions of pious foundation properties and leased others below their value, imposed high fiscal penalties, and confiscated property of the Jews, among a litany of other harmful acts. The document requests his removal from office. (Mark Cohen, "Jews in the Mamlūk Environment: The Crisis of 1442 (A Geniza Study)," BSOAS, 1984, 431-4) EMS

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, no earlier than 1425 CE because it mentions gold Ashrafī coins, to a certain Yiṣḥaq addressed as ha-Sar. The addressee's letter arrived with al-Ḥajj Ḥasan al-Bābā. The writer went together with al-Bābā to the amir, the deputy of the citadel, and read to him the decrees (marāsīm) and some sort of declaration of allegiance (? אעטא אלסמע ואלטאעה). A Genoese Frank was summoned (an ambassador, per Goitein, Med Soc, I, 43) and the decree was read to him as well. The decree is in two versions (maktūbayn), one according to sharʿī law and one according to Genoese. The remainder of the letter is damaged and difficult to follow; the "masṭūr" of the decree is mentioned; 100 Ashrafīs; and a consultation of a qāḍī. Merits further examination.

Agreement regarding a marital match, Malij, 1492 CE (1803 Seleucid). Corrected in comparison with Goitein's notes and with microfilm copy (Z.F.)

Accounts of the Jewish community. Location: Cairo. Dated: 18 Elul 1809 Seleucid, which is 1498 CE (not 1495 as Ashtor thought). Expenses include a lot of construction work and materials, wax and sweets for 'the orphans,' money for 'the captives,' and others.

Lists of Judeo-Arabic account entries related to financial arrangments in which figures are expressed alphanumerically. The dating may be provided on the fragment's verso where the month Tamuz is mentioned and possibly the year [5]225/ה]רכה] or roughly 1465CE (these chronological markers may be parts of different heading). One of the entries is in the first-person, where the author titles a heading on the far left of the recto "ענדי סנאדיק", the latter word is the plural form of the financial term "סנדוק" which are listed individually within the same section of the fragment. The verso contains highly repetitive entries which may constitute pen trials of alphanumerical figures. MCD.

Legal document from Jerusalem. In Hebrew. Dating: Iyyar 1483 CE (5243). Scribe; Yom Ṭov b. Yosef Imanuel. Shalom and Yiṣḥaq and a third person declare that they were forced to sign a previous document due to the coercion of the parnasim. This Shalom may be R. Shalom Ashkenazi, who is known to have been active in Jerusalem in 1481 CE. Information from Avraham David's edition (via FGP).

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Monday night, 13 Iyyar 1744 Seleucid, which is 1433 CE. Concerning repairs in a house that is a pious foundation for the poor (ṣaʿālīk) of the Qaraite community. On verso is an addendum. (Information in part from Goitein, Med Soc II, p. 435 (Appendix A, #174)) ASE