Geniza Lab

Letter from a man of high standing to the Nagid Shemuel (in office 1140-1159), dealing with a case of clothing, and a man who had been forced to sell his female slave. She was now living with the man's sister, and he continued to spend most of his time with her. Verso: Account fragment in Arabic script with Coptic numerals.

Account of the pledges, pesiqa, for [the synagogue of] Dammuh, during the time of Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237).

List (late) of names with Coptic numerals on back of unrelated letter. (Information from Goitein index cards)

Recto: Judaeo-Arabic recipe involving starch (nashā'; not "starch of Isaac" but yuṣḥaq = let it be crushed), and some jottings in Arabic script including Coptic numerals. The text of the recipe exhibits the early Judaeo-Arabic orthographic feature of representing ḍād by dalet. See Isaacs, Medical, p. 9. Verso: Arabic jottings including Coptic numerals. Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Accounts in Arabic script and Coptic numerals.

Table. 6 columns filled with Coptic(?) numerals.

Accounts in Coptic numerals and Arabic script. Arranged in columns.

List of 31 contributors in Arabic and Coptic numerals (1, 1 1/2, 2 2 1/2, 3, 4 4 1/2, 5, 8, 9) but no denominations of coins. The physician of the hospital here is the al-Sadid of T-S K.149. Arabic was used here no doubt because the originator of the collection was a merchant who was accustomed to corresponding in Arabic rather than in Hebrew script. He also arranged collections in two noted bourses of Fustat (two collections in each bourse), one, the dar al-Fadil, founded by al-Fadil al-Baysani, originally a Fatimid official, but later chancellor and confidant of Saladin, and dar al-Za'fran (saffron house), which was adjacent to the house of gems, repeatedly mentioned in Mediterranean Society (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 508, App. C 139)

List, it seems of weekly vows, with Coptic numerals. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Accounts in Arabic script and Coptic numerals

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Coptic numerals. Probably medieval.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Coptic numerals. Medieval. People named: Abū l-Faḍl Ibn al-ʿAmīd; Nujaym; Abū l-ʿAlā; Abū l-Ḥasan; Abū l-Riḍā; al-Dayyān.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location: Fustat. Appointment of a judge, listing all of his prerogatives. The handwriting is very familiar; late 12th or early 13th century? Needs examination. Below there are jottings, mainly Coptic numerals it seems. This shelfmark also includes three folios of Talmud.

List of contributors, on verso of page from a siddur: Musaf rosh hodesh. Coptic figures. Headed by 'our lord R. Avraham' (Maimonides?) (Information from Goitein index cards)

Accounts in Arabic script and Coptic numerals. Several items seem to be food (kuzbara, ḥummuṣ, zaʿtar).

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Very neat. On verso there is a calendar in Hebrew script, listing years in the 12th century CE (maḥzors 256 and 257).