Geniza Lab

Decree fragment: one line on recto. 'adal(a) followed by tooth+loop (fragmentary word). Cut, reused, and bound in a Hebrew script literary text: 12 lines on recto, 9 on verso. Ink seems to show through the page (i.e. no palimpsest). Not a join with ENA 979.1, but they are probably from the same decree and reused context. Reading the Hebrew might indicate whether these two are conescutive pages--and therefore perhaps consecutive lines of the decree.

Decree. The ends of two lines are preserved. Mentions the cities of [...]nūf and Ṣahrasht (=Ṣahrajt). Reused for a separate document in Arabic script (also on recto) and a literary text in Hebrew (verso).

Recto: Fragment of a state document, possibly a decree. 2 lines preserved. In Arabic script. Some phrases read as "yanālu aṣḥābuhu mimman yaḍumm... wa-akhdh...", "wa-l-muṭālaba bimā lam yajib min gh[...]." There are three interspersed lines of Arabic script between the two lines of the decree which also seem to be in a chancery hand, probably from later reuse. Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, in a Maghribī hand on verso.

Official letter in a Fatimid chancery hand, mentioning Abī l-Bayān Mūsā, may God sustain him, and Abū ʿAlāʾ (?).

Decree of a Coptic official, dated 25 Baʾūnah (?) of the Coptic year 1392 (?).

Recto: A few words from a decree: al-mamlūk muqaddam al-juyūsh.

Rescript of the judges of the court appointed by the Nagid Mevorakh to the community of al-Mahalla, advising the community in strongest terms to take back their judge who had left. Dated ca. 1105. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 193, 561; V, 49, 519, 542 and from Cohen)

Beginning of the taqqanah (ordinance) of al-Mahalla, continued in T-S 16.135. See there for fuller description. Ed. Blau, Teshuvot ha-Rambam, vol. 2, 516-518.

Letter from Abū l-Manṣūr b. Ṭāhir al-Kohen, in Alexandria, to the Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr b. Yiṣḥaq al-Dimashqī, in Fustat. Dating: 1170s CE. The addressee was just then beginning his commercial career. The letter reports on an decree of Saladin that was proclaimed in Alexandria, halving the customs dues (maks) that had been incumbent on local and foreign Jews and Christians. The ṣāḥib al-dīwān authenticated and registered the decree (athbatahū), and the amir Fakhr al-Dīn ordered for it to be implemented. The local Jews took out the Torah scroll and prostrated themselves and prayed for the government. Also mentions various business dealings, including in sugar, and people including Hibatallāh the trader from Tripoli and Abū l-ʿIzz b. Bishr. (Information in part from CUDL and Frenkel.)

Fragment of an ordinance (taqqana) concerning the Jerusalem community in Fustat. The community decides to choose ten men who will manage the community with Efrayim b. Shemarya. Probably written July 7, 1028; in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 594-596, Doc. #325) VMR

Decree (copy in Hebrew script) from the Fatimid caliph al-Ẓāhir to a governor of Palestine (probably Anushtekin al-Dizbirī) informing him of another decree that had come in response to a petition in the name of the Rabbanite Jews regarding a conflict with the Qaraites. That decree is referred to as muktatab lahum (registered with them). Ca. 1030.

Beginning of the taqqanah (ordinance) of al-Mahalla, continued in T-S 16.135. This is an enactment passed by the Jewish community of al-Maḥalla, in which they pledge their loyalty to their judge Peraḥya [b. Yosef], to retain his position as long as he remains in the country and does not want to emigrate to the Land of Israel. Peraḥya was Avraham b. Peraḥya Ibn Yijū’s nephew (his brother’s son), and was married to his daughter Sitt al-Dar. He served as the muqaddam of al-Maḥalla. The enactment is authorised by Yehoshua b. Iyov, Moshe ha-Kohen b. Berakhot ha-Kohen, Shemuʾel b. Yefet, Natan ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, ʿUlla b. Natan, and Berakhot b. Efrayim. The community passed this enactment in response to a power struggle that was taking place between Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā (later known as Mar Zūṭa), the head of the Jews, and local communities. Zūṭa had attempted to force the local judge Peraḥya to collect a tax from anyone approaching him for halakhic rulings - a fee that was to be passed on to Zūṭa. To prevent Zūṭa from appointing a different judge who would be loyal to him, the community of al-Maḥalla pledged their loyalty to Peraḥya in this enactment. (Information from CUDL) Ed. Blau, Teshuvot ha-Rambam, vol. 2, 516-518.

A religious slaughterer who was careless in the exercise of his duties is flogged and forced to make a public confession. Dated 9 Iyyar 1339/ May 1028 in Cairo. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 330, 568)

Statute (‘taqqana’) about the conduct of two slaughter houses, one at the Great Bazaar and one at the Bath of the Mice, issued by a committee of seven individuals elected by the community. The document records the decision to appoint Yefet b. David to be cantor and the supervisor of the slaughter instead of his father, who had passed away. Yefet will be responsible for these two markets in Fustat where ritually pure meat was available, and must send one-half of the weekly income to Yoshiyahu, the Gaon and head of the Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Goitein dates the document to after 1024. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 583-585, #319; Goitein, “The Social Services of the Jewish Community as Reflected in the Cairo Geniza Records” Jewish Social Studies (1964), 10; and Goitein’s index cards) VMR and EMS

Decree of investiture; two lines widely spaced.

Decree (manshūr) issued by the caliph al-Hafiz on 21 Rajab 528/1133 to stop two cases of malpractice which were adversely affecting the Delta province of al-Nastarawiyya. Merchants from al-Nastarawiyya who traveled to the neighboring coastal regions to buy goods were being mistreated by government officials and their business was being disrupted; and fishermen from al-Gharbiyya province were fishing illegally along the shores of Lake Burullus within the territory of al-Nastarawiyya, causing financial harm to the ḍamān for fisheries held by ḍāmins from al-Nastarawiyya (and thus to the fisc). (Khan, 1986, p. 441) This version of the decree was copied onto a bifolio in the chancery for storage in its archives; for more on this process and the relationship of compact archival decrees to monumental rotuli, see Rustow, The Lost Archive, 326–34.

Recto: Letter from ʿAlī b. [...] addressed to Sharaf al-Dīn apparently requesting clarification of a decree. Full address (unclear where Baker/Polliack got this from): al-malik al-muʿaẓẓam Sharaf al-Dīn, Ayyubid Sultan of Damascus (1218-27?). - needs examination. Verso: Hebrew pen trials, citing Mishna Berakhot 4:7. Also citing Isaac Kinzi's poem יום באתם לחלות (see Davidson, Otzar ha-piyyut, X, no, 1633). Written by Nadiv b. Yiṣḥaq, who signed his name. In the left margin, accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals, probably unrelated to recto. (FGP and AA)

Order sent to the community of Fustat from the office of Yehoshuaʿ Nagid (d. 1355) recommending the elder Shemuel for charity, followed by requests and prayers on verso written in a different handwriting. (Information from a note on Goitein's typed text)

Long and narrow fragment of a legal deed in Arabic and Judeo Arabic. Amram b. Yefet Hakohen is releasing his daughter Sitt al-Qum and his son Tiqva from any claims. On verso remains of a Fatimid document.

Efrayim b. Shemarya (11th c) uses and reworks passages from the Sheʾiltot of Aḥay of Shabḥa (8th c) for a sermon. Written on a Fatimid decree rotulus (see separate record). The top of verso is headed Shabbat Bereishit, presumably the occasion of the liturgical cycle for which Efrayim needed the sermon. Join: Roni Shweka (bottom six fragments) and Rebecca Sebbagh (top fragment). Before 1055 (death of Efrayim). See also Mosseri VI.117.2, which may belong to the left side of this decree. (MR)