Geniza Lab

Long Arabic letter (22 lines plus 4 lines on margin) written in first person about trade (line 13: "wa-kāna fī l-balad jamāʿa min al-tujjār... fa-abāʿū...), (line 17: ...qabl al-safr bi-yawmayn...). Also mentions maṭāyā (riding animals/horses) at least two times. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Needs further examination.

Recto: Letter/petition, or letter in the style of a brief petition, from "your student Bū l-Majd" to a high-ranking physician. In Arabic script. Dating: Probably ca. 13th century, based on format, typical name, and handwriting. The writer asks the addressee in formal terms to come visit him, because he has developed a pain in his leg. The door of the building is open. Verso: A few words in calligraphic Judaeo-Arabic, mostly "tajriba" repeated several times. ASE.

Recto: Last nine lines of a legal document in Arabic dated 555 AH, with the signatures of two witnesses. Verso: Accounts in Arabic mentioning units of weight (raṭl), with the names of various individuals, two of which are Hilāl b. al-Raṣṣāṣ and Abū l-Surūr b. al-Amshāṭī. Needs further examination.

3 bifolios from an Arabic medical treatise in beautiful calligraphic script with diacritical marks.

Bottom left corner fragment of a legal contract, late. Deed of sale. Three signatures in the form of cartouches at the bottom. Second fragment of the AIU XII.144 shelfmark.

A recipe or prescription in Arabic. Needs further examination.

Left half of a single line in huge Arabic script from a chancery document, possibly a decree. A suggestive reading of the fragmented line is as follows "السجل لك باستخدامك في مشارفة كله للـ[ـعساكر؟] لمصـ[ر؟", "letter for you, employing you for the complete overseeing (of the army?)".

Legal document in Arabic script. Perhaps a deed of sale of a property. On parchment. Fragment: the beginnings of ~10 lines are preserved in additional to two lines (witness signatures?) in the right margin. Mentions Sayyid al-Ahl and Abū Manṣūr the buyer (al-mushtarī). Needs further examination.

Bottom right corner of a 14th C legal contract, probably a contract, dated 27th Muḥarram 723 AH.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār) by a certain Futūḥ b. Aḥmad. Mentions the judge in whose presence the iqrār took place, another person by the name of Yūsuf, who could possibly be the second beneficiary and the city of Fusṭāṭ. Dated: Possibly 623 AH. Concerns dealings in a drug shop. Some of the legal formulary refers to "and no drugs, nor saffron, nor any kind of drug..." Needs further examination

Official account mentioning the transfer of sums to the fisc (bayt al-māl) from the bureau of the capitation tax (bayt al-jawālī): "mablagh al-maḥmūl ilā bayt al-māl al-maʿmūr min māl al-jawālī," followed by names like wa-walī Butrus b. Yuḥannā.

Two unrelated fragments. The first is a two-sided fragment of a bifolium of an Arabic medical treatise. The second has three lines in Arabic, probably from a letter. A few loose words from which read as رخام مليح برسم بادهنج "nice marble to structure the windcatcher", and زجاج يكون برسم .... "glass....", last word could be legible and connected to another architectural element. Also mentions "سرعة سرعة", which implies that this could plausibly be a letter fragment. Needs further examination.

Recto Letter fragment. In Arabic script, with very large letters mentioning prior correspondence. The sender appears to be asking the addressee to graciously send him the books.

Three unrelated fragments. Pages 1 and 2: A private account in (quite legible) Arabic, naming Yūsuf al-Yahūdī, Makārim al-Yahūdī, al-Qazzāz Abū l-Qāsim, and others. Written in at least two hands. Pages 3 and 4: An Arabic literary work. Pages 5 and 6: A curious fragment, in Arabic, of the printed minutes of some sort of meeting ([...] Diyāb al-Ḥānūtī and Ibrāhīm were in attendance at one). It could also be typewritten, but it does not appear that Arabic typewriters were commercially available in Cairo until 1904 (https://kerningcultures.com/kerned-and-cultured/arabic-typewriter). It dates from 1898 CE at the earliest to 1903 CE at the latest. It refers to "the hospital of the Tramway" (شفاخانة الترامواي), and the Cairo Tramway was inaugurated in 1896, and it refers to a recent report in the satire magazine "El-Houmara El-Minyati," which was published from 1898–1903 CE. Another possibility is that it could be lithographed and printed at the Būlāq Press (est. 1821) or its contemporaries.

Recto: Probably a fragment of a letter in Arabic, very damaged. Legible words include "the lamp/saddle maker" (السراج)." Verso: Probably a fragment of a Hebrew literary work. Legible words include "the 37th" and "the 38th."

Legal document, ishhād, in Arabic, dated 1831 CE (18 Jumāda l-Awwal 1247 Hijri). Ibrāhim al-Yahūdī owes 700 Rūmī Kuruş and has to pay the Dīwān al-Maṣlaḥa at the end of the due date. The coin referenced in this document - قرش رومي, is likely a reference to an Ottoman Kuruş minted in the core imperial provinces such as Rumelia or Anadolu. "Rūmī" is a somewhat tricky term in the Ottoman period because– although it meant Roman or Byzantine throughout Antiquity-->Middle Ages –the Ottomans began to use it on a self-referential basis. This was to reference the mantle of the Roman Empire that they took on with the conquest of Istanbul and much of the Roman/Byzantine former territory. Needs further examination.

Small fragment of a formal Arabic letter or a state document mentioning "the diwan" (wa-ʿalayhi al-dīwān al-maʿ[mūr] and wa-suʾāl al-maml[ū]k).

Letter, fragment, business related. Needs examination.

State document, probably a decree, last three lines, written on the joyous occasion of ʿĪd al-Naḥr. Preserved lines read as "فاعلم هذا واعمل..وكتب في يوم عيد النحر السعيد..الطاهرين وسلم تسليما". Fatimid based on blessings and late Fatimid/early Ayyubid based on paleography. Business accounts on verso.

Tax receipt for the capitation of Musāfir b. Yūṣuf in New Cairo, beginning with the 'tadhkira', at the top, registration marks related to the diwān al-jawālī. Dated: 502 H, which is 1108/09 CE.