Geniza Lab

Book, ownership page, in Arabic script: "this is the copy of Abu al-hasan" in small Hebrew script: "This is what Shemarya b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi bought with the money he laboured for" .

Piyyutim with a date as if it was a legal document 1117

Megillat Miṣrayim

Recto: Ethical exhortations in Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: Poetry or other literary text in Hebrew. Somebody has left a note identifying the scribe with Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Yehosef. Not a letter.

Literary work containing Hebrew poetry and a section on the calendar including for the years 5923–78 AM, which corresponds to 1142–1218 CE. The hand is Sefaradi. There are two different colophons in two different hands (the first may be identical with the hand of the main text, but it is more stylized). The first gives the location as Fustat and the date as Tammuz [4]9[.]6 AM, perhaps Tammuz 4926 AM, which would be 1166 CE. The second mentions Alexandria and gives the year 1481 Seleucid = 566 AH, which is 1170 CE.

Poem/prayer for Shabbetay b. Seʿadya b. Amitay of Qayrawān. Information from FGP.

Panegyric dedicated to Yaḥyā b. Avraham. See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h318.html) for detailed description and potential identifications.

Debate poem between wine and water. In Hebrew. Likely in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. Composed by Yehuda b. Eliyyahu (per the acrostic). A complete version of the same poem may be found in T-S 8K15.9 (copied in a different hand). Information in part from Penn Catalog.

Panegyric by Yeshuʿa b. Dunash b. Moshe Av Bet Din dedicated to the brothers Simḥa and Netanel b. Mesabar(?). See Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h325.html) for further description and potential identifications.

Megillat Miẓrayim, here called "Megillat ha-Saṭan ha-Yaduaʿ." Retelling the events of the rebellion of Ahmad Basha against Suleiman I of Turkey in 1524, and its effects on the Jews of Cairo; A complete copy of this "Megillah", in which the Arabic translation appears in a parallel column, is found in London, British Library Or. 7768 (Margoliouth no. 1170). Information from Penn Catalog.

Prayer for Moses Montefiore, composed by Shabbetay Elḥanan טריויש in 1840/41 CE. Printed in Trieste in 1845/46 CE. There are many additional names in the document.

Ismāʿīlī material in Judaeo-Arabic. Appears to be the introduction to a copy of the 'waṣiyya' written by al-Manṣūr Billāh Amīr al-Mu'minīn (=the 3rd Fatimid caliph, al-Manṣūr bi-Naṣr Allāh?) before his death (intaqala ilā raḥmat Allāh). But needs further examination.

Guide for the Perplexed. In Judaeo-Arabic. Likely 13th century, based on handwriting, which may be known from other documents. Looks like the hand of Yedutun ha-Levi but has a different aleph.

Essay on the intercalation of the calendar: אדא ארדנא אלוקוף עלי עלם אלחיבור. The hand is familiar, perhaps 13th century.

34 pages of an exegetical work or sermon in Italian and Hebrew. The writer refers at one point to his teacher Menaḥem b. Yiṣḥaq (image 17 in the FGP app interface). Dated: 5519 AM, which is 1759 CE (image 2).

Mi Kamokha for Shabbat Zakhor. Hebrew liturgical poem composed by Yehuda ha-Levi, in Judaeo-Arabic translation. Same work as Halper 282. Ownership note: Nissim רפון(?). Dated: 22 Adar I 5627 AM, which is 1867 CE.

Karaite liturgical (?) fragment, referring to עדת בני צדוק, ‘the community of the sadoqites'. (Information from GRU catalog via FGP)

Elegies: all appear to be by the same author, including an elegy for a Gaʾon, צפע רוש הלעיטני, and for a woman. ‘Nathan b. Shemuʾel חזק’ is spelled in acrostic. (Information from CUDL)

Kifāyat al-ʿĀbidīn by Avraham Maimonides. Information from FGP.

Botanical work in the handwriting of Maimonides. See partial transcription and translation in Friedman, Dictionary, p. 563.