Geniza Lab

Tax receipt. Few names on verso.

Tax receipt with holes at the margin. General note on ENA 3944: It appears that the tax receipts under the classmark ENA 3944 were stored together throughout the Middle Ages and remained together until Adler sold his collection to JTS, at which point they were put under the same volume classmark. They had apparently been turned into a quire of reused paper at some point during the Middle Ages. Some have holes at the margin where they were apparently bound together. Whether this run of tax receipts is really from the Geniza is unclear; one of them has an Ottoman-era stamp, suggesting that the collection may have been owned prior to its sale to the Bodleian before 1910 or to Adler before 1922. MR.

Tax receipt for jizya in the name of Bū Naṣr al-Yahūdī for the year 514, beginning with addā and containing a registration mark.

Fragment of a letter about government business. In Arabic script. ". . . if he has it done by the jahbadh of the arsenal (al-ṣināʿa), that would be better for him, but your opinion is the most excellent. And Ibn Bū l-Ghanāʾim—I asked him to bring the report(?) for the Dīwān al-Mufrad and to come himself as well, so that we can reach an agreement over the deed of his ḍamān which. . . . that he made for your highness a memorandum (tadhkira) for the delayed taʿrīfs. . . out of fear that Ibn Bū l-Ghanāʾim will be audited or anything else. And you will not find any knowledge of this with him(?), also, they will be submitted(?) without signatures (khuṭūṭ). As for the market of the [...], when it was brought to his attention, there is no doubt that he supplied it to the Dīwān al-Hilālī, the documents (awrāq) of the treasury (bayt al-māl). . . ." ASE

Bottom of a legal document in Arabic script, four and a half wide lines on paper with 3 final signatures, each in the shape of a cartouche. Dating: Probably Ottoman-era. A transaction of 4,000 Egyptian medins (half-dirhams) is mentioned. Needs examination for content.

Deed of lease for an apartment (ṭabaqa). In Arabic script. Dated: 25 Ṣafar 919 AH = 2 May 1513 CE. Lessee: Manṣūr b. Najīb (b.) Manṣur. Also mentions another merchant Hibatallāh b. Mufaḍḍal. Needs further examination.

Tax receipt, Fatimid. Registration marks - al-ḥamdu lil-lāh shukran and al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ḥamd al-shākirīn.

Tax receipt, Fatimid. Registration marks - al-ḥamdu lil-lāh shukran and al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ḥamd al-shākirīn.

Tax receipt, Fatimid. Registration mark - al-ḥamdu lil-lāh l-mutqin li-mā (badaʿ?)

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

One side: Receipt for rent. Bū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf paid Maḥfūẓ 6 dirhams. The other side: Fragmentary note mentioning sugarcane and silk (yaḥtāj ilā firqat?... fī qaṣab wa-ḥarīr).

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

Petition draft. From Manṣūr b. Salāma (or rather Ṣadaqa?) to the Fatimid caliph al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh (1101–30 CE). In Arabic script. The petitioner lives in Sindiyūn (on the east bank of the Rashīd arm of the Nile, between Fuwa and Rashīd) in the province of al-Muzāḥamiyya. His father may have been a tax farmer (though Khan reads the word as ṣāmitan rather than ḍāminan) in an unidentified location called Maḥallat Salīm ibn Sahl. The petitioner's mother died, and he has been living in her house enclosure (dār). Manṣūr asks for a rescript (tawqīʿ) to be written on the back of his petition instructing the judge of al-Maḥalla to register the house enclosure as his property. He also asks for a copy for his own records. Information from Khan's edition.

Legal document, probably dating to the late Mamlūk/early Ottoman era. Mentions grains and vegetables (al-ḥubūb wa al-mazrūʿāt), al-dhahab al-Ashrafī, the Nile (baḥr al-Nīl al-Mubārak), and al-Baḥr al-Aʿzam (Mediterranean Sea). The istiʾjār clause in l4 suggests that it could be a rental/lease document however the transactions and routes suggest that it could be a sale or a partnership deed. The currency towards the end "al-nuḥās al-aḥmar al-mutaʿāmil bihā alʾān bi-l-dīyār al-Miṣrīyya" hints toward a plausible dating of this document. Goitein notes that copper coins do not begin to appear commonly in Geniza documents until the late thirteenth century and afterward (Mediterranean Society I, 360). Hence, this might be the Mamlūk-era fels/fulūs (aka jadīd post-1357CE). Another numismatic reference that might be the most useful for dating is "dhahab al-Ashrafī al-Dhāhirī"; in general, ashrafī refers to the late Mamlūk dīnār first minted in 1425CE under Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay which stayed in circulation under the Ottomans (but which was known more commonly as sharīfī/şerifi post-1517CE). It is safe to say that this document is late-Mamlūk 15th/16th-century or much less likely early Ottoman. Needs further examination. YU.

Tax receipt, Fatimid, for the sum of 2 dīnārs beginning with a basmala and "waṣl ilā bayt al-māl". Not the usual format; more of a central fiscal hand than a provincial one. Two registration marks: al-ḥamdu lil-lāh wa-bihi nastaʿīn, al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ʿalā niʿamih.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (dates: 1100–38 CE). Fragment (long vertical strip from the right side). Bill of release issued by Ibn Kūjik (בן כוגך) to his former business partner in a shop, Yefet. Signed by ʿEli b. Eliyya. On verso there are pen trials or magical amulet, in a crude hand, followed by the Hebrew alphabet. Verso has been pricked all around the edge. The Ibn Kūjik who appears in this document may be identical with Abū l-Maʿālī Yaʿaqov b. Yosef Ibn Kūjik from T-S 10J7.10, fol. 2r. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)