Geniza Lab

Letter from the physician Ibrahim to the physician Ya‘qub in Bilbays, whom he addresses as “my brother.” Ibrahim rebukes Ya‘qub for his failure to send letters or to fulfill his end of various agreements. This is a response to a recent letter in which Ya‘qub rebuked Ibrahim for a delay in forwarding the recipes of two compound drugs: the preventer (al-māni‘) and a drug for swelling (li-l-natwā). Ibrahim explains that he had to research the former and that he had to wait for Abu l-Baha to arrive and verify his recipe for the latter. He promises to send the mirror and the sign together with the rest of Ya‘qub’s goods, but not until Ya‘qub sends him the Shaykh, a medical textbook. Abu l-Ḥasan the physician is also upset at Ya‘qub’s tardiness and failure to communicate, and Ibrahim has had to make excuses for him, saying that he is busy in the shop. After finishing the letter, Ibrahim wrote the requested prescriptions in the margins (one version of the Preventer and two versions of the drug for swelling) and noted that all the ingredients for the third prescription are available in Bilbays. In yet another postscript, he emphasizes that it is only to be used after purging the patient. Greetings are sent by: Abu l-Ḥasan the physician. Greetings are sent to: Ya‘qub’s brothers, Najib, and R. Shemuel. ASE.

Medical prescription in Arabic script. Some phrases: 'manzūʿ al-ʿajam' (l-4), 'muṣaffā ʿalā'' (l-5), and fī niṣf mithqāl' (l-6). Diet: chicken. Verso is blank.

Medical prescription. In Arabic script. With numerous ingredients and instructions. Some ingredients include tamarind (tamr hindī), seeds of chicory (bizr hindibāʾ), chebulic myrobalan (ʾihlīlaj kābulī), lavender (usṭūkhūdhus), and polypody (basfāyij or perhaps basfānīj). Needs further examination.

Prescription or recipe. In Arabic script. The first words read, "gum arabic and tragacanth and dragons' blood" (ṣamgh ʿarabī wa-kathīrā' wa-dam akhawayn).

Medical prescription. In Arabic script.

Medical prescription or recipe in Arabic script. Possibly sharāb rummān, a pomegranate syrup. The penultimate line reads, "The whole body should be anointed with the oil of violet (banafsaj) and almond (lawz)." Hebrew literary text on verso.

Recto: Medical prescription in Arabic script. Beginning with dragon's blood (dam akhawayn). Verso: Difficult to read, but also a document in Arabic script.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Late.

Medical prescription. In Arabic script. Reused for accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century.

Prescription in Judaeo-Arabic.

Medical prescription in Judaeo-Arabic.

Medical (or magical?) prescription. Late. In Judaeo-Arabic. "To release the 'bound' (al-marbūṭ)."

Prescriptions or recipes in Judaeo-Arabic and Aramaic. "Instructions, mostly in Judeo-Arabic for preparations of different remedies. In the margin of the recto are instructions for extracting duck fat, written in a smaller hand. The last two items on the verso are in Aramaic, for killing spirits and for a woman whose sons has died." Information from Penn catalog.

Medical prescription. In Arabic script. Involves lavender and licorice and a few other ingredients. The diet should be cooked pullet (farrūj maṣlūq/maslūq).

Medical prescription(s). In Arabic script. Numerous ingredients. On verso there are notes in Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script, apparently an additional recipe/prescription. The Judaeo-Arabic reads: "Another prescription, medium (mutawassiṭa), that will dry out your body, and do not do it [...]. ve-shalom." The four lines of Arabic script underneath may be the 2nd prescription.

Medical prescription. In Arabic script. 1 mithqāl of hiera picra; the same of anise; fennel (rāziyānaj); and the rest is more difficult to decipher. Ends with "and let it be used. Beneficial if God wills." On verso jottings in Judaeo-Arabic and part of an Arabic basmala.

Probably medical prescriptions in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic, listing materia medica and quantities and containing phrases like "min kull wāḥid."

Prescription or recipe. In Judaeo-Arabic. "Its benefits are similar to the benefits of wine (khamr)." On verso there are jottings in Judaeo-Arabic: "In sleep (or: a dream). . . ra's al-matība. . ."

Medical prescription, for menstruation. It recommends a three-day course of powdered substances, to be taken in admixture with wine. The materia medica are equal parts of kohl, dried cane (Acorus calamus?), and black cumin (Nigella sativa), which, like 'menstruation' at top, receives its Hebrew name. The verso, B 5664-2, bears a partially preserved prescription in the same hand. For materia medica used by the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II, pp. 261-72.

A partially preserved medical prescription that mentions burnt goat-horn, eggplant, and a cup of wine. The recto (B 5664-1), in the same hand, bears a complete prescription, for menstruation. For a prescription that includes burnt goat-horn, see Sabur b. Sahl, Aqrabadhin al-saghir / The Small Dispensatory (trans. Oliver Kahl, 2003, p. 50). For the materia medica of the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II.