Geniza Lab

Geʾonic responsa. (Information from CUDL)

Book list. Dating: Probably 13th century (per Frenkel, based on the names mentioned; Assaf thought it was 12th century). It lists nine covers as being red, six as black and five as white. (Information from CUDL and Allony et al.)

Recto: opening lines of a legal document dated Thursday 1st Shevet 4746 and 1297 (= 986 CE) in Fusṭāṭ, in which Shelomo b. Isaac gives testimony to the court. Verso: poem or sermon in Hebrew, continuing in the right and upper margins. (Information from CUDL)

Long piece from a deed of sale of a female slave. Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa ha-Levi sells his slave Jaḥūn to Abū l-Riḍā. In the hand of the scribe Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100-1138 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Last few lines of a legal document, containing an attestation from the Bet Din. Date and location are not preserved, but the witnesses are Yaʿaqov b. Abraham, Nathan b. Shemuʾel he-Ḥaver, and Moses b. Shelomo, placing it in Fusṭāṭ in the second quarter of the 12th century. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Geonic (?) responsum regarding two orphans who claim property their father had entrusted to another. Verso is barely legible, but seems to be a responsum in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Letter: poetic letter (probably a draft) to an important individual, addressed as נין הגאונים ותפארת הישיבות. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a letter written by a Samaritan carpenter, Joseph b. Ismaʿīl, asserting his devotion to the Law and seeking employment for the writer. It was probably written to a Rabbanite community. Bodl. MS heb. b 11/13 is a letter from the same individual, and reveals he is destitute and requests that the ‘head carpenter’ be instructed to accept him, because his co-religionists, the Samaritans, were too concerned with their own prosperity and not with poor people like him. The letter is written on the inside folios of a bifolium, with the writer’s name on f. 1r and blank on f. 2v. It appears to have been bound into a codex. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from a woman, in Jerusalem, to her brother, in Egypt. In Hebrew, with several Judaeo-Arabic terms mixed in. Dating: Probably late 15th or early 16th century (per A. David); the letter is undated but refers to peraḥim (ducats), and is headed by the abbreviation בה. The sender complains at great length about the addressee's wife, her sister-in-law. "I say to her, 'Why did you say you wanted to go to him, and now you don't want to go?'" She discusses trade in books as well as bread, wheat, barley, olives, and lemons. Mentions two inkwells (dawātayn), one of which was sent via Qaṭya (in the Sinai desert). Mentions letters from "the Nagid." She returns to complaining about the sister-in-law and her friendship with Jawhara and "those witch friends of hers" (אלו החברות הכשפניות שלה), apparently including Jawhara and Sara the broker (al-Dallāla), who curse [...]. A little further down: "And the woman who was selling hashish..." (or just herbs?). On verso there is a lot more about money matters—her difficult circumstances, which even led to time in prison—as well as more about women who are fighting with the sender. She asks her brother to save her from this 'evil woman' and also urges him to take a different wife ("If a widow, she should be young; a virgin is better"). The letter was written on her behalf by Yom Ṭov b. Yosef b. ʿImanuel and it is addressed to [...] Hārūn al-ʿŪdī. (Information in part from CUDL and mainly from Avraham David's edition.)

Letter from Moshe b. Labrāṭ, in al-Mahdiyya, to the Head of the Jews of Egypt (Moshe b. Mevorakh) asking him to assist the son of Yaʿaqov II b. Nissim I, who was murdered on his way from Dahlak to Yemen. The son is trying to retrieve his father’s belongings, as well as the goods carried by him for Muslims and Jews. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Recto: two alchemical recipes. The first recipe (ll. 1-8) is aimed at producing ‘the work’ (אלצנעה), a word commonly used for indicating the production of gold, silver or the elixir that would turn base metals into precious ones. Ingredients mentioned are: sublimated arsenic, vinegar, sulphur, dissolved salt, sublimated mercury. The second recipe is composed of two parts. The first part (ll. 8-14) describes a preparation requiring silver, salt, water, mercury, and sal ammoniac that is aimed at obtaining a clear plate of metal. The second part (ll. 14-end) requires the use of quicksilver, horse manure, sal ammoniac, the Khurasani (?) and young boys’ urine. The end of the recipe is lost. Verso: part of a widely-spaced letter sent to a nagid in Fusṭāṭ. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Khalaf b. Mūsā (=Ḥalfon b. Moshe) al-Ḥaver al-Kohen on behalf of the whole congregation of "Ḥaṣer Adar" (חצר אדר). Saʿadya Gaʾon translates this biblical place name—along with חצור and חצרים—as Rafaḥ, which seems plausible here. Addressed to a dignitary whose genealogy ends with [...] b. Faraḥ b. Shalom(?) ha-Kohen. In Hebrew for the introduction and Judaeo-Arabic for the body. The address is written partially at the bottom of recto in Judaeo-Arabic and also on verso in Arabic script. The letter mentions the city of ʿAsqalān and various names such as Abū ʿImrān, Wuhayb b. Sahl, and Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. It is large, but it is faded nearly beyond legibility (in some places it is legible only because the ink has completely faded and bleached the paper where it used to be). ASE

Copy of an engagement deed dated 1202 in Alexandria, sent to Maimonides with a query over whether the contract was legally binding, and the reply in Maimonides’ handwriting. The query itself did not survive, but Maimonides’ reply makes its subject matter clear. The halakhic validity of this type of contract was in doubt, and Maimonides ruled that engagement deeds were in fact permissible according to halakha. (Information from CUDL)

Letter/petition addressed to a notable. In Hebrew (for the poetic opening) and Judaeo-Arabic (for the body). In a typical 11th or early 12th century hand. Reused for Hebrew piyyut (recto) in the hand of a prolific scribe. Joins: Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from CUDL)

Collection of Geonic responsa, in the same hand as T-S 16.99, T-S G2.29, T-S 12.169, and T-S 16.310. (Information from CUDL)

Palimpsest consisting of the Palestinian Talmud (including Peʾa 18d and 20b-c and Šeqalim, 44a-b; 46b), written over a Syriac text, The Life of St Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria. Edited in Lewis (1902: 146–49) as text XXXV. (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba fragment for Dalāl bt. Yosef and Shelomo b. Natan. Date and location not preserved. Witnessed by Yeshuʿa b. Shabbat (שבאת), Aharon b. Efr[ayim], Ḥalfon b. Avraham, and Mevorakh b. Shemuel. Information from CUDL.

Late letter from Jacob Bagilyer to his brother Aharon. Dealing with financial matters (amounts in peraḥim/ducats). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from David b. Avraham Maimonides to R. Isaac regarding some community issues in Ashmum. Connected with T-S 13J27.1. Information from CUDL and Goitein's note card.

Two fragments from the outer leaves of a collection of late responsum on agents, citing Haro”sh and other rabbinical authorities. There are six elaborate signatures of the scribe Yeshuʿa b. Shababo (שבאבו). (Information from CUDL)