Geniza Lab

List of sums owed to or by a teacher, including 2.5 dirhams per weeks for teaching a son or orphan. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Account of building operations ca. 1240. A double leaf taken from a notebook, this document is written in Arabic script. Work on a dome is mentioned, and on verandas. Then comes the installation of a pipe and then a qa'a in which the main work is on the cieling and drainage system. A staircase made of palm trees is installed and fixed with mortar made of gypsum. Different kinds of word and nails are mention in connection with the installation of the qa'a doors. Extensive paving work is also detailed. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 457 #137)

Letter in Arabic script. The sender is a man from Alexandria who was forced to flee from that city because he was unable to pay the capitation tax for his little boy. He asks the Nagid Avraham Maimonides to instruct the judge Eliyyahu to help. He had been unsuccessful in obtaining work. See verso.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Reporting on Abū ʿImrān b. Abū l-[...] who stole six good orange trees (uṣūl nāranj min khiyār al-uṣūl) from a ruined small compound (duwyara kharāb) and replanted them in his own garden. The addressee's brother-in-law Ibrāhīm confronted him, and Abū ʿImrān and his cronies beat Ibrāhīm up nearly to death. Then one of them was dragged to the police station (al-shurṭa) and jailed and unspeakable things happened. The Jewish court or judge (bet din) then got involved. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 63, 77.) EMS. ASE.

Two lists in an unusually large cursive script with a postscript in another, small and neat script. a) The superscription 'I[n Your] N[ame]' shows that this is the first list. It is followed by 'Those who have not yet received their share' (and are receiving it now, as is proved by the second list. b) 'Expended on...' (illegible perhaps referring to the holiday concerned). In five places dr, dirham, is added after the numerals, but dirhams are intended throughout, since the postscript actually has lil-ruqa'i, 'to the trader of orders of payments,' the banker with whom the community used to deal and who was prepared to accept these orders. The numerals in the postscript are Coptic, but conform with the Hebrew numerals in the main list, as far as preserved: 19 households receive 73~ dirhams. A number of characteristic names are identical with those occurring in B 17-24. Note specifically: a European (ifranji) who lives in the synagogue--2...a poor young man who arrived in the evening and whose overcoat, kisa, was taken from him as a collateral for 5 dirhams; his name is Abu al-Muna, he is sick; Mu'ammala ('the one hoped for'), a widow of good family, who never in her life had taken anything from anyone--5. The whole seems to be a distribution of money, probably before a holiday, in a time of severe hardship, when the community had not enough means, and about fifty families had to wait for their shares. Even then about one-third received their allocations in orders of payments--and we do not know how much the ruqai charged for converting them into cash. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 456-457, App. B 65, dated 1100-1140).

List of 31 contributors in Arabic and Coptic numerals (1, 1 1/2, 2 2 1/2, 3, 4 4 1/2, 5, 8, 9) but no denominations of coins. The physician of the hospital here is the al-Sadid of T-S K.149. Arabic was used here no doubt because the originator of the collection was a merchant who was accustomed to corresponding in Arabic rather than in Hebrew script. He also arranged collections in two noted bourses of Fustat (two collections in each bourse), one, the dar al-Fadil, founded by al-Fadil al-Baysani, originally a Fatimid official, but later chancellor and confidant of Saladin, and dar al-Za'fran (saffron house), which was adjacent to the house of gems, repeatedly mentioned in Mediterranean Society (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 508, App. C 139)

Recto, with address on verso: Letter of appeal. In Judaeo-Arabic. From a certain Yiṣḥaq, in Malīj, to a certain Nissim, probably in Fustat. Goitein identifies the addressee as Nissim b. Nahray b. Nissim. Dated: ca. 1090 CE, per Goitein. The sender is in great distress ("the knife has reached the bone") and has no clothing to wear, on Shabbat or otherwise. Efrayim suggested to the sender that the addressee could get him a letter from the Rav (whom Goitein identifies as Nahray b. Nissim) and from the Nasi (whom Goitein identifies as David b. Daniel), recommending collections to be arranged on behalf of the petitioner in al-Maḥalla and Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 508.)

List of contributors to charity during the time of Abu Ya'qub al-hakim, headed by Mahfuz al-Suri, ca. 1095 (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, App. C 79)

Account of revenue from rent ca. October 1201. A double leaf of a notebook, of which only the upper part is preserved. It was originally an account of both revenue and expenditures, but only a few items are preserved of the latter. Its first part contains revenue for the month of Marheshwan, followed by that for Kislev. The account contains 27 names of inhabited apartments belonging to to 15 compounds, inclusive of the funduq. The total revenue of Marheshwan was 269 dirhams, as against the expected 555.5 indicating a loss in revenue of 286.5, i.e. more than half. This is of course one of the indications of the famine and distress of the period. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 388 #103.) In the hand of the court scribe Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c.1181–1209).

Accounting of expenditures in Dammuh ca. 1182-83.

An instruction about the payment of the salary of the judge Yaʿaqov b. Yosef ha-kohen for January 1165.

Account of building operations ca. 1200. List of expenditures, recording the daily amount of construction work lasting two weeks, of which the details for six days are preserved. The main items refer to preparation of mortar and plastering. Written in a calligraphic hand, the accounting was perhaps intended for public display. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 396 #107)

List, eleven names preserved, each donating the same amount, including a perfumer/druggist, a banker, a katib, and a murid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, App. C 27)

Fragment (lower part) in the same hand [Shelomo b.Eliyyahu's] as T-S K15.74; T-S K15.88; T-S NS J256. List of cash receipts, arranged according to days and indicating which official collected the sums and to whom they were delivered. In several cases, orders of payment, referred to here as hawala, literally, transfer of debt, were given. Some items are noted as 'balance of his vow,' or 'part of what he owes.' Only the column 'Tuesday,' headed by the Nagid who gives 10 dirhams (next highest payment: 5), is completely preserved (9 contributions). Besides a hawala of 5, there were 34 dirhams in cash, of which 25 were delivered to the parnas Baqa, while the writer retained 9. The total of one collection, presumably for a week, was 162 dirhams, for which a collector's fee of 6 dirhams was charged, while three other persons, two parnasim and a beadle, brought 45 plus 19 dirham plus 1 dinar and 45 plus 10 1/2 [? not visible on microfilm]. Total 119 1/2 dirhams plus 1 dinar; also a sum of approximately 160 dirhams, for which a jibaya, collection fee, of 6 dirhams was paid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 488, App. C 45, dated first part of 13th century)

Account of the Qodesh: building expenditures, ca. 1040. Written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya, listing a series of items connected with the reconstruction work of that period. Clay and gypsum are being prepared for plastering. The removal of debris of ruined buildings also figures here, old pillars and an old pipe being demolished and old ceilings uncovered. The wall, apparently of the synagogue, is still under construction. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 185 #17)

List, similar to T-S NS J422, but smaller, of persons donating one or two (dinars?), or not yet decided. dated 1140s. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 480, App, C 25)

Two lists of contributors, neatly written (by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu?), one above the other. The 12 names in the upper list are repeated in the lower (which has one more), often in abbreviated form (Abu al-Majd: Majd; Najib al-Ma'tuq: Najib). The contributions, ranging from 1/2 to 1 1/2 (dirhams), are almost identical in the two lists, perhaps a collection for two musicians at a minor family affair. Dated ca. 1225 (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 505, App. C 127)

List of contributors of wheat for the poor, ca. 1100. (Information from Goitein index cards)

Letter in Hebrew. Dating: Probably 11th century. Begging a dignitary for help interceding with the king and tax administrators concerning the burden of tax being levied by 'the judge of our city':שופט מדינתנו….וירחמינו כי אין… כשמן הטוב… יחי לעד שהוא מתעסק בצורך … בממונו ובגופו עם בעלי המס וגם כל … המס למשלם חדש אלול משנתינו זו … נדע מה יהיה באחריתנו … אלולי רחמי בשמים(?) … לו כתב … הזקן . אדונינו … מלפני המלך … הכתב. On verso there is a different text, possibly literary.

Letter from Mevorakh b. Natan ha-Ḥaver (judge in Fustat, 1150–81) to Shabbetay b. Avraham (judge in Minyat Zifta, 1135–78). Concerning (1) a muqaddam who has been causing trouble and making light of notables; (2) a question submitted to the physicians in the capital by Shabbetay's son Abu Saʿd: all the physicians reply that they must see the patient, hear his words, and see his (urine) flask before prescribing an effectve remedy; (3) a recommendation for the bearer, a brother of the late Judge Menaḥem. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.