Geniza Lab

Panegyric (madḥ) in the hand of Sahlān b. Avraham. Addressed to Abū Saʿīd al-Dā'ūdī (a Nasi). In Hebrew with the heading in Arabic script. Calligraphic. Dated: Iyyar 1357 Seleucid, which is 1046 CE. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards, where the panegyric is called "rather lame")

Polemical composition narrating the story of the exilarch Bustanay. For a parallel text and fuller description, see PGPID 6078.

Recto: Unidentified text in Arabic script. Perhaps a business letter? "... al-Andalusī wa-akhūhā (l. 4)"; pepper may be mentioned several times. Vecto: Halakhic text, possibly part of a responsum, written by Efrayim b. Shemarya, dealing with excommunication (11th century). Information from CUDL.

Rhymed text (-bī) in Judaeo-Arabic. This may be a poem in honor of Rabbi Avraham. In the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Halakhic text in Judaeo-Arabic. See FGP for joins and further information. Enumerating the factors that disqualify a person for testifying. The fourth group is "those who lack muruwwa (roughly: virtue, manliness)." 4a: He who plays backgammon or chess or fasāfis ("fleas") or nawā ("fruit pits") or dice, or the like, if he gains money or benefit from it. 4b: He who plays in the bathhouse or with rams or with dogs or other such animals, if he gains money or benefit from it. 4c: He who eats in the marketplace."

Poems and drafts in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. One of the poems is by Avraham Ibn ʿEzra. One of the drafts is invective (hijāʾ): והוא שוטה.... וכל מליו ... שקרים.

A commentary on poetry, and piyyuṭim, including one by Hayye Gaʾon on the topic of circumcision. F. 1r begins, after a בשמ׳ רחמ׳, ‘A synopsis of some verses of (the poem) את ערובת by Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen “filled with light” (i.e., blind) al-Danūrī b. ʿAlī, in the hand of Efrayim b. ʿAzarya, known as Ibn Faḍlān (?)’. Later references to al-Danūrī in the text indicate he is dead. (Information from CUDL.)

One side: Rhymed text (-hū) in Hebrew. The other side: Rhymed text (-hū) in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī.

Polemic against the house of the exilarch. Dating: 1040–41 CE. After a disagreement between Kafnai, Bustanay's father, and his father in law, the head of the Yeshiva, the entire family of the exilarch dies (and King David appears to the head of the Yeshiva in a dream). Bustanay is only surviving descendant of King David. The head of the Yeshiva raises him and occupies his place among the elders of Baghdad, but refuses to cede the position when Bustanay turns 16. The case comes before the caliph ʿUmar Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who is impressed that Bustanay does not flinch when a mosquito bites him. The caliph appoints Bustanay as exilarch and marries him to a daughter of the King of Persia, who had been captured in battle. She bears children to Bustanay but is never manumitted and never converts to Judaism. The point of the polemic: all the descendants of Bustanay are compromised, and the true house of King David will be revealed only in messianic times. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4) Join: Moshe Gil. In the hand of Sahlān b. Avraham (per Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4), copied in the following circumstance: Daniʾel b. ʿAzarya, who was a nasi (from the house of the exilarch), had arrived from Iraq in Palestine and supported the gaonate of Shelomo b. Yehuda. Followers of the rival gaʾon, Natan b. Avraham, including members of the Iraqi congregation in Fustat, among them Sahlān b. Avraham, cast aspersions on Danʾiel b. ʿAzarya presumably also against Shelomo b. Yehuda. (Rustow, Heresy, 314) For a parallel text, see PGPID 35180.

Literary collection of poetry and prose relating to Anatoli b. Yosef. Dating: Perhaps 13th or 14th century, some time after the death of Anatoli. The headings are quite interesting, and of documentary value: e.g., What Anatoli wrote to R. Shemuel the week of the earthquake; R. Shemuel's response; by Anatoli, addressing R. Moshe Ḥazzan; what his nephew Abū l-Surūr sent him; by Anatoli, concerning drinking and wine; what R. Peraḥya ha-Zaqen Ḥalabī wrote to Anatoli; Anatoli's response; Peraḥya's response; what R. Shemuel Nafūsī wrote to Anatoli when he left Sicily (or maybe Palermo); what R. Shemuel wrote him when he traveled to Māzar; from the letter that Abū l-Faḍl wrote to him. According to the FGP bibliography, this manuscript was edited by Elisheva Hacohen, שירי ר' אנטולי בר יוסף, in 1995/96. There may still be other items of documentary interest under Yevr. II A 104. ASE.

Book. Qaraite. May have some contents of documentary significance, including the genealogy (p. 51) of the well-known Shelomo b. David b. Ḥisday (d. 1203/04 CE), the head of the Qaraite community of Cairo.

Azharot for Shavuʿot by Shelomo Ibn Gabirol. There is a marginal note (p.18) giving a date for this copy: 1484 Seleucid, which is 1172/73 CE.