Geniza Lab

Document in Arabic script. Perhaps a medical prescription or recipe.

Recipe in Arabic script for compounding hiera picra. ASE

Original text: Hebrew piyyutim, probably mid-12th-century based on handwriting (compare to Moss. Ia,6). Later text: A prescription in Arabic script.

Recto: Prescription or medical recipe, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script.

Document in Arabic script. Possibly a medical prescription: the word sharāb (syrup) appears in the first line, and words for weights (dirham and ūqiya) appear several times. There are two fragments under this shelfmark. The lower one is Arabic poetry

Medical prescription mentioning lemon, sugar, almonds, rose, lily, chicory, licorice, coriander.

Letter from a physician to a Kohen expressing thanks for condolences. At the end he writes a prescription for the growing of hair on skin where none would grow. The letter is in Judaeo-Arabic, but he introduces the prescription with a line of Arabic. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 253, 578.) "Let a black raven be taken. Let it be burned, pulverized, and kneaded with oil, and let it be applied to the spot on which no hair grows. It will grow with God's permission." Translation from Goitein's note card #27141.

Medical prescription with the order of what to do after the medicine has worked: sweet rose water, cold water, and a boiled chicken. (information from Goitein's index card). VMR

Recto: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to Abū l-Faraj. Only the opening remains. Verso: Letter from Shelomo (likely Shelomo b. Eliyyahu) to his father. In Judaeo-Arabic. He writes, "I met with Ibn al-ʿAmīd, and he prescribed me herb water (? mā' baql) and chicory syrup. Every doctor prescribes herb water for me." One senses frustration. The rest is quite faded. ASE.

Medical prescription in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century based on handwriting. Partial transcription on Goitein's index card. On recto there is a poem on the history of the Patriarchs in rhymed Judaeo-Arabic (Goitein wonders: "a haggada for women?")

Prescription for a medical treatment containing eighteen ingredients (including myrobalan, red raisins and borage), and ending with the usual expressions of piety. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 254, 574).

Prescription. In Arabic script. This is the response to the letter in PGPID 3351.

Letter from Abū l-Surūr b. Ṭarīf to the brothers Abū l-Makārim and Abū Yaʿqub ha-Kohen. The writer describes in detail the severe fever and dysentery (zaḥīr) of the addressees' brother Abū l-Riḍā, "as if you were present." There is no expert physician in the town from which he writes, and there are no medical ingredients. He therefore asks the addressees to approach a physician, to procure medication with the four dirhams attached to the letter, and to send it back with the courier. Initially there was a "cold" fever for 50 days, followed by a "hot" fever for 8 days. The patient was then afflicted with terror (wahul) and dysentery. There follows a detailed description of his bowel movements. At first there were 'filings' but no blood, and there were solid BMs along with the filings which had a terrible smell. Then the BMs became soft, without the terrible smell. His tongue is [tied? loosened?] but he is overcome by silence (? al-sukūna) all night long. "This is the description of his illness as if you were present." (Information in part from Med Soc, V, pp. 193, 194, and from Goitein's index cards.) Postscript on verso: "Obtain a prescription for what his diet should be. If he prescribes [...] Levantine sour grapes, obtain them, for we have none here [...] and exchange them for something else." The prescription is written at the bottom of the letter in Arabic script. ASE

Letter by Meir b. al-Hamadani to Maimonides, asking him to accept his son as his assistant for the study of medicine. He stresses that he dared to apply to him only because he had heard that Maimonides' nephew, who had worked under him thus far, now practiced elsewhere. He promises to pay Maimonides a higher honorarium than the former apprentice. Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 248. On verso there is a medical prescription (nuskha li-l-khayālāt) containing twelve ingredients, along with a record of four donations received in a pesiqa dated 1225/26 CE (1537 Seleucid). ASE.

Medical recipe (צפה מגלי).

Prescription for pills against coughing; ingredients include red gum tragacanth, almond resin, licorice robe, and “bottled gourd seeds and quince mucilage, of each one mithqal.” (Efrayim Lev and Leigh Chipman, Medical Prescriptions in the Cairo Geniza Collections, Brill, 2012, 49-50) EMS. Written by Berakhot b. Shmuel. AA

Four lines in Arabic script, perhaps a recipe or prescription. The words nāfiʿ . . . inshāllah are legible, then wa-l-yudlak fī. . . . Needs further examination. (Information in part from CUDL) EMS, ASE

Medical prescription in Judaeo-Arabic. Ingredients include: probably 2 oz. grainy concentrated lemon syrup (sharāb laymūn murammal), 1/2 oz. sugar candy (sukkar nabāt), something weighing 3 dirhams, 1/2 dirham white gum of tragacanth (kathīrāʾ bayḍāʾ), something weighing 1/8 dirham. Possibly aphrodisiac: ללגמ[אע?]. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

Recto (secondary use): Medical recipe or prescription in Arabic script. Underneath, in Judaeo-Arabic, there are mnemonics for calculating the dates of new moons and holidays given in the name of Yoshiyyahu b. Mevorakh (the writer?).

Medical prescriptions/recipes in a striking mix of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic, sometimes alternating in the same sentence. Two of the recipes are taken from al-Malikī (of al-Majūsī) and one from al-Tadhkira (=Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn).