Geniza Lab

Legal document in Arabic script. Dated: Dhū l-Qaʿda 419 AH, which is 1028 CE. Written transversely in relation to the text on the other side. Accompanied by Hebrew jottings (זכרון עדות, written twice, inverted in relation to the Arabic text). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Recto: Document in Arabic script. Five lines, well preserved. The phrases seem more suited to a legal document than a letter, but needs examination. Verso: Note probably in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Ends with the legal phrase והכל שריר ובריר וקיים. Maybe this is summarizing the document on recto? There is also a list in Arabic script, naming various items (building expenses? e.g. nails and wood) and numbers. ASE

Recto: A few lines in Arabic script along with a phrase from a legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Needs examination. Verso: Legal fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 6 Adar 1549 Seleucid, which is 1237 CE. Only the beginning is preserved - in fact, it looks like a draft that was abandoned.

Document in Arabic script. The name al-Mu'ayyad fī l-Dīn may appear. Also: "Inform me who. . . in the neighborhood. . . or if he is in the house."

Recto: Document in Arabic script. Accounts? Mentions Abū Isḥāq al-Ḥājj(?). Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Pertaining to the qodesh? Listing some construction expenses (e.g., nails).

Legal document. Dated: Av 4959 AM, which is 1199 CE. Location: Probably Alexandria, where legal documents in this period tend to be dated according to the anno mundi calendar as opposed to the Seleucid calendar used in Fustat and the other towns of Egypt. Concerns Sitt al-Gharb bt. Yehuda, the divorcee of Abū Naṣr Elʿazar ha-Kohen b. Shelomo al-Ṣayrafī al-Miṣrī. Friedman has synthesized her story based on (a) T-S 8.239 + Bodl. MS heb. a 3/36 (her ketubba, drawn up in Qūṣ); (b) T-S NS J455 (a court record from Aleppo, 1189 CE, in which Abū Naṣr agrees to send her a bill of divorce with the agent Avraham ha-Talmid b. Ḥananel); (c) Moss. VII,75 (that very bill of divorce, which reached its destination); and (d) MS 8254, fol. 15, the present document. Sitt al-Gharb has remarried. Her new husband, Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm, wishes to do business with the half-house that belongs to Sitt al-Gharb. Apparently she was not in agreement. This document certifies that the husband should be prohibited from doing anything with her property until an order arrives from Maimonides. Maimonides is titled "Rayyis" in this document, as he had returned to the post of the Head of the Jews by this date (though 'rayyis' is also sometimes used for any respected physician or dignitary). Information from Friedman's 1988 article, pp. 181–85.

Jottings in Hebrew script and Arabic script, perhaps including some accounts.

Arabic (according to FGP). Image not available.

Document in Arabic script. Probably a letter. The top row of text has exceedingly tall ascenders. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination. There is also a literary fragment in Arabic script sharing this shelfmark.

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Letter from al-Sharīf Ḥasan to the qāḍī Ṣanīʿat al-Mulk. In Arabic script, with diacritics and vowels, calligraphic. Dating: Perhaps 13th to 15th century, on paleographic grounds. This is a letter of recommendation for charity for six 'cut-off' women (nisā' munqaṭiʿāt) who have no husbands (lā azwāj la-hunna) or anybody else to provide for them: Umm Bū Muḥammad and her daughter; the midwife or wet nurse (dāya) and her daughter; and Umm Qays and her daughter. The addressee is described as a "cave (=shelter) for the cut-off and a refuge for those who ask/beg of him" (standard epithets for important and charitable people: see e.g. AIU V.B.48 and on it Cohen, Poverty and Charity, p. 48 n. 36). ASE

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. The muqirr: Ibrāhīm [.......]. Needs examination.

Document in Arabic script. There are two fragments under this shelfmark. Needs examination.

Literary text. In Arabic script, calligraphic. Contains a narrative involving ʿAmr b. Umayya al-Ḍamrī (one of the companions of Muḥammad). It involves espionage (al-dukhūl ilā diyār al-qawm li-yasriqa akhbār) as well as a scrawny rider and 2 camels (nāqatān) that looked like a pair of ostriches (naʿāmatān).

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. The muqirr: Muḥammad [......]. Needs examination.

Kathismas (قاتسما). Christian liturgical divisions of the Psalter into daily readings ('for Wednesday and Friday'; 'for Thursday and Saturday') together with supplementary prayers. In Arabic script. Section divisions are marked by little crosses. Identification of the genre kindly provided by George Kiraz.

Writing exercises, probably, since all the rows per side contain the same words. In Arabic script.

Legal document (iqrār) in Arabic script. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān makes a declaration. Needs examination.