Geniza Lab

Distribution of wheat to Europeans, altogether 49 households including households consisting of only one person. First item: 'The proselyte--3; his female slave Mubaraka--1/2 wayba.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 444, App. B 26, dated 1100-1140)

Record of a collection containing 22 names with Coptic numerals. On verso 5 names are repeated with the same numerals, the beginning of a final copy, which eventually was drawn up on another sheet. Some specific names, such as Yiṣḥaq b. al-Sharaf (i.e. Sharaf al-Dawla, 'The Honor of the Government') also found in T-S K15.62. The names on verso are crossed out, so perhaps that is the discarded draft of the list. Goitein thinks this may have been a collection taken up at a wedding; he evidently reads 'al-hatan al-Muwaffaq' in line 14 (his line 7). But see below; al-h could stand for al-hazzan (Cohen). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 495, App. C 63 and Cohen)

Account for Marheshwan and Kislev 1495 sel. ca. 1183. This is a double leaf of the notebook of Shemuel b. Saadya. The first part is a list of the revenue from 25 apartments and compounds for two months, which totals 346.5 dirhams. Then a list of expenditures follows, mostly, it appears, for charitable purposes. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 357 #90)

Account for Shevat and Adar 1495 sel. ca. 1184. This is a single leaf from the notebook of Shemuel b. Saadya, written in two columns. A revenue list beginning in the first column continues in the upper part of the second one, and is followed by a list of expenditures. There are 19 items of revenue preserved, with a total for the two months of 441.5. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 359 #91)

List of indigents. List of about a hundred persons, all male, foreigners, laborers, craftsmen mostly of lower standing, community officials, persons called ghulam or sabi, that is, slave, freedman, or employee, and five others designated as damin, persons for whom security was given. They contribute or are asked to contribute from 1/6 to 3/4 dinar, that is, a partial payment of the capitation tax, the community making up the balance. The sums following the names may also indicate the amounts to be paid by the community. The notables whose employees are mentioned (Dosa, Ibn Sighmar, Ibn Awkal [son of the merchant Yosef], Bahudi, Ibn Hirbish) were active around 1040. Foreigners: From Palestine, 5 from Palestine; Persia, 2; Tiflis, 1; Spain, 3; Saqlabi (of Slavic origin), 1. Some names are only partly visible. Note: 3 kinds of shoemakers in a single list: iskaf, hadhdha, kharraz (Mediterranean Society, II, p. 422 n81; p. 440, App. 4-5, ca 1040).

Part of a booklet, a section beginning, like a title page, 'List of the Poor of Fustat--may God in his mercy make them rich and help them in his grace and kindness' (Box K 15.5). The date is preserved on 15.39, Tuesday, Marheshvan 18 (Nov. 5), 1107. This leaf contain the date Friday, [Marheshvan] 21 (Nov. 8 of the same year). Other leaves = 15.39 and 50. Beginning at column IV, line 8, 43 persons are listed together under the heading 'Rum' (Europeans, probanly from Byzantium) and there is a comment that 13 other Rum, whose names were not specified, also received loaves. The total 23 at the end of column IV was crossed out when a supplement was postscripted with an additional 8 loaves. The handwriting is that of the scribe Avraham b. Aharon. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II. p. 443, App. B 20).

Fragment of a list of pledges to charity made at a wedding. The bridegroom, styled "the elder, the scholar Abu al-Baha" (written in larger letters, different from the rest), pledged (Ar. asma) 1/2 dirham, and so did the others. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 495, App. C 65)

Nine entries, names of recipients of alms, on vellum in huge calligraphic letters, such as 'two freed women, two persons from Hijaz, two from Sahrajt [Egypt], the daughter of Mishael,' accompanied by numbers ranging from one to six. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II p. 442, App. B 10, dated 1040-1060)

Pledges for charity on Sabbath lekh lekha of the year 1647, the third week of the Jewish liturgical year, falling in October 1335 (Goitein). The list is headed by hd (=hadrat, His eminence, normally reserved for the Nagid) the judge Shemuel ha-Kohen, who contributed 20 (dirhams), far more than anyone else. 1 donor pledges 20; 2 pledge 10; 6 pledge 5; 1 pledges 3; 18 pledge 2; 56 pledge 1; 2 pledge 1/2; 4 not indicated; 18 illegible. Total number of contributors 108. Heading: asamu lil....'pledged for the...' looks like a pe followed by the faint remains of a qof, rather than, as Goitein suggests in his annotaton, ללכ]ניס or ללע]ניים. Regarding the date: 'This was in the yea[r] 647 Sel.' (perhaps read 1647, which is 1335/36 C.E., which is much more likely than 647 A.M = 881/82 C.E., but note that the preceding letter looks more like a dalet [= 4000] than an alef). In any event, this notation seems to have been there before the list was written, as proved by the last name on line 10, Sulayman, which had to be squeezed in to avoid the letters in the margin, and by the fact that the note is seemingly in a different hand. If so, the writing in the margin probably has nothing to do with the list and therefore the list is to be dated after the fall of 1335. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 496, App. C 69 and Cohen.) Also discussed in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 99f.

Accounts for 54 dirhams (not 64 as per Goitein) received by the collector (called Sulayman ha-Levi), plus 30 donated by Avraham the Pious (d. 1223) and spent during the 22nd week. The first 30 lines are in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, the remaining 48 lines in that of another scribe whose ways of accounting were very much different. Expenditure for bread: '54 plus 6 at the end of the day through Avraham Dyer.' At the conclusion of the week it had become evident that the allocation had not been sufficient. The total of 60 dirhams is twice as much as the average in Appendixes B 40-42. These were perhaps later, or this payroll reflects a certain state of emergency, for instance, a low Nile with high prices for wheat. Seems to be a leaf from a booklet and not consecutive pages. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p 451, App. B 43, dated 1210-1223)

Account of a Parnas ca. 1200. Upper part of a leaf in very deteriorated condition. It contains notes made by a parnas, recording the collection of sums for repairs in some houses of the qodesh. The verso contains several items of eexpenditures for an unnamed Nasi. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 392 #105)

Account of expenditure for the distribution of bread (100 pounds costing 31 1/2 dirhams) and for payments to a nasi, to teachers, and other officials during the eleventh week of the liturgical year (Dec. 1241). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 453, App. B 50)

Much effaced list of donors to charity. With one exception all called by their first names. Nineteen pledges of at least twenty-two persons. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 475, App. C 11)

Fragmentary list of contributions, it seems in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, details of about twenty-five preserved: five giving 1, eight giving 1/2, two giving 3/8, three giving 1/4. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 493, App. C 56)

List of about 105 prospective contributors, headed by the judge Yehiel b. Eliakim (dated docs. 1213-1233). At least 15 names recur in Bodl. c28.47, ed. Ashtor. Only the judge, who gives 1 (dinar), the Rasuy (a title), who appears second here, and another two who pledge 1/2, have sums attached to their names. But enough space is left between the lines for inserting numbers. About 20 different professions are represented. Some groups, such as goldsmiths, money changers, or purveyors of food, are listed together. The list comprises only a fraction of the members of the Rabbanite community of Fustat, probably only the more affluent. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 486, App. C 39)

Part of a booklet, with section beginning, like a title page, 'List of the Poor of Fustat--may God in his mercy make them rich and help them in his grace and kindness' (in K 15.5). Date is preserved here, on fol. 39, as, 11th of Marheshvan, October 30, 1107 (in App. B 21 Goitein wrote Tuesday, Marheshvan 18 [Nov. 5], but dated is correctly in Mediterranean Society, I, p. 56). The date is written in such a way that it could be tyt or tnt, 1107 or 1147, but the reading 1107 is made sure not only by the handwriting of the clerk [=Hillel ben Eli] but also by the names of various people listed, who are known from other Geniza papers. see ibid, I, p. 405 note 89. '490 pounds, amounting to 539 (loaves of bread), from the baker Ma'ali. Ten (pounds) were added, making a total of 500, namely ten loaves of old bread.' Other leaves from this notebook = fols. 5, 15, and 50. Notice the conspicuous presence of the Rum, Jews probably from Byzantium. In several places the names of the baker Ma'ali and that of another baker, Sadaqa, appear, interrupting the list of names of beneficiaries. The handwriting is that of Avraham b. Aharon, who also wrote App. B 23, 24. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 443, App. B 21, and from Cohen).

List of donors to charity, in large characters, apparently destined for display, 6 persons under the heading 'Sunday' and another 10 under the heading 'Wednesday.' Verso contains lists in different hands for 'Monday' (10 persons), 'Thursday' (12), 'Tuesday' (11). These seem to be the names of the collectors of the weekly alms. Only one man, Yaʿaqov, the money assayer, served twice. Dated: time of David b. Avraham b. ha-Rambam. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 494-495, App. C 62)

Account of the Qodesh: revenue from rent and building expenditures, probably ca. 1043. The recto of this leaf is a continuation of the two preceding accountings of revenue from rent (T-S NS 99.49 and T-S K25.84), mostly from the same names of houses and tenants being listed. The first part of the account, as preserved, lists some revenue for the month of Dhu'l-qa'da and the second, some for Dhu'l-hija. The verso lists expenditures in building operations, mainly for wood work, repairs for locks and doors, but also for sewage and other work materials. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 200 #26)

Two lists of recipients of clothing, in two different scripts, the first part, extending from col.I, l. 1, to col. II, l. 14, the second from col. II, l. 15, to col. IV, l. 21. At least half of the recipients were women. Four names recur in both lists, meaning that two different distributions are recorded here. Details about 44 plus 37 households are recorded, but the leaf, which is folded to form a booklet of four pages, is superscribed 'Leaf no. 3', so that the total number of persons listed originally might have been not 81, but three times as many. It is not excluded that this one and Appendix B 33 and 64 originally formed one document. Abu al-Faraj the parnas is in charge of the the second distribution (which was made in two steps, col. II, l. 15; col. IV, l. 6), is listed as recipient of a thawb, or gown, in the first distribution (col. I, l. 20 [read: 10]), where, however, the item is crossed out. This could hardly mean here, as in some other documents, that the garment had already been delivered to him, for about forty items, or half the total contained in this leaf, exhibit the Arabic final mem, which Goitein takes as an abbreviation of (tasalla)m, 'received' (the same in Appendix B 33, 64, and C 41). Thus the deletion of the parnas share probably had another reason. Other parnasim, mostly outsiders, or their relatives, receive clothing, for example, 'the sister of the parnas from Jerusalem' I l. 18, 'the firnas of Damietta' I:31, 'the parnas of Crete' II:6 (also crossed out), also II:1, IV:1 and 5. Note the large number of foreigners. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 444, App. B 25, dated 1100-1140).

List of payments made on a Thursday. In addition to the usual expenditure for bread, salaries, and extras, the official twice paid 3/4 dirhams to a teacher, the weekly tuition for a poor boy (or two brothers) for whom the community paid. School fees were paid on Thursday. Verso, ll. 1-3, contributions, possibly received on the morning of the same day in the synagogue. Headed by Ibn Jalal al-Mulk, 'the Splendor of the Kingdom,' a government official. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II. p. 463, App. B 87, dated 1200-1240)