Geniza Lab

List of names in Arabic characters with sums in Coptic numerals. (Information from Goitein index cards)

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

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

State document. Receipt from the treasury for a (non-tax) payment of 162 dinars. Dated: 17 Shawwāl 442 AH, which is 1051 CE. Later reused for a letter.

Note to Abū Saʿd b. Moshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Draft. Beginning only. Epressing the writer’s desire to see him. Followed by one line in Arabic script and by a short text (a midrash?) concerning circumcision. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's note card.

Letter draft (beginning only) in Arabic script. From a certain Abū l-Ḥasan to the "distinguished physicians."

Recto: Letter, fragmentary, in formal Arabic script, including the line, "I am to you like a son and you are to me like a father." Needs further examination. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic astronomical treatise.

Letter from an unknown writer to an unknown addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer rebukes the addressee for failing to write with his news. Everyone has been worried about him. The writer himself has been distressed and sick ever since leaving the addressee, but he finally feeling better. The writer found a certain item with him (second word of line 7) that evidently had to be sent to the addressee, but it was the eve of Passover, and Abū l-Barakāt b. al-Ṣabbāgh had traveled, so the writer had to send it with the bearer of the present letter, Abū l-Faraj al-Kohen known as Ibn Qasāsa. There are also a few lines of Arabic script at the bottom, oriented 180 degrees to the main text. Includes a basmala and the word "mablagh" (amount/sum). (Information in part from CUDL and from Goitein's index cards.) ASE

A Fatimid decree fragment, possibly of an investiture. Recycled by Efrayim b. Shemarya.

Business letter in Arabic script from Nahray b. Nissim (per Aodeh), perhaps from Fustat, to ʿArūs b. Yosef, probably in Alexandria, since he is asked about prices in Alexandria in line 21. It seems wishful thinking to read the signature as "Nahray." In any case, the writer conveys his sorrow ever since ʿArūs departed, a sorrow particularly keen whenever he visits ʿArūs's home. He writes that Abū Khiḍr Shardāna (a name of Persian origin that also appears in T-S 13J20.18) will soon be in ʿArūs's location. He sends a message for Zayn al-Tujjār regarding the sale of "the quarter [dinar?]" (al-rubʿ), and he asks ʿArūs to sell for him the garments (fūṭ) and to fetch the writer's gold from the home of the Rosh Kalla. He sends a message for [Mūsā] b. Abī l-Ḥayy to sell on his behalf licorice (ʿaraq sūs) and coriander (? kuzbara but prefixed with a dāl). He asks for the price of Alexandria hellebore (kharbaq) and other prices. He reports that he has a dinar and a third and a quarter with Barakāt b. Saʿāda, and ʿArūs is to convey it to the writer's nephew. Verso is much more faded. People mentioned include a certain Abū Naṣr al-Baghdādī; the writer's brother-in-law Abū Isḥaq, who seems to have done something that requires forgiveness (al-bārī yarḥamahu): Khalaf b. ʿAzrūn; Abū ʿImrān (=Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy?) who will be traveling with the writer; he sends regards to all the Tripolitans (in Libya); and he asks ʿArūs to forward a note to acertain Ibrāhīm. Information largely from Aodeh's edition. ASE.

Letter addressed to Netanel ha-Zaqen b. Aharon and his son Shelomo. The letter consists entirely of blessings for the holidays. Mainly in Hebrew. The passages in Arabic are written in Arabic script.

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.

Business letter in Hebrew and Arabic script to Abū l-Ḥasan Binyamin requesting the dispatch of merchandise to Qalyub, including medical supplies, via a ghulām, and mentioning the broker Banin.

Large fragment filled with Arabic script. It appears to be a Jewish prayer: "yā Allāh" (l. 6), "I thirst for your mercy like the ground thirsts for water" (l. 17), "for the sake of the covenant with our fathers Ibrāhīm Isḥāq and Yaʿqūb..." (margin, ll. 12–13). Needs examination.

Business letter in Arabic script from an unknown trader, possibly to Nahray b. Nissim (Aodeh), on the back of a letter in Hebrew script (see separate entry).

Accounts in Arabic script with names and numbers arranged in neat columns. Needs examination. The space around this document has been filled with Judaeo-Arabic text going in all directions. Most of the Judaeo-Arabic is calendrical reckoning. But in the middle of the page: "Ibn Abū l-Faḍl al-Parnas died on 25 Tishrei 603 AH / 4967 AM," which is 1206 CE. On verso, the page is filled with a Hebrew panegyric to a certain Shelomo b. Yehuda (line 28) (if this is the famous 11th century gaon, 150 years would have to have elapsed between the poem and the Judaeo-Arabic text on the other side; though this could conceivably be a copy of an earlier poem). In the margins there are Arabic letters strung together in magical chains. In between the antepenultimate line and the penultimate line of the Hebrew poetry it says in Judaeo-Arabic "the number is 60 verses." At the very bottom, in Arabic script: al-ḥurūf al-nāṭiqa sabʿa ("the 'speaking letters' are 7"), which is followed by 7 letters that appear to be Coptic. ASE

Recto: Document in Arabic script. May be part of the same document as T-S 20.75. Verso: Hebrew treatise.

Recto: Letter in Arabic from Ibrahim b. Muhammad. Between the lines of recto, and verso: Treatise on the ‘people of the land’, with numerous biblical quotations on the wise, the fool, the ʿAm ha-Areṣ, and offerings, as well as quotations from the Talmud. Information from GRU catalog via FGP.

Recto: fragment from an Arabic chancery document. Probably part of the same manuscript as T-S 20.70. Verso: Draft sermon or ethical work, citing the Song of Songs and other biblical sources, with many additions and deletions. Information from GRU catalog via FGP.

Fatimid decree. The decree is from the period of al-Hafiz (1131–49) and mentions the congregational mosques of al-Ḥākim (in Cairo) and al-Ḥāfiẓ (it is not clear which the second mosque was). Marina Rustow