Geniza Lab

Chancery document. 6 lines preserved. Reused for piyyutim. Needs examination.

Medical prescription. In Arabic script.

Recto: fragment of an Arabic letter. Verso: fragment of a responsum regarding whether a man who has an emission of semen is permitted to come near his wife and in the morning recite the morning prayers. EMS

Recto: Letter to a man in Qalyūb. The writer excuses himself for not coming to Qalyūb, for he thought the addressee would not be there, but now a certain Abū Saʿd has informed him that the addressee had returned. Also mentions business matters relating to a shop, and the names Barakāt and Ibrāhīm. Verso: Letter fragment in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL.)

Recto: Legal declaration in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe involving a bridegroom and his fiancee, Sitt al-Ahl. After a temporary dissolution of the engagement, the prospective groom agrees that all future income from his fiancee, Sitt al-Ahl, would be considered her property. Verso: Short document in Arabic script. Needs further examination. (Information from Goitein's note card and CUDL)

Query from Nadiv b. Yiṣḥaq, “the son of the brother of Umm Nadiv,” asking whether a woman who was deserted by her husband with whom she had lived for ten years, but had not received a bill of repudiation from him, may marry another man. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society,1:591; 3:264, 485.) EMS. The remainder of the fragment is also filled with text. Apart from difficult Arabic text on verso, there is what Goitein calls an Arabic/medieval Greek/Romanesque (laʿaz) glossary, partially in Arabic script on recto and partially in Hebrew script on verso. There is some overlap between the Arabic script glossary and the Hebrew script glossary. Examples: khubz --> אבסומי (= Ψωμί), mawlāy --> senyor. Merits further examination

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

Recto: Letter of appeal from Mahfūẓ b. Mūsā and his brother Musallam/Muslim. In calligraphic Judaeo-Arabic. The writer describes the humiliation his family (or wife?) has experienced at the hands of the authorities (al-sulṭān) because he is delinquent in paying the capitation tax (here called kharāj) for the last two years ('years 8 and 9'). He asks for help. Verso: Document in Arabic script, which looks like it mentions various quantities and saffron. Information in part from CUDL. ASE.

Letter from a woman in Fustat to her sons. In a mixture of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic written in an elegant scribal hand. The writer reports the dire conditions in Fustat, including the plunder of the Dār al-Fā'izī (in the Judaeo-Arabic portion) and conveys news of the sick children in the house who are worsening day by day (in the Arabic portion). On verso are jottings in Arabic script, unclear if connected to recto. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Renee Levine Melammed.)

Probably an alms list in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic.

Petition to the Fatimid vizier al-Afḍal, including the raʾy component and endorsements.

Calligraphic Arabic script, perhaps the title of a book. Needs examination.

Recto: Document in Arabic script, probably a state document. The ends of three lines remain, including the word al-taqsīṭ. On verso is a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on Genesis.

Document in Arabic script. Probably late. Either a petition or an especially elegant lettter. On verso are jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script, perhaps accounts.

Three folios of piyyut interspersed with Arabic text. Needs examination.

Recto: Document in Arabic script, probably a letter fragment. Verso: A different document in Arabic script, followed by a liturgical note in Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document in Arabic script involving ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿAllān. There is an addendum in a different hand. Needs further examination.

Document in Arabic script, reused for dense jottings in both Hebrew and Arabic script. Needs examination.

Recto: Document in Arabic script. Verso: A different document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Document in Arabic script, probably legal, probably late. The date is given but is difficult to read. There are several different blocks of texts.