Geniza Lab

Late accounts in Arabic.

Probably a receipt for a rent payment by Yashūʿ (?) al-Yahūdī for his store (? ḥānūt) in ḥārat al-yahūd, mentioning the date Dec 1832/Jan 1833 CE (Sha'ban 1248 Hijri).

Late accounts in Arabic.

Recto: Legal document in Arabic script. Late Mamluk or early Ottoman (paleographic dating). Acknowledgement of debt in the name of Muḥammad b. Qāsim b. ʿAlī known as al-Ḥamawi, the mudawlib (perhaps the technical assistant, or the one who maintains the balance and other equipment) in the ṣarf (the money-changing house; the mint would probably be al-ḍarb), and the teacher Khiḍr b. [...] al-Yahūdī al-Rabbānī known as Ibn ʿAbduh. Verso (and margin of recto): Drafts for piyyutim in Hebrew. (ASE and MR)

Fragment (lower left corner) of a family letter in Arabic script ("your mother sends you her regards").

Fatimid tax receipt dated 528H (1133–34). Five different hands: at top, 2 requests for registration, 2 confirmations of registration; lower part is receipt itself. (MR)

Fragment of an Arabic letter or petition.

Legal document in Arabic signed by three Muslim witnesses and dated 1823/4 CE (1239 Hijri). Merits further examination.

Account in Arabic, mentioning pearls and gold.

Recto: Fragment of a literary text in Arabic. Verso: Fragment of a text in Hebrew. Needs further examination.

Arabic letter, with the format closely resembling the Judaeo-Arabic letters ca.1800 CE.

Arabic magical fragment with text in different directions, invocations of names of God, and several red grids filled with numbers and/or symbols and/or words.

Recto: Medical prescription in Arabic (or a page from a medical treatise). Verso: A statement in Arabic signed by Hiba b. Mufaḍḍal al-Mutaṭabbib and dated September 1260 (18 Shawwal 658). It has to do wtih a payment in "plain black dirhams" (sawād sādhij).

Letter in Arabic from Ṣāʿid, probably a Jewish merchant, in ʿAydhāb, to his mother and brother in Fusṭāṭ. He reports that his party left Qūṣ and celebrated Passover in the wilderness of ʿAydhāb. When they arrived in ʿAydhāb, Abū l-Ḥusayn the camel-driver (? spelled without the alif) had already departed, so they were unable to send a letter with him as planned. Ṣāʿid asks his mother to tell the teacher Abū Saʿd that the nakhuda (spelled nākhudhiya), probably the same Abū Naṣr named on verso, disagrees with his proposition (?). The writer then sends greetings to several people in Fusṭāṭ including his brother Abū l-Khayr and asks his mother to pray for him always. He then asks her to tell his brother to go to Abū l-Khayr b. Khalfa and tell him that Abū l-Surūr is with them and about to set sail with the nakhuda, and no one needs to worry on his account. He then writes (it seems) that he and his party will also be setting sail soon, presumably to Yemen or India, and may God preserve them. He then turns to addressing his brother, Abū l-Faḍl, exhorting him to look after their mother, perhaps "not to let her know" that he is setting sail, and "not to drink [...]." He concludes with asking his family to send letters to him and to the nakhuda, and gives the date: Friday the 5th of Muharram, 547 Hijri = April 1152 CE (if this is indeed the correct reading of the date). He concludes again with regards to al-Muʿallim al-Malījī and Abū Naṣr and the family of Dāwud. The first two words of the address are difficult to decipher: to madīnat al-[...]? or to sayyidat al-gharb? al-ʿarab? In any case, the letter is to be delivered to the shop of Abū l-Khayr b. Khalaf al-Ṣayrafī, who is then to give it to his brother Abū l-Faraj. ASE.

Letter in Arabic script, mentions a cloth (thawb) and the names of a few people. Needs further examination.

Arabic business letter sent from Istanbul (or written by someone named Constantine??), with the format closely resembling the Judaeo-Arabic letters ca.1800 CE. Needs further examination.

Letter in Arabic addressed to Ibrahim ʿAdda al-Marajini in Fustat/Cairo, from a certain Yusuf [...]. Dated 14 December 1802 (18 Sha'ban 1217). See AIU XII.82, another letter to the same recipient, from five years later. Needs further examination.

Letter in Arabic addressed to Muhammad Ḥasan al-ʿAttar in Fustat/Cairo, from a certain Hajj Muhammad ʿAthari (?) al-Attar. Appears to be dated 5 April 1809 (19 Safar 1224). The subject matter is business transactions the pair are conducting with Shimʿon Frances (well known from numerous Judaeo-Arabic letters, many involving his business partnership with Merkado Karo).

Recto: Letter in Arabic from Isrā'īl al-Ṣayrafī to Yaʿqūb al-Ṭawīl, appears to be dated 6 February 1797 (8 Sha'ban 1211). Verso: There is the remnant of the address of the letter on recto. There are also, in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic numerals, accounts listing names and corresponding sums of money.

Image 1: The end of an account in Arabic, along with what might be a fragment of a legal document discussing buildings in ḥārat al-yahūd. Image 2: Blank except for some sums. Image 3: A column of nearly 40 names in Judaeo-Arabic (several from the Yuʿbaṣ family) along with a column of Arabic names, most or all of which are the equivalents of the names on right. Image 4: More of a legal-looking Arabic document discussing buildings.