Geniza Lab

T-S K5, 16-40. Exercises of children, representing leters in various combinations and copies of the beginnings of the third and the first books of Moses. (Information from Goitein's note cards) Writing exercises, mostly consisting of the alphabet vocalised with the various Tiberian vowels, in an unpractised hand. F. 1v is blank. (Informcation from CUDL)

T-S K5, 16-40. Exercises of children, representing leters in various combinations and copies of the beginnings of the third and the first books of Moses. Information from Goitein's note cards.

T-S K5, 16-40. Exercises of children, representing leters in various combinations and copies of the beginnings of the third and the first books of Moses. (Information from Goitein's note cards) Alphabetical writing practice, consisting of the atbash, on recto, and, on verso, the alphabet in reverse order. Both alphabets are followed by חזק. (Information from CUDL)

T-S K5, 16-40. Exercises of children, representing leters in various combinations and copies of the beginnings of the third and the first books of Moses. (Information from Goitein's note cards) Writing practice, consisting of the text of Genesis 1:1-3 by a trained hand, followed, underneath, by a cruder repetition. There are some stray ṣades. Verso is blank. (Information from CUDL)

Petition from the Jewish physician Sulaymān b. Mūsā. In Arabic script. He reports that he "was raised among the physicians of the hospital (māristān) in Old Cairo, and he is one of the sons of the physicians who are employed there, and he has attended. . . .” The continuation is missing. He is presumably leading up to a request that he be formally employed at the hospital himself. On verso there is part of a medical notebook dealing with ophthalmology. Recto contains a list of simples used for curing eye complaints and follows roughly the list found in ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, Tadhkirat al-kaḥḥālīn (ed. Hyderabad 1964, p. 347). Simples mentioned include antimony, sarcocolla, ceruse, acacia, lichen, gum of sal ammoniac, myrtle, melitot, galbanum, onions, borax, lettuce seeds, zinc oxide, and egg white. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Masʿūd b. Mawhūb to his brother Sābiq b. Mawhūb. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender is agitated about the news he heard from Umm Subayʿ b. ʿAbdallāh, namely that his wife has taken their son out of the school (kuttāb) and allowed him to play all day. "She behaves like an idiot (ablah), inflicting unhealable wounds." He will travel (or send raqqāṣīn?) to Cyprus (קברץ), where it seems the woman lives. He has sent 15 dirhams with Abū l-Munā b. Ḥiyya to give to the teacher. The boy should not be allowed to play hooky. He sends a jūkāniyya (a garment) for the boy. He asks for Abū ʿImrān to draw up a bill of divorce for him for Ṣafar [5]31 (=1136/37 CE) for a half dinar. Some of this summary is tentative; needs further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Receipt. In Judaeo-Arabic. A teacher, Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū l-Riḍā al-ʿAṭṭār confirms that he has received 12 dirhams for teaching 3 children for the duration of the months Av and Elul. The pupils are the son of Hilāl the water carrier (al-saqqāʾ), the son of the daughter of Khalaf the rice miller (daqqāq al-ruzz), and the son of the daughter of Miska. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 559 and from Goitein's index cards.) On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Letter from a schoolteacher from Algeria who taught in small town in Egypt and travelled every year to Fustat to obtain a pesiqa there (i.e., a post), instead of teaching privately, but was not successful. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:107, 553) EMS

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. A mother concludes a contract for the teaching of her boy in Arabic. Malīḥa the sister of Shelomo Ibn al-Amʿaṭ ha-Levi and Abū l-Faḍl Ṣadoq b. Shemarya agree that the latter will teach the Arabic script and the calculations of baqasāt(??) and dhāqāt(??) to Hiba b. Abū Saʿd (presumably her son) for two dinars. NB: This document is sometimes cited as T-S NS J401.21. (Information from Goitein's index card.)