Geniza Lab

Letter draft in Arabic script. The addressee's name may appear in line 1 (Abū l-Murajjā?) and several words of the content of the letter appear in line four before it was abandoned (mentioning a dukkān?).

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Recto: Literary. Page in calligraphic Hebrew from the beginning of Sefer Zmanim in the Mishneh Torah, dating the fragment to ~1180 CE at the very earliest. Verso: Notes in calligraphic Arabic script to a higher-ranked individual. There are two, oriented at 180˚ to each other. Probably drafts. The one at the top gives a string of titles (al-majlis al-sāmī al-ajallī al-ʿulwī al-dīwānī. . .), then praises for how the addressee helps those in need (... al-ṭālibīn wa-malja' al-muḥtājīn ʿindahā), then briefly brings up some matter relating to seafaring merchants (? aʿrāḍ al-tujjār al-sāfirīn). Concludes "fa-lahā waffaqahā allāh al-ra'y al-[...] fī dhālik." The one at the bottom complains that the addressee's letters have been cut off (inqaṭaʿat kutub sayyidī. . .) and requests that he please bestow the favor of continuing to including the writer in his business (fa-uḥibb an tamunna wa-tunʿima. . . bi-mā yashtaghilu bihi. . . wa-huwa waliyy bi-mā ya'mur bihi in shā' allāh). Needs further examination. ASE.

Letters in Arabic script. Recto and verso are in two different letters in two different hands. Needs examination

Document in Arabic script. Surrounded by various jottings, including one naming the amir Sayf al-Dawla. The sheet was late reused for Hebrew piyyutim. Needs examination.

Accounts in Arabic script and Coptic numerals (?). Bifolium from a notebook, with all four pges filled. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. May mention the arrest of somebody. On verso there is an Aramaic targum of Joshua.

Legal document in Arabic script. Acknowledgment (iqrār). Dated: 10 Ṣafar 627 AH, which is January 1230 CE. One party is Isḥāq b. Manṣūr al-Yahūdī. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog and Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, p. 46.

Legal document in Arabic script. Dated: Jumāda II, but the year is difficult to read. This is probably not a letter as catalogued.

Mysterious document in Arabic script. May contain the phrases "ilā bustān Fakhr al-Mulk" and "ʿalayim al-juʿl al-thaqīl wa-l-ḥabs."

Legal document in Arabic script. Acknowledgment (iqrār). On verso there is a Hebrew piyyut/rahat.

Legal document in Arabic script. Acknowledgment (iqrār). On verso there are Hebrew piyyutim.

Letter or petition. In Arabic script. Surrounded by additional jottings in Arabic script (accounts?).

Business letter, draft. In Arabic script. Dated: 20 Shawwāl 741 AH, which is 1341 CE. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Main document: Petition or letter draft from Sulaymān b. Bunayy(?). In Arabic script. Dating: Late. The margins and verso are filled with additional documents or jottings in Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, and Arabic script. One of the Judaeo-Arabic text blocks contains a very formal taqbīl preamble addressed to someone in the government. Needs further examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Declaration (iqrār). Dating: Perhaps 14th century, on paleographic grounds. The Qaraite Mūsā b. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq b. ʿAbd al-Karīm confirms to have received from the Qaraite [...] b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Yūsuf known as Ibn Kūjik(?) something to do with the endowments (awqāf) of the Qaraite community. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog and Goitein's note card.

Recto: A letter in Arabic script regarding a suftaja (bill of exchange) and mentioning Abū Saʿd al-Tustarī and [...] b. Yaʿqūb al-Tustarī. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic for three different types of indigo: jūdī, sindānī, and ʿamtānī. Information from Goitein's note card.

Business letter in Arabic script to a certain Abū l-Munā.

Letter in Arabic script from Naṣrallāh (he begins the letter "mamlūkuhu akhūhu Naṣrallāh," line 2) to his brother Sharaf al-Dīn (line 3). The writer seems to be a provincial official of some sort. He reports awaiting the arrival of al-Qāḍī al-Ẓahīr (?) (named in lines r5, r10, and rm1). When the judge arrived, it seems that he started hearing the suits (? jihāt) of the locals. As the local tax assayer (mushārif) was new, he knew nothing of these (wa-dhālika anna l-mushārif jadīd lā yaʿrif jihat aḥad). The writer therefore prepared a register that the judge approved of (ʿamiltu lahum jarīda istaḥsanahā l-Qāḍī al-Ẓahīr). In the margin he is pleased to report that the Qāḍī plans to continue employing him and to promote his interests and to speak well of him to the governor (. . . yaqṣad an yastakhdimanī ʿindahu . . . wa-l-ẓāhir annahu yastakhdimunī fīhā wa-yaqṣad fī ḥaqqī wa-yashkurunī ʿind al-wālī). On verso he seems to describe a waterwheel on the Nile, for some reason of interest to his brother, that he found broken (. . . sāqīya ʿalā -baḥr fa-innī wajadtuhu kharāb bi-bāb. . .). He asks his brother to keep him informed about "the story of the Ra'īs." He sends regards to ʿAlā al-Dīn b. [...] and to their mother, among others. ASE.

Letter of appeal for charity. In Arabic script. Written in two columns. Asking the addressee to exchange the writer's possessions for food. Mentions Abū ʿAlī al-Parnas and the judge Efrayim. The writer is without work "and the mice have eaten my clothing." (Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog)