Geniza Lab

Recto: The first few lines of an Ottoman-era legal document, bearing two seals and an annotation in a different hand, opening with an invocation of the Porte (bi-l-bāb al-ʿālī aʿlāhu) and pertaining to a certain Hanbali judge named Aḥmad b. Aḥmad Ḥijāzī al-Ajhūrī. Verso: In Hebrew script, the name of a syangogue or congregation (קק סקאלבין?).

Disorganized writings in Hebrew, Arabic, and Judaeo-Arabic, in all different directions. There are two lines from an official-looking calligraphic Arabic document. Needs further examination.

Document with Arabic script. Possibly just jottings, possibly more. Needs examination.

Business letter, fragment. In Arabic script. "Have you sent me the maqṭaʿ (cloth) or not?"

Piyyutim with four lines in Arabic script afterward. Possibly poetry (anā l-gharīb alladhī. . .)

The closing of a family letter in Arabic script from ʿAzīza to her daughter Zubayda, dated the 23rd of Sha'ban [ ]57. ʿAzīza sends regards to Zubayda's siblings, her husband Sulaymān, 'amm Ibrāhīm, and the teacher Khiḍr and his daughter ʿAwda (?). She particularly urges Zubayda and her husband to take good care of their niece Kaḥla. ASE.

Fragment in Arabic script. Reused for Judaeo-Arabic literary text.

Prognostications? In Arabic script.

Legal document in Arabic script. Small fragment, containing the last couple lines and at least one witness statement.

Recto: Narrative text in Judaeo-Arabic. Relays a dialogue between Dāniyāl (al-Qūmisī?) and Yūsuf involving Qaraites. Verso: Two lines in Arabic script. Perhaps ʿUmar b. Yūsuf. . .

Document in Arabic script. Appears to be a letter.

One side: five lines of Arabic script, content unclear. The other side: laws of sheḥiṭa.

Legal document. In Arabic script. Location: Yemen. Dated: Shawwāl 1177 AH, which is 1764 CE. At least six witness clauses appear at the bottom.

Document in Arabic script. Possibly legal. There are many names.

Verso: Short note in Arabic script headed with a basmala. Difficult to read. Pen trials in the margins. On recto there is Judaeo-Arabic poetry ("anā al-fiḍḍa al-bayḍāʾ... anā al-kawkab... idhā lāḥa fī al-fajrī... wa-qult laylī ṭawwal qad ḥaṣal al-badrī").

One of the three fragments here (BL OR 10599.19A?) is a small fragment containing Arabic script.

Calendrical fragment in Hebrew script; the margins are filled with jottings in Arabic script.

Last line of a document in Arabic script. The empty space below has one column of Arabic script at 90 degrees to the main text, then four columns of symbols (Coptic numerals?). On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Business letter in Arabic script from Avraham ben Khalaf, probably from Alexandria, to Abū al-Faḍl Sahl b. Ḥasan b. Salāma al-Sukkarī in Fustat. Datable to ca. 1062 on the basis of a reference to cotton turbans, which are mentioned in other letters written ca. 1062. Discusses the balance of a debt of Mūsā b. Yaḥyā al-Majjānī for the goods of the addressee. The writer asks the addressee to make some purchases for him, but not having received the goods he requests that the money be given to Mūsā b. Abī al-Ḥayy instead. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 320.) Mentions that seven cotton turbans for the price of eighty quarter-dinars have been sent to the addressee with Abū Zakariyā Yehuda b. Menashshe. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Index cards.)