Geniza Lab

Letter of business written in the 11th century, mentioning the rīf (‘the (Egyptian) province’). (Information from CUDL)

Letter of business written in the 11th century by Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl, sent to Alexandria to [...] b. Abī l-Ḥayy. (Information from CUDL)

Accounts, dealing with tax and business matters. Mentions names such as ʿAbd al-Wāḥid, Ibn al-Jalājilī and Ibn Ḥayy. Coptic numerals. (Information from CUDL)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, probably from a commercial notebook. Dating: probably ca. 11th century. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Probably a Maghribī business letter of the 11th century. Fragment (lower half of recto). Mentions the qāḍī Ibn al-[...] and someone called al-ḥāfiẓ. The sender asks the addressee to send a letter on his behalf thanking Manṣūr b. ʿAṭiyya and his father. He asks to be sent the 'miḥbas' (either a collar necklace or a cotton textile, according to the Diem-Radenberg dictionary) so that he can do something with it to keep it from going bad. He reports that many ships have arrived from Sicily. The sender knows that al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq is saying about him "what I heard from/about him in Alexandria." The continuation in the margin is too damaged to read. AA. ASE.

4 pages of accounts in Hebrew, late, possibly to do with the flax business (see page 4) naming currencies such as Gerushim, Ducados, and something Turkish (? 'טורכי).

Two fragment of a commercial letter in Hebrew and Arabic (info from FGP)

Legal document containing the wording of the vow to be made by Bū Isḥāq Ibn Kathīr. Also mentions ʿOvadya b. Aharon and the wife of the baker. Deals with custom duties (maks), mentioning a shop, money changers and 'The Apple House' (Dār al-Tuffāḥ). Money (dirhams and dinars) are weighed and kept with different men. Among many other things, Bū Isḥāq must vow that he reported all of the profits from the sale of a special kind of watermelon (al-Burullusī) and that he embezzled nothing "except what a mosquito (baʿūẓa) can carry." Join: Alan Elbaum. ASE.

Legal record. Dated Friday, 3 Av or July 4, 1231. Scribal notes for a draft of a partnership contract. The notes state that Abū Sa‘d has 83 dinars (minus two qirāṭs) together with Manṣūr b. the great-grandson, Suleymān b. ‘Imrān and Futūḥ b. Abū al-‘Izz, with the profit to be split in two halves, half for Futūḥ b. Abū al-‘Izz (less a twenty-fourth) and half for Abū Sa‘d, with Suleymān given 19 as a commenda. The full details of these notes are delineated in the contract itself (see TS 8 J 6.9, verso). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 182-183)

Letter, fragmentary and calligraphic, regarding business. Mentionins dealings in corals, storax, and zaituni (silk), and merchants of the second half of the eleventh century (Joseph b. Farah Qabisi). On verso is a medical prescription in Arabic letters. Most likely the receiver of the business letter was a physician. Information from Goitein's note card. Possibly the same scribe as T-S NS J194.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, late. From Moshe Ḥayyim Ḥayyūn (?) to Mordekhai Hannān (?) and another person whose name is effaced. Dating: Probably 18th or 19th century. There is no address and no folding, so possibly a draft. Deals with business matters. Mentions Damietta and a certain Nissim. Regards to various people at the end.