Geniza Lab

Fiscal or administrative document containing the "addā" cipher.

Legal document, Mamlūk era, deed of sale, in a very faint and worn-off Arabic script. The document is dated to the last ten days (ʿushr al-ākhir) of Rabīʿ II 660 H and the word "اباع" indicates that the document is a deed of sale. Reused for Aramaic liturgical text on verso with some traces also on recto.

Single phrase of Arabic on verso "في ادوم غبطة". Reused for Hebrew script.

Approximately 13 verses of poetry from the poem of the renowned Arabic poet al-Mutanabbī (d. 354/955) "حاشا الرقيب فخانته ضمائره * وغيض الدمع فأنهلت بوادره".

Long state document with extremely large calligraphic Arabic script, probably used as a performative decree, which was later cut down and reused for Hebrew script. Roughly two words are preserved per line, the most readable phrase is "فوقع بتاريخ". Mamlūk period? Needs examination.

Fiscal register, dated 3 Dhū l-Ḥijja of an unmentioned year, mentions several sums of money (Compare AIU IV.C.453, T-S NS 243.75a, T-S NS 198.61, ENA 2886.1–7, T-S NS 71.64, T-S 8H22.18, Moss. IV,252.1, T-S NS 308.41, and possibly T-S Misc.24.106). Reused for Hebrew liturgical text.

Fiscal document, few lines of text, something to do with the release of funds. Probably dating to the Ayyubid period. Reused for Hebrew script. Needs examination.

Literary text, compilation of poetry (dīwān). A portion from the long didactic poem (originally of around 90 verses) stretching through five pages from the dīwān of ʿAlī al-Ḥuṣarī al-Qayrawānī (d. 1095 CE) on the rawī of mīm. The title of the poem is written towards the end of the poem and before the beginning of the second poem "qaṣīdat l-Ḥuṣarī wa-hiyā li-l-ʿasharāt wa-hiyā mā-bayna tisʿīn bayt ʿalā ʿadad l-ʾaḥruf". The second poetry is about love with the rawī of 'hamza', and its first verse is أَما لَكَ يا داءَ المُحِبِّ دَواء*بَلى عِندَ بَعضِ الناسِ مِنكَ شِفاءُ.

Legal document in Arabic script. Dating: mentions the end of Dhū l-Qaʿda 563 AH = 1168 CE. Seems to be a commercial contract involving a shop and specifying the goods to be sold. Mentions "bayʿ al-ḥiṣṣa" "sale of the share". Needs further examination. It was cut up and glued into a rotulus configuration to be reused for piyyuṭ on the other side (an interesting Hebrew poem in the voice of Moses, addressing God). In the margins of the original document, there are another few lines in Arabic script (different hand/document), probably the beginning of a letter starting with a basmala and a Judaeo-Arabic recipe involving rosewater and boxthorn (ʿawsaj), perhaps a medical prescription.

Fiscal document, in Arabic script. Large format with 16 lines preserved, marginal notes, and crossings out. The document is an internal fiscal Fatimid accounting document mentioning military spending from the year 500/1106-7. There are large sums of money and iqṭāʿāt. Mentions an official of al-Afḍal by the name Zahr al-Dawla Bandūd (?) al-Afḍalī. (See al-Maqrīzī, Ittiʿāẓ, III, 34).

Eight rough drafts of a petition to the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustanṣir from the followers of Shelomo b. Yehuda, probably the end of 1041 (according to Gil's estimate). Six drafts are in Judaeo-Arabic; one abortive draft is in Arabic script in the same hand as the Judaeo-Arabic drafts; the final draft is in Arabic script in a chancery hand. Join: S. M. Stern. The Rabbanite Jews write to al-Mustanṣir regarding a conflict that arose in the community because of two leaderships (riyāsatayn), this conflict was earlier addressed by the Caliph by appointing Dāwūd b. Isḥaq but he didn't do anything. The situation worsened to an extent that one schism of the community barred the other from entering their synagogue until the other faction forced themselves inside leading to violence between the two. The Jews urge the Caliph to resolve this issue by sending his royal command "al-ʾamr al-ʿālī".

Document in Arabic script, perhaps a state petition or decree, beginning with "wa l-mamlūk yasʾal l-tawfīq" and mentions a wall "ṣūr"; reused for poetry in Judaeo-Arabic (see separate entry). Needs further examination.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Contract for the sale of flax following the dissolution of the partnership.Tiqva ha-Levi known as Abū l-Munā b. Peraḥya ha-Levi known Ibn al-Amʿaṭ sells to Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Netanel b. Peraḥya one-half of four gunny sacks (shakā'ir) of flax for 18 dinars and a mat with a scrap of flax (ḥuṣayra mushāqa) for 4 dinars. Signed by Ḥalfon as well as Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi. The small letters = Psalms 31:2. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter in Arabic from a father to a son that consists almost entirely of greetings and well-wishes. The family rejoiced to receive his letters from Tripoli al-Gharb (Libya) and from al-Mahdiyya. The addressee's mother sends her regards, as do his brothers Baqā' and Maʿānī, as do his sister and her children (and she possibly orders a dinar's worth of colored silk when he returns). Umm (?) Yūsuf sends her regards, as do Umm Sitt al-Jamīʿ and Abū Saʿd and Abū Surūr. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning items that were sent with Abū Surūr and others with [. . .] al-Nafūsī and others with [. . .] b. Hilāl. There may be notes from Goitein that are not yet attached. ASE.

Fiscal document, top and bottom missing. Refers to kharāj payments for the year 437 kharājī (about five lines up from the bottom of the page); 437AH is 1046 CE, but the kharājī year might be off by two or three from the hijrī year. In addition to numbers, there is also the name Masīḥ(?) b. ʿAbdallāh. Needs further examination. Reused on both recto and verso for Hebrew-script documents.

State document, probably a letter of official correspondence, in Arabic script. Addressed to or sent by an official with the title ʿĀzim al-Dawla. An order from al-Ḥaḍra al-Majīdiyya (probably al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Majīd) granted the sender an exemption (?) from customs tax (maks) for the goods arriving on a royal vessel "al-ʿUshārī al-Malik" on government business (shāʾn al-dawāwīn). The addressee didn't honor the order and hence the sender rebukes him the rebuke of friends "fʿātab ʿatab al-aṣdiqā". The last two lines are difficult to contextualize but an attempted interpretation could be - with the command of the overseer of his business/accounts, someone wrote from the dīwān regarding what is obligatory on the different types of taxes. Reused for Arabo-Hebrew jottings of the Hebrew Psalms, the Ezra (1:9) more specifically. (For more on transcribing Hebrew Bible into Arabic script, see Geoffrey Khan, Karaite Bible Manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah: Cambridge University Press, 1990). YU. Verso: text in Hebrew with (Masoretic?) "traditions and mnemonics" (מוסרות וסימנות) written by Shemuel b. Sahl the teacher for Saʿadya b. Shelomo. Multiple different hands (likely of both teacher and student).

Decree. 6 lines of a chancery document chopped into pieces and then reused to form quires. One line on recto of Bodl. MS heb. d 81/19, with part of another visible above. The central line has been outlined/copied in places and is surrounded by Arabic annotations that may be drafts of formulae. There is also one red line of Hebrew script on recto, the beginning of a ketubba; Hebrew script (literary?) text on verso.

Undertext: Halves of two lines of a chancery document. Overtext: Hebrew liturgical poem (seliḥa?)

Memorandum or other internal state communication. In Arabic script, with wide line spacing, fragmented baselines, and frequent diacritics. Four lines preserved, the fourth an interlinear note or registration mark in a different hand. Mentions al-Majlis المجلس twice. On recto there are 21 lines of Hebrew script (piyyuṭ). Some of the text reads as follows: كتب الله سلامته... بقدومه... فوعد(؟) المجلس اليه بالضي ليلقيه. It seems to be dealing with travel plans, someone's arrival, and greeting that person upon his arrival.

Petition or letter in Arabic script. Recto has fragment with su'āl clause, five partial lines with fragmented baselines. Cut and bound in association with Hebrew script text on verso.