Geniza Lab

Medical recipe. (Information from CUDL)

Bifolium from a medical treatise giving recipes for various powders (safūfāt).

Leaf from a medical work attributed to Makārim b. Isḥāq (see tag).

Recto: Several drafts of legal documents. Item #1: Legal document regarding a business partnership (but not the original partnership agreeement), from Fustat/Cairo, dated January 1790 (end of Tevet 5550), between Yiṣḥaq Aripol b. Shelomo who lives in Fustat/Cairo and Moshe b. Nehoray Torongi (?) who lives in Istanbul ["Costa"]. Item #2: Drafts of a document regarding a partnership between the same Moshe Torongi and Yaʿaqov Bibas. Item #3, at a right angle: Draft of a betrothal document for Seʿadya Angel (?) b. Avraham and Galiya (?) bt. Ḥayyim Madikhah (?). Verso: Contains some text from a legal document with 5 elaborate witness signatures (but at least two belong to the same person--perhaps someone is practicing their signature?). Also contains an account, a draft of a letter, and medical prescriptions for an infertile woman, all at different angles.

Folio from a Judaeo-Arabic medical treatise, giving several recipes.

Recto: Letter or letter draft. There is a poetic introduction in Hebrew, with wide space between the lines. The marginal text is Judaeo-Arabic, filled with deferential phrases of patronage. Verso: Letter or letter draft in Arabic script. Addressed to 'the brother.' Mentions Galen's books on the illnesses of the [body?] in the last 2 lines.

Medical treatise in Judaeo-Arabic. Containing many prescriptions, including one "for the womb and hemorrhoids" and another attributed to the book of Isḥāq b. ʿImrān. There are also intriguing designs in red ink in the margins.

Medical recipes and remedies in Ladino. The first recipe on the recto is for "tremor of the hands/ el temlor delas manos" (l. 1r) and the final section of the page is dedicated to an issue related to the mouth aches of infants "para una kiriyatura qe___[?] mal de boka" (l.18-19r). This latter phrase could be a reference to the pain associated with teething. One ingredient in use for the tremor of the hands is "olive oil/אזייטי די אוליבה" (l. 5r) and usage of a "magnet / קאלאמיטה" is also mentioned (l.2r). For the mouth aches of infants, the recipe mentions "leche/ ליג׳י". Among the other ingredients listed for the recipes on the recto are "white pepper/pimyenta bilanca" (l.9-10r) and "cinnamon/kanela" (l.10r). On the verso, olive oil is mentioned again as recipe ingredient (l.3v). MCD. For a full transcription of this fragment see Idan Perez's in FGP.

Medical recipes in Ladino, including for nosebleed and sciatica.

Medical recipes in Ladino, including for toothache.

Medical recipes and remedies in Ladino. On the recto the ingredients and recepticles include "asucar/sugar" (l.10r) and "vasya de laton" (l.14r), also written as "vasya de alaton" (l.12r), which could indicate a container made of a copper-zinc alloy whose yellow-gold color points to the word's etymology in Turkish "altın/gold" (information from the Diccionario de la lengua española – Real Academia Española). On the verso "limones" (l.1v) are mentioned as well as "ash/seniza" (l.6v). MCD.

Medical recipes and remedies in Ladino and Hebrew. The recto contains two entries and in the second the writer switches from Hebrew completely into Ladino. The first entry mentions the use of "fire/אש" (l.2r, 4r) in the recipe includes the direction to "make a cake/עשה עוגה" (l.3r). Before switching into Ladino, the second entry on the recto mentions the use of "spring water/ מיים מן המעין" (l.10-11r) and there is also mention of "the sun/השמש" which is faintly legible along one of the fragment's lower tears (l.11r). Further down in Ladino there is mention of angels with "אנג׳ילו" and "אנג׳יל" (l.13r). On the verso all recipe entries are in Ladino and the penultimate one refers to an "infant/קירייאטורה" (l.) in the same unique spelling as the join ENA 2713.17. MCD.

Medical treatise in Arabic script. Perhaps the first page of Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn. The author's name is given as ʿĪsā b. ʿAlī al-Mutaṭabbib instead of the correct ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā, but it was not uncommon for scribes to reverse the names. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Page from a medical treatise in Hebrew and Ladino.

Medical recipes and remedies in Ladino from an extensive chain of joins that suggest the existence of a broader compilation. On the recto there are ingredients such as "pepenikos amargos / bitter cucumbers" and "azeite / oil" (l. 1, 3r). The second entry on the recto is crossed out, which may provide evidence that the author or scribe was drafting and correcting recipes among this broader chain of joins. The verso's first entry mentions a "white dove / poloma bilanca" (l. 5v) and "azeite" is called for again in the lower recipe, which is crossed out. MCD.

Medical recipes and remedies in Ladino from an extensive chain of joins that suggest the existence of a broader compilation. On the recto there are ingredients and/or components such as a "wick / קאנדיל" (l. 5r) and below that there is mention of "pearl" and "coral" (l. 8r). On the verso, one entry is dedicated "para kurar la kabesa / for curing the head" and "sesame oil / טאחינה" may be in use. Further down on the verso, olive oil is also mentioned as an ingredient. MCD.

Medical recipes in Ladino.

Medical text in Arabic script. "The Regimen for Healthy People" (Kitāb Tadbīr al-Aṣiḥḥā').

Medical text. An extract from the Egyptian-origin physician ʿAlī b. Riḍwān's (d. 1060s) citation of Galen's views on the four humours and the causes and effects of imbalances between them. Verso: Schematic representation of the four seasons and humours.

Literary work. In Arabic script. Probably medical. Discussing various appetites, such as for food and for sexual intercourse.