Geniza Lab

Legal testimony in Arabic script, in which someone declares that he longer owes any money to someone. One of the parties is named Abū l-Munā. Underneath, presumably witness signatures, Mevorakh b. Sar Shalom and Moshe b. Maṣliaḥ are written in Hebrew characters. (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: Arabic order of payment concerning 4 dinars. Verso: jottings mentioning al-Miṣrī. (Information from CUDL)

Spell of destruction. In Judaeo-Arabic and Aramaic, with a postscript in Arabic script ("for killing, very useful"). See Niessen, F., & Bohak, G. (2007). ‘Destroy the life of N.N.!’: A magical recipe: T-S AS 162.51. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, September 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.40296.

Document in Arabic script. Tax receipt?

Letter in Arabic script to the writer's father Abū Isḥaq Ibrāhīm b. Sunbāṭ al-Siqillī. Only the opening greetings and the address are preserved. The writer is most likely Shemuel b. Ibrahīm, the same writer as T-S 10J11.22. ASE.

Accounts in Arabic script and Coptic numerals

Letter in Arabic script. The writer mentions his distress (al-shidda wa-l-ḍīqa wa-l-khawf). Later (three lines from the bottom) he clarifies that he is scared of the collectors of the capitation tax (aṣḥāb al-jawālī). The writer refers to the addressee as سيدنا القلفي and thanks him for his generosity (inʿām) and perhaps asks for more. ASE

Letter in Arabic script, with several phrases in Hebrew mixed in. The writer may be named Abū l-Faraj (upper right of recto, although this is an unusual place to sign one's name), and the addressee is his paternal uncle (or at least addressed ʿammī), probably a merchant. The writer's father recently died (first line of recto margin), and it seems there is an inheritance dispute between the writer and a woman, perhaps his sister (e.g. "may God judge between me and her," antepenultimate line of recto). The writer excuses himself for not having come in person (five lines from the bottom of recto) and then mentions someone or something coming to Fustat. Starting in the margin of recto and continuing for the remainder of verso, the writer exhorts his uncle to send him money, for which he will reap a great reward from God for supporting a Torah scholar. The margin also contains these curious sentences in a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew, "O my uncle, see that the Goyim, how will they know (yadrūna?), what they know (yaʿlamū) is that I am (? or he is?) an imām in a jāmiʿ (typically meaning mosque) or in a zāwiya (typically meaning Sufi lodge). I occupy myself in the house of God and with His holy Torah" (this reading is tentative). Much of verso is devoted to the exegesis of Deuteronomy 33:18, in which the tribe of Zebulun is understood as a tribe of searfaring merchants who support the tribe of Issachar, Torah scholars in their tents. In the version in this letter, the writer adds that whenever the ships of Zebulun were on the verge of capsizing, the prayers of Issachar would save them. (Throughout the letter the writer has emphasized his copious prayers for his uncle.) In the margin he reveals his intention of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. ASE.

Book list in Arabic script. The first two items are Sīrat Mawlānā l-Ḥākim (ṣalawāt (?) Allāh ʿalayhi) and Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā', i.e., the biography of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh and the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. ASE.

Document in Arabic script. Very faded. Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. The writer is in Aden. He reports that something of the addressee's is safe in his keeping. "If his (or your?) son arrives to Aden this year, I will give him the letter. . . and if he does not arrive to Aden, and I learn his whereabouts, I will write to him." ASE.

State document. Petition in Arabic script, opening only. Probably a draft. It consists of an "I kiss the ground" (taqbīl) clause followed by ~10 extravagant titles and some blessings and a plea for indulgence, then "wa-yunhī," then nothing. ASE.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Fragment. Needs examination. Verso: Elaborate geometrical designs.

Legal document in Arabic script. Describing the borders of a house or property. Perhaps a document of sale.

State document, Fatimid period. Petition or report to a vizier (beginning only), possibly under al-ʿAḍid (see line 4, where the blessing uses the verb ʿaḍada; thanks to Lara Balaa for this observation). (MR)

Letter in Arabic script. Fragment. The writer is giving advice that "perhaps will save you and help you in . . . salvation if God wills." The addressee is to go to a certain zāwiya (Sufi lodge? or simply corner?) and ask for al-Ḥājj Mukhtār al-K[...]. ASE.

Letter fragment in Arabic script.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script to Sitt Nadd, probably from her husband. The writer rejoiced at the news of her deliverance (khalāṣ) (childbirth? or from a financial difficulty?). The writer discusses a matter of 20 dirhams that he thought she could obtain from her brother's wife. The writer has sent several items with the bearer including the blanket (malḥafa) that she had requested. Three lines from the bottom the writer touches on his own professional struggles (qaṭʿ al-rizq), it seems because he is a physician and there are now five (or fifty?) physicians in the town competing for the same clientele. He sends regards to her brother al-Shaykh al-Rashīd, her brother's wife, and to the children. Verso: Pen trials in Hebrew script. ASE.

Unknown document in calligraphic Arabic script. Appears to be a small fragment torn from a larger document. There are also Hebrew pen trials.

Letter in Arabic script. Addressed to a maternal uncle (khāl). Only the opening is presrved. In the margin, in a different hand, Hippocrates's "vita brevis ars longa" is cited.