Geniza Lab

Report to a Fatimid vizier. Khan published T-S K25.221 as the end of petition, but it's impossible to know whether it's a petition or a report. If this join is correct, it's a report. The two fragments are the same size, format, layout and titulature. The differences in the hand on the two documents could be an artifact of the fact that the text on T-S K25.221 is the end of the document and is formulaic, so less carefully written. T-S Ar.22140 was reused for a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on Isaiah 54:1 and 1 Samuel 1:11; T-S K25.221 was reused Hebrew poetry, headed כפיף, and for Arabic accounts. Join: Marina Rustow. (Information from Khan, from CUDL and from Marina Rustow.)

Letter fragment (lower part) probably from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi in Qalyub to his father in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Discusses sundry small business dealings (in wine, onions, honey, garments) and mentions his delight when he learned that his sister had recovered and that his brother Abu l-Ḥasan [Yedutun] planned to come out [to Qalyub] to spend Shabbat with him. ASE

See T-S NS 110.14 for description.

Recto: Accounts in Arabic. Verso: Formulary for a love spell in Judaeo-Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.

Prayer in Hebrew. Verso contains two lines in Arabic.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script, with the last line in Hebrew. The addressee is Abū Faḍl and his ghulām Bū ʿAdl (?) is mentioned. The rest is neatly written but rather faded. Verso: Apart from a few words in Arabic, appears to be an account in Judaeo-Arabic organized by the parshiyot. Sitt Kāfūr is named.

The bulk of the text is Hebrew, possibly a letter. It praises somebody and describes "a scent superior to qaneh and cinnamon. . . like a section of pomegranate." The original text is in Arabic, probably a portion of a letter.

Multiple documents sharing one bifolium. (1) There is a draft of a legal attestation that al-Shaykh al-Ḥakīm al-Muhadhdhab Abī Saʿīd b. Shela ha-Sar betrothed a woman who is both a virgin and a divorcee. Al-Muhadhdhab Abū Saʿīd is also named in T-S NS J494. (2) An entry in Arabic containing several words in Judaeo-Arabic: the document of the dowry belonging to the daughter of Yūsuf b. Nufayʿ. Someone of the same name appears in T-S NS J357 (mid-13th-century). (3) and (4): Other entries, it seems also marriage-related, in a mix of Arabic and Hebrew.

Recto: Fragment of a document in Arabic script, probably a letter. The last line reads والحمد لله وحده وصلوات على سيدنا محمد وصحبته. In different ink and handwriting, there is what may be an address: to al-muʿallim D[...] from his servant [Bek?] Muḥammad. Verso (and a few words on recto): Hebrew piyyut.

Recto: Accounts of some kind in Arabic script (for instance see the word danānīr at the upper left of the second entry). Verso: Genesis 32:4.

Recto: Document in Arabic script, probably an account. Verso: Hebrew Halakhic work.

Recto: Tiny fragment of a document in large Arabic script. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic in an extremely rudimentary hand.

Late accounts in Arabic, reused for Hebrew commentaries on different portions of Genesis.

Original document: Acounts in Arabic, mentioning aṣḥāb al-dār and a qāḍī. Reused for a list in Judaeo-Arabic of the clothing belonging to someone, perhaps for legal purposes.

Recto: Document in Arabic script, headed with a basmala and a note including a blessing for somebody (ṣalawāt allāh ʿalayhi), followed by many lines of sums of money, written out in words. At the bottom is another note mentioning a payment to dīwān al-majlis al-[...]. Needs further examination. There is also one line of Hebrew, added later. Verso: In brown ink, a string of blessings for some sort of dignitary. At the bottom, in black ink, two more lines including the name Avraham b. Aharon.

Recto: Bottom part of a letter in Arabic script, from a man to his 'brother.' He spells والساعة as والسعا numerous times. He mentions people including Sulaymān b. al-[...]āmī and the poor man (al-faqīr) Ibn Faraḥ and sends regards to Umm Yūsuf. Needs further examination. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic letter from ʿEli b. Shelomo to his father. The writer is in terrible straits and full of regret. The issue seems to be that a group of Alexandrians have banded together to have the writer fired from his position as slaughterer, cantor, and teacher. "Woe is he who can only depend on God. I have already entered with my qumāsh (garments? furnishings? wife's dowry?)." He then mentions the diwan catching him and having to sell a garment. His intention is to come to Qalyub with his wife. His heart is preoccupied on behalf of [...]. ASE.

State document or petition in a chancery hand and large Arabic script. Words that are readily legible include al-Qāhira, al-Ḥāfiẓiyya, al-majlis al-sāmī al-mālikī al-sayyidī al-ajallī al-Afḍalī, al-marsūm. Reused for jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script. On verso there are piyyutim. Needs examination.

"Although the majority of the material preserved in the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection comes from the periods of Fatimid and Ayyubid rule in Egypt, it is not unusual to come across much earlier or much later material. The fragment T-S Misc.22.310, that was brought to my attention by my collegue Dr Amir Ashur, belongs clearly to the latter group: at the bottom of f. 2v it bears the date August 10th 1865 together with the signature of the petitioner, an Italian subject, Jacub Dayyan. The fragment is a large paper bifolium and each of its leaves was folded in two on its width, thus dividing the writable surface into eight columns. Four columns are filled with the Italian text of the petition in a large, elegant and very slanted handwriting, which is easily legible; one and a half columns contain Arabic text, written in a seemingly clear – yet actually quite impenetrable – script, which appears to be an abridged version of the Italian document. The petition is addressed to the Illustrissimo Signor Cavaliere Licurgo Macciò Regio Console d’Italia in Cairo, the Royal Italian consul in Cairo, and it deals with a private matter, the subtraction, detention and exploitation of a pair of cows belonging to the petitioner, Jacub Dayyan, by an administrator of His Excellence Ibrahim Bey." Gabriele Ferrario, Fragment of the Month, March 2011.

Recto: Document in Arabic script, possibly drafts of formal addresses for an important person. There is also one line in Hebrew characters reading 'morenu Shem[arya?].' Verso: Hebrew literary text.

Recto: Fragment of a letter in Arabic script. Verso: Piyyut.