Geniza Lab

List: “Register (thabat) of the names of the elders who...” written upside down on the reverse side of a list of payers of incomplete capitation taxes (see T-S K15.94). The superscription is nearly entirely effaced but the word ‘jarida’ (also register), mostly used on lists of the poor, is clearly visible in the second line. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 2:476) EMS

List, eight columns, of more than 180 names receiving alms. Many payments of 1/8 dinar. Many foreigners, designated as such: Palestine 13; Iraq 12; Syria-Lebanon 7; Rum 3; Sicily 2; Qayrwan 1; Barqa 1; Spain 1. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 441, App. B 8)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. From the circle of the 13th-century Mosul Nasis. Extremely faded. The beginning and ending are missing. All of recto and part of verso are narrated as secondhand reports ("he said... he said... he said..."). Recto is a horrifying account of the Mongol (Tatar/תתר) invasion (cf. Bodl. MS heb. a 3/24 and T-S 20.128, belonging to the same circle of Mosul Nasis and possibly from the same sender). The Mongols entered the narrator's city on Simḥat Torah and plundered it, taking captive al-Nasi al-Fakhr, his wife Sitt al-Ruʾasāʾ, his brothers, his sister, and his 2-year-old son. Thousands of men, women, and children fled. By the time they reached Wādī ʿUmayr, the women were exhausted from carrying their children. The Mongols tore the children away—including the son of al-Fakhr and Sitt al-Ruʾasāʾ—and threw them on the ground as they cried out for their parents. When the letter resumes on verso, the sender (or the narrator of recto?) is describing his difficult economic circumstances wherever he has ended up (Syria? Bilbays? Fustat?). Everything that al-Nasi al-Fakhr had, clothing or otherwise, has been lost. Previously they were supported by the community or private donors ("kāna yaṣilunā mezonot") but now the people cannot spare any attention for them, even though they profess to love them. He mentions someone named Barakāt with the title al-Tifʾeret; a distinguished physician; and other notables who say that either the sender or the addressee should obtain a decree/rescript (tawqīʿ) and become the leader (muqaddam, ḥākim) of the community. There are a couple more faded lines, and the continuation is missing. ASE

List of 103 people, households, or groups receiving wheat. Amounts: between 1/2 and 3 waybas (1 wayba = ca. 4 gallons). Goitein there are comments added to the list (‘died,' 'absent’). Before a comprehensive distribution of wheat, communal officials scrutinized the list from the preceding distribution and made a note. of changes in circumstance, such as deaths, changes in economic situation, and departures. The updated list was then copied and used as a basis for the current distribution. One item is followed by this remark: "Note, ruqʿa, from the rayyis: this man should not receive anything." Cohen dates this list to slightly after App. B 25, 29, 31, 32, 33, since 3 people mentioned there are listed here as having died. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, pp. 457-458, App. B 66, Goitein's index card, and from Mark Cohen)

List of recipients of charity (bread) along with the khuddām al-kanīs (the list begins with three parnasim). This list fills three pages of the bifolium. One page has a Hebrew poem, preceded by the glyph, possibly in the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi.

Part of a booklet, with section beginning, like a title page, 'List of the Poor of Fustat--may God in his mercy make them rich and help them in his grace and kindness' (in K 15.5). Date is preserved here, on fol. 39, as, 11th of Marheshvan, October 30, 1107 (in App. B 21 Goitein wrote Tuesday, Marheshvan 18 [Nov. 5], but dated is correctly in Mediterranean Society, I, p. 56). The date is written in such a way that it could be tyt or tnt, 1107 or 1147, but the reading 1107 is made sure not only by the handwriting of the clerk [=Hillel ben Eli] but also by the names of various people listed, who are known from other Geniza papers. see ibid, I, p. 405 note 89. '490 pounds, amounting to 539 (loaves of bread), from the baker Ma'ali. Ten (pounds) were added, making a total of 500, namely ten loaves of old bread.' Other leaves from this notebook = fols. 5, 15, and 50. Notice the conspicuous presence of the Rum, Jews probably from Byzantium. In several places the names of the baker Ma'ali and that of another baker, Sadaqa, appear, interrupting the list of names of beneficiaries. The handwriting is that of Avraham b. Aharon, who also wrote App. B 23, 24. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 443, App. B 21, and from Cohen).

List of contributors to charity, preserving only 26 names, many identical with T-S K15.106. First two, including again the representative of the merchants al-Hakim, give 1/8 dinar, approx 5 dirhams. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 477, App. C 17 [dating from late 11th or early 12th century])

List of recipients of charity (bread) in the same hand, headed 'Friday the 4th (week of the liturgical year), 550 Pounds,' specifying about 140 households receiving approximately 600 loaves of bread. Most of the names in the list T-S NS J41 (= Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, no. 58) recur in this one, as well as in App. B 19-24 (= Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, nos. 60-65), but from which group it is separated by many different names.' Ca. 1100. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 442, App. B 18)

Three, much damaged columns, seemingly in the hand of the scribe of App. C 1, 2, containing about sixty names of male persons, recipients of alms. The first four are styled 'elder'; among the others: 4 dealers in olive oil, zayyat, 2 dyers, 2 packers, a cook, a gravedigger, a ghulam, servant or employee, of the (senior) Tustari brothers, all people of low professions. The list, which contains no numbers, was drawn up in connection with the payment of the capitation tax (Goitein) (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 453, App. B 53 [dated 1040-1080]).

List of names of poor persons, without numbers. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 456)

Right upper corner of lucidly written list of contributors, the first thirteen each donating 2 dirhams. All names appear in abbreviated form. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 491)

Survey of households, recipients of alms. Written on a leaf, 8 by 6 inches, folded so as to form four pages, each originally containing data about 33-34 families, a total of about 135, of which about 110 are preserved, many defective. The list is important inasmuch as it mentions the number of persons in each household. It was no doubt prepared in order to form the basis for weekly distribution of bread to the needy and to community officials. The names of the assistant judge Jephthah, the beadle Tahir, and the cantor Abu Sahl put the list at the beginning of the thirteenth century, preferably after T-S NS J.98, where Tahir receives 14 loaves, indicating that he still had a large household, whereas here only one child lives with him, and a son of his is listed as a separate family. The average size of a family of relief recipients is 2.4. For a realistic appreciation of this breakdown one should keep in mind that most of the persons listed must have been elderly people who either no longer had a family or whose older children (from the age of ten) were seeking their livelihood out of their homes. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 460, App. B 74 [dated 1200-1240])

Fragment of a list of donors similar to App. C 1, T-S Misc.36.137 (formerly T-S Loan 137) in the same hand and arrangement, in which at least 12 of the 23 names preserved recur. Most of the few sums extant are exactly or nearly identical with those listed there. The average of the sums contributed in silver in the 2 lists has about half the value of those given in gold. (First half of 11th century) (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 471, App. C 2)

Fragment of a list of contributors, in which at least 12 of the 23 names preserved recur. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 471)

List in the hand of the scribe of App. B 25, part 2, and App. B 33, part 1. Distribution of 23 jukhaniyyas to thirteen women, seven men, and three persons defined as 'acquaintance of' or 'the house of.' The names of three (e.g., the laborer employed by the beadle and parnas Salim) are crossed out and nine bear the sign resembling an Arabic final m (probably tasallam 'received') as in App. B 25 and 33, with which our fragment might once have formed one document. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 456, App. B 64 [dated 1100-1150])

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be identifiable. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century. This fragment (lower half of recto, upper half of verso) begins in medias res: the sender is writing about his time with some community, probably near Minyat Zifta; he describes a circumcision that was done on Shabbat; the sender organized a drive (pesiqa) for "the female captives"; and he found the congregation impoverished (fa-wajadtu l-[qaw]m fī ḥāl ṣaʿb... baqā al-jamāʿa ʿaniyyim marudim) on account of the ḍamān incumbent on them (a guarantee they had undertaken? or payments owed to a tax farmer?). He specifically mentions a loss of 100 dinars. It was resolved to inform Rabbenu about all this, and the Parnas went to do that. The sender awaits (the Parnas's? Rabbenu's?) arrival, and he plans to go to Minyat Zifta. He asks Abū l-Makārim "to obtain a rescript (tawqīʿ) regarding [...]."

List on two pages, torn apart, it seems in the hand of Immanuel b. Yehiel (ca. 1231–65). 41 contributors to charity, peculiar in the wide differences among pledges made (from 1/2 to 28 dirhams). On T-S NS J108b, recto, an Arabic list.

List of daily collections in which almost all the benefactors give one or two dirhams. The lower parts of columns three and four contain accounts of expenditure on communal property in the Great Bazaar, written in Arabic characters. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 2:490)

List of beneficiaries of community charity consisting of about 125 names, mostly craftsmen, laborers, and foreigners (from Palestine and Syria). Each name is separated by a dot. Individuals include Hassan b. Kushik, Sa‘id al-‘Aqrabani, a lacemaker (al-‘aqqada) and a pastry chef (qaṭāʾifī). There are also two Karaites: Abū l-ʿAlāʾ and Ibrahīm al-Ghazzī b. Hārūn. Ca. 1050-1070 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 1:438, 447; 2:411; 3:428) EMS

List (calligraphic) of male persons, intended recipients of charity. With one exception ('he paid 1/4 dinar') no amounts are indicated. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, p. 441, App. B 9 [dated 1040-1060])