Geniza Lab

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic.

Arabic accounts.

Late accounts in Arabic.

List of names and corresponding numbers. In Arabic script.

Accounts in Arabic script. (Information from Goitein's note card)

Recto: Petition to Masliah Gaon from a woman wishing to have a divorce. Probably 1127 CE. Discussed in detail, with translation, in Oded Zinger's dissertation, pp. 201–02: 'Malīḥa bt. Abū al-Faḍl wanted a divorce. She claimed that her husband suffered from many illnesses and that his children from a previous marriage were irreligious. Malīḥa feared for the well-being of her children were she to die. We have a resolute petition written on her behalf to the head of the Jews, Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, informing him of the following: "I am the wife of Adam, the money changer. For the past eight months, I have asked repeatedly for divorce, but could not obtain it. I had thought that with the arrival of your most venerable presence, you would not postpone giving a ruling to me or to another (on my behalf) a single hour. He is a man afflicted with many illnesses and sicknesses. He has children far removed from religion and others. The servant fears lest what is sealed upon people (i.e. death) overtake him, or me. There is no assurance what will happen with him and with my children.1 By the divine law that you possess! Examine my state and quickly issue a verdict, whatever it may be.2 The servant appointed a representative, but from all that was done to the man; he said that he would not return to mediate between us. The servant is bashful, I do not have a tongue to speak with. By your parents! Examine my state and please liberate me.3 .... All that I want is the liberation of the servant, by any means necessary. And what the divine law obligates."4 We hear of Malīḥaʼs ultimate success in her bid for divorce in another document, T-S 8J5.4 2v. A four-line entry in a page from a court notebook records that on 28 June 1127, Malīḥa appointed Nathan ha-Levi b. Abraham as her representative to sue her husband. This short entry is followed by another entry recording an unrelated appointment of a representative. The next entry in the court notebook, however, records that on the very same day, a cantor who was one of the witnesses of the first appointment came to the court with two parnasim from the community. The three men declared to the court that they had made the symbolic purchase from Malīḥa confirming that she relinquished the entirety of her meʿuḥar and was willing to take an oath over her claims regarding the dowry. Her husband also made the symbolic purchase confirming that he had no claim over her. It appears that Malīḥa got her divorce.'5 Margins of recto, and verso: Copious jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script. It is unclear how much, if any, pertains to the main letter on recto. Shelomo ha-Levi b. Moshe is named. Many of the Arabic writings appear to be formulaic phrases from a letter to a dignitary (titled in one place Imam and Amir).

Letter from a factotum to his boss. Reporting that everyone at home is well and giving the prices of different goods. Wheat: 1 dinar per 9 waybas. Honey: 5 dinars per 1 qinṭār. Wax sells well. Flax is exported to the Syro-Palestinian coast. Mufarrij and Shūʿa the Bāniyāsī escaped from the enemy attacking Caesarea (although Goitein read this as Mufarrij and Shūʿa escaping to Bāniyās). Shūʿa returned to Malīj. Mufarrij will come in Elul. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) The letter ends on verso with three lines of Arabic script (يخصو حضرته بافضل السلام وكتابه لا يقطعه عني...), not yet transcribed. ASE

Primary text: Letter from [...] b. Shemuel to Abū Manṣūr [...] b. Ḥusayn b. Shuʿayb. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer has been ordered to pay 50 dinars to Abū l-Khayr, a request that he cannot refuse. The writer asks the addressee to make the payment via Abū Najāh b. Yūḥānas al-Jahbadh (the government treasurer). The 50 dinars should be taken from those that are hidden in dār al-ṣarf ("the house of money-changing," see Med Soc IV, p. 28). Goitein identifies this Abū Najāh with the well-known monk Abū Najāḥ (b. Qannā or Fannā in the chronicles), who acted as advisor to the caliph al-Āmir, ca.1125–28 CE. Secondary text: The remainder of verso and the margins of recto are filled with Arabic script. Needs further examination. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Document in Arabic script, torn and reused for a Judaeo-Arabic literary text.

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.

Legal document in Arabic script. Only the bottom is preserved. On verso there is a prayer in Hebrew.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Ibn al-Nagid is mentioned. There is one line in Arabic script at the bottom. From line 6 onward, written in the hand of Nahray b. Nissim. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

A few words in Arabic script mentioning Bū l-Faraj al-Jābī and ʿindahu and some Greek/Coptic numerals.

Letter in Arabic script. Some kind of (state?) report on agricultural activities this year? وقد زرع في هذه السنة... وجميع الفلاحين فيها فلاحين السلطان... احد العسكرية هذا سوا ما يزرع فيها من الارز... باطلاق عمارة في الضياع ال... وانكشفت جميع الناس. On verso there is a Hebrew literary text (as well as between the lines on Bodl. MS heb. f 107/34).

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

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.

Legal document, probably. In Arabic script. Needs examination. Probably a join with Bodl. MS heb. f 56/13 + Bodl. MS heb. f 56/15.

Hebrew poetry. In a familiar hand. There is one line of Arabic script at the bottom of each page; one of them is clearly Arabic poetry, the other requires examination.

A few words in Arabic script. Reused for bible in shorthand. Unless the Arabic script is actually on a different fragment and peeking through from underneath—it is hard to be certain from the image.

Accounts in Arabic script. Repeatedly mentions shahr al-aʿyād (presumably Tishrei) and al-ʿanṣara (Shavuʿot). Mentions Abū ʿAlī b. Isḥāq. Needs further examination.