Geniza Lab

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and western Arabic numerals. Late.

List of names and sums. On the back, list of names and weights of a commodity?.

Bifolio possibly from a communal/court ledger. Dating: probably early 13th century. Written in a striking mixture of Arabic script and Judaeo-Arabic (and Greek/Coptic numerals). Three of the four pages list names and numbers: al-Shaykh al-Rashīd b. Abū ʿAlī and his son Makārim; al-Shaykh al-ʿAlam(?) b. al-ʿŪdī; the son of al-shaykh al-Muʿtamid(?) b. ʿUmar; al-shaykh al-Burhān Ibrāhīm b. al-shaykh al-Talmid Sulaymān b. Dāʾūd ("nothing was settled in his name and he is half of... its essence(?) and he will do do what he must do"); Yeshuʿa b. Maḍmūn; Abū Manṣūr al-Ṣāʾigh; al-Shaykh al-Makīn b. Mardūkh; the son of al-Shaykh Bū l-Faḍl the son of his brother; Abu l-Fakhr b. Bū ʿImrān (and their mother?); al-Shaykh al-Kohen Bū l-Fakhr and his son Abū l-Majd; al-Shaykh al-Najīb Munajjā; Bū l-Faraj b. Nuʿmān; Ṣafiyy b. Abū l-Barakāt; Muwaffaq; Mukrim(?) b. Abū l-Khayr; Fāḍil; Mūsā b. [...]; the sons of al-Ṣafiyy Bū l-ʿAlāʾ; Menaḥem b. Ibrāhīm; the son of al-ʿAfīf(?) Menaḥem; al-Kaʿkī; Kohen; Fāḍil; the sons of Hiba b. Abū l-Ḥasan(?); al-Makīn Bū l-Faraj b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and his sons; ابن الىعىوع; Bū l-Ḥasan b. Nājī; Abū l-Majd b. al-Asʿad(?) al-Sukkarī and his son ʿAlam(?); Abū l-M[...] b. Bū Manṣūr; Saʿīd b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid. The fourth page is a fragment from a Jewish court deed (draft or copy) written in Arabic script, with only the phrase "grave excommunication" (חרם חמור) written in Arabic script. This is a general ban against anyone who fails to testify in the case, concerning Abū Saʿd and a sum of money in nuqra dirhams.

List of items and sums. Commercial .

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. Listing names and numbers such as Yitzhak Ḥalfon on the verso.

List of goods, maybe from a dowry list

List of expenses - perhaps for building?

List of names and sums - many women, perhaps list of distribution.

Small fragment of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals, reused for a couple verses of Judaeo-Arabic love poetry.

Small fragment from a list of contributions to the poor. In Judaeo-Arabic. Includes several Byzantines (rūmī); al-murtaʿish ('the trembler' = someone with epilepsy?); a guard (al-shomer); a sick man (ḍaʿīf); Maʿānī; al-ʿAkkāwī; Fahd; the wife of the son of Yosef; an acquaintance of Ṣāʿid al-Firnās (probably Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid aka ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi, active ca. 1100); the wife of a 'stricken' man (zawjat al-mubtalā); the wife of al-Fuqqāʿī; Shimʿon; the brother of Hillel; and someone's divorcee.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script. Large and well-preserved.

List of names with numbers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Many women.

List of names with numbers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Many women.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Written in multiple hands, several entries crossed out.

Letter in the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel. Possibly addressed to Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is an extremely polite reminder to give the writer some money, perhaps as reimbursement or as a wage from the public funds. "When I observed some delay on the part of the master, which is not his custom. . . . I attributed it to his honor's (al-ḥaḍra) preoccupation with the illness of the master (al-mawlā) and the distraction of his mind and his distance from his country. . . ." It is not entirely clear whether the ḥaḍra and the mawlā are different people or not. "The proof, by God, will be from Sunday onward, and tomorrow is Friday, and I have not received anything except for 2 1/4 raṭls of [bread?]. What I received from the jāmikiyya only lasted through the end of the day today, Thursday, the 2nd of Dhū l-Qaʿda." Someone titled ʿAlam al-Dīn gave the writer 9 1/2 (dirhams?). The writer emphasizes the urgency of his request, "for I am among the dead/perishing." He appends an account of expenses for the week, again referring to the jāmikiyya. The expenses include many foodstuffs as well as the fee for the bathhouse and the launderer. The transcription below includes only the words, not the Coptic numerals given for each item. ASE.

Accounts of ʿArūs b. Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic. "Detailed and important." See also ENA NS 22.21. Information from Goitein's note card.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Somehow pertaining to Nahray b. Nissim, according to Goitein's note card. See also ENA NS 22.22.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Somehow pertaining to Nahray b. Nissim, according to Goitein's note card. See also ENA NS 22.18.

Ledger of expenses and incomes of the Mustaʿrib congregation of Cairo, 1588–1607 CE, discovered and analyzed by Dotan Arad. Some excerpts that were noted in previous PGP records: "On several occasions the notebook mentions that that Mustaʿrib heqdesh treasurer in Cairo relayed money to finance weddings in the qahal. For example, in the month of Elul 1593, the treasurer wrote the following in his notebook: “Furthermore, paid by [the beadle] Samuel Tājir to Mordechai Jamīla, the tawwāb (returnee to the faith) to help pay for his wedding 20 fiḍḍa, Tuesday, 10 Elul [5353]." "This interpretation of the term tawwāb is supported by another entry in the notebook written in 1600, noting 15 fiḍḍa that were given to support “a tawwāb converso (anūs)”. The arrival of Sephardi conversos in Egypt and their return to Judaism within a Muslim environment is documented as far back as 1459, a process which increased following the expulsion from Spain." Bibliography: Arad (2017) Welfare and Charity in a Sixteenth-Century Jewish Community in Egypt: A Study of Genizah Documents, Al-Masāq, 29:3, 258–72, no. 19.

ENA NS 27.7: Accounts in Ladino listed in western Arabic numerals. Dates are provided at the bottom of each entry and indicate what is most likely the year [54]92. The months Temuz and Tevet are also listed which helps to date this fragment as January-July 1732CE, which aligns closely with the join ENA NS 39.2. On the recto of ENA NS 27.7, the first entry also mentions one Moshe Ḥason "חסון" (l. 5r), whose name is repeated on the verso (l. 3v). This fragment's join mentions the usage of silver medin coinage which may carry over to the figures listed here. MCD.