Geniza Lab

List of 20 pledges made in Coptic numerals during 6 weeks [MR Cohen: one week skipped, hence actually encompasses a 7 week period]. Among the donors only 2 persons, father and son, were called haver, and the grandfather, too, had borne that title. Reverse side superscribed 'Received,' noting 16 items, among them '220 through the Nagid' '225 anonymous gift' but only 3 contributions from overleaf. Since 2 persons are listed as living at the Gate of the Breach, Kharq, of (New) Cairo, the list might refer to that city. MR Cohen: in right margin, many entries preceded by a final mem, in a more faded ink, presumably standing for tasallam, paid. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, pp. 496-497, App. C 70.) This document is sometimes erroneously cited as T-S NS J250.

List of ten donors, headed by the Raṣuy (see T-S K15.36), seconded by the Shāʿir (Poet, see BL OR 5566C.11 and 12), and followed by other names known from the beginning of the thirteenth century. All but the last gave 1, namely, one jug (of wine), as proved by the last contribution which consisted of 'half a jug.' Wine is required at the domestic Passover ceremony 'even from the poor' and is provided here in kind to those who had no adequate supply. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 500, App. C 88)

Lower part of a carefully written list of contributors, practically all of whom appear in earlier or later lists. The first 15 donate 2 (dirhams); 9 donate 1 (d?); 2 donate 1/2 (d); 3 no amount indicated; 4 amount not preserved. Total: 33 persons or households. The collection seems to be one made for a special occasion. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 491, App. C 51 [dated to first part of 13th century])

List without numbers of communal officials and needy persons, mostly women and foreigners, ending with 'the strangers/foreigners in the synagogue'. Recto: sums owed to or by the community. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 462, App. B 83a)

List on a small slip of paper, 22 names of indigent persons, mostly women. The first three are in T-S NS J239v (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 462, App. B 84 [dated to 1200-1240])

List of clothes for the poor. Dated: 1451 Seleucid, which is 1139/40 CE. Four fragments altogether, three of which being in the hand of the scribe of T-S K15.48, part one. They are headed by the parnas Abū ʿAlī b. Barukh, receiving a muqaddar, and the shomer Abū l-Surūr allotted a shuqqa. All the remaining forty whose names are preserved get a jūkhāniyya. In the fourth fragment (which was attached to the others by a thread), in the hand of the second part of K15.48, a piece of clothing of the sari type, called fūṭa, is given to fifteen persons. Goitein assembled these fragments together while working on the New Series in the Taylor Schechter Collection. The type, form, and state of preservation of the paper and the arrangement of the script on it leave little doubt, however, that they form parts of one document. Words surrounded by { } in the transcription below are in Arabic letters. The Arabic final mem probably represents the word tasallam. 'paid' or 'received.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 448, App. B 33 [dated to1100-1140]).

Informal note from Hillel b. ʿEli to Eli b. Yaḥya ("al-Parnas al-Neʾeman"). In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking him to look after Ṣedaqa b. Nufayʿ and his father who were local people and deserving. Verso: 8 persons donate each 1/4 dinar, presumably for the needy mentioned on recto (poor hand, but not that of ʿEli the parnas). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Fragment on vellum listing communal officials and needy families in receipt of loaves of bread; ca. early twelfth century. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 2:455) EMS

List in same large characters as T-S 16.209v, mentioning everybody by his first name or otherwise abbreviated. At bottom, a line followed by 'al-shamiyyin b' no doubt meaning that this collection was made on a Monday morning in the synagogue of the Palestinians. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 475, App. C 10 [1st half of 11th century])

List of 24 persons to be solicited for contributions, headed by the judge and overseas trader Abu al-Mufaddal and the banker Abu Ishaq b. Tiban. Abu al-Mufaddal might refer to the scholarly merchant Nethanel b. Yefet, a nephew of the Nagids Yehuda and Mevorakh, who bore the same by-name. He was believed to be very influential with the viceroy al-Malik al-Afdal. He signed documents in 1098 and died in or shortly before 1121. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 477-478, App. C 18)

Goitein describes this list as: 'Distribution of about 430 loaves of bread, weighing 450 pounds, to 104 households on the Friday before the Fast of Av (which fell on Sunday).' It appears on close inspection that the scribe originally wrote sitta, 'six,' making 6 1/2 qintar, or 650 pounds, then changed the word to the numeral 4 (Hebrew letter dalet), thus making 450. The page is folded down the center, making a bifolium, with holes for the binding string down the center, indicating that this page was originally bound in a scribe's notebook. There may have been at least one intervening page between columns. This would account for the discrepancy between the stated number of pounds (loaves) and the computed total. The names indicate this list comes from around the same time as T-S Misc.8.9 and others catalogued in Goitein, Mediterranean Society, II, Appendixes B 19-23, translated in Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, nos. 59-64, dated ca. 1107. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 442, App. B 17 and from Cohen)

Lower part of a list of contributors, with 21 persons to be solicited, each carefully described by his family name or profession or both. With three exceptions (including two names written on the margin), all names are preceded by a stroke, indicating perhaps that the task of soliciting the persons concerned had been assigned. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 485, App. C 34)

Fragment of a list of recipients of alms, similar to Bodl. MS heb. c28.24, in the hand, it seems, of the judge Yeshu'a ha-Kohen b. Yosef of Alexandria (dated documents 1028 through after 1062). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 454, App. B 55 [dated to 1040-1080]).

Lower part of twin list of contributors, the first with, the second without sums. Folded down the middle, hence a bifolium that once belonged to a booklet. Almost all noted in the second list had made a contribution according to the first. In five instances, donors reduced gift to 1/2 or less, and in one case an original pledge of 1/2 dinar, which was reduced to 1/4, was restituted. The strange fact that so many reduced their contributions is perhaps to be explained by the assumption that while the first collection was going on, it already became known that another was necessary. 1140s (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 479-480, App. C 24)

List of donations, qa’imat al-nedava (Hebrew), recording around forty-five names and the sums of their contributions. The reverse side contains an account of collections made, one by a layman, one by the haver Ibrahim. Both men and women are listed as contributors. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:498) EMS

List of thirty-two names with Coptic numerals (recipients of loaves of bread), for example, “the son of little Sesame.” A Maghribi scribe is recorded as receiving ten loaves and the water carrier Wafa two loaves. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 2:463) EMS

List with Coptic numerals, apparently of contributors. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 2:497) EMS

List of twenty-six names and contributors of wheat. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:479.) Dating: Probably early or mid-12th century, since Abū l-Naṣr Ibn Zubbaybāt appears also in T-S NS 323.19, a document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. EMS. ASE.

Headed 'Still owed by the people,' this is the upper part of a long list of persons who had not yet made good their donor pledges. In two cases (of eight dirhams each), the outstanding amount is designated as balance. In all the others, obviously the sums accompanying the names represent the total pledged. Written by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Many persons are known from contemporary documents (ca. 1220). Recto = App B 38, contains expenditures on clothing for communal officials. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 499, App. C 87)

Distribution of 150 pounds of bread to 39 households, in the same hand as T-S Misc.8.61. The large number of households receiving 3 loaves was clearly attributable to some monetary shortage, when the normal ration of 2 loaves per person could not be maintained. The additional allocations (verso: ziyada fi al-'aniyyim) were certainly answers to protests. The symbol א following numbers for some names might be a Coptic fraction. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 452, App. B 47 [dated to1210-1225]).