Geniza Lab

One entry of a sheet of accounts written by Arus b. Yosef. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 465)

Recto: part of a rhymed letter. Verso: accounts with Coptic numerals. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Statute for tenants of the Qodesh. Dating: ca. 1215 (according to Gil, but his handwriting comparison may not be sound, and this document could be as late as ca. 1300). The document preserves a number of conditions imposed upon the lessees of the qodesh. It proclaims 1) a ban (herem) against anyone who defaults on the monthly payment, for any reason whatsoever. Therefore, exactly as one would beg money for food, one should do so, if necessary, in order to pay rent. 2) The ban will also operate also on anyone who does not accept the amount of the rent as established by three Jews, the muqawwimin. 3) The lessee is obliged to present his deeds of lease whenever asked to do so in the name of the waqf. 4) The ban will also be applied to anybody making use of a Muslim's intervention in order to obtain a lodging in the houses of the qodesh or a reduction of rent imposed on him. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 411 #112.) On verso there is a Hebrew poem in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī (d. after 1298).

List of names in Arabic characters with sums in Coptic numerals. (Information from Goitein index cards)

An 18th-19th century commercial letter dated Friday 28th Adar I, mentioning Muhammed Ibn Umar who went on Hajj to Mecca, Raphael the Dragoman, Joseph פוגי, Jacob Ḥazzan, Shelomo סכאש, and the French consul in Cairo. At the head of the page are accounts related to the commercial letter. Verso: more accounts. (Information from CUDL)

List of names and outstanding loans. There are small marks in the text resembling a '<' standing for the fraction 1/2. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

On verso and spilling over onto the margins of recto: account and a list of at least 82 indigent people, including at least 14 Europeans, in the hand of Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy. (Information in part from Goitein’s note cards) ASE

Business accounts. Notes of receipts etc. Seven instructions to a (Goitein: "?") to meet with different persons and to arrange matter with them. (Information from Goitein's index card). VMR

Account (draft) of the Qodesh ca. 1213. This account is written on the verso and also on the remaining space of the recto of a document concerning the sale of a female slave to a certain Elazar ha-Kohen. Different kidns of revenue and expenditures are recorded together. There are items of charity, for the local poor and for foreigners, and repairs to buildings of the qodesh, and also to the synagogues of Fustat and Dammuh. Several sums that were emoluments for scholars are included as well. Some revenue from rent is listed, as it is also income from collections for charity, among them one "light" dinar paid by Rayyis, i.e. the Nagid, Avraham Maimuni, the son of Maimonides. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 403 #109)

Account in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid. Concerning a debt of Abū l-Surūr (Faraḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ) Ibn al-Qābisī to Shelomo b. Yosef Av Beit Din (b. Shelomo ha-Kohen Ga'on). He will repay this debt in 11 payments of 2 dinars each, and an additional payment of 3 dinars, beginning on 1 Nisan = Dhū l-Ḥijja 477 AH, which is 29 March 1085 CE. Aodeh's reading differs slightly from that of Gil (״מורי ורבי״). (Information from Aodeh) ASE

Recto: Legal document. Abū Manṣūr Ḥayyim b. Sahlawayh appoints Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Shaʿyā, known as Ibn Tawwazī, to investigate accounts relating to the estate of Abū Kathīr Ibrahīm b. Salmān b. ʿEzra. Abū Kathīr had died while some assets of his were still with two brothers of Abū Manṣūr, Daniel and Eli, and the brothers had also meanwhile died, leaving Abū Manṣūr as their heir. Abū Yūsuf is appointed to examine the accounts of all three dead men, so that Abū Kathīr’s heirs can receive what is due to them. Abū Yūsuf’s investigation will be supervised by Abū Naṣr Shelomo/Salāma b. Saʿīd Ibn Ṣaghīr. Location: Fusṭāṭ. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Iyyar 1368 Seleucid, which is April 1057 CE, under the authority of Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen ("the Great Rav"). (Information from Goitein's index card and from CUDL)

Verso: Six lines of accounts of debts on clothing, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated Kislev 1431/ November-December 1119. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 375, and from Goitein's index cards)

Lease of a plantation owned by the Qodesh, ca. 1150 CE. A deed of lease is drawn up by the court, by which a plantation of date palms is taken over for cultivation by a certain Hiba. The plantation belongs to the qodesh, and is probably located near the synagogue of Dammuh. The tenant will pay the qodesh 88 dinars, in annual payments of 11 dinars each, for eight years, i.e. the period of the lease. Out of the 11 dinars, 1.33 dinar will be paid in eleven monthly installments, whereas 9.67 dinars will be paid in the month of Tishri (when the harvest is over). The tenant will also have to carry 1000 palm branches to the Nile (apparently also in the month of Tishri, intended for the feast of Sukkot). The tenant agrees to run the ox-driven irrigation water wheel continuously, and will not cut down any plants aside from necessary pruning. The deed is written in the hand of Judge Natan b. Shemuel. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 262 #50)

Detailed account of a kosher butcher from Fustat, specifying the various community officials and other persons to whom he had made payments of 7 dirhams week after week during a full year. Dated 1179 or 1183. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 381, 382)

Recto: letter from Abraham Masʿūd, dealing with trade in silk and linen, and mentioning Elijah Saloniko (אליא שלונקו). Verso: accounts. (Information from CUDL)

Account of the Qodesh: list of arrears in rent owed by different tenants in the synagogue compound, from December 1042 CE to April 1043 CE. The rent was collected and the document written by the scribe Yefet the cantor b. David b. Shekanya. He then lists the current payments for one month, Jumada'l-ula; some apartments are said to have been vacant. The list is large in size, written in big characters, and was probably intended for public display. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 193 #22)

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim and Barhun b. Ishaq. 1061. Details about shipment of silk and linen cloths and a partnership in trading pearls. Mentions the news about the death of Isma’il b. Barhun al-Tahirti. Also mentions that the trading with Sicily is still happens despite the events in the island. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #295) VMR

Recto: letter to the Nasi Shelomo (probably Shelomo b. Jesse, mid-13th century). Verso: accounts with Coptic numerals. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Lower part of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender heard that his brother Yosef died in India, and he asks the addressee to enquire with a certain Ibn al-Dajjājī as to exactly how it happened. Apart from simply wanting to know, he is on the hook for paying his brother's capitation tax—maybe he will be exempted if he can prove his brother's death. Verso: accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. (Information in part from CUDL)

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Written by Hananel b. Shemuel. He exhorts the addressee to assist al-Shaykh al-Nafīs, evidently concerning a legal query which the latter had submitted. "The illustrious Judge" will inform the addressee all the details of the case. On verso there are also Greek/Coptic numerals, possibly accounts, together with the word "the total" written in Arabic script. (Information from AA, Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition, and ASE.)