Geniza Lab

State document, fragment, in Arabic script, probably a petition (or a draft?). There are also a few lines of Arabic interspersed between the wide spacings of the petition, probably from later reuse or annotations, however, both the hands look fairly similar. The petition is regarding a matter concerning agriculture "al-zirāʿ", also mentions a canal ''al-fatḥ". The last line indicates a course of action "dhālika wa-sharaʿ fī ʿamalihi wa-injāzihi". The first interspersed line bears a date - Thursday 19th Muḥarram 550. Needs examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Elegant hand. Mentions the town of Ṭanān and deals with the construction of a dike (jisr) and an irrigation canal (turʿa); the addressee is to go and obtain for this purpose the cattle (abqār) and dredging tools (jarārīf: see Rapoport, "Irrigation in the Medieval Islamic Fayyum," p. 24, and Borsch, Stuart (2014) "Plague Depopulation and Irrigation Decay in Medieval Egypt," The Medieval Globe: Vol. 1 : No. 1, p. 139). ASE.

State decree from the Fatimid chancery, written under al-Ḥākim, al-Ẓāhir or al-Mustanṣir to an official in Egypt regarding a dispute over irrigation canals and access to water — insofar as one can judge. Only the left half of the lines are preserved. About 1.3 meters of what was once a much longer decree. The joins of the decree fragment when pieced together refer to the need of restoring the area surrounding the gulf/bay - 'li ḥāja dāʿiya ilā ʿimārat al-khuluj' and the allotment of irrigation from these canals: 'aqsaṭ min al-rī min hādhihi l-khuluj. Verso: Efrayim b. Shemarya uses and reworks passages from the Sheʾiltot for a sermon. Top of the rotulus is headed Shabbat Bereishit (see separate record). Join: Roni Shweka (bottom six fragments) and Rebecca Sebbagh (top fragment). Before 1055. See also Mosseri VI.117.2, which may belong to the left side of this decree. (MR)