Geniza Lab

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: A Monday in the last decade of Tammuz 1[4]34 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE. In which Elʿazar/Manṣūr b. Yefet/Ḥasan ha-Kohen transfers property rights for half of a well-known house in al-Qālūs to his wife Sitthum aka Sitt al-Jamīʿ bt. ʿOvadya. The full names of the couple may be found in T-S NS 323.19 (probably the beginning of this document, but not a continuous join) and T-S 12.82 + T-S 12.553 (probably a distinct document). Joins: Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Official letter, possibly addressed to the vizier ("ḥaḍrat al-wizāra") concerning the appointment of an amir in Yemen. Dating: ca. 11th/12th century. On verso there is a Hebrew piyyut based on 1 Kings 2 followed by a piyyut based on Shemot. (Information in part from Khan's edition of T-S NS 162.34.) The joins are indirect and are not certain but appear to match on both sides. Joins: Alan Elbaum.

Various Geonic responsa. (Information from CUDL)

Maimonides’ responsa to the sages of Lunel. Headings שאלה and תשובה. (Information from CUDL)

Petition to al-Mustanṣir in Arabic, preliminary draft (possibly also in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya), complaining about the closure of the Palestinian synagogue in Fusṭāṭ, c. 1040 CE. Mentions Natan b. Avraham, who ‘arrived from the West, claiming the position of the head of our Academy, and who has been head of this Academy for 16 years’, the amir Munjiz al-Dawla, and the ‘slave of our master, Daʾūd b. Ishaq’. The situation concerns the leadership dispute between Shelomo b. Yehuda and Natan b. Avraham over the leadership of the Palestinian Academy. The congregation of the closed Palestinian synagogue had apparently been loyal to Shelomo b. Yehuda, and Natan b. Avraham had used his contacts in the government to have the synagogue closed. (Information from CUDL) This Arabic hand definitely belongs to Efrayim b. Shemarya (Marina Rustow).

Legal documents, drafts, in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya concerning a legal dispute between Yiṣḥaq (Surūr) b. Yaʿaqov b. Aharon, known as al-Jāsūs (אלגאסוס), and his ex-wife Surūra b. Shelomo the physician b. Rabīʿ who moved with their three children from Qayrawān to Fusṭāṭ. When her husband left, the wife claimed her dowry. As he has no money he suggests giving her his share (the roof) of a house in Qayrawān, which he had inherited along with his brother and sister from his father, instead. It is worth 295 dirhams, which is 5 dirhams less than her dowry. In a second document he hands over the roof and she states that he is no longer obligated to her. Dated 1351 Seleucid (= 1040 CE). T-S 13J8.2, part of CUL Or.1080 J7, and T-S NS J149 all include versions of the same document, or at least concerning the same case. Verso: continuation of the drafted documents and a preliminary draft of a petition to al-Mustanṣir (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Petition to a Fatimid dignitary regarding a theft of money. In Arabic script. The archer Manṣūr b. Zakī al-Dawla (or: Rukn al-Dawla?) complains that Badr, one of the horseman of the amir Tāj al-Maʿālī with whom he was travelling, left the camp and took with him two dinars of wages that belonged to the petitioner. A tarsīm regarding these facts has already been issued. (Information from CUDL.)

Verso: Letter from a father, unknown location, to his son Baqāʾ, in Fustat. The letter was sent to the shop of Meshullam/Musallam to be held for the addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 12th century. Written on verso of an Arabic petition to a high Fatimid official; Goitein suggests that the sender of the Judaeo-Arabic letter may have been an official in the same office (hence with access to this scrap paper). The father has sent 20 dirhams with Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, of which 11 dirhams are for the capitation tax and the remainder for his wife ("bayt"). He exhorts his son to behave well (ḥusn al-ʿishra) with the latter's mother, wife, and siblings. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) ASE

Court record containing signatures of three Jewish witnesses in Arabic script, in which a Jewish woman is charged by two Muslims with being intimate with a Christian physician. They reported seeing her loitering by his apothecary practice, and spied on her for 40 days before taking their suspicions to a judge. (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society,II, p. 330)

Petition from Abū l-Ḥasan b. Dāʾūd to a Fatimid dignitary. In Arabic script. The petitioner is a poor young man, whose father died destitute and left him only some pieces of furniture, which now Abū l-Ḥasan would like to sell. Dating: ca. 12th century. On verso there is a Judaeo-Arabic text on Jewish law divided into numbered paragraphs, regarding marriage contracts and mentioning Rabbi Shimʿon and the Mishna. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: letter to Abū l-Ṭāhir (?). Verso: recipes featuring cheese, lemon, meat, fish, and chicken. (Information from CUDL)

Inventory of books. Only 8 books listed. Not edited by Allony. (Information in part from CUDL)

Draft of a genealogy of Qariate exilarchs. Probably mid-11th century. The genealogical list of Yehezkiyahu b. Shlomo, one of the Karaites’ leaders in the 11th century. Mentions Yehezkiyahu Rosh ha-Gola b. David and Shlomo b. Yoshiyahu, Daniel b. Azarya’s grandfather. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #70) VMR

Recto: autograph medical recipe in the hand of Moses Maimonides, prescribing an emetic and other drugs. The ingredients used include sticky sugar, lemon juice, oxymel, melissa, and green mint. The fragment includes dietary advice to avoid unripe dates, jujube, green almonds, carob, green broad beans, carrots and vinegar; whereas raisins, pistachios, figs and nuts should be eaten for dessert. Verso: draft of a witness statement related to a court procedure. (Information from CUDL)

Account in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals listing a number of goods, including chard, coriander, leek, olive oil, firewood, cheese, fresh fava beans (fūl akhḍar), a basket from the mill, and a fat chicken. On verso there is an excerpt from BT Ḥullin 3b (or a paraphrase). (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: part of a legal document, probably a will, mentioning quantities of dinars, names of months and the phrase ‘my death’. The name Abū l-Ḥusayn is preserved. Verso: a further part of a legal document, probably the continuation of the text on recto, which was written in Fusṭāṭ in Adar 1[...] of the Seleucid era and mentions various names, including ʿAmram ha-Kohen and Abū l-Barakāt ‘... descendant of Shemaʿya Gaʾon’. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: a compilation of letter formulae or part of a form letter. In the bottom right-hand corner there is a typical sender’s formula with the name Abraham b. Benjamin ‘the pitiable teacher’ (המלמד המרוחם). Verso: an Arabic basmalla and Hebrew jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Moshe b. Binyamin Ashkenazi, probably in Fustat/Cairo, to Avraham Castro, probably in Alexandria or Jerusalem. Dating: 16th century. The sender describes how "from the other week we have been shut in, because the epidemic began (כי החל הנגף). Most of those who were stricken have recovered, "except for 2 or 3 infants," but the epidemic continues in Cairo. (Information from A. David's edition.)

Toldot Yeshu. (Information from CUDL)

Toldot Yeshu, small piece from a leaf mentioning Yoḥanan and R. Yehoshuaʿ. (Information from CUDL)