Geniza Lab

State document, probably a letter of official correspondence, in Arabic script. Addressed to or sent by an official with the title ʿĀzim al-Dawla. An order from al-Ḥaḍra al-Majīdiyya (probably al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Majīd) granted the sender an exemption (?) from customs tax (maks) for the goods arriving on a royal vessel "al-ʿUshārī al-Malik" on government business (shāʾn al-dawāwīn). The addressee didn't honor the order and hence the sender rebukes him the rebuke of friends "fʿātab ʿatab al-aṣdiqā". The last two lines are difficult to contextualize but an attempted interpretation could be - with the command of the overseer of his business/accounts, someone wrote from the dīwān regarding what is obligatory on the different types of taxes. Reused for Arabo-Hebrew jottings of the Hebrew Psalms, the Ezra (1:9) more specifically. (For more on transcribing Hebrew Bible into Arabic script, see Geoffrey Khan, Karaite Bible Manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah: Cambridge University Press, 1990). YU. Verso: text in Hebrew with (Masoretic?) "traditions and mnemonics" (מוסרות וסימנות) written by Shemuel b. Sahl the teacher for Saʿadya b. Shelomo. Multiple different hands (likely of both teacher and student).

Letter from Yūsuf b. Faraḥ al-Qābisī, in Alexandria, to his nephew Abū l-Surūr Faraḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: September 6, 1056 CE, based on Gil's assessment. The letter contains a wide array of news and business matters. Yūsuf describes an attack by Ibn al-Thumna's soldiers on merchant ships and the requisitioning of merchandise (r10–12). He passes on the news (r14–15) that the addressee's uncle (ʿamm) Sulaymān was seriously ill in Sūsa but recovered (פק, to be read fāq); that Yaḥyā b. Mūsā al-Majjānī died (r16–17); that the writer's own cousin (ibn khālat{ī}) Abū l-Faḍl is critically ill (ʿalā khuṭṭa) in al-Mahdiyya (r17–18); that the customs tax (ʿushr) has become more stringent (r18); and that Yosef b. Shabbetay al-Ḥazzān converted to Islam in Palermo, a grievous day (r19–20). Amidst the bad news, and a business partner's complaint that his goods never reached him, Yūsuf complains, "My boy, by God, before this trip I was very strong, but now it is the opposite, by God, my spirit is weaker than a thread of silk" (r21–22). He continues with news of Qayrawān, al-Mahdiyya, and Sfax (v1–4); instructions regarding the purchase of flax in Būṣīr (v8–11); and information on the movements of ships. (Information in part from Gil.) ASE.