Geniza Lab

List. Collection, jibaya, made on the first day of the holiday for the Maghribi, the Kohen. About 1115 contributions, mostly in Coptic numerals. Some of the names are encircled (represented here by $ $, perhaps indicating persons solicited). Other names are crossed through (= having paid?). A few are left untouched. The list is headed by the haver ʿOvadya, presumably the great grandson of Avraham Maimonides bearing that name (b. 1297, d. before 1355). The other names also fit the 14th century, e.g Nasir ("helper," three times), Shams ("sun," 11. 4, 27), Faraj Allah ("God has helped," 11. 8, 14). Three dashes (---) represent a diagonal slash downward toward the left, which stands for 1/2 elsewhere but here must mean something else, since 1/2 in this list is representeed by the left arrow, as elsewhere. (S/D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:496, App. C. 68) EMS

Booklet of four pages, listing contributions in dinars or fractions of a dinar. About seventy-two numbers preserved. The list is headed by the Nagid, who pledges 3 dinars, while the others give 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, 1/24 dinars, respectively. A number of the persons listed are known as having lived around 1100; consequently, the Nagid referred to was Mevorakh b. Saadya (d. 1111). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 502, App. C 115, first supplement. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

List, extensive and valuable but damaged, of donors of wheat to the poor. Most give only 1 wayba (about 4 gallons, weighing about 25 pounds), or fractions thereof, some others give 2 or 4. One person whose name has not been preserved, but who follows immediately after the first three mentioned above, donates 4 irdabbs = 24 waybas. Those who had not yet made up their minds are listed at the end of the page merely by name. The tillis is a sack, weighing approx. 150 pounds verso, list of persons contributing dirhams, for example, 2 weavers each 3 d, one giving with his workman. The doctor, the representative of the merchants Yequtiʾel, donates 1/8 dinar (for which one could buy at that time approx. a wayba of wheat). The symbol to the right of most names on verso resembling an Arabic final mim, with a tail, might mean (pai)d, (salla)m. It is represented here by a $ (Cohen) (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp 478-479, App. C 21 ca. 1100)

Collection made at a circumcision feast. The ba'al ha-mila, or father of the boy, gave 1 (presumably: dirham), a few others did the same, most of the rest contented themselves with 1/2 or even 1/4. Only the lower part of the list, with about thirty-four contributors, is preserved. Some names are overlined (having paid their pledges?) Early twelfth century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 498, App. C 80)

List of contributors. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Three columns of contributors, giving fidda, 'silver' (a late equivalent for 'dirham'). Characteristic names: Somekh (assistant cantor, Heb.) Furaykh ('Little Chick,' twice), Frjlh (also twice, an abbreviation of Faraj Allah, 'God had helped'). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 501, App. C 100)

Late list of wealthy contributors, about 30 per week (Information from Goitein index cards.) Verso: There are also several lines of Arabic script.

An almost entirely 'egalitarian' list of contributors from the first half of the eleventh century' (Goitein) Forty-four persons pledge 1/2 (dirham), nine parties, of whom six consist of two or more numbers, 1, and only one pledges 2 (dirhams). Almost all the names appear in abbreviated form: Abu Kathir is Efrayim b. Shemarya, the leader of the Palestinian congregation of Fustat (1007-1055), Sahlan (b. Avraham), the head of the Babylonians. Hillel hpns, that is, ha-parnas.. Others are referred to simply by nickname: 'Son of the Mule,'The Philosopher.' Dated to ca. 1035 recto has a letter from the orphans (girls) of Dosa, seeking help claiming their inheritance Ed. Gil, Eres yisrael, II, pp. 402-403; trans Mediterranean Society, II, p. 324. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 121).

List in monumental cursive, contemporary with ENA 2591.1, several names being identical. Six contributing two (dinars it seems); five contributing one; twelve contributing one-half; Total, indicated in the list: 23 dinars. The sum was probably needed for a special and urgent purpose, such as the travel expenses of a foreigner who was about to leave. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 125)

List of contributors, pledging 1, 2, or 3 dinars, mostly from the well known families Ibn Shay'a, Ibn Saghir, and Bahudi, or prominent notables such as Abu Zikri Hayyim b. (Ammar) Madini (of Palermo) and Abu Zikri (Yahya) b. Menashshe (see Bodl. d79.35). The donations were probably for helping the poor with their capitation tax (see T-SK15.94v). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 476,. App C, sec. 12)

Letter, fragmentary, from Isma’il b. Barhun ha-Tahirti from al-Mahdiyya, to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal from Fustat. Mentions some information about the Sultan interfering in trade matters. Mentions Yosef b. Brahya and the Nagid – Avraham b. Ata. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #119) VMR

Contributions to a collection of loaves of bread for the poor, ranging from 100 pounds (a qintar) down to 1/2 pound. Instead of bread, one person gives three dirhams. Most of the contributors of larger amounts are introduced with the title 'my lord the elder,' while most of those giving small ones are simply called by name, such as: Yaʿaqov-1/2, Ibrahim Ibn al-Mawazini (maker of scales)-1, the oil-makers-1, the Karaite-1/2. No consistency, however, was observed in this distinction. The donors of the third and fourth largest amounts (25 and 10 pounds, respectively) receive no title, while others giving only two pounds do. The handwriting of this much-effaced document is of the calligraphic type used in books, which is extremely difficult to locate and date. Reason: The list is headed by Abu Zikri (taking him as son of Eliyyahu the dayyan, who was a prominent physician in Alexandria), while R. Yeshu'a is second, even though he donated only 4 pounds 'The haver' is also listEd. All three are conspicuous in T-S 10J16.6, the complaint of the administrator of the quppa in Alexandria, who was threatened with death when he retained certain quantities of wheat in order to meet emergencies in time of scarcity. The Nagid might have asked that all the relevant lists connected with the breadbasket of the community be submitted to him, one of which (the present list) would have finally made its way into the Geniza. If the above reasoning is correct, the document should be dated ca. 1230. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 491-492, App. C 53 and from Cohen)

List of the Pesiqa, upper part of three pages containing the names of contributors, headed by Abu al-Mufaddal, who pledges 1/8 dinar. The others give dirhams, namely: 1 party gives 3 d; 8 parties give 2 d; 16 parties give 1 d; 4 parties give 1/2 d;, 2 (sum not preserved). As indicated by the cut of the extant fragment, it probably contains less than half the original list. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 503, App. C 119)

List of contributors to the poor. Coptic numerals.

List of contributors, including several moneychanger/bankers, a Ben Netira, a ghulam (slave-boy or factor), 'two foreigners', a broker (dallal), a parnas, a Marwan.

List of contributors containing Coptic numerals. (Information from Goitein's typed texts)

List, probably of donors to charity and other communal expenses, only two lines preserved; mentions a ratl of oil (probably a contribution to the synagogue). (transferred to ENA NS 77) formerly ENA Uncatalogued 4.2a.

List (fragment), apparently of donors to charity. On one side, names, the first one 'min Abu...' and the last readable line begins 'the Alexandrians]'; the other side, names and numbers and also measures of wheat (waybas). This is unusual in that it combines cash and wheat together in the same list.

List of contributors to charity, no sums given.

List of donors of wheat to charity. See also ENA NS 77.107.