Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Written on vellum spanning two leaves (and three pages) that already contained literary text in Hebrew. The first page of the letter is on a blank verso and the ending of the letter takes up the lower margin of both recto and verso of the second leaf. Describes the wretched state of the writer and the children and how nobody has been charitable toward them. The writer urges the addressee not to distance himself from them, and also asks for a maqṭaʿ (cloth). (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Business accounts. Bifolio from a ledger. In a mixture of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: 11th century. There are several fingerprints. Most entries are boxed and/or crossed out. Many entries are introduced with the phrase "al-bāqī ʿinda X baʿda qaṭʿ al-ḥisāb." People mentioned: ʿAlī; al-ṣabiyy al-ṣaghīr; Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm; Maḥbūb; Aḥmad; ghulām al-ṭabīb; Ḥasan; Ismāʿīl; Mūsā; Ibn al-Ashqar; Ḥayyim; Abū l-Ḥasan; Ḥasan b. Naḥum; Saʿāda; Ḥusayn b. L[...]; Ḥayyim b. Madīnī, probably identical with the well-known Abū Zikrī Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār Ibn al-Madīnī ("son of the Palermitan"). T-S AS 201.82, T-S NS 83.18, and T-S NS 320.125 probably all come from the same ledger. ASE