Geniza Lab

Magical fragment. From top down: 1 line of names in Hebrew (Elʿazar, Hillel, Shela, Yefet, ʿEli); 4 rows of magical symbols; 1 line in Judaeo-Arabic, "the [r]esponse to a letter from the land of the Franks"; 4 lines in Arabic script, an invocation of God (who split the sea for Moses and destroyed [Pharaoh], etc.) to do something (taḥill?) to fulāna.

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Mentions flax; someone's brother Yaʿaqov; Abū ʿAlī; and the Franks.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer complains, "I suffer from this city and its inhabitants unspeakable suffering. May God for the sake of His great name see fit to deliver me from it speedily." He then reports that a man named R. Shemuel has arrived from the land of the Franks. Information in part from Friedman, Dictionary, p. 751 (ضجر).

Description from T-S 20.145: Letter/petition from ʿAmram b. Aharon ha-Kohen "the seventh" (the son-in-law of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva, Evyatar b. Shelomo ha-Kohen) to dignitaries in Fustat, including the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya. Dating: 1108–09 CE. The sender wants the addressee to exercise his influence to have the Fatimid navy rescue Evyatar and his family from Tripoli in the period between the summer of 1108 CE (when the populace of Tripoli overthrew Ibn ʿAmmār) and 12 July 1109 CE, when the Franks sacked Tripoli. (Information from Brendan Goldman's edition.) Description from T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177 (old PGPID 17817): Letter. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1108 CE, as it refers to the flight of Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār from Tripoli and how he left it in the hands of his cousin Abū l-Manāqib. The layout is like a formal report, with a narrow width and wide space between the lines. The sender says that he has previously sent a letter concerning "the same matter" to "our cousin," a great dignitary and a kohen. "They took it and traveled with it... toward the beginning of Shabbat Vayoshaʿ (=Beshalaḥ?), the day that Ibn ʿAmmār traveled for Beirut—let him return no more to his house, and let not his place know him any more (Job 7:10)—and then traveled for Tiberias (? טברי) to fortify himself there, and the city is now in the hand of his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Abū l-Manāqib." (Information in part from CUDL.) Joins by CUDL (for T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177) and Alan Elbaum (for T-S 20.145 + {T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177}). For an example of the Fatimid state document format which this is emulating, see another report concerning this period in Tripoli (unpublished): T-S AS 129.149 + T-S AS 116.11 + T-S NS 137.20 + T-S NS 207.44 + AIU I.C.73 + T-S NS 238.99 + T-S NS 244.84 (+ T-S NS 125.135). ASE

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic letter, probably early 13th century. Topics include: the arrival of Hilāl and his maternal uncle; a dispute over 900 dirhams, leading to a legal testimony in which the writer and Abu l-'Ala and al-Mawla al-Najib and Rabbi Anatoli Shemuel and al-Shaykh al-Akram all signed; the arrival of Abu l-[...] who delivered something important; the 15th of Tammuz when Hilel/Hilāl arrived; [...] al-Hasid; "the matter of the sāqiyah"; the prices are stable, except the armies [...]; and "the Franks have no building" (?). ASE.

Report from a Fatimid official, probably sent from Tyre. Dating: 1108 or 1109 CE, as it concerns the events in Tripoli following the flight of Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār (cf. T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177) and around the time of the fall of Tripoli to the Crusaders. The document resembles another report to al-Malik al-Afḍal also preserved in the Geniza, T-S 16.114 + T-S 24.57 + T-S AS 11.383 + T-S AS 146.195, edited by Geoffrey Khan (ALAD doc. 111). Among many other matters, it discusses: a request for a Fatimid fleet to come to the aid of Tripoli; how Ibn ʿAmmār was an enemy of the people and of the notables (muqaddamīn) of Tripoli and of the Fatimid state; how the traitorous al-Sharīf al-ʿArīḍī had been sending Ibn ʿAmmār state secrets (akhbār al-dawla) until Sayf al-Mulk b. ʿAllūn ordered the former to be detained; how a boat containing twenty-two men and women arrived from Crusader-ruled ʿAkkā (Acre) after letting themselves into the city over its walls by rope; how those newcomers report that Muhannad b. Ghawth had returned to Jabal ʿĀmil(a) and Kafr Birʿim, where he now serves the Franks and lived among them; a blood feud between Banū Ḥaddāthā (حداثا in present-day Lebanon) and the neighboring Banū Shabakhtān, a disruption that the authorities in the sender’s location had to manage; and something to do with army regiments (al-muwallada and al-sūd, "the blacks"), taxes, and Franks. Needs further examination. On verso there is a Hebrew prayer (the second baqqasha of Seʿadya Gaon). T-S NS 125.135 is a join for the prayer on verso but not for the report on recto. There are still several fragments missing. Joins: Alan Elbaum. ASE. Description from PGPID 20866: Recto: Hebrew prayer Verso: Arabic document or letter - needs examination.