Geniza Lab

Recto: The first part is a description of a plant (ḥashīsha) that is effective against toothache. Its branches and leaves are like those of the eggplant plant; it has something on its branches that resembles a white mulberry but it is actually a fine thorn pod that latches on to anything it touches; indeed it cannot be touched due to its roughness; it has no fruit except for this white mulberry-like thorn. The second part is a wine recipe, translated by Goitein (Med. Soc. IV, p. 260): "Take two and a half dirhems' weight of each of the following: lichen (shayba), ginger, pepper, and barley flour, and half a dirhem of saffron. Mix all these together, pound them and bind the mixture with the same quantity [weight] of Egyptian bee honey and put it aside. Put two and a half dirhems' weight of this, together with one dirhem of colophony (qulfūniya or qalafūniya, a resin extracted from a pine tree or a terebinth), into each jar and plaster it over (wa-tulayyis). Leave it in the sun for seven days, after which it can be used. If you wish to have vinegar, put only one and a quarter of this stuff into each jar and leave it in the sun for eleven days. (Information in part from Ekaterina Pukhovaia.) ASE

Letter from Makhlūf b. Musa ibn al-Yatim, Alexandria, to Abu Yiṣḥaq Avraham b. Yahya Fasi, Fustat. The main part of the letter is an apology that the recipient was not met and was not bidden farewell before his departure to Fustat. The intended meeting point was Bab al-Sidara, the entrance to Alexandria from the mainland. (Information from Frenkel.) Goitein adds that the recipient was Abu Yiṣḥaq Avraham b. Yahya Fasi. The writer castigated the addressee for choosing the wrong company and excused himself for not seeing him off on account of the bad weather and his toothache, which he describes in graphic detail (see Med. Soc. 5:108, 248). Makhlūf accidentally wrote part of a letter intended for another person on the verso of this letter, then crossed it out and explained what had happened underneath.