Geniza Lab

Magical/medical recipes. In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly in a Yemeni hand (the text on verso is in a different, clearly Yemeni hand). There are recipes for incense and ointments for banishing jinns from the insane. There is a recipe for preventing pregnancy.

Occult text in Arabic script. Mentions the jinns, the shayāṭīn, al-waswās al-khannās (from Quran 114:4).

Popular literature. In Judaeo-Arabic. The portion of the story on this fragment opens with the appearance of a healer before a king: "...and princes and viziers and generals. As for your question about my trade: I am a wise man (ḥakīm), an exorcist (muʿazzim), a physician the son of a physician (ṭabīb bin ṭabīb), I release madmen and madwomen (al-majnūn wa-l-majnūna), the delusional (al-mutahawwis)... and epileptics (al-maṣrūʿ wa-l-maṣrūʿa). I command the jinn, both the tribes that fly in the heavens and those submerged in the earth. This is my trade and my craft, this why I roam the climes and the lands." The king is glad to hear this, because a female slave of his recently lost her wits. The healer begins to investigate with his magical methods, and the king reveals that her madness began after he tried to sexually assault her, and she began striking and tearing at the clothes of anybody who came near her.

Magical fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dated: Wednesday, 16 Adar 5005 AM, which is 1245 CE. Gives a spell for annulling other spells, warding off umm al-ṣibyān (infant colic or epilepsy), and exorcising the spirits of the jinn from one who is afflicted (muṣāb). It should be concealed from ignoramuses. The formula is copied out, following a basmala, in both unconnected Arabic script and in Judaeo-Arabic. The Judaeo-Arabic portion concludes with Q10:81, "Moses said, 'What you have brought is [only] magic. Indeed, Allah wille expose its worthlessness. Indeed, Allah does not amend the work of corrupters.'"