Geniza Lab

Bifolium, probably from a literary compendium. Dating: Late, possibly 18th or 19th century. Two of the pages are a story about a female slave and a king—needs further examination. The other two pages are love spells in Judaeo-Arabic, apparently transcribed from Islamic/Arabic-script models, as one of them invokes the prophets Moses and Jesus(!).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with interspersed Arabic script (header, footer, and sliding blessings). Eloquent and formal style, possibly copied from or for a literary source. Seems to mostly be expressing love for the a third person and sadness at his failure to fully reciprocate. Mentions Abū Isḥāq the cantor and Abū Kathīr. "When his late mother died, may her Creator have mercy upon her, I went to his house and consoled him and met his need as far as I was able to with speech. He showed me signs of love, and my limbs bore witness to him with many times the same. They (=my limbs) prayed for him and my soul thanked him, without any imposition (? takalluf) imposed on him or imposed on me from money or honor.... rather, that love for him remained in my heart like.... until the day of Shavuʿot... the soul praised her Creator and prayed to Him from its blackness(?), and my love and affection for him became like the trees whose [...] more than one branch (or root?), and no matter how the wind blows... it does not budge from its place... and it continued like this until he showed me aversion (jafā) from his soul... without any crime that I committed...." Join: Alan Elbaum. Needs further examination.

Magical spells, 1 for arousing love (tahayyuj) and 1 for binding someone's tongue (ʿaqd lisān). Probably in the hand of Abū Sahl Levi (see tag). They are written in charming style ("may the love of X settle on the heart of Y, like the shade on an apple, like rose wafting fragrance" followed by a racy blazon; the next one, "may God make you an ass").

Long magical spell/amulet for Baghīḍa bt. Ḥā'iza, with the purpose of making Mufaḍḍal b. ʿIrāq fall in love with her and marry her without delay.

Love spell in Judaeo-Arabic. For Esther bt. Nazlī to fall in love with Ḥayyim b. Barda. The hand looks late and possibly Iraqi—but that is speculative.

Formularies for a love (maḥabba) spell and a love (tahayyuj) potion (using סבנאדג, the brain of a colored pigeon, and some of your urine).

A love spell/amulet for {Ḥayyim the son of ʿAzīza} and {Senyora the daughter of {Ashkenaz and {Sara the daughter of {Senyora and {Ḥayyim the son of Esther and {Avraham the son of Ḥava and {Yāqūtī the son of Ḥava}}}}}}. The genealogy seems highly ambiguous, and even the names of the would-be lovebirds, since the brackets could be placed practically anywhere. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic dealing with the book trade. In a slightly crude hand with some orthographic features more usual for later Classical Judaeo-Arabic letter writing, although the formulae and vocabulary used points to the 11th-12th century. What remains of recto is almost entirely formulaic but contains interesting phrases such as "may your star shine opposite you (wa-yuḍī' kawkabuhu ḥidhāhu)." On verso, the writer mentions Sālim (?) and a sale of 50 dirhams' worth of books. Then, "Among the books that I found for you from him: Raḥamim (?), a grammar, a commentary on Job, a composition on love and companionship and passion, a nice siddur. . . ." The writer also discusses 8 maṣāḥif, and says that the dīwān was not among the books he found. Also mentions a dictionary, a Mishna, and a prayer book. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Formulary for a love spell (ʿazīma) in Judaeo-Arabic.

Popular literature in Arabic script, on the theme of a medical prescription for a lovesick man. Similar to T-S NS 264.27 + T-S NS 224.181 + T-S AS 145.360 + T-S 12.537. Merits further examination. ASE.

Magical recipes for attaining love. "The first among these magical recipes is intended to ensure a great affection between a wife and her husband, erasing any animosity that might exist between them. The fragment preserves some beautiful biblical analogies.... The second recipe preserved in our fragment bears the title ‘Love’, emphasised by the drawing of a canopy over the word. It instructs the practitioner to take ‘seven leaves of laurel and grind them in old wine’, after which he is to write several magical names, perhaps using the mixture prepared earlier, or else, to write the names on the laurel leaves. The recipe ends with another biblical quotation, this time from the Song of Songs 8:7." Saar, O. (2010). T-S K12.89: ‘Like Esther in front of Ahasuerus’. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, July 2010]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55274

Recto: Accounts in Arabic. Verso: Formulary for a love spell in Judaeo-Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.

Arabic poem, transcribed into Hebrew script. At least some of the originally Islamic elements were kept ("fa-wa-lladhī anzala furqānahu ʿalā l-nabiyyi l-muṣṭafā l-muntajab"). There are two bifolia here, so 8 pages. The order is somewhat difficult to reconstruct, but it appears to narrate the love between a woman named Jamal(?) and a man named Ghamr(?) and the poetic letters they exchange. Ghamr dies, and she elegizes him, and a man named Qutayba then starts to court her. Al-Ḥajjāj (the king?) appears as well. There are several joins (see T-S Ar.37.15, T-S AS 161.95, and FGP Joins Suggestions). Merits further examination.

Poem(s) in Judaeo-Arabic containing advice for the lovesick, written as a faux medical prescription. In the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. The recto contains a marriage contract dated 1298 CE. Nāṣir made a pair of bifolios by making a horizontal cut across the ketubba and then placing a vertical crease in each of the resulting halves. Probably the upper bifolio nested inside of the lower bifolio, as the lower bifolio contains both the beginning and the end of the text. (Information in part from Cecilia Palombo and Goitein's attached notes.) ASE