Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, likely sent from Alexandria. Very faded. Concerns a dispute between groups within the community and mentions the synagogue. One group turned to the amir "Nāṣir al-Dawla wa-Sayfuhā" to intervene. There was a person who went to Fustat "to execute the rescripts from the king" (wa-kharaja ilā Miṣr fī injāz al-tawqīʿāt al-musallama min al-malik). Mentions someone from Tripoli (al-Iṭrābulsī) in the margin. It is hard to extract further details. Verso: Two distinct text blocks in Arabic script. The upper one is a record about the height of the Nile flood. The lower one, at 90 degrees, mentions a qāḍī. Needs further examination. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, to Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī, probably in Qayrawān. Dating: around 1045. The letter mentions correspondence with the Maghrib, the anxiety in Fustat about the Nile flood, and items such as iron, wool, textiles, resin and spices. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #241)

Account of the flooding of the Nile. Dated: Elul 1550 Seleucid, which is 1239 CE. The entries are arranged according to the Coptic calendar. See T-S NS J570 for a much earlier example of a similar account. Needs further examination. ASE

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In a lovely hand; the same scribe seems to have reused numerous Arabic-script documents for literary/liturgical text (see Joins Suggestions). This letter was intended to be sent from Fustat to an addressee who had recently set sail from Alexandria (presumably this is a draft or it was never sent). The letter opens with a quotation from Jeremiah 17:7. A few days after the addressee(s) set out to sea from Alexandria, Abū l-Faḍl (or Ibn al-Faḍl?) Ibn Sabra arrived "drowning" (ghāriq), which caused distress to everybody (did he survive a shipwreck?). The sender reports that the Nile completed its flood (al-māʾ qad awfā) at "5 from 17," which probably means 5 fingers short of 17 cubits. ("A cubit until the height of twelve cubits was divided into twenty-eight fingers, and equaled 0,539m≈54cm. A cubit above the height of twelve cubits consisted of twenty-four fingers, and equaled 0,462m≈46cm," per Kristine Chalyan-Daffner, "Socio-Cultural Attitudes to the Flooding of the Nile (13th–16th Centuries)" (2015).) The sender reports that everything in Egypt is perfect under the ruler (al-Mustanṣir or a vizier?), that new territory is conquered by him every day, that coins have been minted for him, ואלדעוה פי מכות (this phrase is difficult to understand—does it refer to the Fatimid Daʿwa?), and his forces have reached as far as Minyat al-Rudaynī (in the Sharqiyya district in the Nile Delta). ASE.

Mysterious document in Arabic script. Begins with the glyph, then two sections, separated by a horizontal line. Underneath and on verso there is piyyut. (1) A record about previous correspondence? Excerpts: "... a letter to the dear brother, the shaykh... on Sunday, 3 Dhū l-Ḥijja 600 AH (= 2 August 1204 CE)... and with him a letter... for Bū l-Maḥāsin b. Sayyid al-Kull. (2) A record about the rising of the Nile to 4 cubits on the 4th of Dhū l-Ḥijja.

Bifolio in Judaeo-Arabic. Perhaps originally from a ledger of business accounts. Containing detailed records about the flooding of the Nile in 1054 CE and 1055 CE, as well as descriptions of the celebration of the opening of the canal (al-Khalīj) by the caliph Maʿadd Abū Tamīm al-Mustanṣir Billāh, the vizier al-Yāzūrī (called Sayyid al-Wuzarāʾ), and the latter's two sons Khaṭīr al-Mulk and Ṣafiyy al-Mulk. The dates are given mainly according to the Islamic and Coptic calendars, but Rosh Hashana and Sukkot (of the year 4815 AM) are also used as reference points. This document is apparently uncited in the literature. See T-S AS 144.187 for a much later example of a similar account. ASE