Geniza Lab

Business letter in Persian.

Accounts or donation list in Hebrew. Late. The handwriting and the names are unusual, possibly pointing to an Iranian origin for this fragment. E.g., Samarqandi; Ben Baba; Baba Jan; Yaqubi spelled יאקובי rather than יעקובי; Zion Irani; Qalandar. The rest of the folder (literary fragments) is very possibly of Iranian origin as well. At least ENA 2330.10 and ENA 2330.15 have Judaeo-Persian. Merits further examination.

Document in Persian. Nastaʿlīq, diagonally oriented text blocks. Containing at least 3 records dated Safar 1218 AH, Rajab 1218 AH, and Shaʿbān 1221 AH (1803, 1803, and 1806 CE respectively). Needs examination.

Calligraphic banners in nastaʿlīq calligraphy. On verso of ENA 3904.12 there are 4 verses each of Arabic poetry and Persian poetry. Presumably this is not from the Geniza, but rather from Adler's acquisitions further east.

Pen trials, notes, and a drawing. In Persian and Judaeo-Persian. The least-faded text block reads in part, "I am the ẓaʿir Refa'el b. Ḥanuka(?). I wrote this. . . the month of Adar 5559 AM," which is 1799 CE.

Newspaper fragment, Iran, second half of the 19th century. "About 1861, Nasir al-Din Shah appointed Sani’ al-Mulk as Director of Printing and Chief Illustrator and he was charged with the responsibility of editing the weekly court newspaper Ruznameh-ye Dowlat-e ʿAliyeh-ye Iran (The newspaper of the great government of Iran), printed by the lithographic process and illustrated with portraits of princes, statesmen and soldiers as well as representations of remarkable events." Donna Stein, "The Photographic Source for a Qajar Painting," in Scheiwiller (ed.) Performing the Iranian State (2013), p. 24.

List of names of those present at the sermons and preaching offered at a collective meeting of rabbis from Yemen and Persia – Bassatine Cemetery – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 4) in Hebrew. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 38). MCD.