Geniza Lab

Literary text, compilation of poetry (dīwān). A portion from the long didactic poem (originally of around 90 verses) stretching through five pages from the dīwān of ʿAlī al-Ḥuṣarī al-Qayrawānī (d. 1095 CE) on the rawī of mīm. The title of the poem is written towards the end of the poem and before the beginning of the second poem "qaṣīdat l-Ḥuṣarī wa-hiyā li-l-ʿasharāt wa-hiyā mā-bayna tisʿīn bayt ʿalā ʿadad l-ʾaḥruf". The second poetry is about love with the rawī of 'hamza', and its first verse is أَما لَكَ يا داءَ المُحِبِّ دَواء*بَلى عِندَ بَعضِ الناسِ مِنكَ شِفاءُ.

End of two poems, praising and praying to the Lord; poem for a fiancee.

Poem praising the Lord, by Shelomo b. Yehuda nin Berekhya.

Letter from a certain ʿEli, unknown location, to the cantor Isḥāq, in Damietta. Addressed specifically to the shop of Abū l-Surūr al-Ṣayrafī. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1100 CE, based on Goitein's assessment of the handwriting and the people mentioned. The letter is interspersed with learned quotations of poetry, Bible, and Talmud. The sender apologizes for neglecting the addressee's letters. He reminds the addressee. to send him items he had left with him, including the little thawb (thuwayb), the scarf or turban (radda), and the kerchief (mandīl). He says that the judge Abū Isḥāq al-Rayyis has written several times to Abū l-Surūr and that Nissim b. Naḥum also came (from Damietta?). He particularly wants the collected poems of Yiṣḥaq Ibn Khalfūn (an Andalusi Hebrew poet of the late 10th–early 11th century), either his copy that is with the addressee, or a new copy that the addressee has made. It seems that someone else borrowed another copy, 'was ashamed to give it back,' and took it with him to Yemen. He also wants "my letter/epistle and the poems(?) of the Parnas who/which went to Tinnīs," or copies, since his brother Avraham wants to study it (the letter is torn in the key phrase in this sentence, and this translation is not certain). In a postscript on verso, he wants the addressee to get half a dinar from al-Mawṣilī and purchase bees' honey with it. (Information from Goitein’s index card and from Goitein, "Ibn Khalfun's Collection of Poems in 11th Century Egypt and Yemen," Tarbiz 29 no. 4 (1960), 357–58.)

Letter from Sulaymān to his father. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. There is also a basmala in Arabic script followed by "al-mamlūk Sulaymān" at the top of recto. The sender urges his father to spend the holiday with him, as he was accustomed to doing, although at that time he had urged the writer to visit with him. He also reports that his wife is pregnant. On verso there is also poetry in Arabic script and additional jottings in Arabic script. (Information from Cecilia Palombo, CUDL, and Mediterranean Society, V, 15).

Poetry – undated – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 294) – in Italian. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa. ed. Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, p. 29). MCD.

Selections from the poetry of Ḥayyim Nahman Bialik – Bassatine Cemetery – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 297) – in Yiddish. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 31). MCD.

Elegies: all appear to be by the same author, including an elegy for a Gaʾon, צפע רוש הלעיטני, and for a woman. ‘Nathan b. Shemuʾel חזק’ is spelled in acrostic. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of religious poetry in the hand of Shemuel b. Saadya ha-Levi (1165-1203). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Poem of marriage congratulations, mentioning Ḥananya. The words ‘Mar Yefet’ are written above the name Ḥananya, throughout the poem. (Information from CUDL)

Note (the sender calls it a 'khidma') in Arabic script. Instructing the addressee to give 'the thing which I told you about' to the bearer of the note. Then, "as soon as you receive this khidma, send after the 'aṣḥāb al-dawāwīn' and they should come to you." The continuation is not clear, and it may be interspersed with unrelated jottings (several names and Greek/Coptic numerals). Reused on recto for Hebrew poetry.

Account ledger filled with Arabic script and Judaeo-Arabic entries. Several pages. Merits examination. Includes on one page an Arabic poem transcribed into Hebrew characters: He who doesn't wear the garb of piety is naked even when he's clothed. A man's best clothing/trait is obedience to God, and there is no good in he who disobeys Him. إذا المرءُ لم يلبسْ ثيابًا مِن الـتُّقَى تقلَّبَ عريانًا وإن كان كاسيَا وخيرُ لباسِ/خصالِ المرءِ طاعةُ ربِّه ولا خيرَ فيمَن كان للهِ عاصيَا

Two poems in Arabic script.

One side: Draft of the beginning of a letter from a wretched prisoner in "the dungeon" (al-muṭbaq). In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly poetry and not a letter. The other side: Two lines of love poetry in Arabic script, surrounded by jottings and pen trials in Arabic and Hebrew script. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Verso: Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic book list, consisting of names of tractates and other titles. On recto there is classical Arabic poetry (not a letter). Dating: Fatimid or Ayyubid-era.

Poem in Arabic and an unidentified text in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Abū l-Faḍl to his father Abū l-ʿIzz. In Judaeo-Arabic. He opens with the verse Psalms 16:8 followed by three verses of Judaeo-Arabic poetry expressing his longing. (These verses are discussed in Mohamed A. H. Ahmed, "An Initial Survey of Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah," Al-Masāq (2018).) Either the bottom half of the letter was torn away, or the letter was never finished. On verso there are various jottings, including some accounts in Arabic script.

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

Love poetry. In Arabic script. To the effect that passion is a terrible disease whose only cure is union. On verso there are 6 unidentified lines in Arabic script in a different hand

A narrative poem in Arabic script. Seems to be a humorous dialogue (including phrases such as "fa-qāma yaḍḥak...").