Geniza Lab

Recipes. In Ladino and Hebrew. Some medical, some not. Some headed "secreto."

Literary text in Judaeo-Arabic. Giving alchemical recipes, occult correspondences between celestial objects and metals (called ʿaqāqīr), and handy recipes for getting stains, e.g. saffron stains, out of clothing.

Recipes, probably medical or alchemical, in Arabic script, accompanied with pious invocations and some magical characters.

Folio from a Judaeo-Arabic medical treatise, giving several recipes.

Ink recipes. In Arabic script. One uses red anemones (shaqā'iq al-nuʿmān, Anemone coronaria). This work may be derivative of عمدة الكتّاب وعدة ذوي الألباب, which is attributed to al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs (https://al-maktaba.org/book/31950). But there are also substantial differences.

Bifolium. Two of the pages contain rhyming and/or poetic Hebrew text, calligraphically written. Apparently the colophon to the book this used to belong to. It praises the man who composed the work for illuminating difficulties. Then gives the scribe's name: Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham (b. Me'ir b. ʿEzra?). Location: Baghdad. Dated: 1454 Seleucid, which is 1143/44 CE. Mentions Rabbi Netan'el "who from his mouth will read it, and he understands, and he writes it in his books" (?). On the facing page, in a different hand, and in Judaeo-Arabic, there is a recipe for good ink and a recipe for gilded līqa (the tuft of threads that lives in the inkwell). ASE. Go back to this*

Recipes in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. "Number of lines varies according to content; text breaks in fols. 1-3 denoted by three puncti; 1r remedies extracted from dogs, from foxes, in Hebrew, starting סגולות השועל; 1v remedies extracted from ducks. in Hebrew; 2r two paragraphs of cures, in Judeo-Arabic; 2v record of words, maybe a magical chant, in Aramaic; 3r instructions in Judeo-Arabic for the preparation of different remedies, followed by Hebrew instructions for the preparation of an amulet, engraved into a heart; 4r in a different hand; contains instructions in Hebrew for preparing parchment for a Torah Scroll. Headed: עיבוד גויל של ספר תורה מן מעשה. The term מעשה usually infers a unit of transmitted practical Halakhah, most common among the literature of the Erets Israeli tradition. This too is not written as a Halakhic monograph, but rather as a recipe, in second person format:תקח עפץ. This is a complete, distinct essay, ending towards bottom of recto: תם תם; 4v (in the same hand as recto) contains the same, in Judeo-Arabic. The heading: הדא עמל אלריק." Information from Penn catalog.

Literary. Medical recipes in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew, including one for how to fatten onself. Dating: Late, based on the hand. "Fol. 1r, under the heading פזמון, is Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia's kabbalic poem for Shavuotאשתעשע במש(א)ל קדמון, which ends in praise for Maimonides. See Steinschneider, Koṿets ʹal yad, sidrah 1, kerehh 1 (1885), p. 4, 15. Followed by Hebrew instructions for preparing a prescription for sorts of leprosy. Together they are 17 lines, the remainder of the page is empty; Fol. 1v contains various remedies in Judeo-Arabic; Fol. 2v contains a potion in Hebrew for a thin man or woman who wishes to be fat; remainder of the page is empty." Information from Penn catalog.

Recipes in Arabic script. Verso (see separate record) contains a table giving the correspondences between Greek/Coptic numerals and letters of the Arabic alphabet.

Recipes in Judaeo-Arabic. Alchemical: dhahab kāmil in shā' allāh.

Recipes in Hebrew with some Ladino mixed in.

Letter, probably. Looks like a draft of a letter of appeal in Hebrew, with only formulaic phrases. In the margins and all over verso, there are medical and dental prescriptions/recipes.

Medical recipes. In Judaeo-Arabic. The hand is probably known.

Notebook of a merchant and/or druggist. Bifolium from what was probably a larger notebook. Dating: Unknown. Catalogued as 16th century. A date is given at the bottom of the last page, but it is difficult to interpret. In Judaeo-Arabic. Uses the usually-Ottoman-era honorific khawāja. The document contains medical recipes and several detailed first-person accounts e.g. of arriving in Jerusalem and the commodities dealt with and the expenses incurred. Needs further examination.