Geniza Lab

Five lines remaining of an official report mentioning two messengers sent from the caliph (al-ḥaḍra al-ṭāhira) to Damascus and also mentioning the Banū Hilāl. The document was reused to make a kind of frame or possibly to plan an inscription.

Letters dealing with communal matters surrounding the dispute between Shelomo b. Yehuda and Natan b. Avraham, glued together and reused for the epistle of Sherira Gaon. Per Gil, copied by Ibn Sughmār for the benefit of the nagid of Qayrawān and his followers (who must have known the work well). The passage describes a gaonic schism at Pumbedita in the 820s that was resolved peacefully when Yosef bar Ḥiyya relinquished the office and contented himself with the position of av bet din, allowing Avraham bar Sherira to reign unchallenged. The message Ibn Sughmār intended the passage to convey: like Yosef bar Ḥiyya, Natan b. Avraham should step down from the gaonate and be content with his former title; like Avraham bar Sherira, Shelomo b. Yehuda's position should be uncontested. (Information from Rustow, Heresy, 314)

Recto: Bill of sale for a female slave. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Av 1466 Seleucid, which is 1155 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Seller: the trader (tājir) Abū ʿAlī b. Natan he-Ḥaver. Buyer: the trader (tājir) Abū l-Faḍl b. Elʿazar. Slave: An Indian woman named Ghazāl. The price is missing. On verso there is a communal account which Gil dates to ca. 1215 CE (see PGPID 775).

Petition for assitance due to poverty to Netanel ha-Levi (putting us in the secnd half of the 12th century). On the back there is a draft of a piyyut.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Tuvya b. Eli to Natan ha-kohen b. Shelomo dealing with commercial matters regarding fabric and mentioning many locations in the Rif (Minyat Zifta, Sunbat etc). It also deals with communal matters and a pesiqa. Berakhot, [...] b. Avraham, Abu al-Ḥasan Rosh ha-qahal are all mentioned. On the back of a letter there is a large vocalized piyyut.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Qaraite. Groom: Ṣedaqa. Location: Fustat(?). Dating: 1020–30s(?). Witnesses: Avraham b. Khalaf ha-Kohen; Netanʾel b. Revaḥ/Rawḥ ha-Levi; Barakāt b. Mubārak; Hiba b. Yosef; Avraham b. Musallam (possibly the scribe of the document); Levi b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. On verso there are writing exercises in Arabic script (the beginnings of drafts of letters).

Verso: Letter addressed to ha-Kohen ha-Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. This is a recommendation letter or a request to help the bearer, a young man from Damascus. Evidently something bad happened to the bearer with the Ghuzz. He wants to travel but doesn't have money. AA. ASE.