Geniza Lab

Document in Yiddish. Dated: 5637 AM, which is 1876/77 CE. Recto: This fragment is a page of the accounts book of the Bikur Holim [Visiting the Sick] Society of Cairo for the year 1876–77. The Yiddish text lists the expenses of the Society for the year, but the fragment does not include the actual amount for each item. These expenses include those for staffing (for the Jewess of the hospital, the sexton, Doctor Hess), for laundry and cleaning, for repairs and upkeep, for ink and paper, and for postal fees. It lists costs for sending patients to the hospital as well as expenses incurred for handling the deceased, including costs for candles placed beside the corpse, cost of guarding the corpse and of cleaning the hospital after a death. A few specific family names are listed, including Shpiglman, Herman, Hess and Perets. Place names listed include Warsaw and Keshenof [probably Kishinev] The ledger page is signed by Yosef Berkovitsh who held the accounts of the Society. The page is stamped with the official stamp of the Ashkenazi Bikur Holim Society, which reads (in Italian): Società Soc{c}orsale de{gl}i Am{m}alati {della Communità} Israelitica Tedesca in Cairo 1867. Verso: This Yiddish fragment is a list of accounts receivable from people who have paid or are owing payment. Amounts are listed in 4 columns but the column headings are missing so it is unclear what each figure represents. Only a few family names are listed, including Stoler, Eynbinder, Zoger, Kats, Shmikler, Avtsi. Most entries are only by personal name. The amounts listed seem to refer to dues [uncertain - using the abbreviation Kh”d], pledges, circumcisions, guarding [the infant prior to circumcision], weddings and being called to the Torah on Passover. Information kindly provided by Agnes Romer Segal, January 2021.

Recto: Letter in Arabic to Hayyim al-Ṣarrāf (moneychanger/banker) in the High Diwan. The writer's name is difficult to read, as is the date, which may be 28 Shawwal 1076 = May 1666 CE. This receives some corroboration from the fact that the seal on verso bears the date 1073.

Recto: Legal document(s). In Arabic script. Madhhab: Mālikī. In Arabic script. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dating: The main two text blocks appear to be dated 18 Dhū l-Qaʿda 1050 AH, which is February/March 1641 CE. (Line 11 of the main text block also mentions the date 10 Ramaḍān 954 AH, which is October 1547 CE—probably a reference to an earlier document or event.) The main text block is headed by 2 elaborate signatures/endorsements together with seals; underneath there are 7 witness signatures. There is a lot of verbiage praising the issuing authorities, and the import of the document is not immediately clear. The upper text block appears to be in the same handwriting (and was completed on the same date); it mentions a Jewish (court?) physician named Ibrāhīm b. Yūsuf b. Manṣūr. This document is large and complex; needs further examination.

Recto: Long, calligraphic legal document in Arabic, from Fustat (مصر المحروسة), dated October 1649 CE (7 Shawwal 1059). It bears seven signatures along the side, a seal at the top, and perhaps the scribe's name at top left (الامر كما ذكر فيه حرره الفقير اليه سبحانه احمد ال . . .). The seal may be that of the Ottoman governor in Fustat/Cairo (Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha?): (. . . بين يدي متوليها سيدنا ومولانا الحاكم الشرعي الذي سيقع خطه الكريم اعلاه). The main protagonists are (1) al-Amīr Yūsuf b. (the late) Muḥammad, the provincial governor/inspector of the vilayet of Gaza (the word for provincial governor is kāshif—see Michael Winter, "Re-emergence of the Mamluks," in "The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society," p. 92); (2) a certain Abū Turābī; and (3) al-Muʿallim Muṣliḥ b. Binyamil (i.e. Binyamin) al-Yahūdī al-Rabbān al-Ṣarrāf [...] bi-l-Dīwān al-ʿĀlī. The document addressed numerous matters, chiefly financial; it requires deeper examination. Verso: There is a legend in Judaeo-Arabic on the outermost fold of the folded document (חוגת אלאמיר יוסף. . . ). There are also several Arabic supplements to the document on recto, at least the upper two referring to al-Muʿallim Muṣliḥ al-Yahūdī.

Letter in Arabic dated 1737 CE (Ramadan 1149 Hijri). There is a seal on verso. Merits further examination.

Official-looking document. In Arabic script. Dating: late, 18th or 19th century.

Official-looking document. In Arabic script. Dated (on verso): 1235 AH, which is 1819/20 CE.

Receipt in Arabic script for a payment by Mūsā [ben?] Naʿīm, dated 1824/25 CE (Muḥar1240H).

Letter in Hebrew. Dating: Late, perhaps 16th century. Conveying regulations for merchants (?תקנת סוחרים) in the name of the heads of the congregation. On verso, a validation from a higher authority (with a seal imprint). Signed by Efrayim(?) b. [...]. Needs further examination. Information in part from FGP.

Official document of some kind. In Persian? There are eleven different seal imprints. Dated: 1201 AH = 1786/87 CE according to the last line of the document itself. One of the inscriptions at the top is dated 28 Rabiʿ I 1266 AH = 11 February 1850 CE. Needs further examination.

Marriage contract between a Rabbanite man Khalfā b. Saʿūd, son of Farajallah b. Nafīs and a divorced Rabbanite woman Fāṭima. The marriage was commemorated upon the agreed sum of 7 dīnārs of Sulṭānī al-jadīd and 400 half Sūlaimānī dirhams.

A 13th/19th-century Ottoman era debt acknowledgment document with a seal. Muḥammad Ḥusain acknowledges (aqarra wa ashada) in his sound mind that he owes 900 Kuruş in debt (شهد بذلك يكون ملزوم 900 ق) to Ḥusain al-Baṣrī(Naṣrī?). The document is dated 26 Muḥarram 1260/16 Feb 1844.

Rental document, in Arabic script, possibly a receipt of transportation of unspecified goods, dated to the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1259/April 1843. The name of the tenant is Yeshūʿa and involves a property in Ḥārat al-Yahūd. Contains a seal and is duly signed.

Probably a legal document in Judaeo-Arabic, late. Mentions an Amīr Yūsuf [...] and "all the demands and all the debts. . . " incumbent on somebody to somebody. There are several distinct sections of the document and two stamped seals. Needs further examination.

Letter in Hebrew and some Judaeo-Arabic, 1839 CE (?). The letter is mainly a screed against evildoers and women who dress immodestly.

Legal document, most probably Ottoman (it is not immediately clear if this is a letter, as cataloged). Contains a seal (part of which reads علوالهمة) and two signatures. Needs examination for content.

Financial receipt (waqf related) with a seal, probably late Ottoman based on the Indic numerals, 18th/19th century.

Tiny fragment in Hebrew characters, likely the end of a late legal document. There is an inked seal.

Business letter in Arabic script. Dated: 1119 AH, which is 1708 CE. Concerning a property dispute in Damietta. On verso there is a seal as well as a ẓidduq ha-din in Hebrew. Information kindly provided by Jane Hathaway. Line 3 mentions "الامير(?) محمد اغا" and other Ottoman officials throughout, line 4 "waqf"?

Official document in Arabic script. Dated: 1231 AH, which is 1815/16 CE. On a printed template perhaps from the customs bureau (ديوان كمرك . . مصر). It is filled out in the name of a certain Khwaja Eliyyahu. Needs further examination.