Geniza Lab

Letter about an unexpected happy turn in a serious affair and about the farming out of a concession for bee-keeping (Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Naḥḥāl died and left behind him 300 hives). He also mentions in passing that he fell sick in Benha. Information from Goitein's note card.

Bifolio from a register containing multiple entries recording fiscal payments, including name of the taxpayer and amount paid. Registration marks visible. Could be identified as one of the various types of ledgers (makhzūma, ruznamaj, khatma, and tawālī) described by Fatimid fiscal manuals.

Official account mentioning the transfer of sums to the fisc (bayt al-māl) from the bureau of the capitation tax (bayt al-jawālī): "mablagh al-maḥmūl ilā bayt al-māl al-maʿmūr min māl al-jawālī," followed by names like wa-walī Butrus b. Yuḥannā.

Fatimid tax receipt dated 528H (1133–34). Five different hands: at top, 2 requests for registration, 2 confirmations of registration; lower part is receipt itself. (MR)

Letter: draft(s) in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya (11th century), in Fusṭāṭ, probably to the Gaʾon Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Jerusalem. One draft contains a report, in Hebrew, on a joint Karaite-Rabbanite collection made in the capital of Egypt on behalf of the Jews of Jerusalem to assist them with their taxes. Ezra b. Yishmael b. Ezra is mentioned, and the document refers to Yusuf ibn ‘Awkal with his honorific title ‘Rosh Kalla’ (‘head of the assembly’ of students at the biannual scholarly convention in Baghdad). (Marina Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, 196, 278; From a Sacred Source, 309-10; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:472) Another draft explains that, contrary to the malicious and false accusations made against him to the gaʾon by some members of the Jewish community in Fusṭāṭ, he will indeed be sending a generous donation for the Jerusalem academy in response to a fundraising mission by the gaʾon’s son Avraham. Efrayim also mentions that he retains the support of an influential Fatimid official, the Qaraite David ha-Levi b. Yiṣḥaq, who will also be sending a donation. Written on the verso of an Arabic -script letter discussing philosophical theology and mentioning the raʾs al-mathība (see PGPID 33676).

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim in Alexandria to his uncle Abū l-Khayr Mūsā b. Barhūn al-Tāhartī in Fustat. Dating (Gil): 11 or 12 of April 1051. Nahray reports among other things that he had forgotten to bring his capitation tax receipt "for the year 441" on a business trip. "I asked you to look for it in a linen bag among my belongings in your storeroom, and to send it with Abū Zakariyā al-Ḥannān. If my letters have already reached you, may God protect you, then you have undoubtedly sent it. If my letters have not yet reached you, then I request your attention to this matter, may God preserve your glory, so that (the receipt) will, God willing, reach me quickly." (Information from Marina Rustow)

Fiscal register (possibly equivalent to what al-Makhzūmī and Ibn Mammātī call a rūznāmaj). Contains multiple entries, each with a date and a sum. Each entry has a pair of ʿalāʾim on top, suggesting a process of registration and certification akin to that on the fiscal receipts themselves. The procedure implied here is remarkably congruous with al-Makhzūmī’s claim that the mushārif and ʿāmil signed off not only on the receipts, but on the makhzūma of the jahbadh. (Information from Marina Rustow)

Tax receipt, late Fatimid, for the jizya payment of a Jewish person (name difficult to read), with registration mark - 'al-ḥamdu lil-lāh al-wāḥid al-ḥaqq', praise be to God who is One and He alone is the truth. Dated 562/1166-67. MR, YU.

Petition from the early Ayyubid period from Yehuda ha-Kohen to Eliyyahu requesting a meeting with the head of a government office regarding taxes for the transport of animals. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 270, 271, 467, and from Goitein's index cards)