Geniza Lab

Arabic poetry of praise for somebody. Late.

Alchemical instructions in Arabic script. On one side of the paper, at 90 degrees, there is another undeciphered list in Arabic script.

Medical prescription or recipe. In Arabic script. Begins with the glyph.

Medical prescription or recipe in Arabic script. Possibly sharāb rummān, a pomegranate syrup. The penultimate line reads, "The whole body should be anointed with the oil of violet (banafsaj) and almond (lawz)." Hebrew literary text on verso.

A leaf of the astronomical tables devised for the years 900-1500 CE. Only two dates come into question for the year 631/1234 (Ayyubid period). Date h.☉☾♄♃♂♀☿☊ 28 Ramaḍān 631 (26 June 1234) ♋12♊24♉17♎1♉6♊28♋26♍21, 1 Shawwāl 631 (29 June 1234) ♋14♋30♉17♎1♉8♋2♌1♍21. The first two tables contain planetary and zodiac names. The table describes the influences of planets when they appear in conflation with zodiac alignments. Abbreviations require deciphering. (Information from Johannes Thomann)

Recipes in Arabic script mentioning lead and fire. Possibly alchemical. Needs further examination.

Islamic prayers/formulae in Arabic script. Not all of the text blocks are easy to read, but at least three begin with "Allāhuma ṣalli ʿalā Muḥammad" and continue with praises for Muḥammad.

Template fragment of a divination/magical charm starting with a few words of prayers followed by a spell: "fulān b. fulān". Then: 'blind his heart and block his vision and mute his tongue'.

Recto: Medical prescription in Arabic script. Beginning with dragon's blood (dam akhawayn). Verso: Difficult to read, but also a document in Arabic script.

Fragment in Arabic script. Astrological/esoteric. Listing the auspicious and inauspicious properties of every day of the month, e.g., which days are good for going before the court (al-dukhūl ʿalā l-sulṭān), which are good for different maladies.

A Karaite (specifically Tustari) post festum calendar listing the dates of the new moons (by observation) for the years 1357–59 Seleucid, corresponding to 1045–48 CE. Edited by Gil in his book on the Tustaris. Cf. T-S NS J609, a similar calendar from ~5 years later. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Beginning of Genesis. On verso: “Book of Genesis of Manṣūr b. Khalaf," with additional jottings. This is the upper fragment under the ENA 4010.52 shelfmark. The lower one is calendrical and joins with ENA 4010.49–52.

Colophon or ownership note on a book cover. 'This booklet belongs to Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib ha-Ḥazzan (the cantor).' Dating: first half of the 12th century, assuming this is the same Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib who signed documents by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (e.g., Bodl. MS heb. b 11/31). On the other side, a dirge in Judaeo-Arabic.

Calandar for the year 1153/54 CE. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Calendar

Sermon in Judaeo-Arabic based on a narrative of real events. Dated: shortly after Kislev 1460 Seleucid, which is 1148 CE. The writer may be Mevorakh b. Natan (or may be named Zakkay, as written between lines 1 and 2 of recto). On recto he writes "this is a drash (sermon) that I recorded/composed while in mourning for my son Moshe. I heard this on Friday, 13 Kislev 1460..." There are further details here about the date and the day of the week (he notes in the margin that it is a good sign to die on erev shabbat) and the Torah portion that coincided with the shiva in both Fustat and al-Maḥalla (parashat Vayishlaḥ). The sermon begins on verso. "One Friday, 13 Kislev 1460, I was sitting in al-Maḥalla copying books as is my custom, with the boys studying Torah before me. I heard them talking about an ugly business. I said to them, 'What's this that you're talking about?' They said, "Just what we heard." I said, "Who did you hear it from, and on what authority?" They said, "from the family of the cantor" ['bayt' can also mean wife, but here it is marked as a mixed/masculine plural]. I said, "And where did the family of the cantor hear it from?" They said, 'From their relative Maʿānī in Fustat." I sent for Maʿānī, and as God knows, I was present but absent, estranged, alone, and lonely due to the remnants of an illness and [due to being] surrounded by enemies who await my public downfall..."

Poem (a few lines) written by Amram b. Ḥalfon ha-levi. On the same page is also a literary halakhic discussion of whether a woman is legally trustworthy (ne'emenet) or not.

Qadish containing praise for an exilarch: “May He make great his welfare and the welfare of his generation like the water of the Euphrates. . . . May he be as a tree planted along water, sending forth its shoots by a stream; it does not sense the coming of heat, its leaves are ever fresh; it has no care in a year of drought, it does not cease to yield fruit” (Jer 17:8). Information from Decter, Dominion Built of Praise, 72–74.

Poetical text, might be a draft of an opening of a letter

Astrological text in Arabic script, with interspersed words transcribed into Judaeo-Arabic (late hand) in the spaces between the lines. This demonstrates that even some Jews who could write Judaeo-Arabic very well couldn’t read Arabic or the transcriber was beginning to create an edition in Judaeo-Arabic for non-Arabic readers. The names of the planets in Arabic are transcribed as is in Judaeo-Arabic and not translated into Hebrew which could be because the entire scientific literature of that period was in Arabic.