Geniza Lab

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Deals with trade, including in pepper and flour. Mentions Abū l-Faḍl and Ibn Sibāʿ.

Letter fragment from Mubārak b. Isḥāq (=Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq). In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. The hand does not appear to be the same as that of the well-known Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn Sabra (e.g. CUL Or.1080 J264). The opening greetings of this letter contain the phrase "bayn al-saḥr wa-l-naḥr," an idiomatic expression for the chest and presumably also for the heart.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Spanish-influenced hand. Mentions a sharika partnership several times. Mentions names such as: Bū Yūsuf and Ismāʿīl. Needs further examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Elegant hand. Mentions the town of Ṭanān and deals with the construction of a dike (jisr) and an irrigation canal (turʿa); the addressee is to go and obtain for this purpose the cattle (abqār) and dredging tools (jarārīf: see Rapoport, "Irrigation in the Medieval Islamic Fayyum," p. 24, and Borsch, Stuart (2014) "Plague Depopulation and Irrigation Decay in Medieval Egypt," The Medieval Globe: Vol. 1 : No. 1, p. 139). ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. This portion preserves the formulaic ending only.

Informal note from Faraj Allāh to al-Shaykh al-Ṣafiyy. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment: only the right side is preserved. The addressee is asked to give something to the bearer; 50 dirhams are mentioned.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Deals with business matters. The market has ground to a halt (wāqif) in the writer's location, "neither coarse nor fine can be sold." Mentions goods such as: almonds and white gum arabic. Mentions people such as: Abū l-Makārim.

Letter fragment addressed to Abū l-Ḥajjāj. In Judaeo-Arabic. The addressee is to send something the moment he reads this letter.

Letter fragment. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. This portion contains only effusive praises for the addressee (e.g. ("the lamp of the umma, east and west") and his sons. On verso there are writing exercises.

Letter drafts in Judaeo-Arabic. There are about a dozen attempts at the beginning a letter addressed to the 'father,' the noble Yiṣḥaq ha-Dayyan.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions people such as: [...] b. Abū l-Munā; al-Qāḍī b. Najā; [...]n al-Miṣrī.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, commercial, mentioning numbers, qīrāṭs, dirhams, dīnārs.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. This portion preserves the formulaic ending only. The addressee's in-laws send their regards.

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (identification based on handwriting). In Judaeo-Arabic. Asks the addressee to obtain a responsum (fatwā) and mentions a competing cantor who prays badly. Needs further examination. ASE.

Recto (secondary use): Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably mid-11th century. Deals with business matters. Twice mentions Dāʾūd b. Shaʿya (see Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, #514–#517).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer defends himself for having to refuse a request of the addressee (he cites a version of a couplet of Arabic poetry that some sources attribute to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib: אדא סאלת אלי כרים חאגה ואבא פלא תעתב עליה בח[אגב] | רבמא אמתנע אל[...] ומא בה בכל ולאכן סו חין אלטאלב), then expresses astonishment that the addressee would even ask such a thing. The letter becomes very faded at the bottom, but he seems to discourage the addressee from taking some matter to court, because the judge will not award the desired sum of money. ASE.

Business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Addressed to someone in Fustat (whose name may be legible). Dating: Probably 11th century. Deals with the shipping of goods; mentions Salmān the ghulām of Ibn [...]; textiles, garments, copper.

Letter of appeal for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer explains that the family has no money for the coming holiday and no wood or oil; they have never been among the takers but always among the givers; there is someone in the house who is seriously ill (wajaʿ/wajiʿ ʿalā khuṭṭa). On verso there is a piyyut.

Letter fragment (right part only) in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: possibly 13th century or later, based on the use of the shorthand "אלממ." The writer asks the addressee to deliver a sum of [dirhams] nuqra to a certain person and apologizes (presumably for a delay). He records two lines of a piyyut that he had perhaps been asked for.

Recto: Letter fragment (upper part only) from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (identification based on handwriting). In Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to a group of people, it seems. He states that he is in good health and mentions the woman known as 'al-kabīra.' Verso: Letter fragment (upper part only) in Arabic script. Addressed to Ṭāhir. Mentions a matter of two dinars. ASE