Geniza Lab

Private accounts of al-Shaykh Bū Ḥasan in Arabic script starting with a basmala and heading "ḥisāb al-Shaykh Bū l-Ḥasan". An example of the accounts includes., "I received 2 dinars minus 1/8, and 44 dirhams, and 5 fils." Then about 20 double lines of specifications. Some months are also mentioned without years.

Account of building operations ca. 1216. Expenditures for construction materials and labor, as recorded in the course of several days. The work is done at compounds of the qodesh and the Synagogue of the Palestinians. Some other expenditures, as for captives, are also included. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 412 #113)

Account in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1150–90 CE, based on Goitein's assessment. "The Collector of mezonot," money for bread for the poor. Payments of dirhems to communal officials made by that collector during three weeks. Of the eight persons listed under the second and third weeks, six recur also in the first, which contains fourteen names. The Nasi receives 7 dirhems twice, followed by R. Nissim with 4 dirhems in the second week, 3 in the third, and 2 in the first. Information from Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix B, #73 (p. 460).

List of contributors. Dating: From the time of the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205–37). Four pages of names, largely identical with those in contemporary lists, with contributions of 1/4, 1/2, 1, 1 1/2, 1 3/4, 2 (dirhems?). Some give together with the laborers of their workshops: Ibn al-Shāʿir (the Son of the Poet, a family name) wa-ṣunnāʿh, Saʿīd wa-ṣunnāʿh. Altogether about 214 names legible. The Raṣuy appears again, as sixth in the first column, but with the highest sum. Goitein, Med Soc, II, Appendix C, #50 (p. 491).

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. On recto there are at least six items, divided into subsections. Mentions 13 qintars of something; a ḥammāl or jammāl; and more. Needs further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card)

Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1200–1240 CE, based on Goitein's assessment. "[Received on account of the] Food for the Poor—101 1/2 [dirhems]." Accounts for one week, headed by 115 pounds of bread costing 33 1/2 dirhems, twice as much as in B 77. A similar situation in B 43. The salaries, however, remained exactly the same. On Friday, the Nagid made special distributions in cash and wheat to a foreign scholar and to the Rūm, here meaning persons from Byzantium, "male and female." After the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204 and countless other disasters befalling the Byzantine realm, it is not surprising to again find refugees from there in the capital of Egypt. See B 85." (Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix B, #79 pp. 462))

Accounts in the hand of Nissim b. Ḥalfon, presented to Nahray b. Nissim; 1066 CE. Lists payments for various goods, made either directly or through others, and gives details of various shipments, some of them to Tripoli, Libya. Mentions skins, textiles, beads, sugar, red wood, ammonia, furs, lead, baked goods, wine, meat, camphor, wax, tin, cloves, pearls and laque. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 986.)

Account of the public bread distribution spread over two sheets. In the late style of the handwriting of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: 1100–40 CE, based on Goitein's assessment. Ninety-three households in receipt of about 250 (loaves, not money). Summarized in detail in Med Soc II, Appendix B, #32 (p. 447).

List of names, each followed by a sum (mostly 1 or 1/2, some 2). Dating: Beginning of 11th century, per Goitein. See Med Soc II, App. B, #56. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounts of small transactions in foods and animals covering several days. ASE.

Recto: list of various garments and textiles along with numbers. Verso: multiple blocks of text going in four different directions. One of them is the ending of a legal document (or draft thereof) dated Kislev 1161/2 CE (1473 Seleucid). Another may be a continuation of the accounts on recto along with calculations of total sums of money. Needs further examination. ASE.

List of many important people (e.g. a lineage of the heads of Yeshivat Gaon Yaʿaqov) with family trees. "This is the ʿitra of al-Rayyis Abū l-Najm and his siblings and his cousins (awlād ʿamm)." Merits further examination.

Recto: List of people. Verso: Piyyut.

Account of the Qodesh: building expenditures, ca. 1041. Most items in this account refer to building operations at the synagogue. Some other synagogue expenditures, such as oil, are also listed. Further details refer to a number of compounds belonging to the qodesh. It is written in a calligraphic handwriting and the account was probably intended ofr public display in the synagogue. The handwriting of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya can be recognized. Since the document refers to oil used in the synagogue to the end of Elul 1351 Sel. (10 Sept. 1040), it was probably written in 1041. The verso of the document was used at the end of 1041 for an account written in Arabic characters. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 175 #12)

Account of the Qodesh: computation of total yearly revenue from rent, ca. 1041. A draft, written in Arabic characters apparently by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya on the verso, probably after the recto had been display in the synagogue for several months. The parnas records the total yearly revenues, in gold and wariq (cash/silver). The revenue in gold was smaller than expected, and that in wariq bigger. Several additional revenue items and debts are listed. The account ended on 30 August 1041. (Gil, Documents, 179 #13) VMR

Unidentified list in Arabic script. Very faded. On verso there is a note in Hebrew stating that a certain pamphlet (קטרס) belongs to the teacher ʿAmram b. Moshe.

List. Collection, jibaya, made on the first day of the holiday for the Maghribi, the Kohen. About 1115 contributions, mostly in Coptic numerals. Some of the names are encircled (represented here by $ $, perhaps indicating persons solicited). Other names are crossed through (= having paid?). A few are left untouched. The list is headed by the haver ʿOvadya, presumably the great grandson of Avraham Maimonides bearing that name (b. 1297, d. before 1355). The other names also fit the 14th century, e.g Nasir ("helper," three times), Shams ("sun," 11. 4, 27), Faraj Allah ("God has helped," 11. 8, 14). Three dashes (---) represent a diagonal slash downward toward the left, which stands for 1/2 elsewhere but here must mean something else, since 1/2 in this list is representeed by the left arrow, as elsewhere. (S/D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:496, App. C. 68) EMS

Accounts of a bookseller from first half of the 12th century, as it mentions Netanel ha-Shishi. There are lists in Judaeo-Arabic on both sides, as well as lists of names and numbers in Arabic script on both sides. The Judaeo-Arabic portions are edited by Allony et al. Arabic portion awaiting transcription.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, at least partially for rental income, including for the year 1337/8 CE (1649 Seleucid).

Scattered names and numbers and scribbles, probably accounts, which are difficult to read but seem to be in a mixture of Ladino and Judaeo-Arabic. ASE