Geniza Lab

Letter in Arabic script. A lot of text is preserved, but it is very smudged.

Letter in Arabic script. Fragment (upper left corner). Only the opening pleasantries are preserved.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The whole folio is preserved, but the text is too faded to read.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 12th or 13th century. Mentions Rabbenu [...], a request for news, an excuse for not coming in person, something that had to be sold, and Bilbays. On verso there is a note in Arabic script that begins "half a pound of sugar..."

Letter in Arabic script. Faded and damaged. Needs examination for content.

Petition from Muḥammad b. [...]. Small fragment (upper left corner). In Arabic script. Dating: Perhaps Mamluk-era based on the hand. Striking calligraphy.

Letter of appeal for help of some kind. In Arabic script. From a woman ("I am perishing (hālika)..."). May mention an infant child (al-ṭufayl); also mentions "the road" (al-ṭarīq), possibly a rebuke (wa-mā kadhā), "the time of adversity" (waqt al-shidda), and a request to be informed of the arrival of something (tuʿarrifnī wuṣūl...). Addressed to Abū l-[...].

Address of a letter to the judge Eliyahhu b. Zekharya. In Arabic script with רבי אליה in Hebrew script. None of the letter is preserved.

Letter from [...] b. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ. In Arabic script. Small fragment. There is some Hebrew script on verso. The address was originally written across a gap; now, only the upper parts of the words are preserved.

Letter or legal text in Hebrew. Dating: Late, perhaps 16th century or later. Discussing a widow and the sale of a house for 5 or 7 peraḥim.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (bottom half). The hand may be known. Dating: likely 12th century. Mentions the difficulties of the time, a single dirham, and mostly contains greetings. The sender reminds the addressee 'to obtain a kitāb' concerning the shop, for the year is ending and perhaps the sender will be able to relieve himself of duties and come to Fustat. Regards to Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū l-Mufaḍḍal.

Letter, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic. Extremely faded. Mentions 'al-mamlūk' (so probably a letter), but also mentions two witnesses, so perhaps dealing with a legal matter.

Letter in Hebrew. Late. Small fragment. The name Avraham ha-Rav ha-Gadol b. Yisrael ha-Ḥasid appears in the address. There is faded text underneath the address, perhaps giving the names of the locations.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Small fragment. May be a letter of appeal for charity.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Small fragment. Beginning and address only. Addressed to Abū l-Munā Shelomo b. [...] ha-Sheviʿi.

Letter from Barakāt b. Manṣūr, unknown location, to Eliyyahu the Judge (active 1204–41), in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with a Hebrew header and the address partially in Arabic script. Same sender and same addressee as BL OR 10656.16. Much of the letter is an angry tirade about the lack of response from Eliyyahu and his behavior that brought about some conflict (tashāḥun) between elders in his family, and their humiliation and the rejoicing of their enemies (this part of the story is clearest in ll. 18–19 and 26–28). The trouble arose from a lawsuit about household objects (athāth). Eliyyahu should know better than anyone how the man at the heart of this story has had a longstanding feud with his mother and in-laws. The sender complains further about the lack of letters and says that even if Eliyyahu has taken a vow not to correspond with him, he should send a letter to 'the judge' concerning the disputed household objects. The sender has also sent with Sayyidhum a letter detailing the lawsuits; Eliyyahu should present this account to Sayyidnā al-Rayyis (=Avraham Maimonides?). ASE

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably from Avraham he-Ḥasid to a disciple with pietistic instructions. Ed. Fenton, "A Pietist Letter from the Genizah" HAR 9 (1985).

Commercial settlement (peshara), a draft, involving Yosef b. Sedaqa and Nissim - with names of the witnesses (not signatures): Avraham b. Ḥalfon, Shemuel b. Aharon and Avraham b. Moshe. A torn piece of a widely spaced Arabic script document. Interspersed between the Arabic script lines is some sort of agency appointment (but also containing terminology of a quittance) mentioning Yefet and his wife Khaba (כבא).

Letter from Abū Manṣūr to his father Yaʿaqov. In Judaeo-Arabic. He complains about his terrible misfortunes this year ("everything that I had is buried," perhaps meaning "I lost everything"). "I have reached a point in my distress that no one else has ever reached... what I really need is monitor lizard oil (dahn al-waral) to anoint myself... pay whatever it takes... and make sure to get it when the sun is in Aries, because otherwise it will not help me... after that time, the oil solidifies and cannot be used." The sole reference to monitor lizard oil in al-Rāzī's Al-Ḥāwī fī l-Ṭibb is for obtaining an erection. It is still produced and marketed in the 21st century, but mainly as a topical for hemorrhoids. ASE

Letter from Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār b. Madīnī (Alexandria) to Yosef b. Mūsā al-Tāhirtī, ca. 1062. The sender explains why a load of a medicinal herb greater celandine has not been sold: the price for it is currently low but might go up when a ḥajj caravan or ships from Spain arrive. There is more demand for the herb in Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 165.)