Geniza Lab

Document in Arabic script. Perhaps accounts or an administrative document. Needs examination.

Tax receipt, Fatimid.

Copy of a petition to the caliph al-Ẓāhir (matn only) against acknowledgement of the Iraqi authority in Palestine. Dating: original document ca. 1030, but this copy may be several decades later. Discussed in Khan, JRAS, p53; Rustow, Heresy and elsewhere; Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 347. Previous description (Goitein's?): Shelomo b. Yehuda to al-Mustansir defending his position against Yūsuf al-Sijilmasi, the Iraqi leader in Palestine. In the same hand as ENA NS 13.15 and T-S K25.244.

Fragment of a draft (?) of a petition opening with the taqbīl clause repeated twice (once in isolation) and followed by the caliphal honorific titles: amām al-maqām al-nabawī al-ṭāhirī al-muʿaẓẓam al-sharīf. The actual addressee seems to be a vizier whose titles follow after wa bi-l majlis al-sāmī; al-Sayyīdī al-Ajallī al-ʿĀlī al-Jūyūshī al-Sayfī al-Nāṣirī al-Kāmilī. Probably dates from the late Fatimid period. The petition also has a marāḥim formula "ilā l-marāḥim al-ʿamīma wa l-faḍāʾl al-karīma" (For details on this formula see: Khan, ALAD, pg.396). Further investigation is required to determine the identities of the caliph and addressee in question. On verso there is a single line with a ḥamdala and ṣalwala in Arabic script (perhaps originally from the bottom of the petition? Or from another document that has gotten glued on here.) And there is a cryptic text in Judaeo-Arabic with diagrams of dots and sticks, maybe some kind of technical/magical instructions.

State document (fragment) in Arabic script, perhaps a decree. On verso there is a literary text in Hebrew.

Petition, late Fatimid period given the blessings on a vizier, from a certain Ibn Mūsā (no forename given) concerning a Jew named (2) Bū l-Faraj who took another Jew named (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq to court repeatedly over a debt. The unstated request seems to be that vizier to whom the petition is addressed should either (a) pay (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq’s debt or (b) apply force or (c) imprison him until he pays. The (1) petitioner goes on to state that if a (a-prime) different guarantor (ḍāmin) steps in to pay (3) Ibrāhīm’s debt, or if local officials step in to (c) seize his property, the vizier will be informed. If a (a) guarantor steps in, (3) Ibrāhīm will presumably have to pay more. If (a) the vizier pays on his behalf, it would not cost the debtor more; so de facto the vizier must decide whether to pay or apply force. But if the situation changes — if a guarantor steps in to pay the debt, or the treasury (al-māl, short for bayt al-māl) steps in to seize the debtor's assets, the petitioner will inform the vizier. Perhaps the petitioner is a Jewish communal official who has run out of enforcement options, so now seeks help from the state in resolving the situation as expeditiously as possible. MR

Official letter. After the basmala one reads :ʾaṭāla llāh baqāhā wa-ʾadāma taʾyīdahā wa-ʿalāhā (l. 2), ʿārafahu bi-mā li-l-ḥadra al-sāmiyya al-ʾaǧalliyya al-raʾīsiyya (l. 3), ʿalā al-ḥadrat al-mawlā al-ʾaǧall waladihā (l. 5), taḥmīl (or: bi-jamīl) al-raʾy al-šarīf, ǧaʿala llāh al-riyasa ʿalā al-ṭāʾiʿīn (l. 6), ʾinnī iǧtmaʿtu bi-ḥadrat mawlāya al-šayḫ al-ʾaǧall (l. 7). L. 12 mentions something that "deserves an increase" (istaḥaqqa or astaḥiqqu l-ziyāda)—maybe the sender is asking for a raise. L. 14 mentions a mukātaba ʾilā al-ḥadra al-ʾaǧalliyya al-raʾīsiyya.

Decree to a lower official commanding him to retrieve bricks and everything belonging to the government from a certain location (a ruined mosque?); and from other ruined mosques; and to assert the government's authority over the aforementioned mill.

State document, Fatimid, probably a decree fragment, 4 lines. Begins with وعاد بنجابتهما وحسن in a dual tense suggesting that it was addressed to two officials. The second line is crossed out and seems like a pen-trial of the first line. The third line mentions appointment in a position for someone (caliph?); wa lahu mutnaṣṣibīn, and the expectation that the appointees will strive for the duty; wa fīhi mujiddīn, and ascertain something; wa-li-yataḥaqqa. The last line mentions their accountability to the task assigned; masʾūlān ʿanhā muṭālibīn.

Decree fragment: one line on verso. wa-ri'āyan li-kum[ ]. Cut, reused, and bound in a Hebrew script literary text: 15 lines plus notes on recto, 13 on verso. Ink seems to show through the page (i.e. no palimpsest). Not a join with ENA 979.2, but they are probably from the same decree and reused context. Reading the Hebrew might indicate whether these two are conescutive pages--and therefore perhaps consecutive lines of the decree.

Decree fragment: one line on recto. 'adal(a) followed by tooth+loop (fragmentary word). Cut, reused, and bound in a Hebrew script literary text: 12 lines on recto, 9 on verso. Ink seems to show through the page (i.e. no palimpsest). Not a join with ENA 979.1, but they are probably from the same decree and reused context. Reading the Hebrew might indicate whether these two are conescutive pages--and therefore perhaps consecutive lines of the decree.

Tax receipt. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Verso (original use): Petition in Arabic script in a chancery hand. Fragment from the middle of the document. Refers to the well-known Jewish leader [Daniel b.] ʿAzarya al-Dāʾūdī (second half of the 11th century) and to the addressee's benefactions in the administration of the Fatimid state: "...wa-bi-sāʾir aʿmāl al-dawla al-Nabawiyya wa-tummimat al-niʿma ʿa[lā ...]... al-ṭāhir...." Then asks for a mighty decree confirming the continued benefaction of registering something (bi-manshūr muʿaẓẓam muqirr bi-dawām niʿmat ithbātih) in the Majlis al-Ḥimāya and at least one other majlis. Rustow has translated ḥimāya in another context as "law enforcement" in Lost Archive p. 209, and Bauden notes that the term can refer to a tax of circulation on the Nile ("Le Transport de Marchandises et de Personnes sur le Nil," p. 125 note 117). See also Claude Cahen, “Notes pour l’histoire de la ḥimāya" (1956) and Jürgen Paul, "Ḥimāya Revisited" (2020) (https://journals.openedition.org/anisl/7518?lang=en). See also T-S Misc.8.67 for a similar-looking Arabic-script document involving Daniel b. ʿAzarya (but not a join). On the other side there is a Judaeo-Arabic letter by the same scribe who wrote T-S K25.244 (and several others), known to have been an ardent supporter of Daniel b. ʿAzarya (so it is probably related).

Original use: Decree? Two faded lines in a chancery hand containing a ṣalwala (wa-l-ṣalā ʿalā al-sayyīd Muḥammad al-muṣṭafa wa-ālihi al-ṭāhirīn) which suggests that it is from the end of the document.

Letter of complaint to the caliph in Arabic script concerning the tax that the Tiberias Jews need to pay. It seems like the second request. The Jews are complaining about the intention to increase their capitation tax (jizya). In the past, some have paid 5 dirhams, some have paid 10, and some have been exempt as Khaybarī Jews. The speaker of the Jews is Sibāʿ b. Faraj (maybe this is Hillel b. Yeshuʿa). This document is the middle part of three sheets that were attached. Dating: ca. 1030 CE. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 453–54, #249). VMR

Recto: Arabic state document, reused (see separate entry for reuse), 4 lines, wide spacing, mentions the movement of a group of people to the Levant. Some phrases:"ʿalā l-mʾāthir wa nashr al-qalb kalima al-ṣidq bi āʿlā l-mʾāthir wa ṣarafat", "wa aṭafat ahwāhā ḥatta ṣārū ilā Bilād al-Shām".

Verso: Draft (probably) of a petition. In Arabic script. "The slave... wishes to maintain the traditions... we wish to maintain our traditions and the traditions of our fathers before us and [haykal something?] is in a place, which is our synagogue..."

Fragment, 4 lines, in a chancery hand, probably a report or letter of official correspondence. The sender expresses his privilege of existing in the Caliph's reign (saʿda Allahu bi-ṣuḥbatihi wa l-kaun fī jumlatihi), reports glad tidings (wa l-aḥwāl bi barakat Maulana wa-Sayyīdina ṣalawāt Allah ʿalayhi), and expresses his gratitude (la-mashkūr jamīl al-ṣunʿ fīhi). He also reports traveling to a place (wa kharaja ʿabd Maulānā). Reused for Hebrew text.

Petition, probably. In Arabic script. Only one line and a couple words from the line below are preserved. "irtifāʿ mā. . . lā yadillu ʿalayhi. . . ʿabduhu." Reused for Hebrew literary text.

Small fragment of official correspondence. Only a few words preserved (...bi-idhn Allāh...). Reused for Hebrew text.