Geniza Lab

Amulet for a certain Mordekhai.

Damaged fragment from a calendar. AA

On recto funeral speech. On verso reference to the death of Nissim Shlomo Elgazi, on Monday, 25th Kislev 1761. Hebrew. AA

Prescription or recipe. In Judaeo-Arabic. "Its benefits are similar to the benefits of wine (khamr)." On verso there are jottings in Judaeo-Arabic: "In sleep (or: a dream). . . ra's al-matība. . ."

Fragment with text in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly magical: nār... ʿazīmatī... al-iqfāl.

Funeral speech? In Hebrew. Quotes Sanhedrin 113b (lines 5-6). In the margin a name appears: Menashshe ha-Levi b. Avraham b. Aharon b. Shuʿayb b. Yefet Rosh Kalla

Medical prescription, for menstruation. It recommends a three-day course of powdered substances, to be taken in admixture with wine. The materia medica are equal parts of kohl, dried cane (Acorus calamus?), and black cumin (Nigella sativa), which, like 'menstruation' at top, receives its Hebrew name. The verso, B 5664-2, bears a partially preserved prescription in the same hand. For materia medica used by the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II, pp. 261-72.

A partially preserved medical prescription that mentions burnt goat-horn, eggplant, and a cup of wine. The recto (B 5664-1), in the same hand, bears a complete prescription, for menstruation. For a prescription that includes burnt goat-horn, see Sabur b. Sahl, Aqrabadhin al-saghir / The Small Dispensatory (trans. Oliver Kahl, 2003, p. 50). For the materia medica of the Geniza community, see E. Lev and Z. Amar, Practical Materia Medica of the Eastern Mediterranean According to the Cairo Genizah (Brill, 2008). For pharmacies, see Med. Soc. II.

The scorpion amulet attributed to Yehuda b. Yeḥezqel. Belongs with ENA NS 73.12 and T-S AS 143.26.

Magical spell in Aramaic

Magical spell. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Perhaps for striking fear into people's hearts. The beneficiary seems to be Abū Saʿd b. Baldīn (? בלדין). The original scribe seems to have written Abū Saʿd, but the patronymic was added in later. Also added in later: the name Abū l-Fatḥ Naṣrallāh in between the lines.

The second block of text appears to be a prophecy attributed to Ibn Ezra regarding a Messiah in the land of Egypt, mentioning the year 1647/8 (5408), so slightly earlier than the Sabbatean movement. Needs further examination.

Renderings of modern amulets.

Calendar for the years 4728–4731 of the Era of Creation (=967-968 to 970-971 CE), dated according to the Era of Creation. The calendar mentions intercalation, the length of the variable months, days of the week of beginnings of months and the date and time of the four tequfot. The calendar has a heading שארית מח[זור] ‘the remainder of the 19-year cycle’. (Information from CUDL.)

Leaf from a collection of magical spells and recipes, in Hebrew, copied in a 16th-century hand. One recipe aims to cause a woman to fall into a state of sexual desire. ‘Take your trousers and put them on over your head, so that you are naked. Say: “So-and-so son of So-and-so is doing this for So-and-so daughter of So-and-so, in order that she will dream that I sleep [with] her and she sleeps with me”.’ (Information from CUDL.)

Four columns of a Hebrew magical text about knowing the future. After fasting and cleansing the body, one should go to a field, pronounce some magical names and fall into sleep and then an angel will give him the answers. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 537 and from Goitein's index cards.) Probably in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi.

Colophon for a copy of masekhet Berakhot. Dedicated to Yeshuʿa b. [...] ha-Melammed. This is crossed out. Underneath, there is a note of a sale: Yakhin b. Ḥalfon purchased it for 16 dirhams. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Recto: calendar for the year 5008 of the Era of Creation (= 1247-1248 CE), year 11 of the 19-year cycle 264. The calendar is dated according to the Era of Creation, the Seleucid Era, the Era of the Destruction of the Second Temple, the Era of the Exodus and position of the year in the 19-year and the Sabbatical cycles. The calendar mentions the intercalation, length of the variable months, the calendrical type of the year, moladot of all months, days of the week of beginnings of months, days of the week and dates of festivals and fasts, the date and time of the tequfot, as well as the time when prayers for rain begin. The sign ‘//’ is used for zero. Verso: calendrical texts written indifferent directions including 1) a chronology from Exodus to the year 5008 of the Era of Creation; 2) two calculations of molad Tišri of 5009 of the Era of Creation; 3) at the bottom of verso, written transversely a calculation of moladot of all months and the four tequfot for the year 5009 of the Era of Creation and molad Tišri of 5010 of the Era of Creation; 4) a separate calculation of molad Tišri of 5010 of the Era of Creation. All moladot on recto and verso are 12 hours higher than the correct values. Tequfot and days of the week of beginnings of months for 5009 of the Era of Creation are crossed out. There is also Arabic script and Rūmī (Greek/Coptic) numerals in different places on the page. (Information from CUDL.)

Recto: two alchemical recipes, the first on the use of a water derived from a preparation of tutty (an oxide of zinc), which is left overnight to congeal into a stone; the second deals with a preparation with tartar (potassium tartarate) white sal ammoniac (in transliteration from Arabic here), copper, sulfur, salpeter (nitre, mineral of potassium nitrate), sea salt, and white copper, mentioning the use of a waterproof glass container and another vessel isolated with the clay of the sages (Ar. Ṭīn al-ḥikma, Lat. argilla philosophorum, lutum sapientiae). Verso: instructions for the production of an amulet for a barren woman, with magical characteres and two small Stars of David, and instructions for the production of an amulet for avoiding dangers on the road. All this is written in a late Ashkenazi hand. (Information mainly from CUDL.)

Calendar for the years 4962–4964 of the Era of Creation (= 1201-1202 to 1203-1204 CE), dated according to the Era of Creation, the Seleucid Era, the Era of the Destruction of the Second Temple and the position of the year in the 19-year, Sabbatical cycle and jubilee cycles. The calendar mentions intercalation, the length of the variable months, the type of the year, moladot of all months and days of the week of beginnings of months. (Information from CUDL.)