Geniza Lab

State document. Chancery hand, wide space between the lines. The beginnings of 3 lines are preserved: في ظهرها... والروزنامجات... انفاذها لانك

Fragment, concluding 5 lines of what seems a state document in a chancery hand ending with a ṣalwala. Some phrases: "wa l-dukhūl fīhi sana", "in kān l-zamān qad afīḍī/afḍī? wa ma talqu illa kullama", "in tuṭīʿū anfusakum". The last line mentions that the document was written in a hurry "kutiba/katabahu ʿajjil surʿattan".

Tax receipt for the capitation tax of Zayn(?) b. Abū l-Faraj(?) the Jew. On verso there is a blessing for a groom in Hebrew. Needs further examination.

Recto: Two lines in Arabic script, probably a petition to a Fatimid vizier "al-Wazīr al-Ajal Ṣafiyy Amīr l-Mumineen wa-khāliṣihi". In Judaeo-Arabic, between the lines and upside down, "God guard the servant of the Shaykh Abū ʿImrān." Verso: Prognostications in Judaeo-Arabic. If the year is born in Gemini (الجوزاء): harvests will be rich, the Nile will flood, the cattle will die, a skin disease will break out, and the Byzantines will set sail and their ships will founder. The noblest kings will die and fitna will break out. There will be many refugees. It ends "allāhu aʿlam bi-l-ghayb" (only God knows the unknown). ASE.

Fragment of a state document, three lines of Arabic in a chancery hand. The date of the tawqīʿ is Dhul Qaʿda (3)70?

Recto: State document in Arabic script. Dating: No later than 1078/79 CE. Large chancery hand, wide space between the lines. 4 lines preserved here. Opens with fulsome praises for how the caliph has spread justice and comparing him to the sun and the morning star. Confirms the receipt of a decree (wa-inna l-sijilla l-muʿaẓẓama waṣala ḥawāya ʿani l-khidmati l-ṣādira) and that the writer kissed the ground (fa-qabbaltu l-arḍa ijlālan wa-iʿẓāman). Needs further examination.

Decree. The ends of two lines are preserved. Mentions the cities of [...]nūf and Ṣahrasht (=Ṣahrajt). Reused for a separate document in Arabic script (also on recto) and a literary text in Hebrew (verso).

Report or petition fragment, addressed to a higher state official regarding the matters in southern Upper Egypt, contains the taqbīl clause towards the end. The writer thanks the addressee for his benefactions and reports on a specific group of people who were consumed by greed and hence lost their decency. Mentions bāb al-Ṭāhir al-Nabawī, probably the Caliph himself, and reports that no traveler passed through the gates of southern Upper Egypt. The Hebrew in the lower right margin is a continuation of the text on verso, which is one of the prayers for Yom Kippur (the Vidui specifically).

Official correspondence in Arabic script. Opening of the letter, starting with an ʿalāma (al-ḥamdu lillāhi kathīra?) in a thick pen. In the position of the tarjama it seems to read, "Our brother the qāʾid Abū Muḥammad [...] b. Yūsuf." The tarjama is followed by a basmala and the beginning of the correspondence ([Kitābī] aṭāl-Allahu baqāka wa adāma). On verso a liturgical or biblical text (parashat sheqalim?).

Bottom of an official letter (petition?) in Arabic script. The last line is a ḥamdala and ṣalwala. Unclear how much of the text above this is still legible. Reused for Hebrew piyyuṭ on both recto and verso.

Fragment of a petition in Arabic script, interspersed with Arabic script in the wide spaces what seems like a draft of a letter or just casual reuse of the state document. The second hand also seems like a chancery hand but is different from the first hand. One of the interspersed phrases; "وانا احتاج الى مجي مولاي الشيخ وسعادته لي في الامور التي لا يصلح لها عنده فتنفصل؟" suggests that it could be an annotation on the petition (there are several instances of annotations on petitions with official actions on how to respond in the Geniza). Reused on verso for Hebrew literary text.

Fragment, 4 lines of a state document in a chancery hand regarding issues pertaining to agriculture "an qad zaraʿ fī l-kufr l-madhkūr thalatha meʾya". Needs further examination.

State report in Arabic mentioning the amīr Shams al-Dīn, at whom "we looked with an eye of respect" (wa-naẓarnā ilayhi bi-ʿayni l-iḥtirām). Two full lines and two partial lines preserved. MR. ASE.

Verso (original use): Fragment of a state report. The ends of 6 lines are preserved: "...the ṭalḥiyyūn(?), and there did not remain in al-Ramla... Muḥammad(?) b. Muḥsin(?) al-Anṭākī... the reins(?) of the slaves in it... with seventeen horses... they went out against it... the remaining ones..."

Verso (original use): The end of one line in calligraphic Arabic script from a state document, perhaps a decree. . ال الديوان عرضا فدل على صورة ماله(؟)

Official letter or petition. In Arabic script. Small fragment from the beginning: ...saʿādatahu wa-salāmatahu wa-niʿmatahu ʿalā....

Tax receipt, Fatimid, from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahab with a registration mark "al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ʿalā niʿamih" dated 25 dhū l-ḥijja 403. On the verso, fragment of the top left-hand margin of a petition

Verso: Tax receipt from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb with a registration mark al-ḥamdu li-llah ʿalā niʿamih. The name of the jahbadh is Mikhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ. On recto is also a fiscal account (either reused for the tax receipt or was later reused) with multiple streams of accounts, each beginning with "al-dālla minhu".

Petition to a higher official asking for a horse "oḥḍur taḥtahu faras mulkihi wa-huwa ḍaʿīf nāqiṣ l-ḥāl", "yaḥmiluhu ʿalā faras" with an innovative taqbīl formula "wa-huwa yujaddid taqbīl al-arḍ wa-yasʾal al-inʿām" - "the slave renews the kissing of the ground" (a variant of this formula also appears in T-S Ar. 39.487).

Two columns of accounts, business or private, for Naṣr b. Simwāl, one under "lahu" 'he is owed' and second under "ʿalaihi" 'he owes'. 'ʾAjr' in the upper right hints that it could be related to rent. There is a date towards the upper left 'for year 1' (501? 601?). Needs examination.