Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Unusual handwriting: blocky, calligraphic. The writer bemoans that he has lost all his money and merchandise. "The reason for the debt is that my work is with ... the Shaykh Abū Saʿd known as Abū [...]." The fragment ends around here. Probably he is going to ask for help.

Letter addressed to a woman. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions preparations for the holiday. Reports that Abū l-Murajjā is healthy; wishes health to the shaykh Abū l-Bayān; rebukes the addressee for failing to send news of Sitt Qawām.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Small fragment. Mentions the arrival of people by boat. The scribe uses final ה for א, eg יומנה הדא.

Letter fragment in Hebrew. What remains consists solely of praises for the addressee.

Letter of appeal in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks for something to cover himself with (ilā l-ghulām yataghaṭṭā bi-hi).

Document in Arabic script. Perhaps a letter. Remnants of four lines.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Ending only. Some names appear at the bottom: [...] b. Yefet (ZL). And Yefet b. [Yeshuʿa?] ha-Meʿulle ha-Dayyan—this is the writer, as he prefaces his name with 'the one who prays for you.'

Letter addressed to a Gaon, possibly. Small fragment.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic (with a single word in Arabic script, هذا). Mentions a certain Avraham and silver.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Or possibly a legal testimony. Mentions an argument and something that happened 'in the middle of the house' and the synagogue and Friday night.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions coral (3 lines from bottom). Needs examination. On verso there may be a Hebrew literary text.

Letter, probably. In Arabic script. Only a few words. The phrase "wa-l-ḥāl salāma" ("all is well") is legible.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very rudimentary hand and spellings. Mentioning a waṣiyya (advice/exhortation). Requesting an urgent response. Regards to the addressee's siblings and mother and to the writer's sister and her children.

Letter fragment. In Arabic script.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Peraḥya b. Menashshe. Fragment (upper left corner). Only the opening greetings are preserved.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. No full sentences are preserved. There are wishes for someone to be recompensed in heaven, and possibly a report on business affairs in the sender's location. On the other side, there is mention of someone named Abū Naṣr.

An unnamed elder (titled 'the most illustrious, solid') directs the beadle Abu al-Tahir to furnish Harun the copyist with a good copy of a Torah scroll so that the latter can copy from it. Harun is to bring the book to the beadle each Friday, to be read on the Sabbath. A beadle named Abu al-Tahir b. Mahfuz was active between 1183 and 1223 (Med. Soc. II 421, 431, 546; IV 436; V 547). A penurious copyist named Harun is mentioned in JRL Series B 4525-1. The verso (B 5738-2) is blank.

Letter. In Arabic script. Address only. Addressed to the faqīh [...] b. ʿAbd [...] b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, in the Muṣāṣa quarter of Fustat.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Sefaradi-influenced hand. Needs further examination