Geniza Lab

Page with a magical spell for being loved and silencing enemies.

Fragment of an amulet in Judaeo-Arabic, probably for a certain Asaf b. Berakhya.

Amulet for protection, calligraphic, including the phrase "Senoy, Sansenoy, Semangelof, Adam ve-Ḥava Lilit Ḥutz."

Magical amulet, to be hung up it seems (scalloped top edge, like a plaque), with the formula "Senoy Sansenoy Semangelof Adam ve-Hava Lilit ḥuṣ." Same scalloped top edge and same text as AIU VI.B.31

Bifolium, probably from a literary compendium. Dating: Late, possibly 18th or 19th century. Two of the pages are a story about a female slave and a king—needs further examination. The other two pages are love spells in Judaeo-Arabic, apparently transcribed from Islamic/Arabic-script models, as one of them invokes the prophets Moses and Jesus(!).

Ownership notes in a codex, perhaps. On one side: Yaʿaqov b. Yehuda, then "It was transferred with a proper sale to the young man [...] b. Seʿadya b. [...]. The man's name and his grandfather's name are faded: possibilities include Ḥizqiya, Tiqva, Yaʿqūb, or other names entirely. On the other side: Abū l-Munā al-ʿAṭṭār and his brother Maḥfūẓ and his brother Abū l-Ḥasan al-Kātib and Abū l-Munajjā.

Probably a prayer in Judaeo-Arabic.

4 pages of geomancy divinations, in which the questions are given (e.g. How high will the Nile be, and will produce be cheap or expensive? Who is the thief?), several dated 1797/8 CE (5558). There is also a magic square and some numerology

Recto: Medical prescriptions in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic. Verso: Arabic script, perhaps accounts, perhaps connected to recto.

Recipes and/or technical instructions in Ladino. Medical? Needs further examination.

Prognostications for the coming year in Judaeo-Arabic.

Fragment containing some geomancy markings.

Recipes in Arabic, purpose unclear. One of them is attributed to al-Rāzī and al-Zahrāwī.

A curious text, mostly in Arabic, squeezed onto a torn scrap of paper, perhaps a prayer or a magical spell (or a vow?) regarding success in the coming year. Needs further examination, but legible parts of recto include: [...] ʿalā nafsī [...] annī lā [...] al-maḥḍar wa-l-tawqīʿ fī hādhī l-sana wa-{u}shhid ʿalā rūḥī khāliq al-samā wa-l-arḍ [...] wa-bihi astaʿīn. On verso, first in Arabic and then transcribed almost exactly into Judaeo-Arabic: "wa-yā sulaymān (?) [...] ʿalā mā taẓammanathu (=taḍammanathu) bāṭin hādhihi l-waraqa." Then, in Judaeo-Arabic only: "And I am Abū l-Ṭāhir."

A recipe or prescription in Arabic. Needs further examination.

An amulet in quirky Arabic script. The main section is Quran 3:18.

Medical prescription in Arabic.

Probably a medical prescription or a recipe in Arabic, mentioning hiera picra (a cathartic powder made of aloes and canella bark), chebulic myrobalan (iḥlīj Kābulī), lavender (isṭarkhūdus), sugar, and ghārīqūn (agaric).

Several medical recipes in Arabic by the title "صفة معجون نافع للارواح".

Arabic magical fragment with text in different directions, invocations of names of God, and several red grids filled with numbers and/or symbols and/or words.