Geniza Lab

State document, probably a decree, last three lines, written on the joyous occasion of ʿĪd al-Naḥr. Preserved lines read as "فاعلم هذا واعمل..وكتب في يوم عيد النحر السعيد..الطاهرين وسلم تسليما". Fatimid based on blessings and late Fatimid/early Ayyubid based on paleography. Business accounts on verso.

Tax receipt for the capitation of Musāfir b. Yūṣuf in New Cairo, beginning with the 'tadhkira', at the top, registration marks related to the diwān al-jawālī. Dated: 502 H, which is 1108/09 CE.

State document, Ottoman, dated 1238 H. Ledger page connected to the Dīwān Anwāl al-Ḥarīr in Alexandria (most of the institutional title is in the second line of the heading). In a more general sense, this document is regarding the state's oversight of the production and import/export of silk (anwāl here likely means silk looms). Faded seal on the bottom of the document. Requires further examination.

Fatimid tax receipt dated 528H (1133–34). Five different hands: at top, 2 requests for registration, 2 confirmations of registration; lower part is receipt itself. (MR)

Verso (original use): Fragment of a petition in Arabic script. Dating: Probably Fatimid-era. The beginnings of 4 lines are preserved. Moderately wide line spacing. Includes the beginning of a taqbīl (al-mamlūk yuqabbil al-arḍ) and a request clause (wa-yasal...).

Possibly an official document in Arabic script, but the hand is crude. Could also be an IOU with a layout reminiscent of state documents. Concerns a debt (two qirats?) owed by Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥarīrī on account of something to do with an account for a diwan. Dated: Jumādā I 594 AH = 1198 CE. ابو سعيد الحريري ما عليه... الديوان عن عجل حساب... في ... المستخدمين(؟) قيراطين وكتب بتاريخ جمادى الاول سنة اربع وتسعين وخمسمائة

State document. Dated: 26 Ramaḍān 524 AH = 2 September 1130 CE. A makhzūma (a type of official account) concerning the construction of a new or renovated belvedere (manẓara) across from either the Rawḍa island or a specific government garden (muqābil al-rawḍa al-saʿīda). Begins with the header "makhzūma," followed by, "bi-mablagh al-munfaq fī ʿimārat al-manẓara al-mustajadda al-maʾmūr bi-inshāʾihā." The project is overseen by officials with titles such as "majd al-khilāfa wa fakhruha" and "ṣanīʿat al-khilāfa." One may be named al-Qāḍī [...] al-ʿUmr (?) ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (?). They are both described as "mutawallī al-maʿūna bi-Miṣr." Al-Maqrīzī mentions this position during the Fatimid Caliph al-ʿĀmir's time in 515 H (See Ittiʿāẓ, III, p. 69). The date on the document is 524 H which fits with al-Maqrīzī's chronology, hence, it is plausible that the person referred to in the chronicle could be one of the officials mentioned in the document. Goitein translates 'maʿūna' as "a police building, although containing gruesome prisons, was called maʿūna, 'help' while the security forces themselves were divided into a number of specialized groups. The head of the police was called wālī, literally, 'governor'" (Goitein, Mediterranean Society, II:368). There are also copious other jottings in Arabic, most of them poetry and some pen trials. Needs further examination.

Copy in Judaeo-Arabic of a decree (sijill) renewing the appointment of a Jewish physician "to the headship of all the Israelite denominations: the Rabbanites, Qaraites, and Samaritans." States that the order to write this document was issued by the caliph to the chancery (kharaja amr amīr al-muʾminīn ilā dīwān al-inshāʾ bi-katb hādha al-sijill bi-tajdīd mā kāna anʿama bihī ʿalayka min al-riyāsa ʿalā jamīʿ ṭawāʾif al-isrāʾīliyya min al-rabbānīn wa-l-qaraʾiyyīn wa-l-samara).

Fragment of a report apparently from an army officer to a superior. He describes how "we all went out to Wādī Buṭnān (near Aleppo) and suffered losses (kabadnā) until we reached reinforcements (ilā an ḥasalnā ʿind al-aʿwān)...." Then mentions "the victorious armies, may God make their banners triumphant" (ilā al-ʿasākir al-muẓaffara naṣara Allāh aʿlāmhā), and how he heard that the addressee is marching toward Damascus. The sender plans to join forces and asks for further orders. Reused for Hebrew piyyut on the other side by a prolific scribe (see FGP Joins Suggestions). (Information in part from Boris Liebrenz and Aḥmed ElAḳṭash.) ASE

Document in Arabic script. Possibly a letter or petition. 4 lines are preserved. Dating: possibly Mamluk-era, based on handwriting and format. Needs examination.

Document with a few lines of Arabic script on each side. Fragment of a fiscal account? Needs examination.

Recto: remnants of two lines of an Arabic-script chancery document. In between, at ninety degrees, is an Arabic list (of names?), most of which are crossed out. Verso: Hebrew poetry.

Recto: State document in Arabic script. Maybe a decree. Only a few words are preserved: ]لى للفراج(؟) للتقضي(؟) . . . . . صولها

Fatimid state document. Needs examination. Reused for a memorial list (see PGPID 19130).

State decree. Three fragmentary lines from the end of a chancery decree, probably addressed to a provincial official, mentions majlis al-naẓar (refer al-Qalqashandī, Ṣubḥ al-Āʿshā VIII, 331). The text that remains is from the beginning of the closing section, containing the admonitions and the dating clause (which, as usual, hasn't been preserved). Reused for the commentary of Rabbenu Ḥannanel on Bava Kamma 98, 101.

State document, Fatimid period. Dated: 4 Rajab 523H, which is 23 June 1129 CE. Reporting that two trustworthy witnesses from Alexandria had given testimony, and that a document had come in answer to their testimony. One of their names has been preserved: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b Ḥātim b. Ṣadaqa b. ʿUmar. Contains a registration mark (al-ḥamdu li-llāh ʿalā niʿamih). Another scribe has reused the document to copy the Fihrist of Shemu’el b. Hofni gaʾon. Details: An official document belonging to X (unnamed person: the هـ of kitab) was presented somewhere, but it needed to be verified, so two witnesses ratified it, presumably in Alexandria. The ratified document was then sent to a chancery where our writer recorded its contents, and equally importantly, registered the names of the two witnesses who had vouched for its authenticity. This is a bifolio register destined for the central Fatimid archives. Without more information on person X, and on the nature of this كتاب (was it a receipt, a legal deed, a rescript?), the document remains tantalizing and opaque, but useful as evidence of registration and archiving. Reused for the fihrist (index to the writings) of Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni (one fragment) and for Bava Metzia 49b (the other fragment: someone buying wine learned that Parzak the vizier was going to confiscate it, so he tried to renege before taking possession of the wine. R. Hisda approved: "just as they instituted 'pulling' with regard to sellers, so did they institute 'pulling' with regard to buyers"). (MR)

Official memorandum with the signature of an official called al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad. Belongs together with ENA 2697.8 + ENA 2697.9 + T- S Ar.31.58 + T-S Ar.30.245, but it's not clear precisely how. Join: Marina Rustow.

Petition or report. Fragment, three lines preserved. Requests intervention in a dispute between someone and ʿImrān b. Lāwī (ʿImrān b. Levi, possibly Abū ʿImrān Moshe ha-Levi b. Levi before the birth of his son and his adoption of the kunya Abū l-Bayān) by means of support of strengthening his hand (shādd). Requests clarifying the matter or seeking help (or gaining the upper hand? wa-li-yastaẓhir) in whatever way is appropriate for the dīwān. Some of the phrases in this document (iṣlāḥ aḥwālihimā, al-shadd min…) are similar to phrases in T-S 8J38.11, a note from the Jewish court ca. 1100 instructing a delegate to try to resolve a marital conflict. On verso there are liturgical notes in Hebrew concerning Purim and the special shabbatot around Purim. (ASE/MR)

Contract of lease for an irrigation channel on the jazīra of Fustat (the Nile island later known as Rawḍa). Dated: 18 (or maybe 28?) Shawwāl 407 AH (March 1017 CE). The lessees are Maḥāṣin b. Sayyidihim b. ʿAbdallāh; Muḥammad b. Abdallāh; Abū l-Faraj b. Sayyidihm; Khalīl al-Naṣrānī; Sulaymān b. Maḥāsin b. Naṣr al-Naṣrānī. The lease is for a period of 5 months, beginning on 23 Shawwāl 407. The lessees are to pay 600 dirhams paid in 5 monthly installments (munajjama) of 120 dirhams. The property borders that of the town (Fustat) and contains an orchard of date palms, strawberries, sycamore. No signatures are preserved. Reused for Hebrew poetry.

Decree. Portions of two lines are preserved: ...bi-sumuwwi l-ʾamri... qabla l-tadbīri(?).... Reused for Hebrew poetry/liturgy.