Geniza Lab

Lamentations recited on the anniversary of the death of a relative (ʿEli ha-Kohen the father of ʿAmram). Possibly in the handwriting of Zakkay b. Moshe. Containing many poetic phrases. (Information from Goitein's note card and from Med Soc V, p. 558.)

Colophon in a commentary to the book of Isaiah, mentioning that the book had formerly belonged to Yaʿaqov he-haver b. Ayyub and was purchased from him by Josiah he-haver b. Aharon ha-me'ulle b. Josiah, av of the court in Acre in the year 4791/1031. Later, presumably during the First Crusade, the book fell into Crusader hands and someone, holding the book upside down as if it was a Western book, wrote a short note in Latin identifying its contents: ‘[interpre]tacio esaya prophete’. During their conquest of the Holy Land, the Crusaders took not only prisoners for ransom but also Jewish books and scrolls. This leaf is presumably from one of the books that passed through Crusader hands but was eventually sold back to the Jewish community. (Information from CUDL)

Beautiful sermon in the name of the late Rabbi Pinhas, emphasizing that the Sabbath is the ideal time for joy in God's vicinity and therefore one should refrain from wasting time by taking walks for pleasure in promenades and gardens. Another sermon, which has not been transcribed by Goitein, is inserted in the left margin. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 12, 345)

Prescription. In Arabic script. This is the response to the letter in PGPID 3351.

Verso: Medical list in Arabic script. One of the columns is headed, "[For] ear pains." The material is cloth. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Panegyric (madīḥ) for a Nagid. Including the line "Be patient with me and do not scorn my verse; I am sick and my thoughts are anunim(?)." There is more Hebrew poetry on verso.

Prayer written by Ibn Yiju on fabric in India.

Recto: liturgy for the concluding Neʿila service on Yom Kippur (צלוה נעילה), consisting of seliḥot by ʿEli b. Amram, in his own handwriting (according to Beeri 2003: 315). Verso: part of (end missing) a beautifully written and fully vocalised poem of praise in honour of ʿAdaya b. Menashshe (son of Abū Sahl Menashshe b. Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Qazzāz), a leading Qaraite courtier, who was kātib al-jaysh in Syria-Palestine for the Fatimids, c. 1020s. Between the lines and in the right-hand margin, ʿEli b. Amram has adapted the existing poem (using its metrics and rhyme, and borrowing the odd phrase here and there) to create a new panegyric (of 45 lines) in praise of Peraḥya, who Beeri (2003: 215) identifies as the son-in-law of the Nagid Yehuda b. Seʿadya. ʿEli’s reworked poem must date to after 1064, when Yehuda became Nagid. (Information from CUDL.)

Medical prescription. In Arabic script.

Medical recipe (צפה מגלי).

Fragment from the Babylonian Jewish magical text Pišra de-Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa. (Information from CUDL.)

Medical prescription, which includes ingredients such as crushed marsh mallow, liquorice, chicory seed, senna, and lemon juice. (CUDL). AA.

dates of important biblical and historical events. AA

Colophon to R. Saadya Gaon's commentary to one of the prayers (תפילת שמונה עשרה), written in Ashkelon in 1061. Verso: the beginning of R. Saadya Gaon's Arabic commentary to the same prayer. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, 327, Doc. #528). VMR

Recto: Formularies of Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic letters to the great rabbi, the Nagid, the Mordekhay of the age "so-and-so." Verso: Wine poem in the hand of Nāṣir "the Hebrew litterateur." Dating: ca. 1300 CE.

Recipe in the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Headed "al-qalʿī." For אקאמה אלפלקי (this may not be the 'celestial sphere,' as that would be פלכי). Mentioning substances such as ammonia, white alum and zubd al-baḥr (possibly mercury). (Information in part from Goitein's note card and CUDL.)

Prescription for pills against coughing; ingredients include red gum tragacanth, almond resin, licorice robe, and “bottled gourd seeds and quince mucilage, of each one mithqal.” (Efrayim Lev and Leigh Chipman, Medical Prescriptions in the Cairo Geniza Collections, Brill, 2012, 49-50) EMS. Written by Berakhot b. Shmuel. AA

Four lines in Arabic script, perhaps a recipe or prescription. The words nāfiʿ . . . inshāllah are legible, then wa-l-yudlak fī. . . . Needs further examination. (Information in part from CUDL) EMS, ASE

Verso: Text (possibly a sermon) dealing with death, pain after losing a loved one and similar issues, with marginal jottings in Arabic and Hebrew script. (Information from the Cambridge Genizah Research Unit via FGP).

Medical prescription in Judaeo-Arabic. Ingredients include: probably 2 oz. grainy concentrated lemon syrup (sharāb laymūn murammal), 1/2 oz. sugar candy (sukkar nabāt), something weighing 3 dirhams, 1/2 dirham white gum of tragacanth (kathīrāʾ bayḍāʾ), something weighing 1/8 dirham. Possibly aphrodisiac: ללגמ[אע?]. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)