Geniza Lab

Upper left fragment: Letter in Arabic script. Mentions ḍamān al-jawālī (capitation tax farming), a location (wa-huwa muqīm bi-???), and a mawlā named ʿIzz al-Dīn.

Letter from Fāṭima to her 'sister' al-Ḥājja Umm al-Barakāt. In Arabic script. Opens with greetings to Abū l-Faḍl and Nāṣir al-Dīn and his children, then Umm al-Barakāt and [Sitt al-]Jamīʿ and her children and another woman and everybody in the house. The body of the message mentions the arrival of Muḥammad al-Asyūṭī. Someone appears to have been killed by Bedouins (ʿurbān). The rest requires further examination.

Letter, probably. Small fragment. In Arabic script. The lower fragment is astrological tables (in Arabic script).

Letter fragment. In Arabic script. Addressed to an amīr. Not much of the content remains: the upper margin mentions the letter of Sayyidnā. On verso there is the beginning of another letter, but this is probably too faded to read.

Letter in Arabic script. Only the introduction and a couple lines of the body are preserved (mentioning Ṣaʿīd/Upper Egypt?). The writer is Muslim.

Letter or petition in Arabic script. Wide space between the lines. Three lines are preserved.

Awaiting description

Letter in Arabic script. The sender may be Yaḥyā b. Ḥāmid(?) b. Sālim. Needs examination.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Discusses business affairs and names people such as Fakhr al-Ṣanā'iʿ, Rabbenu, al-Shaykh al-Yesod, Makārim al-Wakīl who is the tax collector for Rubʿ al-Malikiyyīn (?), Ṣafiyy al-Dawla, and Raḍiyy al-Dawla.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Too faded to easily discern much of the content. Mentions the late Rayyis.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer mentions that he sent two dirhams to his cousin and wants him to purchase two kohl containers for him. He is particular about the kind he wants. It seems that he has described his specifications to a Jewish youth with blue eyes and a fair complexion. The size of the containers (or another good?) may be indicated by the two circles that he drew on verso. The letter is fragmentary and has folds covering key words, so this description is somewhat tentative. ASE.

Recto: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions al-Rav Rabbenu Shemuel, discussing shares in a house and people who are distressing the writer. Verso: Letter, complete, in Judaeo-Arabic, to an important addressee. It is a hastily scrawled, informal note, but even so begins and ends with appropriate formulae for a petition. The writer informs the addressee that the Gentiles who live near the synagogue have been setting fires and blaming the Jews. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded. Mentions a jandār (a military officer?) and an amir.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Malīj and the son of the late Abū Yaʿqūb al-Kohen al-Ṭabīb.

Recto: Letter draft by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu containing his trademark phrase "when I had turned toward health." In Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: An order in Arabic script from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu (Abū l-Barakāt b. al-Dayyān) to Abū Saʿīd for a syrup of sorrel (? sharāb ḥummāḍ). This is a tentative reading, needs further examination. ASE.

Letter probably from Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat, to Barhūn b. Ṣāliḥ al-Taherti. Very damaged. Needs examination.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Peraḥya b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Large fragment (missing mainly the upper right corner of recto). There are greetings for the high holidays. He thanks Peraḥya for the 10(?) dirhams that he sent for their mother, who thanks and prays for him (cf. T-S 13J22.29). The gum (ṣamgh) has arrived. Mentions incense (nidd/nadd). He refers in vague terms to some good news or advice and urges Peraḥya to act on it.

Letter from a mother to her daughter. In Judaeo-Arabic. The mother expresses her longing and the fire in her heart, sends regards to Umm Khalaf and ʿIwāḍ, and expressing her joy that her daughter is now connected (ittiṣālik) with such noble people. ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer mentions a father and [Abū S]aʿīd al-Ḥazzān and being prostrated (inṭaraḥt) and cut off (munqaṭiʿa) on account of an illness (marḍa). From the gender of the adjective, the letter seems to be in the voice of a woman. Needs examination. ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions a deceased Yoshiyahu.