Geniza Lab

Verso (original use): Fragment of official/state correspondence, probably. The ends of 3 lines are preserved and parts of 2 more lines. Mentions a village/estate (ḍayʿa) known as المخرقة (in the Fayyūm) and 'the farmers there' (al-muzāriʿīn fīhā). (Information in part from Naïm Vantieghem.) Recto (secondary use): Targum Yonatan on Isaiah 49:10–11 and probably nearby verses.

Fragment of a fiscal document in Arabic script. Needs examination. Reused for piyyuṭ.

Fragment of a fiscal register, probably. May mention the year 506 AH, which would be 1112/13 CE. Reused for Hebrew piyyuṭim.

Recto: Petition draft in Judaeo-Arabic. Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-[ʿIzz al-Yahūdī] kisses the ground before al-maqām al-ʿālī al-sulṭānī al-malikī al-sayfī al-ʿādilī, and reports that he is a poor man and cannot even obtain paper (or write a petition? al-qiyām bi-l-waraq) except through the charity of others. He has a brother who evidently owes money, and he insists that he is not a guarantor (laysa bi-ḍāmin lahu wa-lā kafīl) for him. He asks for the issuing of a rescript (khurūj al-tawqīʿ) confirming this. Verso: Draft of the same petition, it appears, in Arabic script.

Blessing formula for the caliph al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allah (1131-1149 CE), possibly a draft petition. See also T-S NS 110.26. (“Prayers from the Geniza for Fatimid Caliphs, the Head of Jerusalem Yeshiva, the Jewish community and the Local Congregation,'' in Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica, Presented to Leon Nemoy...Bar-Ilan University, 1982, 49-58) EMS Goitein thought this was a prayer, but it is almost certainly the draft of a petition formula. (MR)

Recto: Fiscal accounting. In Arabic script. Mentions the treasury (bayt al-māl al-maʿmūr). Dating: Probably late Ayyubid or Mamluk. Needs examination.

Recto: part of an official Arabic document, in very large script. On verso there is a list of piyyutim. (Information from CUDL)

Decree from the Fatimid chancery, small fragment, reused by Efrayim b. Shemarya. No image available on FGP. See also PGPID 35336 and PGPID 30851.

Official letter in a Fatimid chancery hand, mentioning Abī l-Bayān Mūsā, may God sustain him, and Abū ʿAlāʾ (?).

State document, unidentified genre. The beginnings of six lines are preserved. Dating: mentions the year 421 AH, corresponding to 1030 CE. Possibly a record of the issuing of different decrees? Refers once to a tawqīʿ and later to "al-tawqīʿ al-muʿaẓẓam al-muʾarrakh bi-[...]" (the mighty decree/rescript that is dated [...]). On verso there are Hebrew seliḥot.

Letter, possibly official, relating to mosques and construction projects and donations. Mentions specifically the tiles of the mosque. Also "the properties of the government in [...].". Reused in the margin of recto and on verso for piyyut.

Recto: Ayyubid or Mamluk-era fiscal account. In Arabic script. Extremely neat and well-preserved. Mentions Dār al-Malik al-Muẓaffar and al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ. Needs examination.

Decree fragment, probably Ghaznavid, containing the order clause and the beginning of the date clause; date cut off. From an 11th-century archive or Geniza of a Jewish land-owning and trading family at Bāmiyān that came to light in the late 20th c in Bāmiyān province, Afghanistan. In Persian and Arabic.

State document, fragmentary, in chancery hand. Mentions the province of Damietta (thagr dimyāṭ) and someone's arrival/appointment to it. Also has an ʿalama in the middle. Needs further examination.

Receipt in Arabic script (waṣala ilā bayt al-māl al-maʿmūr) in the name of Ibrāhīm b. Sunbāṭ al-Ṣayyāgh (the dyer), the Maghribī Jew, dated Ramaḍān 442, with the funds being delivered by Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā; ʿalāma on recto and a detailed registration in the dīwān al-jawālī of Fustat (!) on verso and witnesses' signatures.

State(?) document in Arabic script, calligraphic, with diacritics and vowels. Late. "We have looked into these matters. . ." Needs examination.

A Fatimid decree fragment reused for the canon of Andreas of Crete, a ninth-century text, here in later copy. (Information from Naïm Vanthieghem and Marina Rustow)

Fatimid state decree to a lower official, reused for a Coptic text dated 408–410 AH, hence datable to earlier than that; probably from the reign of al-Ḥākim, possibly even earlier. The Coptic text was partially published as CPR II 1 and MPER XVIII 55, and will be re-edited by Vincent Walter; full bibliography at https://search.onb.ac.at/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ONB_alma21324720350003338&context=L&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&vid=ONB&lang=de_DE&search_scope=ONB_gesamtbestand&tab=default_tab&query=addsrcrid,exact,RZ00003981. (Information from Marina Rustow and Vincent Walter, July 2021)

Official letter of the Mamlūk period. [Described on the paper wrapper as: "une lettre de l'epoque des mamelucks caucasiens (?)" ; on a separate small piece of paper : "A letter from the mamlouk Circasian period"].

Described in PUDL as a letter from a slave to his master regarding administrative matters.[Described on the paper wrapper as: "lettre d'un esclave à son maître expliquant sa methode d'administration" ; on a separate small piece of paper: "A letter from a slave who is called Gani Bek to his master explaining to him his method of administration"].