Geniza Lab

Original use: A few words from a decree: في ديواني الخاصة والخاص وينبغي ان.

Fragment of internal government document, possibly fiscal ("māl ḍamānih li-shuhūr sana..."), dated 412 AH (1021/22 CE). Reused for Hebrew liturgical text

Recto: Fatimid state document. Report by a government official: "The deceased was an employee in the western caravan. He returned and lost his mind in the course of the year four-hundred and fifty-five and expired. He had not received anything of what was due to him...." (Information from Khan, ALAD, Doc. 112.)

Fatimid decree (possibly in the hand of Ibn al-Ṣayrafī himself?). Two lines preserved. See also the separate PGP record for the letter by Yeḥezqel b. Netanel and similar fragments at T-S 20.80 and T-S 12.774.

Verso (original use): State document. Response to an endorsement on a petition. A multi-handed internal memorandum. Contains a note by a chancery clerk per Khan JRAS 1990 53. (information in part from CUDL)

Four lines of a state document. End of a Fatimid report to do with accounts, ending with inshallāh and praises for the caliph (al-Ẓāhir). Dated: 417 kharājī = 419 AH (dated according to both systems).

Decree fragment, Fatimid, 11th century. Reused by Efrayim b. Shemarya (see PGPID 1649).

Recto: Three lines of a calligraphic Arabic document with huge space between the lines. Mentions the year '44, probably [4]44 AH, which would be 1052/53 CE if correct. The blank space on recto and verso was reused for Judaeo-Arabic court records (see separate PGP record).

Recto: State document. Report to al-Ẓāhir about a tax farmer, beginning only. Dating: 1021–36 CE. (Cited in Khan, BSOAS 53 (1990) 25; Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections 311 n27 with partial transcription.) Indirect join: Oded Zinger.

Draft of a petition in the handwriting of Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, addressed to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil (aka the vizier Ibn al-Salār), asking that he release the estate of the Jewish merchant Abū l-Faḍāʾil b. Baqāʾ, which had been illegally sealed by the Mutawalli al-Maʿūna in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1150–51 CE. (Information from Khan and from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 269, 437; II, pp. 353, 513, 604.)

Fiscal account (?). There are numbers and possibly dates. Ductus seems like someone high-up in the administration. Needs examination, and comparison with similarly structured documents. (MR)

State document. Receipt from the treasury for a (non-tax) payment of 162 dinars. Dated: 17 Shawwāl 442 AH, which is 1051 CE. Later reused for a letter.

A Fatimid decree fragment, possibly of an investiture. Recycled by Efrayim b. Shemarya.

Original use: Fragment of a chancery document, possibly a decree. In Arabic script with wide line spacing. 7 lines are partially preserved. Later, the empty spaces on both recto and verso were reused for Judaeo-Arabic legal documents (see separate record). The last line of ENA NS I.23 reads: "[...] ʿan salaf wa-ḥāḍir ʿan ghāʾib min al-tamassuk." Legible words and phrases from T-S 13J33.11 include: fa-lammā warada min al-shām... al-iṣtināʿ rājī... bi-murāʿā... wa-lā siyyamā wa-qad taqammaṣat(?) min malābis(?)....

Fragment of a letter in Arabic script, probably a petition. The sender says that he (or less likely someone else) is unable to provide for himself (a trope of petitions) and presumably asks for assistance. In the margin is a draft of Bible commentary in Judaeo-Arabic, with biblical citations including Deuteronomy 33:2 and 18:18. (Information from CUDL)

Decree (copy in Hebrew script) from the Fatimid caliph al-Ẓāhir to a governor of Palestine (probably Anushtekin al-Dizbirī) informing him of another decree that had come in response to a petition in the name of the Rabbanite Jews regarding a conflict with the Qaraites. That decree is referred to as muktatab lahum (registered with them). Ca. 1030.

Recto: Report to a vizier of al-Ḥāfiẓ by a military official in which the sender references previous petitions and also makes a new request for a rescript. Dating: second quarter of the sixth century AH / 12 century CE. (Information from Khan, ALAD.) EMS

Petition from an Alexandrian coppersmith. Dating: Fatimid-era. Goitein's reading is that the petitioner had bought some merchandise from the dīwān, but had to return it, and now asks to be given those goods back and promises to pay an additional three dīnārs. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Alternatively, he may be describing how he wished to act piously (tazakkā) for the sake of the army (ilā al-ʿaskar) and bought some items from the dīwān, labored on restoring them, then returned them, but he was only recompensed their original value and has not yet received any recompense for his labor (takalluf, taʿab)—hence the petition. ASE Reused on recto for Hebrew piyyuṭ in a distinctive scribal hand. In a different hand underneath, there is a draft of a panegyric for a physician named Eliʿezer (called "sar"/"prince").

Report to the Fatimid chancery. In Arabic script. Dating: beginning of the 12th century, during the reign of al-Afḍal. Describing a battle against the Crusaders. This fragment reports on the strategies used by the army. On verso of T-S 16.114 and T-S 24.57 there is a Hebrew poetic eulogy; on verso of T-S AS 11.383 and T-S AS 146.195 there is the beginning of a letter draft in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

Earlier document: State document in Arabic script. Heavily blurred. The left halves of 7 lines are preserved (which seem to comprise the entire document). Opens with formulaic praises (ونعماه وكبت اعداه اكمل . . . . واعلا . . . .). Mentions the requisite love for the addressee (shurūṭ al-mawadda). May mention the flood of the Nile (ىفيض الما).