Geniza Lab

Verso (original use): Bottom of an official letter in Arabic, possibly a petition ("...wa-lahā ḥarasa Allāh ʿizzahā..."). Ends with ḥamdala, ṣalwala, ḥasbala.

Recto: State document. Accounts regarding agrarian administration submitted by Boqṭor b. Sisinne, a Copt, the overseer (al-khawlī) in Badsā (in the province of al-Giza), for the year 401 kharājī (= 1011/12 CE) and the following year, detailing the amount of produce (ghalla) paid as karaji, the amount of produce remaining in the hands of the cultivators, the amount of seed-advance (taqāwī) used, what was given in by Imāʿīl b. al-Qāsim al-Jaʿfarī and what was transferred to the surveyor (al-dalīl) ʿAbdallāh b. Malik. On verso there is a Hebrew liturgical text. Information from Khan via GRU catalog via FGP.

Document in Arabic script, calligraphic, large script, wide space between the lines. Chancery hand? But not a decree fragment.

Official report or petition in Arabic script. Calligraphic, wide space between the lines. Approximately 7 lines are preserved. Dating: Likely 12th or 13th century. some phrases: "... min al-mustakhdamīn bi-ḥukm istiʿmālihim(?) fī ʿaml al-[...]... al-sadīd al-kāshif fa-innahu... al-shaykh al-ṣāliḥ...." Reused for Hebrew literary text.

A few words in large Arabic script (fragment of a decree?). "... an nudhkirahu li-nakhruja ilā dīwān..." On verso there is a discussion of Purim in Judaeo-Arabic.

State petition. Recto: petition to the the imām Al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh from a Jewish merchant, Mūsā b. Ṣadaqa, who was detained unlawfully after his return from India and Yemen with goods. The merchant writes that he had already registered documents in the court of the judge Jalāl al-Mulk Tāj al-Aḥkam (Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf b. Ayyūb al-Maḡribī) and asks for his property and freedom to be restored. Ca. 516-521 AH (= 1123-1127 CE). On verso there is Hebrew liturgical text. (information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Decree, probably. There is a single phrase in naskhī Arabic calligraphy (ʿabīd al-dawla wa-l-yaʿmal bihi....?). Reused for Hebrew liturgical text.

State document in Arabic script. Uses the phrase khidmat mālik al-riqq (see Khan, ALAD, 345, 368, 434 for meaning and other examples); and see T-S Ar. 42.162. Reused on both recto and verso for very curious philosophical and narrative compositions in vocalized Judaeo-Arabic mentioning Aristotle and medical aphorisms (see FGP for more specific identifications). T-S Ar.30.308 and T-S 12.359 are clearly a join, but not a direct join, as the Judaeo-Arabic text is oriented in the same direction as the Arabic text in T-S 12.359, while it is oriented in the opposite direction in T-S Ar.30.308. The scribe of the Judaeo-Arabic text is the same as the sender of T-S 10J7.3 + T-S AS 144.258 and numerous related fragments (see tag "ibn habib's patient"). The Arabic script looks quite different on each fragment, so the scribe probably took at least two different state documents and glued them together for his literary text(s). One of them mentions the amir Fāris al-Dawla.

Tax receipt from the dossier of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb. Written by the jahbadh Yūḥannā b. Mīkhāʾīl.

Large state document in Arabic script. Join by Nadia Vidro. In between the lines and on verso, there is a Kufan grammatical work (see Vidro, FOTM April 2012 and Vidro and Kasher, JSAI 2014.) Might not be a continuous join. Needs examination for content.

State document, perhaps. In Arabic script. Fragment: Bottom only. Contains the end of a prayer for the amīr al-mu'minīn (wa-sallim taslīman) and a ḥasbala.

Official-looking receipt in Arabic script, unclear for what. Needs examination.

Accounts in Arabic script, unclear if state/fiscal or private. Needs examination.

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: the warehouse keeper has paid the sum of two, a quarter and a sixth (dirhams?) on behalf of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 24 Muḥarram 404 AH, which is August 1013 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Two different letters in Arabic script, one on recto and on verso. The one on verso may be a petition. Needs examination for content.

Document in Arabic script. Probably a small piece of a state document, but the content is unclear. Needs examination.

State receipt in Arabic script for the tax farming of dyeing (min ḍamānih lil-ṣabgh). With endorsements/registrations at the top ("athbaṭū al-mablagh..."). It is unclear if/how the text on verso is related. Needs further examination.

Tax receipt, Fatimid, in the hand of Mikhaʾil b. ʿAbd al-Masiḥ, from the caliphate of al-Ḥakim.

Petition, draft, from an ex-government servant asking for work, from the period of the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim (996–1021) or possibly earlier. Verso: tax receipt in the hand of Mikhaʾil b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ (see separate entry).

State document in Arabic script with a large ʿalāma (al-ḥamdu lillāh ʿalā niʿmatih wa-[........]). There are several different text blocks. One of them on verso says "the sum is 20 dirhams, al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn.' Needs examination.