Geniza Lab

Tax receipt. For the capitation tax in Cairo and Fustat of [...] b. Mūsā al-Yahūdī. Payment: 2 dinars.

Tax receipt for someone's payment of the capitation tax in Fustat. Dated: looks like 557 AH = 1161/62 CE.

Official-looking document in Arabic script. Needs examination. Involves [...] b. Yūsuf al-ʿAṭṭār.

Receipt for the capitation tax of Ibrāhīm b. Yūsuf the Jew, a silk worker (qazzāz) and craftsman (ṣāniʿ). Same payer: T-S Ar.34.224, T-S Ar.34.282 (where he is called qazzāz wa-ʿaṭṭār instead), T-S Ar.35.55, and T-S Ar.35.22.

Tax receipt (and not a petition as the Baker/Polliack catalogue has it).

Report or petition. The ends of 5 lines are preserved. Twice mentions the Berbers (البربر) who are in the area of Abshīsh (ابشيش) in the Delta. Also mentions "the villages of the laborers" (ḍiyāʿ al-ʿāmilīn). On verso there are pen trials in Hebrew (perhaps by a scribe who drew up ketubbot).

Tax receipt. Fatimid-era. Short. Granted to a certain Yūsuf. Amounts and date and scribe are not immediately clear. Needs further examination.

Tax receipt. Fatimid-era. In Arabic script. Granted to Bū Saʿd Ibrāhīm. The sum is 7.5 (written at lower left), and half of that is 3.75 (written at lower right). The sum of 7.5 is also written on verso in Judaeo-Arabic. The name of the scribe appears at the bottom. It is not immediately clear if there is a date. Needs further examination.

Official document of some sort. In Arabic script. Needs examination.

Fatimid state document with an ʿalāma (al-ḥamdu lil-lāh ka-mā huwa ahluhu). Many text blocks, many hands. On one side, l. 4 mentions al-Imām al-Mustanṣir Billāh (i.e., the caliph). Another text block on the same side mentions Hiba b. Isrāʾīl and the date Dhū l-Ḥijja 430 AH, which is August/September 1039 CE. Needs further examination.

Receipt for the capitation tax of Ibrāhīm b. Yūsuf the Jew, a silk worker (qazzāz) and craftsman (ṣāniʿ). Same payer: T-S Ar.34.224, T-S Ar.34.282 (where he is called qazzāz wa-ʿaṭṭār instead), T-S Ar.35.55, and T-S Ar.35.22. This fragment has text in 5 different hands.

State documents, probably. Receipts? There are 2 documents sharing the same page. The top one is for Ṣadaqa b. Yūsuf and the bottom one is for Yūsuf b. Ṣadaqa. Needs further examination.

State document, possibly. There are two lines in a chancery hand and the end of a third line, with huge spaces between them, and an additional line in the margin. Perhaps this is a petition or appeal for help (...min kiswatin wa-ʿāda ilā l-bāb al-ʿazīz... ṣuḥbata Bū l-Faraj...). In the copious space remaining, there are writing exercises (including an effort to copy the original lines). On verso there are writing exercises in Hebrew script. There is also some additional Arabic script with Greek/Coptic numerals.

Accounts in Arabic script, probably fiscal. Needs examination.

Decree of investiture; two lines widely spaced.

Fiscal document, probably. Entries in multiple hands, some of them beginning with ṣaḥḥa, some of them mentioning a mablagh (sum) of money.

Letter. Internal administrative goverment document. Six widely spaced lines (Baker and Polliack) in chancery hand. Contains some lacunae and in particular the first few lines are incomplete. Deals with property. Mentions: ahl al-[...], li-na'khadhū biyārahum, qā'id al-qawm, istawlat (or istawlada?) 'alayhā al dhilla li-taḥqīqihā, lammā waṣalat talab.

Recto: 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: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of a third and a twelfth (dirhams?) 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: 7 Ṣafar 404 AH, which is August 1013 CE. Verso: Arabic accounts (incomplete). (Information from CUDL)

Order to a lower official, specifying what is to be disbursed from the blessed grain storehouses (taʿrīf: mimmā yaḥtāj lak iṭlāquh min al-ahrāʾ al-mubār[aka... al-maʿmūra] bi-dāʾim ḥirāsatih...). Dated: Muḥarram 564 AH = October/November 1168 CE. Needs further examination.

Bottom of a petition or report. In Arabic script. "...ʿalā l-mamlūk... anhā dhālika wa-l-raʾy aʿlāhu(?)..." then a ḥamdala and ṣalwala at the bottom.