Geniza Lab

Recto: Medical prescription in Arabic (or a page from a medical treatise). Verso: A statement in Arabic signed by Hiba b. Mufaḍḍal al-Mutaṭabbib and dated September 1260 (18 Shawwal 658). It has to do wtih a payment in "plain black dirhams" (sawād sādhij).

Various chronological calculations ("from Adam to the flood... from the flood to the birth of Isaac... from the creation of the world to the receiving of the Torah... etc."), mentioning also that Jesus died at age 33. Opens with a citation from the work Kad ha-Qemaḥ by Baḥyā ben Asher (1255-1340) to the effect that Lamekh the father of Noah met Adam and that Avraham met Noah. The last two lines seem to give the date the fragment was written, albeit obscurely.

Recto: Medical recipes. In Judaeo-Arabic. The first includes ingredients such as Indian salt, anise, and chicory water. The second (for headaches and for excessive moisture in the head and the eyes) includes ingredients such as sugar, Socotrine aloe, turpeth, and myrobalan. Verso: Story about al-Ma'mūn and ʿĪsā. In Judaeo-Arabic. The page opens with some medical language—so it is possible that the recipes on recto are part of this story.

Horoscopes in Hebrew, with marginal notes in Judaeo-Arabic. One is headed "dukhifat" (hoopoe).

Prognostications? In Arabic script.

Recto: Recipes in Judaeo-Arabic. Purpose unclear. The second recipes involves red hairs, a cloth, and lamp oil (zayt ḥār). Verso: Hebrew poem.

Recipes. In Ladino and Hebrew. Some medical, some not. Some headed "secreto."

Forecasts. In Ladino. Foretelling the fortunes of the coming year based on the day of the week of the Copts' Feast of the Cross (ʿīd al-ṣalīb) (17 Thout).

Recipe against worms. In Hebrew. Late. Written in the margin of a literary text (commentary on Exodus).

Literary. Instructions of some kind in very faded Judaeo-Arabic.

Magical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic, e.g. for getting pregnant or healing a scorpion sting.

Very faded, perhaps magical incantations? Mentions angels' names, demons, plague, quotes Song of Songs 8:7.

Medical recipes in Hebrew, filled with Romance words.

Recto: the poetic introduction to a ketubba (nearly identical to that in 10653.1) in a good scribal hand but without any additional content. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic prognostictation about what it means if there is a lunar eclipse in Elul (of 5570?). The four additional lines at the bottom are difficult to decipher.

A very large magical fragment with copious Coptic text and scattered phrases in (poor) Greek. Thanks to Professor Maria Mavroudi for identifying the languages, and to the Coptic Magical Papyri project for a detailed description and partial translation of this fragment, available at http://www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/index.php/2019/04/05/looking-at-the-coptic-magical-papyri-iii-boundary-crossing-texts/. It is a formulary-cum-amulet to protect the pregnant woman Soura daughter of Pelca and her children. ASE.

Document containing phrases of praise. No orderly arrangement. (Information from Goitein's index card)

See also BL OR 5547.3. Recto: two blocks of text in Arabic. The bottom one at least is a medical prescription (يوجذ على بركة الله وعونه) using ingredients such as chebulic myrobalan (اهليلج كابلي) and lavender (اسطوخوذس). Verso: upper block of text is Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew, giving detailed instructions for how a cantor should recite certain verses and prayers. Lower block of text is another Arabic technical text, conceivably from a work on alchemy, as in the verso of BL OR 5547.3 (by the same writer).The overlap of the Hebrew script with the Arabic technical passage (see the title of the section, باب אל...) suggests that the same writer is responsible for the the entirety of verso. ASE.

See also BL OR 5547.2. Recto: technical instructions in Arabic. Verso: the upper block of text appears to be technical instructions in Arabic for an alchemical recipe. The lower block of text is in Hebrew, but the content remains opaque. The whole fragment requires further examination. ASE.

Formulary for letters to distinguished addressees. In Judaeo-Arabic. The second form is for begging for forgiveness on behalf of somebody. The writer switches into Arabic script for the "in sha allah" at the end of each letter; he also writes "forgiveness" as עפר rather than גפר, perhaps suggesting that these are meant to be transcribed directly into Arabic. ASE.

An unusually neat and pristine amulet (possibly late, possibly never used) for the healing and protection of Eliyyahu b. Sarah.