Geniza Lab

Letter/report from a patron of Abū Zikrī al-Ḥakīm and his father (Eliyyahu the Judge) to a superior (addressed as "al-majlis"). In Arabic script. Dating: 1218–27 CE, based on the mention of both al-Malik al-Kāmil (the Ayyubid sultan 1218–38) and al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam (the Ayyubid ruler of Damascus, d. 1227). This is a letter of patronage/protection/recommendation, attesting that Abū Zikrī and Eliyyahu are the loyal servants of the sender and must be assisted and protected in their purposes and must not be opposed by the dīwān of Alexandria (dīwān al-thaghr al-maḥrūs). In fact, they have already obtained orders from the dīwāns of al-Kāmil (amr al-dawāwīn al-Kāmiliyya) and royal rescripts (al-tawāqīʿ al-kāmiliyya) to this effect. There are no specifics whatsoever about the nature of the protection that should be extended. In another letter, T-S NS J29, Abū Zikrī describes to his father his efforts to obtain an "iṭlāq" (this has been understood as a disbursement of a state salary, perhaps for serving as judge in Alexandria) from al-Malik al-Kāmil, in part by cashing in the favors owed to him by mid-level amirs (סעד אלדין כוגבא is mentioned by name). This document is probably the continuation of the same story and the fruits of Abū Zikrī's efforts. The sender concludes this recommendation by saying, "Whatever good happens to them happens to me." There is a 4-line digest of the essence of the report at the top of recto for the benefit of impatient readers. ASE

Official correspondence in Arabic script. Petition? Fragment (lower part). The sender's name is likely Bū Bakr b. ʿAntar (right margin). The main request seems to be that the addressee attend somewhere immediately: ان يجمل(؟) مملوكه بالحضور سرعة… سرعة حضوره… سرعة حضوره سرعة سرعة. Might mention someone called al-Tūnisī in l. 4. Needs further examination.

Original document: Petition from a woman (al-mamlūka), probably in Tinnīs (المقيمة بمدينة تنيس حماها الله تعالى) to a dignitary with the title al-Juyūshī. The addressee might be Badr al-Jamālī (d. 1094; the first in Egypt to hold the title Amir al-Juyūsh). But Khan has argued that the taqbīl clause is not found in petitions before the period of al-Āmir (1101–30 CE), so the addressee may be a later vizier (all of them from Badr through Saladin technically held the title Amīr al-Juyūsh as well). None of the content of the petition is preserved. The space between the lines seems to have been filled in with a legal document or draft in Arabic script, in smaller handwriting. The text on verso may be related but is quite faded.

Tax receipt for the capitation tax of Maʿālī b. [...] in Fustat for the year 525 AH (=1130/31 CE).

Tax receipt in the hand of the jahbadh Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ. The payer is [...] Ibn al-Ṣiqillī. Needs examination.

Possibly a fragment of a petition. The beginnings of 11 lines are preserved. On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Needs examination.

Recto: Petition from a certain Jaʿfar to a Fatimid dignitary (qāʾid). In Arabic script. In which Jaʿfar asks that the support (maʿūna) granted to him not be withdrawn. (Information from Khan.)

Chancery document in Arabic script. Mentions two different bureaus: dīwan al-[...] al-miṣrī (line 2) and dīwān al-ḥubūs al-miṣriyya (line 7). The number '500' appears in the last line, perhaps part of a date (5[..] AH?).

Chancery document in Arabic script. Dated: 675 AH, which is 1276/77 CE. Contains various annotations by clerks and is endorsed by both thin and thick pen. It is probably concerned with wager (=wages?) (indecipherable). Information from Baker/Polliack catalog via FGP.

Petition, draft. in Arabic script. Arranged in four columns on a bifolium, with text at 90 degrees in the space between columns. Needs further examination. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

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 an eighth (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: 8 Rabīʿ II 404 AH, which is October 1013 CE. Verso: Arabic document regarding the proceedings in the office of inspection in the province of Al-Fayyūm. (Information from CUDL)

Fol. 1: 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 tax-farmer Ḏāt al-Ṣafā has paid two and a half (dirhams?), 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, the deputy judge Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā b. Bahār and the elder accountant Sadīd al-Dawla Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. Qūrīl. Dated 8 Ramaḍān 402 AH, which is 3 April 1012 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Fol. 2: receipt for the amount of 2 and a quarter (dirhams?) 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, 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, the deputy judge Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā b. Bahār and the elder accountant Sadīd al-Dawla Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. Qūrīl. Dated: 17 Dhū l-Qaʿda 402 AH, which is June 1012 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Tax farming lease from the administration of al-Mustanṣir, dated 479 "kharājiyya" (1086/7 CE). Mūsā b. ʿĪsā takes upon himself a monthly payment of 8 dinars against the right to collect "the two zakāts" in the village of Qabīl (situated in the Buḥayra province in the western part of the Nile delta), under the supervision of Abū Isḥāq b. Namir (or Timur?) b. Munajjā (perhaps the finance director of the district). The taxes will be directed to the Imām al-Mustanṣir billāh and to his Amīr al-Juyūsh (Badr al-Jamālī). The salve of Badr, Ḥātim b. Faraj, is also saluted. The conclusion states that three copies were made, "identical in their wording and sense." The scribe is Zayd b. Jābir al-Sarūjī. "The two zakāts which form the object of the contract probably were the taxes on animals and on certain agricultural products. Information from Goitein's attached transcription and notes.

Petition to an Ayyubid sultan by a Jewish physician. "The slave Makārim b. Isḥāq, the doctor. In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate. (The slave) kisses the ground and reports that he is a trained and able practitioner in the profession of medicine. The two doctors of our master the sultan, al-Rashīd al-Dimashqī and al-Rashīd Abū Ḥulayqa, attest to the excellence of the slave's knowledge in this profession. He makes a request before our lord the sultan, may God make great his victory, of the gift of the remainder of the salary of al-Asʿad, the doctor in the hospital of Cairo, that is three dinars every month, (paid) to the salve for him to practise the treatment of the sick and let the prayer (of the slave) [for] our lord the sultan be answered. The resolution (of the sultan) is exalted. Praise be to God alone and his blessings [be upon our lord] Muḥammad and his family and save them." Translation by Geoffrey Khan. See tag for additional documents involving Makārim b. Isḥāq.

Draft of a petition from […] Mukhliṣ, in Minyat Ghamr, to an Ayyubid dignitary. In Arabic script. The petitioner complains about the young son of a neighbor who recently moved into the same hostel where the petitioner is living. The child in question has continually harassed the petitioner and his family, including injuring his wife by biting her. Dating: ca. 12th-13th century. (Information from Khan and CUDL)

Decree (manshūr) issued by the caliph al-Hafiz on 21 Rajab 528/1133 to stop two cases of malpractice which were adversely affecting the Delta province of al-Nastarawiyya. Merchants from al-Nastarawiyya who traveled to the neighboring coastal regions to buy goods were being mistreated by government officials and their business was being disrupted; and fishermen from al-Gharbiyya province were fishing illegally along the shores of Lake Burullus within the territory of al-Nastarawiyya, causing financial harm to the ḍamān for fisheries held by ḍāmins from al-Nastarawiyya (and thus to the fisc). (Khan, 1986, p. 441) This version of the decree was copied onto a bifolio in the chancery for storage in its archives; for more on this process and the relationship of compact archival decrees to monumental rotuli, see Rustow, The Lost Archive, 326–34.

Fiscal account. Contains multiple entries, each marked with nuqila, “it has been copied.” Khan dates this document to the same period as T-S Ar.40.37, which is dated 1134 CE and contains the same mark (Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, p. 449; Bauden, “Maqriziana II,” 110–12; Rustow, Lost Archive, 337ff.).

Fatimid fiscal requisition for the dīwān al-jaysh, including information about an iqtā`. Contains a request for registration and at least one registration mark.

Recto (original use): Bottom of a formal petition in Arabic script, mentioning "al-thaghr" (=Alexandria?) and merchandise and the money of the diwan. يذكر فيه وصول من بيت [المال؟] . . . من المستخدمين شاهده بـ . . . . من البضائع . . . المملوك . . . ليقف عليها الراي العالي . . . . . كتاب بانه يذكر ان المجاهد ابو فضيل . . . الانفصال من اموال الديوان . . . . . . المقام العالي ومن جملة ما كان بالثغر من المستخرج ان شا الله والراي اعلا ان شا الله الحمد لله وحده وصلواته على سيدنا محمد وآله وسلم تسليما حسبي الله ونعم الوكيل