Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter or short document Verso: Beginning of a letter - needs examination.

Letter fragment in Arabic script. 6 lines preserved from the middle. The sender says things are going well and mentions something about a yellow 'ḥujra' and then the color red. He asks for a vessel of violet (burniyya banafsaj), a little bit of قربشية(?), and cheese.

Letter in Arabic script. Dating: Perhaps Mamluk-era based on format. Opens with greetings to various people including Umm Muḥammad and 'al-ḥājja al-dādā'(?). In the margin mentions "a little bit of bread." Verso is blank.

Letter from Muḥammad Jāwīsh(?). In Arabic script. Dating: Ottoman era. Asking the addressee (al-ʿāmil bi-Miṣr al-Qadīma?) to return the burda(?) that he took from ʿAṭiyya and asking the amir to send approximately 20 heads of sheep (ghanam).

Letter from Abū l-ʿIzz to a certain Talmid. In Arabic script. Best wishes for the holiday. Tells him not to listen to Abū l-ʿAlā, who said that he would follow ʿImrān and agreed to go to Damietta on the writer's behalf, but he never fulfills his word. The addressee is asked to 'enter' (Damietta? Fustat?) for a time, until somebody else can be found to monitor the writer's affairs. Also mentions Ashmūm and the son of Abū Sahl.

Letter or petition in Arabic script. Deaing with financial matters.

Letter fragment (upper right corner) in Arabic script. Mentions Umm Abū ʿAbdallāh and a woman (perhaps the same) who is 'maḍrūba.' Needs further examination.

Letter from a son to his father. In Arabic script. The writer or a sibling may be sick (واما ما تريد علمه ان ولدك ضعيف). There are also several lines of Arabic script on verso, perhaps the end of the letter and the address. Needs further examination

Letter in Arabic script. Needs examination. On verso there is a mishnaic text in Hebrew (beginning שבעה אבהות וגו' יש נוחלין ומנחלין נוחלין ולא מנחלין).

Letter of appeal from a man, unknown location, to Musallam (or Musallama) Abū ʿAlī, the wakīl of Shams al-Dīn Ildakīz al-Birṭāsī, in Minyat Bāsik in ʿAmal al-Sharqiyya (present-day al-Minya in the district of al-Ṣaff in the province of Giza). In Arabic script. Beautiful handwriting. Dated: 7 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 644 AH, which is 23 July 1246 CE. The sender asks the help of the addressee, "because, as everything is so expensive, he has contracted debts, and himself eats only bread and onions. Presumably, there was a wakīl in every iqṭāʿ, and each of them enjoyed prestige and wealth, similar to that of the Shaykh Musallam." Information from Rabie, Financial System of Egypt, p. 65.

Letter in Arabic script. Mentions Damietta in line 3. Unusual format: this may be the letter after it was copied into codex form. Needs further examination.

Recto: Business letter in Arabic script. Mentioning various small transactions and giving instructions. Verso: Barely legible Hebrew text

Letter in Ottoman Turkish addressed to Salmūn who the sender Hafız Server Ağa addresses in the incipit as: "benim rūhum, mu’allam Salmūn" (my spirit, [the] learned Salmūn). The sender hopes that that the letter carrier, Murād, will be received favorably by Salmūn and confirms that he is a trustworthy in his services. Hafız Server Ağa also sends best wishes to Salmūn for the new year: "ve yeni sene mübarek olsun" (and may the new year be a blessing to you). The sender's title Server Ağa is a military title and "server" denotes a higher rank of "Chief Ağa" though it is unclear in which unit he served of the seven regiments of Ottoman Egypt. Given the terse tone of the letter it's possible it was bundled with other correspondence in an effort to introduce Salmūn to a new letter carrier than Hafız Server Ağa had used previously. MCD with information provided kindly by Dr. Özgen Felek.

Personal letter - needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script, mentioning multiple amirs (all called [...] al-Dawla). The ends of 5 lines are preserved. Needs further examination.

Possibly an account

Two letters (or drafts) in Arabic script. Same handwriting on each side. Recto: Addressed to Abū l-Rabīʿ, asking him to send 100 nuqra dirhams with the bearer without delay. Verso: Addressed to Abū l-Riḍā (spelled oddly, ابو الرظا). The addressee is asked to meet with the qāḍī Ṣafiyy al-Dīn and inform him that the sender yearns to serve him. (Information in part from FGP.)

Letter in Ottoman Turkish. T-S NS 306.84 and T-S Ar.39.435 may be related, since both concern shipments of firewood (odun) and have the same script and formatting. (Information from Jane Hathaway.) Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Concerning 'the going up' of an enslaved singing woman (ṭulūʿ al-mughanniya). "I sent Luʾluʾ... with her another person from her place who enters the house with her and says that she is from her master, and if she enters the house and does not serve me(?). . . the judge. . . send the ghulām. . . Ṣāfī. . . ." Needs further examination. (the root טלע used here might be translated as as 'traveling from North to South along the Nile'. AA)

Mercantile letter in Arabic script. Mentions Isḥāq b. al-Wakīl, witnesses, a container of coral (qafaṣ murjān), and 700 dirhams. The letter ends in formal style on verso, with taqbīl, greetings to various people, ḥamdala, ṣālwala, and ḥasbala. Needs further examination.