Geniza Lab

Minute fragment with a few Arabic words preserved on each side, either from a legal or official document. AA

Recto: Official Arabic document. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: A few words from a state document, probably a decree. Includes the phrase عادوا الى اقطاعاتهم.

Recto: Document in Arabic script, unidentified.

Verso (original use): Petition in Arabic script. Small fragment (upper left corner). The addressee's titles include ʿAlam al-Dīn and he is described as a "cave/refuge for the poor" (kahf al-fuqarāʾ).

State document, Fatimid period, 1130–49. Opening lines of a petition with a blessing on al-Hāfiẓ. On verso there is additional Arabic text in a different hand, possibly a response to the petition. (Information from CUDL)

State document, Mamluk period, 1442. Draft of a petition from the Jewish community of Fustat to the Mamluk government concerning the malpractices of ‘Abd al-Latif the physician, head of the Jews, who is reported to have sold portions of pious foundation properties and leased others below their value, imposed high fiscal penalties, and confiscated property of the Jews, among a litany of other harmful acts. The document requests his removal from office. (Mark Cohen, "Jews in the Mamlūk Environment: The Crisis of 1442 (A Geniza Study)," BSOAS, 1984, 431-4) EMS

Recto: Unidentified state document in Arabic script. A scribe-in-training has practiced copying the text in between the lines. A few lines from the bottom it refers to "al-tawqīʿ fī Dīwān al-Naẓr." On verso (probably originally recto) there is another state document referring to al-dīwān al-saʿīd). On verso there is also a Judaeo-Arabic legal document (see separate record).

Recto: State document? In Arabic script. Headed by the basmala and perhaps continuing “sijillāt rafaʿahā X b. Y al-Wakīl… bi-l-nāḥiya al-… min aʿmāl…." Needs examination.

Recto: State document. One line from a petition in Arabic script addressed to an amīr. (Information from CUDL)

Earlier document: Small fragment of accounts in Arabic script. Possibly a state document? Needs examination.

Recto: The last two lines of a formal Arabic document, containing only the pious phrases fa-l-ḥamdu lillāhi waḥdahū wa-ṣalawātuhū ʿalā sayyidinā muḥammad..., followed by a ḥasbala. Verso: The first line of a Judaeo-Arabic letter in a very large hand. (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: Official letter in Arabic script. Approximately 4 lines are preserved. Wide space between lines. Very faded, and it is difficult to read more than a few words. The phrase "yuḥīṭ ʿilmah" (end of l. 3) suggests a report rather than petition or decree. Needs further examination.

Recto: Petition. In Arabic script. Dating: Probably Mamluk-era. Concerning the synagogue at Dammūh and asking for orders/guidance (waṣāh). Perhaps having to do with the synagogue’s exemption from tax status, because the ʿummāl have been harassing them. Reused by Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī (d. after 1298).

Small fragment of fiscal accounting, probably. Reused for 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 Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of three, a third, a sixth 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: 5 Ramaḍān 403 AH, which is March 1013 CE. Verso: clerical notes. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: State document in Arabic script. Legible phrases include "allāh taʿālā" and "amīr al-muslimīn." Not much else is left; wide and variable line spacing.

Receipt from the archive 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 two, a half, a third and an eighth (dirhams?) for the estates in al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Thiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, of the judge Abū ʿAlī b. Yaḥyā b. Bahār and the elder accountant Sadīd al-Dawla Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. Qūrīl. (Dated: 27 Ramaḍān 405 AH, which is March 1015 CE.

Small fragment of an official letter. A few words from the beginnings of two lines are preserved, wide space between the lines. On verso there is Hebrew text surrounded by a red and black border (similar to T-S AS 182.60 and T-S Misc.29.9 + T-S Misc.29.2 but not a join).

Small fragment of a petition (...wa-tadbīr umūrihā...). On verso there is one line in very large Arabic script with the word "al-dawāwīn" (a rescript for the petition on recto?).