Geniza Lab

Fragment from a letter, mentioning 5 raṭl. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to Eliyyahu the judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking for charity or help. The sender's name is partially preserved but hard to read. On verso there is the address of the letter and some accounting in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals in a fiscal hand. (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: citations of Ezekiel 44:20 and commentary. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic letter. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: opening of a letter with only a few lines of blessings preserved. Verso: two names (Abū [...] and ʿOvadya, sons of al-Ḥalāl), probably senders of the letter. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic with several lines in Arabic script on verso. Dated: 11 Sivan [4901] AM, which is 18 May 1141 CE. Abū Naṣr informs the addressee that Yehuda ha-Levi set sail on Wednesday, the first day of Shavuʿot, after leaving him a letter for the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya, which accompanies this letter. The Arabic text on verso—which may or may not be related—reads "... he did not accept from him, and he went up with him/it to Cairo and was declared bankrupt. . . to go with them, and he met the Rayyis and told him, and he saved him from them." (Information from CUDL and from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV.)

Letter or note from Sitt Rayḥān; on verso mentions Zachariah, possibly the addressee, and Alexandria. (Information from CUDL)

Few words of opening verses from a letter to a notable. AA

Letter or note, mentioning Alexandria. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Letter from an India trader. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. mid-12th-century. Mentions Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Amshātī (asking for his news?) and Abū Naṣr. The sender had traveled from Ceylon in a small boat of the kind known as maṭiyya, but pirates captured it. Now he is "cut off" (munqaṭiʿ). In the margin there is a jotting in Arabic script (jullabān/vetch?) and Greek/Coptic numerals. On verso there are undeciphered jottings in Arabic script and some in Hebrew. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter addressed to 'Rabbenu [...]' in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions a dispute and not being able to put up with a qāḍī (קלת לא נחנא נטיק אלקאטי...); also mentions New Cairo and the name ʿAbdallah. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions R. Yeshuʿa and instructions about taking a medicinal syrup. Verso: Order in Arabic script instructing the addressee to give the bearer something involving violets (banafsaj). Underneath there is the respectful opening of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic (in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu? Torn up and reused for this order?). (Information in part from CUDL)

A Hebrew poetical text from a letter to a notable known as Sa'adya. Contains mostly blessing (such as the well-being of his sons). AA

Letter from the lepers of Tiberias to Furayj b. Ḥasan. Dating: ca. 1030 CE. Asking for donations be given to the emissaries from Tiberias collecting charity on the senders' behalf.

Letter fragment (upper half of recto). The name Mus[a] may appear at the top. The addressee is addressed as "my son" and perhaps also as al-Shaykh Makīn [...]. The writer is angry at the addressee because ever since the latter traveled, he has sent no letters regarding Mukhalliṣ who has the money belonging to Manṣūr. They heard that the addressee "took from him" 30 dirhams but never sent them to the writer, and also that the addressee returned to Fustat but did not come to see them. Then the letter breaks off. "His brother 'Amīd" and "Makīn" are mentioned. ASE.

On the upper leaf is a Hebrew letter, on the lower leaf are Arabic jottings, probably part of an Arabic document. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment, mercantile (lower part of recto, upper part of verso). Legible phrases on recto include: "the price was 34, and until now. . . ." On verso: "Set sail for al-Aflayah (אלאפלאיה). . . I was waiting, and news arrived. . ." The place name is written clearly, but its identity is unclear. Pedro Teixeira wrote in the 17th century, en route from Baghdad to Aleppo, "We halted in a plain that the Arabs call Aflayah, the name of a town from which the whole district is so called." ASE.

Fragments of a letter. T-S AS 147.106: From the upper part of recto. Flowery blessings for the addressee. ". . . . with sayyidnā al-Rayyis with my absence during these holidays. . . But there is nothing to be done." The text in the margin mentions a letter from R. Efrayim. . . the loss of my livelihood. . . . and closing greetings. T-S AS 147.115: From the bottom of recto. Most of the text is fragmentary but mentions a certain Ibn al-'Ajami and the writers's shock and dismay. ASE.

Letter fragment (part of a few lines of recto and verso). Probably too fragmentary to work out the subject without a join. ASE.

On recto fragment from a late letter mentioning Shmuel Bahalul contains blessings. Verso unrelated to recto, written by a different hand, regarding the Book of Amos. AA

Letter by Yehoshuaʿ Maimonides with his motto, mentioning Abraham ha-Sar. (Information from CUDL)