Geniza Lab

A magnificent illuminated certificate/amulet for a circumcision. Assuming we're meant to add up all the red numbers at the bottom to find the year, it is from 1847/8 CE ([5]608, but could also be 5 years earlier if one of the red "ה"s signifies 5000 rather than the black one). ASE.

Amulet in Arabic script. It is even dated at the bottom; 16 Ṣafar [?]25.

Amulets or magical recipes, at least partially for curing various physical ailments, in Arabic.

Recto: An amulet or talisman for protection, beginning with a chapter on charms and protections "bāb al-ḥirz l-aʿẓam". Verso: Magical recipe or charm involving an egg, writing something 49 times on it which leads to someone's birth in hell. Needs further investigation.

Amulets or magical recipes in Arabic.

Recto: A recipe in Arabic script (bāb yanfaʿ li. . . . yusḥaq. . . yukhlaṭ. . .), written in two different hands or at least with two different calami. Verso: Magical diagrams including an illustration of a bird, with captions in Arabic script.

Recto: A recipe in Arabic script. Verso: Three more lines in Arabic script, significance unclear. Underneath, in large letters, is written "bismillāh aṭāl allāh."

Medical prescription. In Arabic script. Looks like a different hand than the letter on recto.

Recto: a medical prescription in Arabic for ʿAlī b. [..]Allah. Verso: scribal practice in Hebrew. ASE.

A Judaeo-Arabic magical spell of some kind, probably malevolent, for "binding" somebody. The female victim's name is meant to be filled in in lines 5/6. After which, "no one will release her, neither man nor woman, neither jinn nor jinniyah." Then there's something about "his hands before his feet." Then, again, "nothing will release her... neither moon nor dawn... until the rabbit is milked (?)." ASE.

Recto: elegant Judaeo-Arabic rhymed prose on the theme of memento mori, interspersed with verses from Job in Hebrew (21:32: 'For he is borne to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb' and 34:15: 'All flesh shall perish together and man shall return unto dust'). Verso: abbreviated verses from the story of Avraham in Genesis. ASE.

Medical prescription. In Arabic script. Ingredients include: "Indian"; borage; pistachio kernels; sugar. Diet: boiled young chickens (farrūj maṣlūq).

Recto: excerpts of Arabic poetry, transcribed into Judaeo-Arabic. The poem beginning in line 6 is credited to Qays b. al-Mulawwah (Majnun Layla) in some anthologies. Verso: extremely faded Hebrew in large letters. Needs further examination. ASE.

Pen trials, probably. Mentions "these books arrived" and names such as Naṣr b. Shelomo b. Yosef ha-Kohen Av Bet Din and Elʿazar b. Shelomo ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Magical spells and prayers to angels in Hebrew.

Colophon of a book or scroll. Includes a detailed ownership/acquisition note in Judaeo-Arabic, and underneath in a different hand a dedication to the waqf of a synagogue.

Codex containing 'the eight books of the Prophets.' With a dedication note. Raḥel bt. Shelomo who is connected somehow (דמתחכים?) to Ḥadīd b. Ayyūb b. Shelomo b. שתון b. מרב כשיתא, dedicated this volume to the qodesh of the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat. It may not be sold or redeemed. Whoever misuses it shall be excommunicated and cursed with the curse of Yehoshuaʿ b. Nun and Yehuda b. Yeḥezqel (cf. the scorpion-amulets T-S AS 143.26 and T-S NS 73.12). Whoever honors and reads it will be blessed with the blessings of Abraham the patriarch.

Magical text. Six pages, Arabic script. See also Bodl. MS heb. c 13/3 (PGP 6406). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Magical text. Six pages, Arabic script. See also Bodl. MS heb. c 13/2 (PGP 6405). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Magical spells, 1 for arousing love (tahayyuj) and 1 for binding someone's tongue (ʿaqd lisān). Probably in the hand of Abū Sahl Levi (see tag). They are written in charming style ("may the love of X settle on the heart of Y, like the shade on an apple, like rose wafting fragrance" followed by a racy blazon; the next one, "may God make you an ass").