Geniza Lab

State decree from the Fatimid chancery, written under al-Ḥākim, al-Ẓāhir or al-Mustanṣir to an official in Egypt regarding a dispute over irrigation canals and access to water — insofar as one can judge. Only the left half of the lines are preserved. About 1.3 meters of what was once a much longer decree. The joins of the decree fragment when pieced together refer to the need of restoring the area surrounding the gulf/bay - 'li ḥāja dāʿiya ilā ʿimārat al-khuluj' and the allotment of irrigation from these canals: 'aqsaṭ min al-rī min hādhihi l-khuluj. Verso: Efrayim b. Shemarya uses and reworks passages from the Sheʾiltot for a sermon. Top of the rotulus is headed Shabbat Bereishit (see separate record). Join: Roni Shweka (bottom six fragments) and Rebecca Sebbagh (top fragment). Before 1055. See also Mosseri VI.117.2, which may belong to the left side of this decree. (MR)

Efrayim b. Shemarya (11th c) uses and reworks passages from the Sheʾiltot of Aḥay of Shabḥa (8th c) for a sermon. Written on a Fatimid decree rotulus (see separate record). The top of verso is headed Shabbat Bereishit, presumably the occasion of the liturgical cycle for which Efrayim needed the sermon. Join: Roni Shweka (bottom six fragments) and Rebecca Sebbagh (top fragment). Before 1055 (death of Efrayim). See also Mosseri VI.117.2, which may belong to the left side of this decree. (MR)

Decree, fragment. Dating: late Fatimid or Ayyubid. Reused for a bifolio and a single folio containing passages from the Babylonian Talmud. (Join by Sussman catalogue per FGP; not continuous.)

Verso: State document in Arabic script. The beginnings of four lines are preserved.

Two unrelated Arabic-script documents glued together for the sake of reuse. Upper document: Legal document. Parties mentioned include Abū l-Faḍāʾil Nāṣir b. Karam b. Ṣadaqa and Abū Muḥammad Qāsim b. ʿAlī(?). Possibly mentioning a marriage, an adolescent boy, and a house - but needs examination. One witness signature is preserved (with a date that is difficult to read). Lower document: State document. Only the first few words are preserved from ~12 lines. The Judaeo-Arabic text on top of the state document is mixture of love poetry and humorous anecdote. On verso there is the continuation of the same text, but mostly Hebrew poetry.

State document in Arabic script. Approximately 12 lines are preserved. On verso there is piyyuṭ in the same hand as verso of T-S NS 325.232 + T-S 16.114 + T-S 24.57. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. Joins: Alan Elbaum. Needs examination.

Official letter in Arabic script. Mentions business or fiscal accounting words like istikhrāj and ḥisāb. Joins: Marina Rustow. Needs examination.

Petition to the Ayyubid sultan al-ʿĀdil regarding the capitation tax. Dating: ca. 596–615 AH, which is 1200–18 CE. The petitioner asks that his tax rate be modified from the middle rate (2 dinars), which he cannot afford to pay, to the lower rate. On verso there are some Hebrew poetical texts (possibly piyyuṭ) mentioning Iṣḥaq Khanāf (?). (Information from Khan and CUDL)

Official letter. Maybe a petition? Dated 4 Shaʿbān 566 (or 567 or 568?) AH, which is 12 April 1171 CE, if read correctly. The tarjama refers to the sender as from "al-dīwān al-shamsī al-saʿīd"—potentially a bureaucrat in the service of Shams al-Dīn Turanshah (Saladin's brother). After the date, refers to a sum of money. On verso there is Hebrew piyyut.

Document of appointment. In Arabic script. Dating: 11th or 12th century. The appointment is likely for a position in the army, mentioning an ‘affair of the Turks’ that the appointed person had dealt with successfully. On verso there is Hebrew poetry including Judah ha-Levi’s יה למתי צפנת. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

State document in Arabic script. Three lines and the last word of a fourth are preserved. Bestowing titles on the judge Abū Isḥaq (al-qāḍī al-rashīd al-muwaffaq al-sadīd). Dating: 11th–13th century. In between the lines there is a list in Hebrew script—calendrical? On verso there are Hebrew poems. One composition has the heading משה, another the Judaeo-Arabic heading הגר אלדלאל. (Information in part from Khan and CUDL.)

Opening of a petition to an Ayyubid sultan, possibly Al-ʿĀdil I (13th century). On verso there is a piyyuṭ, possibly for Yom Kippur. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

Small fragment of a state document, likely a decree. Only two lines are preserved, written in very large letters with huge space between them: "... wa-akmal niʿma wa-afḍal umniya..." Reused on recto for piyyut.

State correspondence. Five lines are preserved, and possibly a copy of a sixth line. Almost all the preserved text is flattery and expressions of loyalty and blessings. Notably, it refers to "continuing in (state) service (fī l-khidma) in Damascus," likely in reference to the sender. On verso there is Hebrew piyyuṭ.

State document in Arabic script. Reused for Hebrew piyyut.

State document. The right halves of 14 lines are preserved. Maybe an account of some kind. Mentions someone's servants (wa-ghilmānuhū), half of something, and installments (aqsāṭ). On verso there is piyyuṭ. Needs examination.

Recto: Petition to the vizier Ibn al-Salār from an impoverished army veteran who had served in ʿAsqalān. Dating: 544–48 AH, which is 1149–53 CE. (Information from Khan.)

State decree, fragment of right margin, line 3 mentions "this day"

Petition to Saladin from ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yaḥyā, the Jew, a resident of Malīj, in the province of al-Gharbiyya, in the Delta. Dating: ca. 564–89 AH, which is 1169–93 CE. The petitioner complains about the tax collectors, who forced him to leave his family and job and to work for them, and asks for the issuing of a rescript that would allow him to go back to his town and family. On verso is an answer to the petition maintaining that since ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Yaḥyā had some experience as a tax collector, he could not avoid this service. Also on verso is a work on calendar reckoning mentioning the maḥzorim, the moladot and the different kinds of Hebrew year; names of the months of the year in the Julian(!) calendar and the numbers of their days are written vertically on the leaf. There are also a few draft lines of some phrases contained in the petition that appears on verso, and a list of figures in the marginalia. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fatimid decree. Two lines in huge script with wide spaces between the lines; faded and difficult to decipher. Reused for a text in Judaeo-Arabic that is datable to the 1090s or early 1100s.