Geniza Lab

Informal note from Munajjā to Abū l-Riḍā. In Arabic script, in a crude hand. Written on verso of a page of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. "Write for me a ruqʿa for 40 dirhams, and 2 will remain to you.... maybe you will do something for me with the qāḍī, by God."

Letter fragment in Arabic script. Very faded. The sender reports that he is sick.

Letter in Arabic script. Mentions carrying out an errand for Abū l-M[...], and Cairo. The text on verso is part of the same letter. The sender seems to apologize once or twice for his handwriting. Needs examination.

Fragment of a letter, probably. In Arabic script. Mentions "...and the people honor him..." Needs examination.

Small fragment of a letter in Arabic script.

List of materia medica in Arabic script, containing simples such as endive, Armenian bole, and red arsenic (realgar) and yellow arsenic, probably part of a letter as verso contains an address (‘this letter should be sent to …’). On recto, many of the entries are crossed out, some with red ink. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment in Arabic script. The address is preserved but difficult to read. Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Fragment. The writer is giving advice that "perhaps will save you and help you in . . . salvation if God wills." The addressee is to go to a certain zāwiya (Sufi lodge? or simply corner?) and ask for al-Ḥājj Mukhtār al-K[...]. ASE.

Letter fragment in Arabic script.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script to Sitt Nadd, probably from her husband. The writer rejoiced at the news of her deliverance (khalāṣ) (childbirth? or from a financial difficulty?). The writer discusses a matter of 20 dirhams that he thought she could obtain from her brother's wife. The writer has sent several items with the bearer including the blanket (malḥafa) that she had requested. Three lines from the bottom the writer touches on his own professional struggles (qaṭʿ al-rizq), it seems because he is a physician and there are now five (or fifty?) physicians in the town competing for the same clientele. He sends regards to her brother al-Shaykh al-Rashīd, her brother's wife, and to the children. Verso: Pen trials in Hebrew script. ASE.

Letter in Arabic script. Addressed to a maternal uncle (khāl). Only the opening is presrved. In the margin, in a different hand, Hippocrates's "vita brevis ars longa" is cited.

Letter in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Small fragment of a letter, probably. In Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Minute fragment from the beginning of a letter to a notable.

Letter to a notable. Fragment. The opening lines are in poetic Hebrew. The sender expresses his happiness receiving a letter from the addressee: "seeing your autograph (? or 'the goodness of your hands') is like seeing the Tablets of the Law."

Letter referring to the capitation tax (al-jizya) owed by a man and his son. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Small fragment (upper left corner). Dating: Probably Mamluk-era, based on hand and abbreviations. Addressed to 'the seat (moshav = majlis) of our master.'

A short note written by Avraham Maimonides. Ordering Eliyyahu the judge to pay capitation tax to R. Zakkay the teacher and Ibrāhīm the beadle. AA

Late letter?

Letter sent from Damietta to Khalīfa [...], in Fustat/Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Late.