Geniza Lab

Complete note written in both Arabic script and in Judaeo-Arabic. Crude hand. Quite faded. Mentions honey. Needs examination for content.

Personal letter. Very damaged. The sender greets people such as Makārim, Abū l-Mufaḍḍal and Abū Naṣr. A sum of 20 dinars is mentioned, but the text is to fragmentary to put it into context.

Fragment of a personal letter.

Small fragment of a letter

Small fragment. On recto an Arabic letter- needs examination. On verso Judeao Arabic account.

On recto beginning of a letter. On verso Arabic list - needs examination.

Letter in Hebrew. Might be in the hand of Yehoshuaʿ ha-Nagid. Dating: Likely 14th century. The sender issues instructions about communal and/or legal cases. There is a woman who will either be seen by the judge or by the sender himself. The sender wishes to know the content of the letters that arrived with ha-Ṭarṭūshī. He then gives instructions about the legal case of a man named Shelomo. AA. ASE.

Recto: Beginning of a letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to al-Shaykh al-Najīb Abū l-Barakāt.

Small fragment from a letter

Only the address of a letter sent to Harun al-Attar. Late.

Second folio of an irate letter addressed to a son. In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly in the hand of the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekharya (and therefore might be addressed to his son Shelomo). Much of recto consists of pious exhortations and learned quotations, and these are also interspersed throughout verso. But there are also some additional details and accusations on verso: "How can you abandon. . . an old, sick man, worn out by communal duties, and a boy and a girl and [...] in my face. . . how have you lost your manliness? . . . as if I were not your father (? ṣāḥibak). . . such behavior is not fitting from you, that you [...] your soul against the one who is the reason for your existence, and that you seek the harm and humiliation of the man who wants to wash your clothing and help you. You have baffled us for 5 months. . . and we have burdened others. . . and you have saddled me with debts. . . the reason for all of this is. . . from your mind. . . . this is what leads to Gehennom, for the beginning of division is [...] and holding onto the ropes of falsehood and raving, namely mockery and recklessness. . . . And peace." AA. ASE.

Family letter. In Arabic script. Almost all of what remains (the first 8 lines) consists of formulaic expressions of longing. The sender informs the addressee that the children (al-ṣibyān) are well.

Letter or petition. In Arabic script. Quite fragmentary. May mention the blessed Nile. Includes a version of the raʾy clause (fa-li-l-ḥaḍra ʿuluww al-raʾy fī dhālika). Greetings (awfā taḥiyya wa-ikrām) to various people, including the faqīh Abū l-Qāsim. Needs further examination.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Fragment (left side only). Twice mentions Khiḍr b. ʿImrān. Needs examination for content. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Letter to Abū ʿAlī. In Arabic script, in a crude hand. Only the beginning is preserved.

Recto: Fragment of a letter in Arabic script. Might be about provincial administration: "wa-yudabbir amūr al-nāḥiya. . . wa-anna katabū kitāb ilā l-qāḍī. . ." Verso: Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentioning materia medica (India myrobalan, Kirmānī cumin), minerals (sulfur / kibrīt), labdanum, etc.

Poem/letter in Arabic script, probably from a client to a patron expressing gratitude and servitude. Ḥamdala and ḥasbala at the bottom.

Letter from Ismāʿīl b. al-Ḥasan(?) b. Muḥammad, unknown location, to Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAlī al-Ṭūbī(?), in Fustat. In Arabic script. Only the basmala on recto and the address on verso are preserved.

Letter in Arabic script. Small fragment (upper right corner of recto). Consists mostly of formulaic phrases. In the margin, the sender may say that he will send his donkey to the addressee. Part of the address, possibly preserving the sender's name, may be preserved on verso.

Letter addressed to Abu l-Khayr(?) b. Ibrāhīm al-[...]. In Arabic script. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Nearly entirely preserved, except for the upper left corner of recto. The letter is a response to the addressee's inquiry about the news of the West (akhbār al-gharb). The first section begins, "As for al-Mahdiyya...." Mentions two ships, one belonging to ṣāḥib al-Mahdiyya (the same title is mentioned in CUL Or.1080 J258) and one to the Byzantines (al-Rūm). Spices (ṣaqaṭ) are selling well, unlike in Almeria. The second section: "As for Tripoli...." Mentions an item of news "which is not hidden from anybody" and "a certain Muslim man" who did something, "and this is the way of the Muslims." The sender then asks to be sent various goods, such as pepper, brazilwood, and rose water. Greetings to various people. Needs further examination.