Geniza Lab

Recto: Possibly the top of an official letter in Arabic script. Reused for jottings all over the margins in Arabic and Hebrew script. Verso: Bottom of a letter written in a combination of Hebrew and Arabic (in Arabic script). The portion preserved consists entirely of good wishes for the holiday and expressions of longing.

Recto: Top part of a letter to al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab. In Arabic script. Probably a letter of appeal for charity. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script, in a different, crude hand. Mentions various houses or places in Fustat (funduq al-[...], dār al-Fāḍil, Qaṣr al-Shamʿ, bayt al-Makīn) and various names (Umm Jalāl, Mūsā al-Faqīh).

Business letter from Mufaḍḍal al-Kohen to Abū l-Banīn. In Arabic script. The sender apologizes for his delay. He has sent camphor candles (shamʿ kāfūrī, also sometimes translated as camphorated wax) with the bearer (Aodeh incorrectly read samgh, gum, rather than shamʿ). The lower part of the letter is missing. On verso there is a medical prescription in Arabic script.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The handwriting is similar to some of the Andalusī correspondents of Ḥalfon b. Netanel. The physical letter is almost entirely preserved, but the text will be illegible without multispectral imaging.

Letter or petition in Arabic script. Fragmentary (upper left corner). Addressed to somebody titled [al-shaykh al-ʿālim] al-ʿāmil al-wariʿ al-zāhid [...] ʿAbd al-ʿAliyy Ibn al-Sukkarī. The next two lines refers to a city name (X al-maḥrūsa) and then perhaps to a neighborhood (al-[...] al-qadīma) where the sender lives or used to live. Line 6 then mentions something made out of copper and a lead ring. Needs further examination.

Mercantile letter addressed to Abū ʿUmar al-Arjawānī, in Fustat. In Arabic script. Mentions purple (arjawān) textiles. Reused for Hebrew writing exercises. Needs further examination.

Letter/petition addressed to Abū Isḥāq. Asking for charity. In Arabic script. The sender's name appears in the tarjama at upper left but is difficult to read.

Few words from a letter - needs examination.

faded and damaged - needs examination.

Small fragment - needs examination.

Cryptic note in Judaeo-Arabic. Maybe the address of a letter (to Fustat/Cairo). Dating: 18th or 19th century.

Family letter. In Arabic script. Likely from a woman. The sender and "the girl" (al-ṣaghīra) have arrived safely in the Fayyūm (l. 5). They are settling in magnificently, for "the people of the area honor me and serve me and fulfill all my needs." The happiness is spoiled only by homesickness and longing "for all of the noble sisters" (jamāʿat al-sittāt al-khawāt). Greetings to somebody's mother; a woman's son; Abū Manṣūr ("please kiss his hands for me"); Sitt al-Khafar ("please kiss her eyes for me"); the sender's brother Abū l-Surūr ("kiss his hands"); again Abū Manṣūr; the mother of Muḥammad(?); and again Sitt al-Khafar. The last two lines on verso may be an address, but they are tricky to read. ASE

Letter draft. Unclear if this is a genuine letter or a formulary/specimen. On verso there are gnomic sentences in Arabic script and in Hebrew.

Letter or official correspondence. Dating: Possibly Ayyubid or Mamluk-era. From "your slave and son" to "al-majlis al-[...] al-[...] al-makhdūmī al-thiqatī al-amīnī muʿtamad al-mulūk wa-l-salāṭīn." The occasion for this "khidma" is that the sender met with somebody (most of the rest of the document is lost).

Letter, probably. In Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 18th or 19th century. Needs examination.

Copy of a letter addressed to "the ustādh." The titles ʿAḍud al-Dawla wa-Tāj al-[...] appear. Written in Arabic script, in eloquent style but lousy handwriting with diacritics and vowels. The addressee is compared to silver, gold, and camphor. It is not clear if any of the substance of the original message is preserved. Further evidence that this was a writing exercise is that it fills the page and abruptly stops mid-sentence. On verso: "the handwriting (or: the document) of Abū Naṣr." Underneath that, there are doodles including a decorated square containing a basmala and the name Abū Naṣr.

Letter in Ottoman Turkish. Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Commercial? Needs examination.

Letter addressed to a certain Abū l-Barakāt. In Arabic script. The writer complains about poverty and unemployment and kashf ḥāl ('uncovering').

Letter in Ladino from a family member to Avraham Shalom: "... Know as it pleases you that Esther married. May you marry your sons with greater advantage. May they never be orphans ... And more tears flowed from my eyes than from a fountain, for I found myself with no other relative or support then the Lord, blessed be He, and your brother-in-law, who did come. And you did not send me even two lines with him. Even if he did not call on you, you could have sent him two lines (for us) with those who come and go. You could have done so, not for me but for your sister who, saying 'Oh, to receive two lines from my brother!' is tearing out her heart and does nothing but cry from your lack of affection. Were it not for your aunt, who sent me what she sent me, I would not even have had enough for the dowry. May the blessed Lord repay her during the life of her son and her daughters what she did with this orphan of the Lord, may she have her repayment, may her sons have many sons and much good. Amen. Thus may it be willed before our Father who is in heaven. And I know that you are angry on account of the china (el sini)... greetings from myself, Khalifia Ajiman... and from your mother Doña Jamila, widow of the perfect scholar Rabbi Yom Tov Shalom, may his soul rest in Eden...." Address on reverse of the letter: To be delivered to the wise, exalted, honored and renowned Rabbi Avraham Shalom - may his light shine. Amen. So be His will. From Safed to Egypt (Cairo) and from there, the wise, exalted, honored and renowned Rabbi Yehuda Kastilas is to send it on to Alexandria." (Information in part from http://www.investigacion.cchs.csic.es/judeo-arabe/sites/investigacion.cchs.csic.es.judeo-arabe/files/Genizah-Al-Andalus.pdf.)