Geniza Lab

On verso few lines from Arabic document - needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Likely sent from Jerusalem (since it refers to people "coming up" from al-Ramla this week). Addressed to a woman. The sender reports that the mother of Abū Manṣūr is well. This week, Abū l-Faraj al-Tūnisī "came up" from al-Ramla together with "the girl" (al-ṣabiyya). He is still very sick, but she has recovered from her illness. But then the dark girl (al-samrā), the daughter of ʿAbd al-Salām, died. The sender has enclosed a letter from Umm Abū Manṣūr. "As soon as you read it, write the response." Greetings to Abū l-Faraj Hiba and to "my grandson" (ḥafīdī). Reused on verso for writing exercises of biblical verses.

Business letter in Arabic script, 11th century, to do with the India trade, including pepper and lac. Name of sender and recipient missing. Aodeh: "difficult hand."

Arabic letter - needs examination.

Arabic Letter referring to finance - needs examination.

Letter referring to the judges Jamal al-Din, Safiyy al-Din, Abu al-Fadil (FGP) - needs examination.

Business letter in Arabic script. Addressed to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿEzra b. Ismāʿīl (or ʿAwda b. Ismāʿīl, according to Sabih Aodeh). The sender, writing from Ramla after returning from ʿAsqalān, is not named, but Aodeh identifies him as Ṭayyib Ibn Majjānī, based on comparison to T-S Ar.38.91 (same addressee). Same cluster: CUL Or.1080 5.5, T-S NS 327.11, and T-S Ar.38.91.

Arabic letter - needs examination.

Beginning of an Arabic letter - needs examination.

On recto beginning of a letter to a dignitary in Judeao Arabic. On verso fragment from a letter in ASabic - needs examination.

Fragment from an Arabic letter - needs examination.

Fragmentary letter in Arabic- need examination

Business letter in Arabic script from Natan b. Nahray to Nahray b. Nissim (Aodeh).

Short Arabic note - needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script. Reporting on a dialogue between the sender and someone else about someone who hasn't received a payment, and how the sender hasn't yet left Fustat. Mentions: "... his arrival... every day in a gathering of the Jews on the small fast day (yawm ṣawm al-ṣaghīr)." Mentions the government (al-sulṭān) several times. Mentions "aṣḥābnā al-ḥāḍirīn" (our friends/colleagues who are present). Might mention "the palace" (al-qaṣr, v4), and coming down from it, then "no one should blame me...." Needs further examination.

Arabic letter - needs examination.

Letter from Hillel b. Ḥasan, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: ca. 1070. Two fragments (a, b) of a letter regarding a shipment of books, including a book by Nissim b. Yaʿaqov and a purchase of grain that was kept in jars. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #716) VMR

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. Mentioning a letter of a qāḍī Abū Muḥammad al-Nāʾib. Asks for news of Abū l-Surūr and if he has traveled to the west (al-Gharb) or not. Greetings to al-Muʿallā (=ha-Meʿulle?), Abū Isḥāq, and Abū l-ʿAlāʾ. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Needs further examination.

Small fragment of an Arabic latter - needs examination.

Fragment of a letter. In Arabic script. The addressee seems to be a scholar and physician in the entourage of the Mamluk sultan Qānṣūh al-Ghūrī (r. 1501–16): al-jināb al-karīm al-ʿālī al-mawlawī. . . lisān al-mutakallimīn ḥujjat al-munāẓirīn munāṣiḥ al-mulūk wa-l-salāṭīn. . . . rayyis al-aṭibbāʾ. . . ." There follow some blessings for him, then four lines of homage to the sultan himself, whose name appears at the beginning of the penultimate line. ASE