Geniza Lab

Copy of a portion of Ezekiel, vocalized. Concludes with a dedication or colophon of sorts: "the dear teacher Yehuda b. Shemuel wrote this for Petaḥya and Yosef the Leviim." (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Elegy for the Tustari brothers Ḥesed b. Yashar (Abū Naṣr b. Sahl) and Avraham b. Yashar (Abū Saʿd b. Sahl). Dating: ca. 1050 CE. There is a brief introduction which specifies the meter as mafāʿīlun mafāʿilun. Both brothers were assassinated (Abū Saʿd in October 1047 on the orders of his rival, the vizier Yūsuf al-Fallāḥī, whom the caliph’s mother then had killed in June 1048; and Abū Naṣr in 1049 or 1050). (Information from Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, 322.) See also Mann, Jews in Egypt and in Palestine, 1:82 and Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael, sec. 371. Transcription available here: https://maagarim.hebrew-academy.org.il/Pages/PMain.aspx?mishibbur=819004&mm15=000000001001%2010.

Panegyric addressed Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. ʿAṭā' (aka Avraham b. Natan), the Nagid of Qayrawān. Of note, this copy was probably made during Ibrāhīm's lifetime (perhaps ca. 1015 CE), as his name is followed by a blessing for longevity. See discussion and translation in Ann Brener, Isaac ibn Khalfun : a wandering Hebrew poet of the eleventh century, pp. 74–78, 116–17.

Colophon for a Torah. The scribe is Yeshuʿa b. Yiṣḥaq. Dedicated to ʿAmram ha-Kohen b. She'erit ha-Kohen Paqid ha-Soḥarim.

Colophon draft for a muṣḥaf (Torah). The scribe is Shelomo ha-Levi b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya b. [Yiṣḥaq?] b. Yaʿaqov. The same man appears in T-S 8J6.9 (1231 CE); his brother Yosef b. Shemuel was also a well-known scribe and judge; and their father Shemuel was a judge in Maimonides' court. (Information in part from Amir Ashur and from Goitein, Med Soc II, pp. 228–29)

Panegyric for a certain Elʿazar. In Hebrew.

Medical prescriptions in Judaeo-Arabic, or perhaps drafts for a medical treatise. The text on recto contains many words crossed out and many corrections. The main text on verso is in the same hand. The text oriented at 90 degrees may also be in the same hand, but it is difficult to tell as it was written with a wider calamus.

There is an 8-line note in Judaeo-Arabic that provides a mnemonic (siman) for calculating the molads (mawālīd) of the New Moons. The rest of the fragment is literary.

Literary text in Hebrew. "By Yiṣḥaq b. Seʿadya אלמנבגי." Underneath: "The scribe/writer is Shabbat b. Elʿazar ha-Melammed from the city of Ṣahrajt. Bibliography: Goitein, Med. Soc., 1:239, vi, 11 n.55. Neubauer in JQR 1894, 704 note 12.

The names of the tribes of Israel transcribed into a cipher based on the alphabetic equivalents of Greek/Coptic numerals.

Colophon. Scribe: Moshe b. Yaʿaqov al-Mard[īnī?]. Location: Tel Yaʿqūb, "under the rule of Yūsuf b. Khalaf Agha in the Vilayet of Mārdīn," aka Tilyaqup, corresponding to present-day Tepealtı. Dated: Adar 5176 AM, which would typically be 1416 CE, but in this case is probably 1417 CE (by the 'Adam reckoning' or 'molad adam' which is equal to 'molad tohu' + 1, the idea being that year 1 begins not with creation ('molad tohu') but with Adam already created. On this see Gordin, "How to Avoid Some Pitfalls While Interpreting Dates in Hebrew Manuscripts," pp. 176 and 184). ASE

Colophon. Scribe: Natan ha-Kohen b. Yeshuʿa b. Yaʿaqov b. Yeshuʿa b. Yosef b. Peraḥya b. Shefaṭya. "In the colophons of books it is not uncommon to find the copyist mentioning his forefathers up to the seventh or eighth generation." (Goitein, Med. Soc., vi, 11 n.57)

Medical recipe. (Information from CUDL)

Diagrams, text, and calculations of an astrological/astronomical nature, perhaps also magical. Arabic, late.

Mysterious strings of Arabic letters and numbers along with two diagrams. One diagram has a caption, stating that it protects a person against iron and guns (banādiq) and spears and anything else which a person fears. Likely but not definitively a join with CUL Or.1080 14.13.

Halakhic text (the subject is not clear) as well as Judaeo-Arabic practical instructions for dealing with copper and iron (possibly alchemy or metallurgy). 12th-13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Magical recipes in two different hands, including for the protection of Yosef b. Me'ir. (Information from FGP)

Long magical spell/amulet for Baghīḍa bt. Ḥā'iza, with the purpose of making Mufaḍḍal b. ʿIrāq fall in love with her and marry her without delay.

Amulet for Abū Saʿd b. Baldīn (?) to annul the evil wishes of his enemies and make everyone love him. In Hebrew, Aramaic, and nomina barbara.

Prayer for the current incumbent of a distinguished family of Kohanim, Moshe ha-Kohen (lived around 1200), opening with a prayer for his ancestors and other deceased relatives (called tarhim) (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 162, 554)