Geniza Lab

Small fragment of a (state?) document in Arabic script. Dated: 540s, 570s, or 590s AH.

Large bifolio of accounts in Arabic script. Might be fiscal. On recto, sections are headed by names of profession ("the dyers (al-ṣabbāghīn)... the millers (al-ṭaḥḥānīn)..."), each with lists of names with numbers underneath. On verso, one page was reused for a Judaeo-Arabic list written at 180 degrees in a crude hand, mentioning names such as Bū l-ʿAlāʾ, Baqāʾ b. Nuʿmān, and Ibrāhīm.

Receipt for Muḥammad b. Yūsuf. Needs examination.

Bottom two lines of an Arabic document. Might be a state document. The last line is a ḥamdala and ṣalwala, then "Allāhu ḥasbī wa-tawakkaltu ʿalayhi." Needs further examination.

Letter or state correspondence in Arabic script. Approximately 2 lines from near the beginning preserved. The text in between lines 1 and 2 may be the name of the sender. Dating: Likely 13th century. Not much is preserved beyond the titles of the distinguished addressee: al-ajallī al-rayyisī al-ʿālimī al-ʿāmilī al-wariʿī al-akmalī al-ṣadrī al-karīm(?) al-muḥtaram(?) al-awḥad al-aʿazz....

Fiscal account, probably. Needs examination.

Recto: Petition, probably. In Arabic script. Fragment (lower left corner, portions of 4 lines preserved). The raʾy clause is partially legible in the last line: [wa-raʾyuhā] al-ʿālī [fī dhā]lika in shāʾa llāhu. The main text needs further examination for content. Might mention earning a living (iktisāb). Verso: The petition was torn and the back was reused for a brief account involving Maḥfūẓ (related to T-S NS 297.231?). Needs further examination.

Unidentified document(s) in Arabic script. Might be official.

Unidentified document(s) in Arabic script. Maybe drafts. The first long line mentions al-Shaykh al-Amīr Fakhr al-Dawla Ibn Ṭāhir [...]. Needs further examination.

Folio from a fiscal accounting ledger. Four different entries, each with its own set of ʿalāʾim. The one on verso is dated [13 Dhū l-Ḥijja?] 509 AH = 1115/16 CE. Compare T-S AS 184.217.

Fiscal accounting ledger recording the monthly ground rent (ḥikr) payments for properties in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ made by Manṣūr b. Musallam/Muslim for the years 503 and 504 AH = 1109/10 CE and 1110/11 CE. Needs further examination.

Letter fragment in Arabic script. Only the basmala from recto and the address from verso are preserved. Apparently from one amir in the service of al-Afḍal (shākiruhā(?) al-afḍalī al-juyūshī) to another, called "al-amīr al-muntajab ʿaẓīm al-umarāʾ.... al-juyūshī." Needs further examination.

One side has the beginning of a letter written in Arabic script in a hasty scrawl. The other side has, in large letters in a chancery hand, "... al-dīwān ... fī dhālika in shāʾ llāh."

State document, probably. In Arabic script. Dated: Looks like 527 AH, which would be 1132/33 CE. (This might also be a kharājī date.) The document has a basmala; a block of text ("... from the area known as ....") that ends with the date; a block that may specify a sum of money (min al-ʿayn...), and then an itemized list in which three entries are preserved, each starting with "receipt: in the name of..." (wuṣul: bism...). On verso there are two more lines, in which the name Yūsuf b. Ibrāhīm appears.

Document(s) in Arabic script. Recto has two lines in a chancery hand, slanting upward, wide space between the lines. The other side has two more lines in smaller letters and a sloppier hand. Needs examination.

Accounts of some sort in official-looking Arabic script.

Fatimid decree, probably. Only a single phrase is preserved: ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. A piece of another letter from the line above is also preserved. The decree was cut up and converted into a bifolio. The secondary use is a literary text in Arabic script, at least partially about wars and kings. E.g., one phrase read at random: والتقى الجمعان في معترك نزال(؟), which is an allusion to Quran 3:155, 166. This fragment may be related to T-S Ar.41.139.

Possibly a state document. In Arabic script. Dated: 13 Dhū l-Ḥijja 509 AH, which is 1116 CE. But this should be checked. The document itself also needs further examination for content.

Receipt for the capitation tax. For the silk worker Bū Naṣr b. ʿUmar al-Yahūdī. Dated: 507 AH, which is 1113/14 CE.

Possibly a receipt for the ḥikr (ground rent). Dated: 568 AH (=1172/73 CE). Mentions "one dirham" and "Dīwān al-Aḥbās." On verso there is a note about an expenditure of 550 dirhams for tearing down (naqḍ) the walls of something. Needs further examination.