Geniza Lab

Recto: Fragment of an official letter in Arabic script mentioning the kharāj and agriculture. Dating: Early 11th century. On verso there is a tax receipt (see separate record).

Recto: Official letter in Arabic script. Very faded. Fragments of ~5 lines are preserved, with wide space between the lines. Verso: Letter/report in Arabic script, maybe the response to recto. Very deferential. The first 10 lines seem to be praises and blessings. The addressee may be named Abū l-Faraj [...] b. Asad (l. 9). Needs further examination.

Part of an official document in Arabic script. The ends of ~6 lines are preserved. Mentions a canal (khalīj). The hand is very similar to ENA NS 50.5.

May be a receipt (? istiqbāl) for rent for government property (=ḥikr / ground rent?) from Yūsuf al-Ṣayrafī (this is tentative, as the end of the first line is damaged). The layout is very similar to formal fiscal receipts, but the hand is that of a layperson (and also quite shaky). The rent is for a a shop in Ḥabs ʿUmar for Jumādā II, 493 AH (=April/May 1100 CE). The rent is 10.25 wariq dirhams. The scribe is ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAbd al-[...] representing (niyābatan ʿan) the government employee (al-mustakhdam) from the Banū(?) ʿUmar. There is the simplest possible ʿalāma at the upper left (al-ḥamdu lil-lāhi, in the hand of the scribe who wrote the document) followed by 10.25 in Greek/Coptic numerals. The bottom line may read "al-shukr lil-lāhi." ASE

Fragment of an official letter in Arabic script. Telling or asking Muʿizz/Muʿtazz al-Dawla to put his signature on something to validate an expense: واستدعيت من [تفضل؟] معـ(ـتـ؟)ـز الدولة ان يضع خطه فيها لصحة النفقة على الرسم المتعارف فمن يجري(؟) مجراه. Reused on verso for piyyut.

Documentary/administrative record? One page (verso is blank) with a Hebrew-script header and 8 lines of Arabic in a jagged/coarse hand--maybe from a badly cut nib? Begins with a basmala and ends with a hamdala; there may be a date in line 4 (below basamala): sana iḥda...? Also a possible mention of ar-rawq (to please/excel, L6).

Recto: Letter/report/petition in Arabic script, in a chancery hand. Fragment (upper left corner). After the greetings, legible phrases include, اليك من الناس من المطالبة الذي طلبوا..., and then it mentions someone called [...] b. ʿAzzāf. Needs examination.

Decree, probably. Only a few enormous words are preserved, including ʿalayhi. Reused for poetry in Judaeo-Arabic.

Petition or report, possibly. In Arabic script. Chancery hand, wide space between the lines. The ends of three lines are preserved. Mentions "min kulli multamisin," perhaps suggesting that the sender is asking for help. Reused for a letter in Judaeo-Arabic (see separate record).

Official receipt for Dāʾūd b. Yaʿqūb. Unclear for what. Dated: 524(?) AH. Needs further examination.

Fragment of a fiscal document referring to the annual budget of the Dīwān al-Abwāb (aka Dīwān al-Kharājī wa-l-Hilālī). Cf. ENA NS 71.22. Needs examination.

State document, possibly. In Arabic script in a chancery hand. A few words preserved from 2 lines, including "waḥdahu" and "al-mamlūk." On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Fiscal register (compare BL OR 5566B.3 and the other shelfmarks cited there). Reused for Hebrew hoshaʿnot. Needs further examination.

Recto: calendrical work explaining the principles of calendar reckoning. Verso: petition in Arabic. The remains of three lines of the calendrical work copied on recto are found on verso, written between the lines of the Arabic petition. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Decree, fragment, to two local officials stating that a certain Abū l-Faraj b. Bū l-Waḥsh should be exempted from paying taxes (or from standing surety on the tax-farm?) on a shop (ḍamān al-ḥānūt) and that he requires no further documentation of his exemption. Join: Mordechai Friedman and Amir Ashur.

Verso (original use): Provincial fiscal account concerning the maintenance of the dikes (ʿimārat al-jusūr al-maʿmūra) in the districts of Shubrā and one other by the responsible official (wakīl) ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Naṣrallāh. Dating: Mentions the years 502 and 503 "hilāliyya kharājiyya" ("lunar-fiscal"). ASE. Needs examination.

Original use: State report. In Arabic script. Nearly four lines are preserved, wide space between the lines. Refers to the arrival of a mighty decree (sijill muʿaẓẓam) possibly issued in response to a situation the sender had previously written about (jawāban ʿammā kāna ṭāliʿ bihi(?) min ḥāl...).

Recto: Decree from the 1130s. Only the closing boilerplate and a date (without the year) have survived. Reused by the India trader Abū ʿAlī Yeḥezqel b. Netanel in Qalyūb for a letter to his brother Ḥalfon in Alexandria. Join: A. Ashur and M. A. Friedman.

State document, probably. It refers to itself as a "receipt" (wuṣūl). In Arabic script. Location: Dahrūṭ. Dated: Ramaḍān 533 AH, which is 1129 CE. (Also mentions the "hilālī kharājī" year 521 in the body of the text, indicating that the lunar and kharājī calendars were in alignment). ʿEli b. Hillel (called on recto ʿAllūn b. Hillel/علون بن هلل and called on verso ʿĀlī b. Hillel/عالي بن هلل) makes some sort of declaration about his profits. There are no signatures, but rather what look like validation clauses above and further details below in different handwriting. A total of 10 dinars may be mentioned at the bottom; on verso it says 5 1/4 dinars were received 'according to the contents of this receipt.' There may be a jahbadh in the line underneath.

At least two documents across two fragments (which belong together). In Arabic script. Two of the documents look legal/administrative. A third text-block is an extended discourse on practical vs. theoretical medicine; possibly literary, but requires further examination (Alan Elbaum). One of the administrative documents is a receipt or income statement/account related to al-Maḥallā dated Muḥarram 628 (1230). (Marina Rustow)