Geniza Lab

Recto: Fragment of an official document in Arabic script. The preserved text contains a string of official titles: "Jamāl al-Dīn... ʿUmdat al-Dawla, Fakhr al-Umarāʾ, Majd al-Islām, ʿAḍud al-Dawla, Bahāʾ al-Milla."

Document in Arabic script. Possibly a state document. There is a single line, subsequently reused for a Judaeo-Arabic composition.

Decree, fragment, reused for Hebrew piyyut/poetry. The preserved text reads 'and on his brother' - wa ʿalā akhīhi.

Fragment of a decree mentioning the funds of a dīwān in exchange for something. Late Fatimid (paleographic dating), same chancery hand as some of the docs from Cambridge. The preserved text reads as "wa-l-īrād ḥāfiẓan lī amwāl al-dīwān bādilan fī ".

State document: A set of responses to petitons (?). Join: Marina Rustow. T-S Ar.31.58 is dated 507. Possibly related to BL OR 5553.1 + BL OR 5553.2 + T-S Ar.51.49 + BL OR 5553A.1 + BL OR 5553A.2.

A ḥamdala and ṣalwala written in a chancery hand, presumably once part of a larger document. Reused for Hebrew literary text.

Report on fiscal matters, draft.

Recto: State document in Arabic script. Ends of 3 lines preserved. Perhaps a petition or decree (...bi-l-nāḥiya yatawallā ḥiyāzatahā wa-ḍabṭa ajzāʾahā...). Needs examination.

Original use: Unidentified document in Arabic script, possibly a state document. Needs examination.

Recto: Fiscal accounting document (or an official order for the release of funds?), complete with ḥamdala and ḥasbala. Dated: 5 Shawwāl 4xx (412?).

Field-guide to taxation. Parts of two paragraphs. Written in a large, calligraphic hand. Collesis joint, suggesting it was once a longer rotulus, but also holes where it may have been bound into an archive, quire or codex. Discussed and translated in Rustow, Lost Archive. On verso is a liturgical text and a letter draft in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya (see PGPID 6698).

Recto: Fragment of a letter in Arabic script, possibly a petition. Contains blessings for the addressee: "li-ʿālim(?) khallaṣahu(?) li-ʿālamīn(?) adāma Allāhu saʿdahū wa waṭṭada(?)... majdahu wa ahlaka ḍiddahu wa naṣifu(?) shukrahu wa yanādu(?)." On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Two names, Bū l-ʿAlā (..) and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, can be read in the third line.

Recto: Official letter in Arabic script in a chancery hand, with wide line spacing. The beginnings of 4 lines are preserved.

Small fragment of a Fatimid decree containing a truncated closing formula and the beginning of the date (day of the week only — Thursday). Interesting for truncation of formula (informal decree from a midlevel official to lower one?). The preserved text reads "liyaʿlam Inshāʾ Allah wa kutiba yawm al-khamīs".

Petition in Arabic script, in a chancery hand. The sender is saying, to paraphrase, "I am your most devoted servant, so don't force me to file a complaint with a higher authority over such a little matter" (...fa-yakūn al-mamlūk mamlūk mawlānā ʿumrī kulluh yuḥrijunī an ashtakī li-l-sulṭān ʿalā hadhā l-miqdār wa-mawlānā...). In the last two lines, he mentions 'the land' and 'its planting' (zirāʿatuhā). On verso there is a Judaeo-Arabic literary text. Possibly containing some dream interpretation, but there is also other material (e.g., "...on the holiday they say, there is nothing more forbidden to us than wine...).

Petition, probably. In Arabic script, with gigantic space between the lines. Portions of the last few lines are preserved. Mentions bearing witness about something; probably the tail end of a raʾy clause (...al-ʿālī fī dhālika in shāʾa llāh); and concludes with prayers for Muḥammad and a ḥasbala.

Recto: First two lines of a letter (state document?) in large, calligraphic Arabic script. Not a Fatimid chancery hand.

Fiscal register (compare BL OR 5566B.3 and the other shelfmarks cited there). Cut up into (at least) seven pieces and reused to form a booklet containing Hebrew poetry (the payyetan whom Tova Beeri studied) and Judaeo-Arabic halakhic discussions in a different hand, citing things that Sayyidnā al-Nagid said; the hand may be known). Different sections are headed by the day of the week and date within the month, but the actual months and years are not specified. For example, ENA 2886.2 has three entries are preserved: "Payment (dafʿa): 1 dinar. Payment: 1 dinar. Payment: [...] and 1/8 dinar (wa-thumn dīnār)."

Petition or report, Fatimid, fragment from near the beginning containing end of blessings, the taqbīl clause, and part of the qiṣṣa. Dating: 1100–71.

Brief official letter in Arabic script, in a chancery hand. The addressee is to give the bearer Yūsuf and ʿInān(?) 100 silver pieces "for Minyat Ghamr" (the significance of "for"/bi-rasm is not clear here). 100 qinṭārs of bread (about 5 modern tons) should be sold "for it" (bi-rasmihā). (Again the significance is not clear.) The fragment was later reused for Hebrew piyyuṭ (El Melekh).