Geniza Lab

Hebrew poetry (rahaṭim).

Somewhat cryptic literary text in Judaeo-Arabic. Maybe ethical exhortations (yā bunayya...). Mentions the targum and may contain glosses on biblical passages. Also mentions various medical techniques (verso, bottom of righthand page) like purgation and bloodletting.

Hebrew poetry.

Magical treatise in Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic.

Literary treatise in Judaeo-Arabic. Soteriological: recounting the wars heralding the messianic era, involving Mashiaḥ ben David and Mashiaḥ ben Efrayim. Mentions the Byzantines, the Franks, and the book Seder ʿOlam.

Literary work. Ethical exhortations arranged as answers to queries.

Love poetry in Judaeo-Arabic, probably. (Upper right of recto refers to a beloved singing woman (mughanniyya) and the remainder seems filled with references to beautiful body parts.) Each stanza ends with the same or similar refrain. It may be a kind of debate poem, as there is "wa-radda" and "man radda" in the refrain before the subsequent stanza. Some of the stanzas are extremely similar to each other, except that the orthography differs. This entire interpretation is tentative, because the handwriting is dreadful and the orthography even worse. The letter ד is alternately rendered as ד ,ת ,and ט. The letter צ is alternately rendered as צ and ז.

Medical treatise in Judaeo-Arabic.

Medical treatise in Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with skin and hair.

Literary text in Hebrew. Late. Questions and answers, numbered.

Jewish (not Muslim) religious text. Written mainly in Arabic script but with some Hebrew mixed in. Having to do with the Exodus. Some of the phrases sound like biblical translations, but identification of exact source verses is tricky.

Recto: Literary text in Arabic script. Historical or philosophical. Containing various questions; the first is attributed to Amīr al-Mu'minīn and mentions Muʿāwiya. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic poetry. Information from FGP.

Right column: Judaeo-Arabic love poetry. A blazon of the beloved, mentioning, among many other things, his "gaze of Babylonian enchantment." Left column: Written in larger letters but probably the same hand. At first glance it reads like a draft of the opening of a standard Judaeo-Arabic letter. But it is heavier on the lovesickness than usual, and this is poetry, not prose, which is given away by the rhyme and the long vowels of qalaqī and taḥtariqī. Further, the speaker is not addressing the recipient but rather the bearer (not necessarily human) of the love letter: "Deliver my letter to my master and in{f}orm him that great is my longing and distress. / I am deprived of all joys and pleasures of the world because of his absence, my heart blazes in the fire." ASE

Recto: Karaite Arabic work with Hebrew quotations in transcription. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic Bible commentary. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Praises and names of God, possibly from the introduction to a work. Information from Baker/Polliack catalogue.

Literary text in Hebrew. Late.

Literary text in Hebrew. Late.

Literary text (but framed as a letter responding to questions). In Judaeo-Arabic. Discussion of the four primary causes of damage: ha-shor, ha-bor, ha-mav'eh and ha-hev'er presented in the form of questions and answers. Verso also contains a square of numbers expressed in Hebrew letters. (Information from Baker/Polliack catalogue.)

Literary text in Hebrew. Late.

Literary text in Judaeo-Arabic containing a chapter entitled "In praise of knowledge and in condemnation of ignorance and anger," which opens with a discussion of Quran 41:34 (وَلَا تَسْتَوِي الْحَسَنَةُ وَلَا السَّيِّئَةُ ۚ ادْفَعْ بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ فَإِذَا الَّذِي بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَهُ عَدَاوَةٌ كَأَنَّهُ وَلِيٌّ حَمِيمٌ) citing ʿUmar Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.