Geniza Lab

Lament in Hebrew. This document consists entirely of expressions of grief in eloquent Hebrew. Possibly it was intended as part of a letter of condolence.

Ownership note on a folio that came from a volume containing texts by Yehuda Ḥayyūj; Ibn Gikatilla (d. after 1305); and Kitāb al-Tajnīs by Yehuda ibn Balʿam; and perhaps other works. The teacher Ḥasdeʾel b. Moshe purchased the book, and Shemuel b. Yosef ha-Levi wrote the note.

Medical recipe in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th–13th century. Mentioned in Med Soc II, p. 579, n. 63, where Goitein lists similar fragments and notes that "the student of this material should discern between prescriptions actually issued for patients and others copied from books for the purpose of study."

Medical instructions in Arabic script for weakness of the vision (ḍuʿf al-baṣr).

Magical text. Written in a mixture of Arabic script and Judaeo-Arabic.

One piece of paper stuck on to another piece of paper, containing a message in Hebrew referring to 'this Jew who brings my letter all (sic) the holy congregations....'

Magical text written in a striking melange of Hebrew script, Arabic script, and nonsense script. The main instructions are in Judaeo-Arabic. The practitioner is to light a wick with pure violet oil inside of a human skull. A black raven is also involved, and three pegs are to be driven into the skull-lamp. When the desired aim is achieved, the lamp should not be extinguished. ASE.

Magical recipes in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script and magical script. Including a birth control recipe: "If you want a woman not to become pregnant. . ." Contains some Arabic words inserted into Hebrew script; 'law taʿllaq ʿalā', muʿallaq ʿalaihā, muʿallaq. The bottom half of the recto contains 6 lines in what looks like code or a cipher with some symbols that look like Arabic letters. Possibly a talisman or incantation. Verso contains lines of Hebrew script and a box bisected by two lines with Hebrew script inside and on the outside.

Prognostications in Judaeo-Arabic. Numbered.

Calendar manual with distinctive Palestinian calendar traditions, such as the rule of 641–642. Defers to Babylonian calendar rules, in a way that is inconsistent and calendrically impossible. The outcome is a flawed manual that could never have been used. This text confirms that Palestinian calendar rules were preserved for well over a century after the controversy of 921/2. It also provides us, for the first time ever, with explicit evidence of a different version of the Four Gates, based on the month of Nisan. The manuscript can be dated by its script to the late eleventh or early twelfth centuries.93 The text begins on the first folio, and appears to finish at the bottom of the second; thus the manual appears to be preserved completely.

Two autograph signatures of Moshe Maimonides, written on the margin of a sheet of unrelated piyyuṭim and sundry jottings in different hands (mainly in Hebrew script, some in Arabic script). Discovered by Alan Elbaum in June 2022.

Magical text? In Arabic script. Refers to "every spirit, spiritual and corporeal..." and on verso some magical-sending nonsense names.

Calendrical text containing algorithms and mnemonics and instructions for calculation. Dating: No earlier than 1255 CE, as the maḥzor is given as 265.

Recto: Magical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: A page of magical letters encompassed by an ouroboros. (Information in part from Goitein's index card)

Verso: Recipe in Arabic script, probably medical.

Italian* (FGP). Appears to be the inscription of an owner's name in a book ('if the book gets lost, and you don't know who owns it, return it to me'). "... magio ... se .... libro se perdese e it nome .... padron non se sapese Salamo Balo..... dioguardi ..."

Bifolio from an astronomical text in Arabic script mentioning Ptolemy, with marginal jottings (observations?) in both Arabic script and Judaeo-Arabic.

Magical fragment. From top down: 1 line of names in Hebrew (Elʿazar, Hillel, Shela, Yefet, ʿEli); 4 rows of magical symbols; 1 line in Judaeo-Arabic, "the [r]esponse to a letter from the land of the Franks"; 4 lines in Arabic script, an invocation of God (who split the sea for Moses and destroyed [Pharaoh], etc.) to do something (taḥill?) to fulāna.

Panegyric to Rav Ḥananel, perhaps on the occasion of the birth of a son. Quite faded.

Literary text with a dedication to the boy Aharon ha-Kohen b. Moshe b. Aharon b. Moshe. There may be a second dedication or ownership note that is crossed out.