Geniza Lab

Arabic, literary. Might be medical.

Legal discussion or commentary in Arabic script, citing biblical verses and phrases in the original Hebrew language but in Arabic script (e.g., בנות צלפחד on recto, לגלות ערוה on verso).

Literary text, mainly in Persian. Also with some Arabic, including two lines of poetry on verso before it reverts to Persian. يا ليلة اللذات... عودي علينا بالذي قد مضا... خوش وقتي بود... (O night of delights! ... Return to us with that which has passed... It was a good time...). Needs further examination.

Treatise of ḥadīth. Identified by Paul Fenton as al-Qushayrī's epistle on Sufism (he cites T-S NS 297.8, T-S NS 297.188, T-S NS 297.288, and T-S NS 306.132). (Paul Fenton, “Judaeo-Arabic Mystical Writings of the XIIIth-XIVth Centuries,” in Norman Golb, ed., Judaeo-Arabic Studies (Amsterdam, 1997), 92.)

Love poetry. In Arabic script. To the effect that passion is a terrible disease whose only cure is union. On verso there are 6 unidentified lines in Arabic script in a different hand

Copy of a fihrist of Saadya Gaon’s works sent to Fustat by the gaon’s sons Sheʾerit and Dosa in 953. The copy is dated 2 October 1113. In the fihrist the exact date of Saadya’s death is given as Sunday, 26th Iyyar, 1253 of the Seleucid Era, corresponding to 15th May 942 CE. Another, more complete, copy of the same fihrist is found in T-S 10G5.7. Verso is blank. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 30 and Allony, Frenkel, The Jewish Library in the Middle Ages, p. 312.)

Polemic against the house of the exilarch. Dating: 1040–41 CE. After a disagreement between Kafnai, Bustanay's father, and his father in law, the head of the Yeshiva, the entire family of the exilarch dies (and King David appears to the head of the Yeshiva in a dream). Bustanay is only surviving descendant of King David. The head of the Yeshiva raises him and occupies his place among the elders of Baghdad, but refuses to cede the position when Bustanay turns 16. The case comes before the caliph ʿUmar Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who is impressed that Bustanay does not flinch when a mosquito bites him. The caliph appoints Bustanay as exilarch and marries him to a daughter of the King of Persia, who had been captured in battle. She bears children to Bustanay but is never manumitted and never converts to Judaism. The point of the polemic: all the descendants of Bustanay are compromised, and the true house of King David will be revealed only in messianic times. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4) Join: Moshe Gil. In the hand of Sahlān b. Avraham (per Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4), copied in the following circumstance: Daniʾel b. ʿAzarya, who was a nasi (from the house of the exilarch), had arrived from Iraq in Palestine and supported the gaonate of Shelomo b. Yehuda. Followers of the rival gaʾon, Natan b. Avraham, including members of the Iraqi congregation in Fustat, among them Sahlān b. Avraham, cast aspersions on Danʾiel b. ʿAzarya presumably also against Shelomo b. Yehuda. (Rustow, Heresy, 314) For a parallel text, see PGPID 35180.

Poetry (ghazal) in Arabic script. On the other side there is piyyuṭ in Hebrew.

Introduction to a literary treatise. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentioning al-Mutanabbī, the Būyid amīr Muʿizz al-Dawla, and the vizier Abū l-Faraj Muḥammad b. al-ʿAbbās (Ibn Fasānjas).

Bifolio with an unidentified text in Judaeo-Arabic - maybe poetry.

Literary text. Listing permutations of various roots in Hebrew.

Literary text in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew, referring to Ezekiel's vision of the Divine chariot (merkava), quoting Ezekiel 1:8, 12, 19, 21. Looks like the hand of Shelomo b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya (late 12th century and early 13th century). There are marginal notes in Arabic script referring to Galen and stomachache. (Information in part from Niessen/Shivtiel catalogue.)

Translation of Song of Songs 8:11-14 with Hebrew incipits; Judaeo-Arabic final note and marginal notes. (Information from Shivtiel/Niessen.)

Modern printed text in Arabic script. One side is headed [...] al-Tawārīkh and gives three different dating systems for the year ~1889 CE. The other side contains praises for the khedive.

Printed page. In Arabic script. Refers to the founding of something to do with agriculture in Rabīʿ I 1312 AH, which is 1894 CE.

Literary narrative in Arabic script. 1001 nights? Mentions a baker and a salesman, then the narrator stumbles on a hidden treasure with a magical sapphire, then winds up at the king's palace.

Sefer Josippon (see Flusser I, pp. 466-468). (Information from Shivtiel/Niessen.)

Popular literature in Judaeo-Arabic. A tale of a king. The handwriting may be known.

Poetry, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic. There is also alphabet practice and numbers in western Arabic numerals (so the date is relatively late).

Vocabulary list referring to Mishnah Shabbat 1-6 (approx.) (Information from Niessen/Shivtiel.)