Court records containing 4 betrothal contracts. Recto (a) is dated Thursday 9th Adar I 4693 (= 933 CE) in Damascus between Maymūna bat Ḥasan known as Ḥušim, and Baqā b. Moses known as Abū Kāmil. Witnessed by [El]qana b. Moses b. Benjamin ha-[Kohen] ([]קנה בר משה בר בינימין ה[]), [Elisha] b. Moses ha-[Kohen], Isaac b. Abraham (אצחק), [...] b. Isaac, Ḥasan b. Manṣur. Recto (b) is dated Thursday 16th (יו) Adar I 4693 (= 933 CE) in Damascus between Zahra bat Jacob ha-Kohen the scribe and Manṣūr b. Isaac b. Saʿīd b. Pinḥas. Witnessed by Bišr [b.] Ismāʿīl b. Ḥātim (אסמעיל בן חתים), Isaac b. Samuel b. Nihmī (נהמי), Saʿīd b. ʿUzayr Ṭavyomi (עזיר טביומי), Elisha b. Moses ha-Kohen, Samuel b. Solomon b. ʿUzayr (עזייר), [Ezra] Samuel b. Ezra, Moses b. Samuel b. Ḥātim, Nissin b. Savoy (נסין בן סבוי), David b. Aaron, Abraham the judge ha-Levi b. [...]. Verso (a) is dated Thursday 14th Adar II 4693 (= 933 CE) in Damascus between Tāmma bat Isaac (תאמה) and Hillel ha-Levi b. Aaron of Tiberias (called מעזיה). The bride’s representative is Moses b. Nissi. Witnessed by Bišr b. Ismāʿīl b. Ḥatim (בשר בן אסמעיל בן חתים), Moses b. Jacob, ʿAbbās (עבאס) b. Saʿīd, Samuel b. Menaḥ[em], Jacob ha-Kohen b. Judah b. Baruḵ, Simḥa b. Solomon. Verso (b) is dated Thursday 28th Adar II 4693 (= 933 CE) in Damascus between Hiba bat Jonah and ʿEli b. Wuhayb. Witnessed by Isaac b. Samuel b. Ni[hmi], Nissin b. Savoy, Joshua b. Ṣulḥ (שלח), Ezra b. Samuel b. Ezra, Aaron b. [Be]njamin b. Nihmi, Bišr b. Ḵalaf ha-Kohen, [Ab]raham b. ʿUṯman (עותמן), Ḥasan b. ʿImran (in Arabic script), and [Isaa]c b. Jacob ha-Kohen the scribe.Condition: Torn, holes, fadedLayout: 30 lines (recto); 41 lines (verso)
Several separate manuscripts under the same classmark. P1: Commentary and translation of Hosea 1, with Hebrew incipits and citations. P2: Commentary on Exodus 13 and 18, with Hebrew incipits and citations. P3: Saʿadya’s commentary and translation of Isaiah 1-2, with Hebrew incipits. Ruled. P4: Commentary on Proverbs 2, with Hebrew incipits and citations. P5: Judaeo-Arabic commentary on Isaiah 36-37 and Zechariah 7. Hebrew verses commented upon are given in full in the text. P6: Yefet b. ʿEli’s commentary on Number 1:12-46; 3:9-15, with Hebrew incipits and citations. Ruled. P7: Commentary and translation of Hosea 1, with Hebrew incipits and citations. Belongs with T-S Misc. 5.139 P1. P8: Responsa dealing with the exegesis of Genesis 5:31; 6:3; 7:6. The responsa are numbered. Hebrew citations. P9: Saʿadya’s translation of Leviticus 15:15-33, with Hebrew incipits. Belongs with T-S Misc. 5.139.P10 and T-S Misc. 5.139 P11. P10: Saʿadya’s translation of Leviticus 16:14-28, with Hebrew incipits. Belongs with T-S Misc. 5.139 P9 and T-S Misc. 5.139 P11. P11: Saʿadya’s translation of Leviticus 16:1-14, with Hebrew incipits. Belongs with T-S Misc. 5.139 P9 and T-S Misc. 5.139 P10. P12: Responsa dealing with the exegesis of Exodus 23:4-6, with Hebrew citations.Condition: Torn, stained, rubbed, holesLayout: 19 lines; P2: 17.7 x 27 (1 leaf: 13.5); 22 lines; P3: 19.2 x 27.2 (1 leaf: 13.6); 12 lines; P4: 18 x 28 (1 leaf: 14); 23 lines; P5: 18.2 x 25.8 (1 leaf: 13); 25-26 lines; P6: 20.2 x 30 (1 leaf: 15); 22 lines; P7: 16.6 x 28.4 (1 leaf: 14.2); 19 lines; P8: 17.3 x 11; 19-20 lines (recto; verso is blank); P10: 21 x 15; 19 lines; P11: 21 x 15; 17-20 lines; P12: 17.3 x 10.9; 12 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Part of a copy of a poem by the wife of Dunaš Ibn Labrāṭ, followed by the first part of a second poem, a reply from Ibn Labrāṭ to his wife. Ibn Labrāṭ (920-990 CE) was a Spanish poet, grammarian and commentator who worked in the service of Ḥasday Ibn Šapruṭ, the leader of the Jewish community in Spain. Ibn Labrāṭ had a contentious relationship with his contemporaries, but very little is known about his wife. Her poem - the only known medieval Hebrew poem by a woman - has been praised for its quality and poignancy: Will her love remember his graceful doe / her only son in her arms as he parted? / On her left hand he placed a ring from his right, / on his wrist she placed her bracelet. / As a keepsake she took his mantle from him, / and he in turn took hers from her. / Would he settle, now, in the land of Spain, / if its prince gave him half his kingdom? [translated by Peter Cole]. The couple appear to have separated reluctantly under difficult circumstances, resentfully described in another poem identified as being by Ibn Labrāṭ to his employer: I served you in sorrow, for all your wares are loathsome. / I will glean no grapes, nor will I gather corn. / I betrayed a young wife and sent her a writ of divorce. / I left my home, and abandoned the son that she bore. (T-S J2.71, f. 2v). Part of a copy of Ibn Labrāṭ’s response to his wife’s poem is preserved at T-S NS 143.46: Were you seeking the day of my death when you wrote: / ‘Have you betrayed and abandoned your vows?’ / Could I betray a woman so wise / given by god as the bride of my youth? / Had my heart ever thought to leave you / I would have torn it into pieces. / For those who betray their beloved companion, / God brings down with the trials of foes. / Lions soon will devour his flesh, / and vultures will consume his blood. / Who resembles the stars of dawn […] [translated by Peter Cole].Condition: Cut, holesLayout: 5-8 lines
Part of a copy of a poem by the wife of Dunaš Ibn Labrāṭ, followed by the first part of a second poem, a reply from Ibn Labrāṭ to his wife. Ibn Labrāṭ (920-990 CE) was a Spanish poet, grammarian and commentator who worked in the service of Ḥasday Ibn Šapruṭ, the leader of the Jewish community in Spain. Ibn Labrāṭ had a contentious relationship with his contemporaries, but very little is known about his wife. Her poem - the only known medieval Hebrew poem by a woman - has been praised for its quality and poignancy: Will her love remember his graceful doe / her only son in her arms as he parted? / On her left hand he placed a ring from his right, / on his wrist she placed her bracelet. / As a keepsake she took his mantle from him, / and he in turn took hers from her. / Would he settle, now, in the land of Spain, / if its prince gave him half his kingdom? [translated by Peter Cole]. The couple appear to have separated reluctantly under difficult circumstances, resentfully described in another poem identified as being by Ibn Labrāṭ to his employer: I served you in sorrow, for all your wares are loathsome. / I will glean no grapes, nor will I gather corn. / I betrayed a young wife and sent her a writ of divorce. / I left my home, and abandoned the son that she bore. (T-S J2.71, f. 2v). Part of a copy of Ibn Labrāṭ’s response to his wife’s poem is preserved at T-S NS 143.46: Were you seeking the day of my death when you wrote: / ‘Have you betrayed and abandoned your vows?’ / Could I betray a woman so wise / given by god as the bride of my youth? / Had my heart ever thought to leave you / I would have torn it into pieces. / For those who betray their beloved companion, / God brings down with the trials of foes. / Lions soon will devour his flesh, / and vultures will consume his blood. / Who resembles the stars of dawn […] [translated by Peter Cole].Condition: Cut, holesLayout: 6 lines (recto); 5 lines (verso)
Extensive portion of a medical book divided into ‘discourses’ and chapters; chapters are further divided into sections devoted to the description of the illness, its symptoms, and cure. P3: chapter 14, ‘on the bite of snakes and related [animals]; P4, ‘on the bite of scorpions’; P4: chapter 15, ‘on the sting of bees’ and chapter 16, ‘on the bite of a rabid dog’; P6: chapter 17, ‘on pain’; P7, treatment of abscesses; P8: chapter 19, ‘on abscesses’; P10, treatment for various kinds of abscesses; P13, ‘on wasp bites’; P14 recto, chapter 20, ‘on warts and nails and rocks; chapter 21, ‘on cold abscesses’; P22 recto: chapter 25: ’on humid scabies’; P23 recto: its symptoms, prognosis and cure; verso: chapter 24; P25 verso: ‘on wounds’; P29: chapter 27: ‘on the flow of blood during miscarriage’; chapter 28; chapter 29: ‘on inflammation’; chapter 30: (probably) on broken or injured feet; P30 recto: beginning of the ‘Second Discourse’; P31 recto: chapter 31 ‘on people who travel’; P33 opens with a table of content of chapters 106-133, followed by the title of chapter 1 ‘on alopecia; P35: chapter 2 ‘on hair loss’; P34: chapter 3 ‘on hair problems’; P36: chapter 6 ‘on illnesses of the head’; P38: chapter 7 ‘on vermin and parasites’; P39 recto: chapter 8 ‘on Tenia’; P39 verso: chapter 9 ‘on water retention (?)’; P41 recto: chapter 10 ‘on headache’; P44 verso: chapter 11 ‘on headaches cause by drunkenness’; P44 recto: chapter 12, on another kind of headache; P45 verso: chapter 14 ‘on migrane (possibly: text is corrupted); P46 recto: chapter 15: ’on ischiectomy’ (surgical removal of part of the hip bone); P49 verso: ‘on lethargy’; P51 verso: beginning of chapter 18; P52 verso: chapter 20: ‘on unnatural changes’; P54 verso: chapter 23: ‘on mania and melancholy’; P56 recto: chapter 24: ‘on desire’; P59 verso: chapter 25: ‘on drunkenness”; P59 recto: chapter 26; P60 verso: chapter 27: ‘on sneezing’; P67 verso: chapter 31: ‘on paralysis’; P69 recto: chapter 32; P71 verso: chapter 33; P73 recto: ‘on mouth problems’; P73 verso: beginning of the Third Treatise: chapter 1: ‘on the eye’; P72 verso: chapter 2: ‘on illnesses of […]; P78 verso: chapter 4: ‘on illnesses [of the eye - text is torn]. Names of illnesses and parts of the body are usually given in a Romance language, probably Italian, and are indicative of the European origin of the manuscript.Condition: P17 has a stub attached)Layout: 30 lines
Verso: a complete copy of a poem by the wife of Dunaš Ibn Labrāṭ, followed by the first part of a second poem, a reply from Ibn Labrāṭ to his wife. Ibn Labrāṭ (920-990 CE) was a Spanish poet, grammarian and commentator who worked in the service of Ḥasday Ibn Šapruṭ, the leader of the Jewish community in Spain. Ibn Labrāṭ had a contentious relationship with his contemporaries, but very little is known about his wife. Her poem - the only known medieval Hebrew poem by a woman - has been praised for its quality and poignancy: Will her love remember his graceful doe / her only son in her arms as he parted? / On her left hand he placed a ring from his right, / on his wrist she placed her bracelet. / As a keepsake she took his mantle from him, / and he in turn took hers from her. / Would he settle, now, in the land of Spain, / if its prince gave him half his kingdom? [translated by Peter Cole]. Ibn Labrāṭ’s response: Were you seeking the day of my death when you wrote: / ‘Have you betrayed and abandoned your vows?’ / Could I betray a woman so wise / given by god as the bride of my youth? / Had my heart ever thought to leave you / I would have torn it into pieces. / For those who betray their beloved companion, / God brings down with the trials of foes. / Lions soon will devour his flesh, / and vultures will consume his blood. / Who resembles the stars of dawn […] [translated by Peter Cole]. The couple appear to have separated reluctantly under difficult circumstances, resentfully described in another poem identified as being by Ibn Labrāṭ to his employer: I served you in sorrow, for all your wares are loathsome. / I will glean no grapes, nor will I gather corn. / I betrayed a young wife and sent her a writ of divorce. / I left my home, and abandoned the son that she bore. (T-S J2.71, f. 2v). Another copy of the poem by the wife of Ibn Labrāṭ is also found at Mosseri IV.387 and Mosseri VIII.202.2 (two fragments of the same manuscript). On the recto there is a heading confirming the manuscript was copied after the death of Solomon Ibn Gabirol (i.e. later than 1057 CE). Paleographical evidence suggests this is an 11th-century manuscript, most likely from Tyre.Condition: Torn, holesLayout: 17 lines (recto); 16 lines (verso)
Legal documents in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Manasseh. F. 2r: drafts of various legal documents, concerning debts, divorce, contracts between a hirer and labourer, and a husband’s permission to travel after leaving support for his wife. Mentions people including Wahb b. Muʿammar, Joseph ha-Kohen b. Jacob, Abū Saʿīd b. Ṣedaqa b. Barakāt al-Ḥarīrī, Abū l-Faraj Ibn al-Hamdānī, Abū l-Faraj al-Levi b. Ṣedaqa al-Ramlī, Abraham al-Amšāṭī b. Ḥananel, Abū Saʿd b. Ṣedaqa al-Labbān, Abraham ha-Kohen b. Aaron, Isḥāq b. Saʿīd, Joseph b. Ṣedaqa Maḥallī, Sitt al-Ahl b. Abū l-Munā, Kulla bat Tiqwa, Barakāt ha-Kohen b Aaron ha-Jalīlī, and Abū l-Ḥasan b. Mizmar. F. 2v: three (drafts of) documents: Malīḥa, sister of Abū l-Faḍl, wife of Adam al-Ḥalabī the banker gives power of attorney to Nathan ha-Levi b. Abraham regarding her divorce. Witnessed by Beraḵot ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver and Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-Ḵāminī the cantor. Dated Tammuz 1438 of the Seleucid Era (= 1127 CE). Abū Naṣr the doctor (son of Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Tunīsī) gives power of attorney to Abū l-Ḥasan al-Kohen ʿEli b. Isaac (known as Ibn Ḡazāl), regarding all claims from Abū Naṣr b. Abū Saʿīd the perfumer. The third document is written under the authority of the Gaʾon Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen; Malīḥa the wife of Adam al-Ḥalabī the banker, releases him after the divorce. Witnessed by Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-Ḵāminī, al-Parnas Abū l-Faḍl and al-Parnas Abū l-ʿAlī. F. 1r: Farajiyya b. Isaac, wife of Abū l-Maʿālī Abraham known as Ibn Abū Salāma has given a general power of attorney (accompanied by the symbolic gift of her share of the land of Israel) to Abū l-Maʿālī Benjamin b. Ḥalfon. Mentions Umm Abū l-Faraj al-Muqaddasiyya. Dated Av 1438 of the Seleucid Era (= 1127 CE) in Fusṭāṭ, and signed by ʿEli ha-Kohen the cantor b. Ezekiel he-Ḥaver. F. 1v: power of attorney, written under the authority of Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen. Abū ʿAlī b. Maṣliaḥ and Ḵalaf b. Abraham al-Faqqāʿī testify that Sittūna b. Abū l-Riḍā b. Ḥudayda, wife of Abū Saʿd al-Zajjāj, has given power of attorney (accompanied by the symbolic gift of her share of the land of Israel) to Abraham ha-Kohen b. Aaron for herself and her brother Abū Mufaḍḍal in the presence of her husband. Signed by Abraham b. Šemaʿya he-Ḥaver (descendent of Šemaʿya Gaʾon), Isaac b. Samuel ha-Sefardi and Ḥalfon b. Manasseh himself. Below that document is a release from Faḍā’il b. Salāma for Bāqī (?) b. Ṭayyib, mentioning Damascus, and signed by Abraham b. Šemaʿya he-Ḥaver (descendent of Šemaʿya Gaʾon) and Isaac b. Samuel ha-Sefardi.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 14-21 lines + marginalia
Large part of an unidentified medical work in Hebrew, organised in chapters with rubricated headings. Contents are: P1: ‘Things that damage the teeth’; ‘Chapter 11’; P4: ‘On extraction of teeth’; ‘Chapter 10’; P7: ‘On digestion’; P8: ‘Chapter 2: on diphtheria’; P9: ‘On neck pain’; ‘Chapter 3: on things that get stuck in the throat’; P10: ‘On mouth problems and irritation of the trachea’; P11: ‘Chapter 6: on foods that inhibit appetite’; ‘Chapter 7: on stomach ache’; P12: ‘On medicines for the stomach’; ‘Chapter 5: on appetite stimulants’; P13: ‘Things that cause stomach ache and bloating’; P14-17: description of chest ailments (chest pain, short breath, cough) and their causes; P18: ‘Chapter 17: on expectoration and on expectoration with traces of blood’; P19: on coughing and diarrhoea; P20: on inflammations of the mouth including abscesses and ailments of the uvula; P21: on chronic coughs and lung problems; P22: on nausea and vomiting; P22: ‘Chapter 2: on things that are damaging to the stomach; P23: on chest problems; P24 1 recto: on the stomach, including dietary advice regarding fat and milk; ‘Chapter 15: on things that are damaging to the stomach’; P24: ‘Chapter 16: on things that are damaging to the stomach’; P24: Chapter 11: ‘on vomiting and emetics’; P25: ‘Chapter 12: on things that cause thirst’; P25: ‘Chapter 13: on gastric swelling’; P26: ‘Chapter 7: on gastric abscesses’; P26: ‘Chapter 11: on lung complaints’; P27: ‘Chapter 14: on pleurisy, and causes and treatment of diseases of the throat’; P27 verso: ‘Chapter 12’; P28: on phthisis; P29: on cough with bloody expectorations; P33-33: list of simples and description of their use, in alphabetical order (letters א, ז, ח, כ); P34: diseases of the breast and medicaments to be applied to the breast; P34 verso: ‘Chapter 26 (or 27): on stopping the flow of milk’; P35: ‘On abscesses to the breast’; P36: on stomach ailments; P37: ‘Chapter 21: on things used to avoid the enlargement of the breast’; P37: on treatment for breast-related ailments; P38: on illnesses related to the liver and their treatment; P39: ‘Chapter 12: on liver abscesses’; P39: ‘Chapter 19: on liver pain’; P40: ‘Chapter 21: on treatment for the liver’; P42: Chapters 23-24: on further liver ailments and treatment; P43: ‘Chapter 24: on things that are damaging to the liver and on liver illnesses’; P44: ‘causes of pain to the liver’; ‘Chapter 21: causes of liver blockage’. Words describing drugs and parts of the body are often in transliteration from a Romance language (e.g. ‘אצטומכה’ for stomach), or are associated with their Spanish, Latin or Arabic equivalents. Authorities mentioned include: Rufus of Ephesus (late 1st century CE, writer on dietetic, pathology and anatomy), Galen (2nd century CE), Al-Rāzī (10th century CE, physician, philosopher, alchemist), Ibn Māsawayh (9th century CE, Christian Nestorian physician, director of the hospital of Baghdad under the ‘Abbasids). On P28 there is mention of the Ottoman Sultan Salīm I, who became caliph in 1517.Condition: Torn (badly in many cases)Layout: 2.4 x 4.8 (smallest fragment); various lines
The Samaritan Pentateuch contains the text of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in the consonantal Samaritan script, a development from the Paleo-Hebrew script. Add.1846 is believed to be the earliest extant manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch and dates from the early 12th century CE. Epigraphs and scholia in Samaritan Hebrew/Aramaic and Arabic follow the end of each biblical book. They are in various hands. The copying of the book itself is the product of five different hands. Some notable features of the manuscript are: f. 53r: An epigraph at the end of the book of Genesis states that the codex was owned (and restored) by Mešalma b. Abi Beraḵata, c. 1275, whose daughter sold the manuscript in the 14th c. f. 103r: An epigraph at the end of the book of Exodus records the purchase of the codex by Miṯpaṣia b. Meṯuḥia from his brother for 25 shekels, in the year 5752 of the Exodus, 544 of the rule of Ishmael = 1149-50 CE. f. 188v: A marginal scholium at the end of the book of Numbers suggests unconvincingly that this manuscript was saved from the fire at the time of the King of Babylon, in the presence of Zerubbabel the Jew (hence, Codex Zurbil). f. 137v: An epigraph at the end of the book of Leviticus explains how this manuscript was saved from a fire that broke out in a manuscript store-room (a Samaritan Genizah?) in 1201 CE. f. 147r: There is marked grease stain on f. 147r, where worshippers have kissed the Priestly Blessing, Numbers 6:24–26.Condition: Some small holes; margins cropped; occasional staining; a few leaves badly faded and/or rubbed; several leaves lost at the beginning and end, some being replaced by leaves in a different hand. The beginning of the book of Genesis (up to 1:28) and the end of Deuteronomy (after 33:1) are lost. Some erasures and corrections. Pricked in outer margins; ruled. Foliated, but some leaves have an alternative foliation.Layout: 28 lines