Drafts of documents. 1r: legal document concerning financial settlements within a partnership, and mentioning Makārim b. Sabbāḡ (?) al-Sukrī, [Abū] l-ʿAlā b. Nathan and Abū Manṣūr the cantor אלמשמיע. Dated Tišri 1472 of the Seleucid Era (= 1160 CE). Below is a legal document concerning Abū Saʿd b. Joseph known as Ibn al-Ḵaṭīṭī, who received items including 100 miṯqāl of camphor and 6 mines of sandalwood from Abū Saʿīd the trader. Also mentions Abū Saʿd’s uncle and father Ibrahim b. ʿImrān and Joseph b. ʿImrān. 1v: template of a witness statement for a woman and her mother concerning her dowry. Below on the right is a document concerning partnership in a house, mentioning Abū Faḍā’il Joseph b. Jacob al-Kohen Ibn al-Faraj b. Marūḵ (?) and Abū l-Faḍl Ibn al-Maḡribī the trader. Below left concerns monthly payments between Abū l-Munā b. Barakāt and Ḵalaf al-Mutasawwiq b. Abū l-Surūr. 2r: trousseau list and dowry payments of a wedding involving the groom Barakāt b. Ḡālib, mentioning items including sofas, different kind of cloth, chests and vessels. 2v: legal document regarding dealings between [...] b. Ḵalaf the silk trader and Abū l-Faḍl b. Nathan concerning shares of the house Duwayra Zaʿfrān (the ‘little saffron house’). A paragraph below deals with claims on trousseau items between Ṭāhir b. Abū Saʿd and his wife Fard bat Abū Isaac.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 9-24 lines + marginalia
Recto: Sālim b. Manṣūr al-Ḥalabī calls witnesses concerning an inheritance: Abraham b. Šemarya the judge and Elʿazar b. Hillel from Aleppo testify that Ismaʿīl ʿAzāzī left two brothers behind in Aleppo, one called Asad (who had three children) and the other Hiba (with two children), and that Ismaʿīl was a paternal uncle to the above Sālim b. Manṣūr through his third brother Manṣūr. Hillel b. Mubḥar confirms that Ismaʿīl ʿAzāzī was not married. Dated Kislev 1411 (= 1099 CE) and signed by Isaac b. Samuel, Joseph ha-Kohen b. Ḥalfon and Peraḥya the teacher b. Oraḥ. Verso: document relating to the witness statement on recto: Abū l-Murjā Joseph b. Mevoraḵ (known as Ibn al-Nāqid), Abū l-Ḥasan Aaron b. Yefet al-Iskandarānī and Abū l-Faraj Yešuʿa b. Isaac the dyer stand as surety for between one and a hundred dinars should heirs other than Sālim present themselves. Dated Kislev 1411 (= 1099 CE), written and signed by Hillel b. ʿEli, and signed by ʿAmram b. Abraham and Isaac b. Samuel. Transversely there is another document, in which ʿEli b. Hillel the cantor demands from Moses b. Ephraim two Sicilian headcloths worth 6 and a quarter dinar but Moses refuses any knowledge of this. Signed by Isaac b. Samuel, Solomon b. Nathan he-Ḥaver and Yešuʿa b. Yaḵin. Arabic jottings in the margin.Condition: holes, rubbedLayout: 26 lines (recto); 10 lines + 12 lines transversely + jottings (verso)
Several legal documents in the handwriting of a single scribe. Recto: power of attorney for a woman, Nājiyya bat Solomon b. Hiba, the widow of Abū Saʿd Isaac b. Ḵalaf, allowing Abū Sahl Menasseh b. Moses to claim property which belonged to her back in Fusṭāṭ. It refers to Abraham b. Ḥayyim the cantor; Joseph b. Moses Taherti; Mevoraḵ b. Abraham; Nissim b. Solomon; Nissim b. Nathan; Nissim b. Aaron; and ʿEli ha-Kohen ha-Parnas b. Yaʿiš ha-Kohen. Written by Šela b. Mevasser, and signed by Mawhūb the cantor b. Aaron the cantor, Ezekiel ha-Kohen b. ʿEli ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver and Sahl b. Ḥasan. Dated 1074 CE in al-Mahdiyya (Mahdia), Tunisia. In the right-hand margin is a geṭ for ʿAmram and his wife Riḍāʾ bat Abraham, dated 1079 CE in Fusṭāṭ. Verso: deed of release in which Abū Saʿd Abraham ha-Kohen b. Daniel releases ʿAbdallah Obadiah b. Mešullam al-Ṣūrī from their partnership. Another document is written inverted on verso, and deals with an argument over a partnership between Yaʿir b. Abraham b. Yaʿir the judge and Solomon b. Abraham. Also mentions Yaʿir’s brother, Yefet b. Abraham b. Yaʿir the judge, Ephraim ha-Kohen b. Ṣibyān and Mevoraḵ b. Saʿadya.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 80 lines + marginalia (recto); various lines (verso)
F. 1: various (drafts of) legal documents in the hand of Mevoraḵ b. Nathan, including a trousseau list, power of attorney and witness statements. (1) The trousseau list is of a marriage between Ḥalfon b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen and Sitt al-Milāḥ b. Abū Saʿīd, at the top the name Ḵalaf Abū Saʿīd al-Kohen from Cairo (the bride’s father) is mentioned. (2) A second statement refers to Ḵalaf Abū Saʿīd who will trade with a sum of money paid to him for the orphan Abū Ḥasan (b. Bayān b. Ḥašīš?) for a 50% share of the profits, dated Elul 1470 of the Seleucid Era (= 1159 CE). (3) The copy of a power of attorney dated to the first decade of Tammuz 1469 of the Seleucid Era (= 1158 CE) in Damīra under authority of the Nagid Samuel is given by Sitt al-Nuʿm b. Yešuʿa b. ʿAmram to Joseph ha-Levi b. Obadiah concerning dealings with her father’s estate, as well as mentioning names such as Hillel known as al-Abzārī and Damietta. (4) Another witness statement concerning a partnership in a shop and dated Marḥešvan 1471 of the Seleucid Era (= 1160 CE) is signed by Šemarya b. Abraham, Yefet ha-Levi b. Jacob and Mevoraḵ b. Nathan he-Ḥaver. F. 2r: legal document dated 29th Tišri 1471 of the Seleucid Era (= 1160 CE) in Fusṭāṭ concerning the betrothal of Yefet b. Isaac and Karam bat Yešuʿa. Signed by Ṣedaqa b. Elʿazar and […] b. Yešuʿa. On verso mirrored script in the handwriting of Mevoraḵ b. Nathan.Condition: StainedLayout: 16 x 12; 13-21 lines
Letter from a son, Surūr, to his mother. He is distressed to hear his mother has been unwell and says he was unable to visit her because of the price to hire a mount and moreover his eyes have been sore. He reports that four months ago he had married, and that all was going well with his new wife. He then turns to the matter of a prayer book which he had pawned. His mother had repaid the debt but had not received the book back from a certain Faḵr. He tells his mother to enlist or coerce Sulaymān the druggist, Muwaffaq the cantor, Saʿīd the son of the government clerk, Nāṣir b. Ṭayyib, Joshua ’son of the drowned’, and Mūsā b. Mardūk, and the son of Abū Saʿd the beadle to help her get the book back from Faḵr. If he will still not give it back, Faraj Allah and Abū Saʿid the beadle should go to Joshua the Nagid (i.e. Joshua Maimonides, 1310-1355) and say ‘Remember what you have said to your servant Surūr in Bilbays with regard to the copy belonging to the elder Jacob, the brother of the school teacher. Remember how a divorce was arranged for your maidservant. Remember how I went to the chief of police in Bilbays and how he referred be to the qāḍī of Bilbays, whom I did not find. So please get that book out of the hands of so-and-so’.Condition: Slightly torn, fadedLayout: 24 lines (recto); 26 lines (verso)
Main text and marginalia represent two different textual entities, both in the hand of Joseph b. Jacob ha-Bavli Roš ha-Seder. The main text of f. 1r and 2v contains excerpts from various texts in different writing styles and sometimes the same passage is repeated in different writing styles, presenting samples of Joseph b. Jacob ha-Bavli’s writing in different styles. On f. 1r are a query and answer related to Babylonian Talmud, Roš ha-Šana, 16a, Mišna, Beraḵot 1:1, a passage from Sefer ha-Galuy by Saʿadya Gaʾon with some phrases repeated numerous times, Psalms 118:8-9, 6 written with vocalisation and cantillation and partially repeated without vocalisation, and the title מסכת ברכות repeated twice. F. 1v: a collection of materials related to Babylonian Talmud, Sukka, including a short commentary in Judaeo-Arabic and Rashi on Sukka 8b. F. 2r: Babylonian Talmud, Megilla 16a-16b. F. 2v contains passages from: Rashi on Babylonian Talmud, Soṭa 2a, a philosophical work in Judaeo-Arabic with some lines repeated more than once in different styles, Babylonian Talmud, Beraḵot 63a, Psalms 46:8, 118:6-7 and Ibn Gikatilla’s commentary on Job. In the margins, there are two book lists mentioning treatises of halaḵa, biblical commentaries, Talmudic tractates, Geʾonic responsa, and responsa by Isaac al-Fāsī.Condition: Holes, slightly rubbed, slightly stainedLayout: 18–23 lines + marginalia
The first quire of a thematically-arranged magical formulary. Begins with recipes in Judaeo-Arabic to manipulate and exorcise demons (including מימון and בורקאן ושמהורש), followed by recipes in Hebrew, to exorcise a demon, for safety on the road, against robbers (including one recipe attributed to Maimonides, one attributed to a R. Menaḥem, and one which is accompanied by a story of an old man in Palestine who used it successfully), a recipe for charm and grace (which is attributed to Elijah), and recipes to heal different types of נעלבים / demoniacs (the עורפן-demoniacs, who gesture with their hands; the בלזר-d, who prophesy; the פרפר-d, who cry and then seem to be dead; the רית-d, who cry and laugh, and the טורוס-d, who are aggressive). This is followed by a horologion specifying the name of each hour of the day and the night, and what magical practices it is good for, a list of the angels in charge of each planet, the correlations between planets and zodiac signs, the angels in charge of each sign, the angels in charge of each month, and instructions to mention the names of the angels in charge of each tequfa (whose names are not provided). Then come the seals and planets of each angel, and in which hour and which zodiac sign they should be written, followed by the beginning of a Judaeo-Arabic recipe to manipulate demons, which must have continued into the next quire.Condition: good conditionLayout: 17-23 lines
Three unconnected palimpsest fragments. Fragment 1 (P1) is from a children’s Hebrew primer. The upper text consists of Leviticus 26:3-8 (recto) and alphabetical writing exercises (verso). The under text, written transversely in relation to the upper text, contains Halaḵot Gedolot, Pesaḥ, with full Tiberian vocalisation. Fragment 2 (P2) is a bifolium: the upper text on leaf 1 is from the Sefer ha-Razim (sections 232-233 in the Rebiger-Schäfer 2009 edition), with the text of an invocation on f. 1v marked off with a frame and followed by several magical characteres. The under text on ff. 1v-2r, written transversely in relation to the upper text, is a dowry list from a ketubba, including a mohar gift from the groom of a house or apartment whose boundaries are defined in relation to the cardinal points. The groom’s name is Ṣulḥ b. S[...] (צלח). F. 2v is blank. Fragment 3 (P3) is a bifolium: the upper text consists of unidentified piyyuṭim. The under text, written transversely in relation to the upper text, is an unidentified text in Hebrew, barely legible.Condition: Torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: upper text: 10 lines (recto); 7 lines (verso); under text: 14 lines; P2: 11 x 23.2 (1 leaf: 11.5); upper text: 15-19 lines (f. 1 is blank); under text: 23 lines (recto; verso is blank); P3: 10.2 x 28.9 (1 leaf: 14.4); upper text: 14-17 lines; under text: various lines
Recto: drafts of legal documents in the hand of Ephraim b. Šemarya concerning a legal dispute between Isaac (Surūr) b. Jacob b. Aaron, known as al-Ḡāsūs (אלגאסוס), and his ex-wife Surūra b. Solomon the physician b. Rabīʿ who moved with their three children from Qayrawān to Fusṭāṭ. When her husband left, the wife claimed her dowry. As he has no money he suggests giving her his share (the roof) of a house in Qayrawān, which he had inherited along with his brother and sister from his father, instead. It is worth 295 dirhams, which is 5 dirhams less than her dowry. In a second document he hands over the roof and she states that he is no longer obligated to her. Dated 1351 (= 1040 CE). Verso: continuation of the drafted documents and a preliminary draft of a petition to al-Mustanṣir in Arabic (possibly also in the hand of Ephraim b. Šemarya), complaining about the closure of the Palestinian synagogue in Fusṭāṭ, c. 1040 CE. Mentions Nathan b. Abraham, who ‘arrived from the West, claiming the position of the head of our Academy, and who has been head of this Academy for 16 years’, the amir Munjiz al-Dawla, and the ‘slave of our master, Daʾūd b. Ishaq’. The situation concerns the leadership dispute between Solomon b. Judah and Nathan b. Abraham over the leadership of the Palestinian Academy. The congregation of the closed Palestinian synagogue had apparently been loyal to Solomon b. Judah, and Nathan b. Abraham had used his contacts in the government to have the synagogue closed.Condition: Torn, holes, faded, rubbedLayout: 47 lines + marginalia (recto); 44 lines + marginalia (verso)
70 minute fragments (6 vellum; 64 paper) 47 of which are unidentified texts in Judaeo-Arabic (row 1, nos 1-2, 4, 6-8; row 2, nos 2- 4, 6; row 3, nos 1, 4; row 3, no. 6; row 3, no. 9; row 4, nos 1-10; row 5, nos 1-2, 5-6; row 6, nos 1-4, 6-11, 13; row 7, nos 1-6, 10-13); one is probably part of a legal document in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning the name [...] b. Darmā (row 1, no. 5); one is probably part of a rabbinical work, mentioning the Mišna (row 2, no. 1); one is probably a medical text, mentioning the veins (אלערוק) (row 2, no. 5); four are part of a Bible commentary, quoting Job 36:15; Jeremiah 7:29; Ezra 9:3 (row 2, no. 7; row 4, no. 11; row 5, no. 7; row 7, no. 8); four are possibly Bible translations (row 2, no. 8; row 3, no. 5; row 6, nos 5, 12); one is Saʿadya’s translation of Job 36:6-9 and Job 36:20-23 (row 2, no. 9); one is probably a rabbinical work on nidda (row 3, no. 7); one is possibly a letter in Judaeo-Arabic (row 3, no. 8); one is a translation of Psalms 104:27-28 and 105:12 with Hebrew incipits and commentary, quoting Psalms 142:6 (row 5, no. 3); one is possibly a fragment from a grammatical work (row 7, no. 7); one is part of a Bible commentary (row 7, no. 9).