A large bifolium from a collection of Geonic responsa, including questions addressing Amram Gaon of Sura and Mattatya Gaon.Condition: Badly torn, holes, faded, stainedLayout: 35-36 lines
Recto: accounts in Arabic. Verso: few letters in Hebrew and Arabic.Condition: badly torn, rubbed, badly stainedLayout: 4 lines (recto); various lines (verso)
f. 1r: unidentified Hebrew. ff. 1v and 2r: apparently accounts or document. f. 2v: entitled ‘[...] sacrifice’. Mentions Ḵalaf Allūnī, Ḵalaf the collector b. Hārūn al-Ṣūrī and dirhams.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 4-9 lines
Accounts, listing many names, including Joseph and Jacob; with Hebrew numerals.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 18 lines (recto); 20 lines (verso)
Accounts of the synagogue for the Šabbat of Vaʾera. Mentions various expenses, for example bread and the cleaner Joseph, and Ibn Saʿdān, Manasseh b. Ẓāhir and Ibn Asʿad.Condition: holes, rubbed, fadedLayout: 22 lines + numerals (recto); 5 lines (verso)
Accounts and lists, probably from a notebook. On f. 1r there is a list of the parašot in Genesis; on f. 2v there are several names such as Sulaymān, Saʿīd and Mūsā, with numerals.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, faded, stainedLayout: various lines
Accounts in an awkward script, mentioning amounts of currency (dinars) and names such as Joseph and Isaiah.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, faded, stainedLayout: 8-11 lines
Accounts with names and numerals, mentioning ʿAlī Ibn al-Ḥalal, Abū l-Faraj b. Ṣedaqa, Abū l-Ḥasan, Ḵalaf Ibn al-Fuqqāʿī and Naṣr Ibn al-Muḡāzilī; Hebrew jottings on recto.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 2 lines (recto); 6 lines (verso)
Recto: receipt or accounts, mentioning Abū Isaiah and the elder Abū l-Ḥasan and dinars. Verso: poetical Hebrew letter by the Karaite Ṭoviyya b. Moses.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, fadedLayout: 16 lines (recto); 6 lines (verso)
Accounts with Hebrew and Coptic numerals, mentioning different quantities of dinars, expenses for craftsmen, and the title ṣāḥib al-baḥr (‘master of the sea’).Condition: torn, holes, fadedLayout: 4 lines + numerals (recto); jottings (verso)
Probably fragment from accounts, mentioning a raṭl of sugar; jottings and writing exercises on verso.Condition: torn, holes, faded, stainedLayout: 7 lines + marginalia (recto); jottings (verso)
Accounts, listing names including Judah b. [...], Abū l-Surūr Ibn al-Qābisī and Ḥalfon, and sums of money in dinars. Signed by (Ḥalf)on b. Yaḥyā.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 15 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Accounts, dated October 1230 CE, in the hand of Solomon b. Elijah, referring to a cellar (maṭmūra) in his father’s house with 117 jugs of wine. Most of the wines are described as ‘crossbred’ (muwallad), and just 10 are described as ‘real wine’ (ḵamr).Condition: Torn, holesLayout: 24 lines (recto); 6 lines (verso)
Accounts of the heqdeš (charitable foundation) in the hand of judge Mevoraḵ b. Nathan, including expenditures on the maintenance of the buildings, gifts to Muslim officials, and the revenue for six months. Dated Kislev 1476 of the Seleucid Era (= 1165).Condition: Torn, holesLayout: 15-22 lines (f. 2v is blank)
List of communal revenue and expenditure, mentioning 18 apartments and compounds as revenues, many ordinary items (including oil), and the repairs to the house of the Nagid as expenditures dated Siwan 1494 Sel. (= 1183 CE).Condition: holesLayout: 17-19 lines in 2 columns + marginalia
Accounts for the rental of shops and apartments in Damascus belonging to the heqdeš of Damascus. Mentions reconstructions of some of the shops, and refers to people from the Maghreb as tenants.Condition: Holes, rubbed, slightly stainedLayout: 13 lines (recto); 7 lines (verso)
Fragment from a notebook with drafts (of a letter) and accounts. Mentions Ḥayyā [Yaḥyā] ha-Kohen ha-Melammed and Abū l-Ḥasan and measures such as qirrāṭ.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 8 lines + marginalia (recto); 10 lines (verso)
List of names and persons, mentioning names such as Abū l-Ṭāhir, Abū l-Faraj, Umm Abū Saʿīd, Joseph ha-Kohen, and many more, mostly followed by ṯawb ‘cloth’.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 4-17 lines
Recto: expenses accounts with Coptic numerals. Mentions several books such as Dīwān al-Muʿaẓẓamī, Dīwān al-Jahmī and Dīwān al-Ṣārim. Verso: legal document, mentioning Joseph and his mother, the name Elʿazar and a ketubba.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, faded, stainedLayout: various lines (recto); 13 lines (verso)
Possibly an account of auctioning the right to read a paraša: a list of parašot from Exodus and Leviticus with the words ‘dirhem’ or ‘two dirhems’ written next to each one of them in Arabic script. The text at the top of recto, which may not be related to the account, mentions the names of Abū Naṣr al-Dalāl and Abū l-Faḍl. With jottings in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic on verso.Condition: Torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: various lines
Leaf from a work on operative alchemy, describing operations for silver and gold, the dissolution and dealbation (whitening) of arsenic in vinegar and other operations (including one on pearls). A passage on verso describes the removal of humidities from bodies. The author appears to be talking about his own experiences in the first person.Condition: Torn, holes, slightly stainedLayout: 31 lines (recto); 30 lines (verso)
Collection of recipes without clearly stated aims. The ingredients listed (mostly stones, metals and salts) seem to point to an alchemical background for the fragment. A small number of names of ingredients (e.g. sal ammonia) are given in a Romance language.Condition: Torn, holes, slightly faded, slightly stainedLayout: 42 lines + marginalia
P1: f. 1r: description of a dream dated 525 AH (= 1130 CE); f. 1v: alchemical recipe called ‘the operation of mixture’; f. 2r: invocation to God. P2: f. 1r: alchemical recipe (continues from P1 f. 1v); f. 1v: calendar in which the Hebrew months of Sivan and Tammuz are mentioned; f. 2v: invocation to God and separate letters. P3: leaf 1: magical words and description of their use, with a mention of the city of Damascus; calendar mentioning Jewish festivals (Passover, Ḥanukka). P4: f. 1r: sequence of letters arranged according to the abrade; f. 1v: on the substitution of letters in words according to the Kabbalah; P4 leaf 2: calendar with mention of Hebrew festivals (continues from P3, leaf 1). P5: f. 1r: very damaged, only a few letters legible; f. 1v: list of some of the months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2r: description of movements of the sun (first 8 lines) and list of some months of the Jewish calendar; f. 2v: badly rubbed. P6: f. 1r: description of celestial phenomena; ff. 1v, leaf 2: on the reckoning of the days of the festival with mention of the leap year. P7: ff. 1r-2v: mention of a musical instrument in Arabic and Hebrew; f. 2r: mention of Rabban Gamaliel and reckoning for the rising of the New Moon. P8: unidentified Hebrew text. P9 recto: alchemical recipe involving the use of vitriol; verso: Arabic (separate letters and words and unidentified partial text).Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 0-16 lines
Hebrew instructions for producing silver and gold, followed by Hebrew writing exercises and an unidentified Arabic text.Condition: holesLayout: 20 lines per page (recto) 22 lines (verso)
Recto: two alchemical recipes. The first recipe (ll. 1-8) is aimed at producing ‘the work’ (אלצנעה), a word commonly used for indicating the production of gold, silver or the elixir that would turn base metals into precious ones. Ingredients mentioned are: sublimated arsenic, vinegar, sulphur, dissolved salt, sublimated mercury. The second recipe is composed of two parts. The first part (ll. 8-14) describes a preparation requiring silver, salt, water, mercury, and sal ammoniac that is aimed at obtaining a clear plate of metal. The second part (ll. 14-end) requires the use of quicksilver, horse manure, sal ammoniac, the Khurasani (?) and young boys’ urine. The end of the recipe is lost. Verso: part of a widely-spaced letter sent to a nagid in Fusṭāṭ.Condition: Torn, fadedLayout: 36 lines (recto); 16 lines (verso)
Amulet with angelic names (Uriel, Rafael, Gabriel); boxed tables with magical words on recto; magic square and Star of David with magical letters on verso.Condition: holesLayout: 17 lines (recto); 10 lines (verso)
Ben Sira 31:24-32:7, 32:12-33:8. The fragment derives from MS.F.Condition: torn, holes, slightly stainedLayout: 21 lines in 2 columns (recto); 20 lines in 2 columns (verso)
Ben Sira 39:15-40:8, with Hebrew marginal glosses. The fragment derives from MS.B. Under the same classmark is the original letter written by Solomon Schechter to Mrs Lewis announcing the discovery of the first known fragment of ‘the original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus’, dated 13/5/96 (13th May 1896).Condition: torn, holes, badly rubbed, stainedLayout: 17 lines in 2 columns + marginalia
Ben Sira 4:23; 4:30-31; 5:4-7; 5:9-13; unidentified verse; 25:8; 25:13; 25:17-24; 26:1-2. Unvocalised but with verse divisions marked by a single dot. Derives from MS.C.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 11-12 lines
Ben Sira 3:6-5:10; 14:11-16:26, unvocalised but with verse divisions, marginal glosses and several deletions and corrections. The fragment derives from MS.A.Condition: tornLayout: 29 lines
Ben Sira 5:10-7:29; 11:34-14:11, unvocalised but with verse divisions and a marginal gloss. The fragment derives from MS.A.Condition: tornLayout: 28-29 lines
Ben Sira 3:14-18; 3:21-22; 4:16; 4:21; 20:22-23; 4:22-23; 26:2-3; 26:13; 26…15-17; 36…27-31. Unvocalised but with verse divisions. The fragment derives from MS.C.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 11-12 lines
Ben Sira 10:19-11:10, unvocalised but with verse divisions. The fragment derives from MS.B.Condition: torn, holes, badly rubbed, stainedLayout: 17 lines in 2 columns + marginalia
Ben Sira 30:11-31:11; 37:27-38:27, with verse divisions, and interlinear and marginal corrections and alternative readings. The fragment derives from MS.B.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 18 lines + marginalia
Ben Sira 32:1-33:3; 35:11-36:26, with verse divisions, and interlinear and marginal corrections and alternative readings. The fragment derives from MS.B.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 18 lines + marginalia
Ben Sira 49:12-50:22, with verse divisions, and interlinear and marginal corrections and alternative readings. The fragment derives from MS.B.Condition: tornLayout: 18 lines + marginalia
Ben Sira 50:22-51:30, with verse divisions. The fragment derives from MS.B. F. 1v (at 51:12) has a decorated פ in the margin.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 18 lines + marginalia
Ben Sira 15:1-16:7, with Hebrew marginal glosses. The fragment derives from MS.B.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 17 lines (recto); 18 lines (verso)
Recto: work in Judaeo-Arabic on the 7 planets, presumably from a text on the creation of the world. Verso: text in Hebrew on tequfot, mentioning the names of the guardian angels of tequfat Ṭevet.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 6-7 lines
Leaf 1: Hebrew discussion of the zodiac signs and the months in which they 'serve' (zodiac chronocrators). Leaf 2: Aramaic list of prognostications from the rain and dew-falls on certain days in Tišri.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 13-14 lines
Discourse on the signs of the zodiac, discussing their houses and position in the sky during the year.Condition: holes, rubbedLayout: 35 lines (recto); 32 lines (verso)
Astrological work, establishing, among other things, connections between the organs of the human body, the zodiac and the months of the year.Condition: badly torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 10 lines
Leaf 1: end of a discussion of the cycles of each planet and their astrological importance, followed by a description of each of the planets. Leaf 2: end of a discussion of the influence of the zodiac signs on people born in them, followed by calendrical-astrological discussions, a discussion of the planets and their servants (בול, סין, אריס, כון, בילתיי, etc) and their influence on people born in them, and a horologion with angelic names.Condition: torn, stained, holesLayout: 19 lines
Astrological table, mentioning the sun and the planets, such as Mercury and Jupiter. On verso, another leaf is stuck to the page; on it a letter which mentions the name Abū Saʿīd b. Ṣaḡīr.Condition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: various lines
Recto: Treatise of Shem in Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: magical recipes in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic for adjuring demons (with Muslim elements, possibly including Quranic phrases) and for an amulet, and the beginning of a text called Tafsīr Dīwān [ ], which teaches wisdom.Condition: stained, fadedLayout: 45 lines (recto); 11-14 lines in columns (verso)
Astrological work dealing with various questions (מסלה). The text is divided into sections, of which 3-13 and 89-91 are preserved. Appended to the text is a list of stars of destiny for each hour of a week (leaf 2). F. 2v contains a masoretic list written in the empty space between the columns, consisting of incipits of biblical verses from Numbers and Deuteronomy.Condition: Slightly torn, holes, slightly rubbed, slightly stainedLayout: leaf 2: 18.5); 23-28 (arranged in two columns from the middle of f. 2r)
Leaf from an astrological treatise describing the different reciprocal positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and constellations, and their effects on bodies and their health.Condition: Slightly rubbedLayout: 25-27 lines
An astronomical treatise by Abraham b. ʿAnzar(?) on the seven planets and the model of the Universe. Mentions Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Abraham bar Ḥayya, Copernicus and the philosopher Abū Bakr b. al-Ṣāyiḡ (ibn Bajja), whose book the author read with a Muslim.Condition: Torn, holes, slightly rubbed, slightly stainedLayout: 15–27 lines (2v is blank)
On the creation of heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon and the starts), quoting Genesis 1:14-16, and Psalms 136:7-8.Condition: torn, holes, stainedLayout: 10 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Commentary on the 1501 Astronomical Tables by Abraham Zacut (Zacuto b. Salamanca; 1452) written by Abraham Gascon (16th century) and adapted to the geographical position of Cairo.Condition: tornLayout: 20-23 lines
Probably Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b-99a, but the text is very difficult to readCondition: torn, holes, rubbed, stainedLayout: 48 lines (recto); 42 lines (verso)
Quotations from the Babylonian Talmud, e.g. BT Soṭa 22a; unidentified text in Judaeo-Arabic (mentioning the marriage of Leah).Condition: torn, stainedLayout: 32 lines (recto); 19 lines (verso)
Selection of texts from the Babylonian Talmud relating to the examination of the slaughtering knife and expert supervision of the slaughter (Šavuʿot 34b; Ḥullin 17b–18a; ʿEruvin 63a; Beḵorot 28a–28b).Condition: torn, holes, stainedLayout: 31 lines + marginalia (recto); 31 lines (verso)