Recto: Aaron b. Asher, Diqduqe ha-Ṭeʿamim. The text contains a somewhat expanded version of שער ח (according to Dotan’s enumeration of the sections: Dotan 1967: 119). Verso: masoretic notes on חלל, ירידה, וירא, ויראה, observing that in each case the preferred preposition for these terms is אל, and listing the exceptions to this general rule (where על occurs instead).Condition: Slightly tornLayout: 12 lines in 2 columns (recto); 13 lines in 2 columns (verso)
Official letter to Ḥalfon he-Ḥaver, signed by Abraham b. Šemaʿya he-Ḥaver, descendant of Šemaʿya Gaʾon, and Isaac b. Samuel ha-Sefardi, formally asking for a testimony concerning the purity of the wares of Beraḵot.Condition: torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 11 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Part of a begging letter, c. 1025 CE, written by Abū l-Faraj al-Ḥaver, in Tiberias, to Abū l-Ṭayyib the cantor, in which Jewish lepers, who reside in Tiberias in order to seek treatment in its hot springs, describe their symptoms, including deafness, blindness and mutilations, and ask for financial assistance from the Jewish community in Fusṭāṭ. In the main text of the letter, and in the one line of Hebrew in the address on the verso, blank spaces remain in which to insert the name of the recipient and his father. The remaining two lines on the verso are the address in Judaeo-Arabic.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 12 lines (recto); 3 lines (verso)
A palimpsest consisting of the Palestinian Talmud, Peʾa 18d and 20b-c, written over a Syriac text, The Life of St Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria. Edited in Lewis (1902: 146-149) as text XXXV.Condition: Badly torn, holes, stainedLayout: 24 lines
Palimpsest, with Palestinian Talmud, Šeqalim, 44a-b; 46b, written over a Syriac text, The Life of St Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria. Edited in Lewis (1900: 98-105) as text XXIX.Condition: Torn, holes, stainedLayout: 32-34 lines
Recto: fragment from a power of attorney in which Abraham b. Isaac appoints Ephraim b. Moses the physician, to collect a debt owed to him by Yefet b. Ṯābit in Fusṭāṭ. Dated Thursday, 6th Marḥešvan 1368 (= 1056 CE), in Ramla. Witnessed by Ḥayyim he-Ḥaver b. Solomon, Joshua b. Abraham, Isaac b. Ezra, Yešuʿa ha-Kohen ha-Parnas b. Ṣedaqa, Solomon b. Jacob, and Boaz the cantor b. David. Following the signatures of the witnesses, all six signatures are validated in an attestation from the court of Daniel (b. ʿAzariah), ha-Nasi, Head of the Yešiva of the Pride of Jacob. It appears the power of attorney was written by a court scribe, while the attestation was written by Daniel himself. Verso: two unrelated lines in Arabic script.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 27 lines (recto); 2 lines (verso)
Recto: part of a letter, dated Adar 1522 (= 1211 CE), from Daniel the Babylonian b. Saʿadya, regarding a stranded Nasi, perhaps Josiah b. Jesse. Greetings are sent to various people, including Ḥananel, his brother Solomon (i.e. the sons of Samuel) and their sons, Abraham, Joseph and his son Isaac, Šemarya, David, Ezekiel, Yeḥiʾel and his son. Mentions Meir (perhaps the son of Baruḵ from France), Yefet, Elijah, Caleb ha-Kohen, Saʿadya and his sons, Elijah, who is from Alexandria, and Elʿazar. A marginal note mentions a certain Judah. Verso: an ethical piece, probably from a homilyLayout: 61 lines (recto), 68 lines (verso)
Leaf from a halakhic work on slaughtering by Eldad b. Maḥlī ha-Dani, called as such on verso.Condition: Slightly torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 23 lines (recto); 22 lines (verso)
Part of a letter by the Babylonian Gaʾon Samuel b. ʿEli. It contains the names Gūlā (גולא) b. Ḵalaf and Manṣūr b. Kūtā (כותא). Partially written in Aramaic.Condition: tornLayout: 6 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Four responsa of Geršom b. Judah (the Ragma), on the subject of borrowing money from gentiles, selling property, interest on a loan, and business deals with non-Jews made on the Sabbath. This is the oldest known Ashkenazi manuscript to be discovered in the Genizah.Condition: torn, stained, rubbedLayout: 23 lines (recto); 23 lines (verso)
Responsum of Hai Gaʾon; discussion of the dietary laws in Aramaic and Judaeo-Arabic; poem יודעי יגוני by Judah ha-Levi.Condition: badly torn, holes, badly rubbed, stainedLayout: 10-13 lines
Copy of a letter from Hai Gaʾon to Qayrawān. At the bottom is a copy of a collection of geonic responsa sent to Fez.Condition: Torn, holes, faded, stainedLayout: 55 lines
Colophon in the hand of Evyatar ha-Kohen b. Elijah Gaʾon, dated 1067 CE, on the title page of Hai Gaʾon’s commentary on tractate Ḥagiga of the Babylonian Talmud, which Evyatar has copied for his personal use.Condition: Torn, holesLayout: 16 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Copies of a legal document from Hai Gaʾon’s court and of a letter from him to Elḥanan b. Šemarya.Condition: torn, holes, stainedLayout: 22 lines (recto); 23 lines (verso)
Work on prayer, probably by Ibn Jasus (a student of Nissim Gaʾon). Also contains liturgical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic and liturgical texts in Hebrew and Aramaic.Condition: Badly tornLayout: 25 lines
Two bifolia from two separate works in different hands. P1: commentary on the tefillin, quoting various sources including the Geʾonim, Rabbenu Tam, Maimonides’ Mišne Tora, Hilḵot Tefillin u-Mezuza, and extensively from the Baʿal ha-Maʾor (Zerachiah b. Isaac ha-Levi Gerondi). P2: Isaac al-Fāsī, Sefer ha-Halaḵot, Yoma 2a, 3b-4a.Condition: torn, holes, slightly stained, rubbedLayout: 18.2 x 27.2 (1 leaf: 13.6); 15-16 lines + marginalia
Recto: Isaac al-Fāsī, Sefer ha-Halaḵot, Šavuʿot 33b. Verso: unidentified polemical text mentioning scholars and their translation of or commentary on an unnamed text and referring to the author’s refutation given elsewhere. The text quotes Proverbs 8:4.Condition: Torn, holes, slightly rubbed, slightly stainedLayout: 13 lines (recto); 14 lines (verso)
Recto: passage from Halaḵot Qeṭanot by Isaac al-Fāsī: Hilḵot Ṭumʾa 1a–b. Verso: an ownership note stating that the books belongs to Muwaffaq b. Moses and a colophon announcing the completion of Halaḵot Qeṭanot. At the bottom of verso there are several lines in Arabic script.Condition: Holes, slightly rubbedLayout: 23 lines + marginalia (recto); 11 lines (verso)
Letter, dated the day of the new moon of Kislev, at the beginning of the 13th century, from the cantor Isaac b. Baruḵ, who is away from home in Sammanūd, Egypt, in order to earn money officiating at weddings and Sabbaths, to his wife, in Fusṭāṭ. He laments his absence from his wife and beloved young son, exhorts his wife regarding her religious observance and the care of their son, and expresses his hope that he will return home with the utmost joy and with sufficient income from his endeavours. He was last officiating in Benhā, Egypt. He asks that his wife informs Umm Ṯanā that he will finish copying her Torah upon his return, and sends greetings to his father-in-law, Abū l-Bayān the cantor, to whom the letter is addressed.Condition: fadedLayout: 35 lines (recto); 3 lines (verso)
P2 f.1 followed by P1 f. 1 and P3 f. 2: Birkat ha-Mazon. P3 f. 1, P1 f. 2 and P2 f. 2: qaddiš. P4: Judaeo-Arabic letter sent by Ismaʿīl to al-Šayḵ al-Ḥaver David ha-Kohen, mentioning the elder Abraham and Damascus. The letter starts on the current verso. A line of address in Arabic script is found on recto. P5: The cover page and beginning of birkat ha-mazon, copied by Mešullam b. Yefet.Condition: Torn, holes, slightly stainedLayout: 5–15 lines
Letter from Jacob b. Binyām to his mother, dealing with practical matters and apologising for not visiting her on the holidays. Mentions Abū l-Faraj b. Ṣedaqa.Condition: holes, stainedLayout: 28 lines (recto); 15 lines + jottings (verso)
Part of a letter, c. end of the 10th or beginning of the 11th century, from Joseph b. Isaac Ibn Abitur, in Spain (either Merida or Cordoba), probably to Šemarya b. Elḥanan, in Fusṭāṭ. Greetings are sent on behalf of the writer’s sons Isaac and Mordechai, seeking the support of the recipient. Mentions Ḵalfa b. Taḥkemōn.Condition: torn, holes, fadedLayout: 35 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Recto: treatise with citations such as BT Horayot 13b, BT Bava Meṣiʿa 107a, 2 Chronicles 33:10-13 and Deuteronomy 13:18. Verso: letter (including responsa) in Arabic script from Joseph b. Kulayb in Ramla to Nathan b. Abraham, probably in Tyre (c. May 1041 CE).Condition: holes, rubbedLayout: 37 lines + marginalia (recto); 19 lines (verso)
Letter, c. 1098 CE, written by Joshua he-Ḥaver b. ʿEli he-Ḥaver, in Ḥaṣōr (Caesarea), to Mevoraḵ he-Ḥaver ha-Meʿulle ‘member of the Great Sanhedrin, Alluf ha-Binot, ha-Nagid’ b. Saʿadya, in Fusṭāṭ, asking the recipient for a letter of recommendation in order that the judge of Hazor would grant him a visa to travel to, and settle in, Ashkelon, in order to escape the Crusader invasion. Joshua also mentions that he is not on good terms with the Jewish community in Ḥaṣōr, and he blesses the memory of the recipient’s late brother, Judah ha-Nagid. Opens with a quote from Psalms 138:6.Condition: holesLayout: 29 lines (recto); 4 lines (verso)
Part of a letter, c. 1015 CE, written by Josiah ‘Head of the Yešiva of the Pride of Jacob’ (i.e. Josiah b. Aaron), to the Jewish community in the ‘Isle of Kaftor’, which is the city Damietta, specifically to ʿAmram (Av) Bet Din ha-Mumḥe, Elʿazar the judge, ʿAmram the cantor, Yešuʿa, and the rest of the elders, i.e. the leaders of the Jewish community in Damietta, seeking financial help for the Jewish communities in the Land of Israel, which are suffering due to persecution from the authorities under al-Ḥakīm, who have cut off financial support and are imposing fines upon them. The Damietta community has sent such support in the past, under previous Geʾonim, hence the present request.Condition: torn, holesLayout: 25 lines (recto); 1 line (verso)
A collection of responsa, 33 in total, in a fine edition on parchment. The authority cited in number 24 is מש[ולם], who is probably the Italian halakhist Mešullam b. Kalonymos.Condition: Torn, holes, rubbedLayout: P2: 25.6 x 33.2 (1 leaf: 17.2); P3: 25 x 34 (1 leaf: 17.2); 33-35 lines