Geniza Lab

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Letter from Elḥanan b. [...] (or Ṣāliḥ b. Barhūn Taherti according to CUDL?) to Mūsā and Isḥāq b. Barhūn Taherti, concerned with business matters. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century. On parchment. Gives instructions about a construction project. Mentions people including Abū Isḥāq Ibn al-Waqqāf(?), Abū l-Dhahab, Abū Saʿīd, Ibn Ḥasan, Khulayf b. [...], Yaʿaqov, Sitt al-Kull, and Daniel the teacher. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's attached notes.)

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, probably from Qayrawan. Around 1040. The addressee in unknown, maybe it is Israel’s brother – Nahray, or another younger relative. The addressee traveled to Fustat and has difficulties to adapt so he considers going back to Qayrawan. At the same time, one of his daughters considers coming from Qayrawan to see him in Egypt. Israel writes that if he decides to come to the Maghreb he will have to decide to stay there. Also mentions Israel’s brother in-law or son in-law, which took from Yisrael a Mishna book and 1,000 dirhams and traveled to Israel. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #407) VMR

Fragment of a letter from Musa b. Ishaq ha-Safakusi, probably from Mazar, to Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sugmar. Summer 1059. Contains orders. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #746) VMR

Letter from Isma'il b. Yosef b. Abī 'Aqaba, Palermo, to his maternal uncle Yosef b. 'Awkal and to his brothers. (PGP) Fragment of a letter from the brothers Yosef and Nissim, sons of Berekhya, in Qayrawān, to Yosef b. Yaʿqub Ibn ʿAwkal in Fustat, ca. 1015-1017 CE. Similar letters are found at T-S 13J29.9, T-S 16.42, T-S 16.64, T-S NS J388, and Mosseri IV.10. (Information from CUDL.)

Legal document in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel Ha-Ḥaver, Fustat. Concerning marrying a secong wife, and conditions with the first wife.

Six pages of court records in the handwriting of Mevorakh b. Natan (b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver). Fol. 1, recto (doc. a): After the death in Sicily of Abū l-Surūr b. Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥibrī, his brother Futūḥ claimed his inheritance and the court establishes that as their third brother (Abū Saʿīd) has already died, Futūḥ is indeed the only known heir. Fol. 1, verso (doc. b): Abū Saʿīd Khalaf/Ḥalfon (aka "Segulat ha-Nedivim" or simply "al-Segulat") received 18 dinars from Abū l-Maʿālī Shemuel the trader, who had been guarantor on behalf of the banker from al-Maḥalla Abū l-Maʿālī b. ʿOvadya for the orphan Bayān b. Ḥashīsh(!). The court orders Ḥalfon to keep the money as a deposit for the orphan. Dated: Adar 1470 Seleucid, which is 1159 CE. Fol. 2, recto and verso (doc. c): Trousseau list (taqwīm). Bride: Sitt al-Maʿālī bt. Mevorakh ha-Kohen. Groom: Netanel b. Aharon ha-Kohen. Dating: Between Nisan and Sivan 1470 Seleucid, which is 1159 CE (based on the records that appear before and after). The marriage gifts amounted to 30 plus 80 dinars. The ornaments and dressing table objects brought to the bride were evaluated as worth 155 dinars. Both spouses were Kohens and probably cousins. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:343, 466.) Fol. 3, recto (doc. d): Two entries, unclear if they are related. Above, the court orders Abū l-Faraj Ibn al-Shofeṭ to provide sustenance (mezonot) for his wife Sārra for a period of 30 days Dated: Wendesday, 9 Sivan 1470 Seleucid, which is 1159 CE. (An earlier description on PGP said that this is probably a payment for the deferment of a marriage.) Below is another trousseau list (taqwīm). Bride and groom are not named, which is perhaps an argument for connecting this to the entry above. Payments are 5 + 17. Fol.3, verso (doc. e): Dated: Wednesday, 9 Sivan 1470 Seleucid, which is 1159 CE. Sitt al-Sāda bt. Sayyid al-Ahl b. Naḥman appears before the court and claims her property and her ketubba of 30 dinars following the death of her husband Abū l-Ḥasan. She specifies the household goods left by the latter and is asked about her income from her work. Afterwards she marries. Signed by Efrayim b. Meshullam and Hillel b. Ṣadoq. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index cards.) VMR. ASE.

Release granted by a brother and heir of a deceased man to his sister-in-law, the wife of the deceased, in Fustat, Elul 1476/August 1165.

Settlement of a complicated dispute in Fustat recording that Abu al-Ḥasan b. Numayla had rented from Abu al-Ma'ali Shemuel b. Yehuda a house in Alexandria for two years (rent: 9 dinars). Abu Sa'd, the former tax farmer of Benha Sa'adya b. Efrayim b. Hudhaifa had given 8 dinars, which he had owed to Ben Numaila, to Abu al-Ma'ali. The latter retained the 8 dinars as payment for the rent of Ben Numaila, who had meanwhile died. But as Abu Sa'd had to return the debt to Ben Numaila’s heirs, he had to take recourse to Abu Ma'ali; ca. 1165., in the hand of Shemuel b. Seadya ha-Levi. (Information from Goitein's index cards). VMR and EMS

Recto: Legal document. Dated: Adar 1448 Seleucid, which is 1137 CE. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and signed by himself and Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Concerning a loan of 5 dinars from Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Elʿazar/Manṣūr to his wife Turfa bt. [...] al-ʿAsqalānī. Against a security (rahn) of a golden bracelet (siwār). Every month beginning from Adar II, she will pay 1/2 dinar at the end of the month. The loan was given on the day "they reconciled and renewed their betrothal (? taqdīs), namely the date of the ketubba between them." Verso: receipt of payment, and "to Abū Saʿīd al-Zajjāj." Cf. T-S NS J468, possibly involving the same couple. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Last decade of Adar 1481 Seleucid, which is March 1170 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom b. Moshe ha-Levi. (This is the first known document invoking his authority during his first term in office, 1170–71 CE.) Concerning the installments of payments of the delayed wedding gift from Surūr b. Ghālib al-Dajājī to his divorcee Sitt al-Jamīʿ bt. Shemarya. Receipts of payments are recorded on verso. Signed by Shelomo b. Shemuel ha-Levi and Yehoshuaʿ b. Aharon. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Record of release. Location: Fustat. Dated: Second third of Elul 1482 Seleucid, which is August 1171 CE. The mutual release of the metal caster (al-sabbāk) Faḍāʾil/Shela b. Mūsā and the metal caster Abū l-Barakāt/Berakhot b. Abū Naṣr Yefet al-Mūrid, formerly partners in an unspecified industry, likely to have been in minting as both of the partners bear the same by-name al-Sabbāk (metal-caster) and Berakhot’s father is called al-Mūrid (supplier of metal to the mint). Other details of the partnership (e.g., the amount of the partners’ investment, division of profits and losses) are absent from the release. The act of qinyan is recorded twice in the document, once for each party's release of the other. Interestingly, the specific claims from which the partners are released are different in each case: Shela releases Berakhot from any claim "arising from a bill of exchange" (ḥawāla), a clause absent when Berakhot releases Shela. Conversely, when Berakhot releases Shela, he retains claims for neither "a commenda (muḍāraba), nor a loan, nor a commenda (qirāḍ), nor a demand for rent nor [for leasing …]", all clauses which are absent from Shela’s release of Berakhot. While partnership release clauses generally seem to be formulaic, other documents' release clauses often contain information concerning the partnerships' commodities. Here, it's possible that these clauses were tailored to the roles of the specific partners. If so, the fact that Berakhot releases Shela from these obligations (which would have been incumbent upon a borrower) suggests that Berakhot was a senior partner or investor. As well, in his lifetime, Berakhot’s father was himself involved in a corollary business concerning precious metals; this partnership may have relied upon Berakhot’s family connections or wealth. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 222)

Document concerning the sale of a female slave named Saʿāda. Dated: 27 Nisan 1509 Seleucid, which is 5 April 1198 CE. (The main bill of sale was drawn up on the same day.) The buyer, Sitt Qaḍīb Sāda bt. Abū l-Bayān, promises to pay after two months the remaining 5 mithqāls (out of the original price of 12 mithqāls) which she still owes to the seller Abū l-Barakāt Berakhot (or Yefet?) b. Moshe. She also pays the market fee and the broker. (Incidentally, the buyer's name means “the mistress of the scepter of lords,” or, if an abbreviation for Sitt Qaḍīb (Sitt al-)Sāda, "the mistress of the scepter, (the mistress of) lords.") Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Sason “Head of the Judges” and Yehuda b. Shelomo. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, 2:514.) EMS

Deathbed declaration of a physician who includes in his will a gift to his wife in addition to the money owed to her as written in her ketubba, Fustat, Ab 1552/July-August 1241.

Legal document. Dated: Friday, 1 Kislev 1515 Seleucid, which is 7 November 1203 CE. Deathbed declaration of Abū l-Khayr b. Abū l-Barakāt the supplier (al-mūrid). He owes 238 dinars to the banker Abū l-Karam b. Abū l-Naṣr Ibn al-Dayyān. This sum should be paid out of his sugar stored with Abū l-Barakāt b. Abū l-Riḍa Ibn al-Lebdī. What remains from the value of the sugar will belong to the dying man's son. The sale of the sugar will be made by Abū l-Karam and Abū l-Barakāt. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) For transcription, see Rivlin, Inheritance and Wills, #58, pp. 391–94.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: January 1207. Location: Fustat. This document records a six-month partnership between Abū al-Fakhr b. Abū al-Futūḥ ha-Levi al-Shammā‘ (who invested 1,000 dirhams) and Abū al-Bahā b. Khalaf (who invested 100 dirhams). The two partners are to transact in "medicinal commodities"; their business will transport these commodities between Fusṭāṭ and Cairo. Profits and losses are to be shared evenly. Goitein calls this a commenda, perhaps because Abū al-Fakhr’s investment dwarfs that of Khalaf, although both of the partners are to trade actively. On the other hand, the partners agree to avoid deceiving each other and relying upon divine supervision, suggesting that the two do not work side-by-side at all times. As is common in these agreements, lines 4, 11 and 14 acknowledge the role of God in the success or failure of the venture. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 226)

Will of a terminally ill person made in the home of R. Natan ha-Ḥaver. 1453 sel., month not preserved.

Fragmentary resolution of a community in provincial Egypt, dealing with the relations with Muslim authorities, Sivan 1519/May 1208.

The scholar and hazzan Shela ha-Levi gives a loan of 552 dirhams to the silk weaver Efrayim b. Sedaqa, to be paid back in three monthly installments of ten dirhams, and then in installments of twenty dirhams. Dated Sivan 1521 (sel., mid-June 1210). Dates of payments also dated according to the Muslim calendar, starting on Muḥaram 607 A.H. The verso is an addendum to the topic, dated Elul 1521 sel. (August-September 1210) (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Document of a full-fledged barāʾa (release of spouse from obligations upon divorce) in which a husband (Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū l-Faraj) and wife (Maʿālī bt. Manṣūr) from al-Maḥalla appear before the court of Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 25 Av 4973 AM (=1524 Seleucid), which is August 1213 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides.