Geniza Lab

Legal document written and signed by Yehuda b. Ṭoviyyahu ha-Kohen (the muqaddam of Bilbays 1170s–1220). Dated: Monday, 26 Tishrei 1526 Seleucid, which is 1215 CE. Concerning a financial dispute between Ḥayyun b. Mūsā from the Maghreb, and his former fiancee Milāḥ bt. Eliyya, over the sums of money he spent on her during their engagement. He claims to have spent more than 4 dinars over the period of the betrotha. She claims it was no more than 48 dirhams. They agree on 58 dirhams. Ḥayyūn frees Milāḥ, and she can marry another. Signed by Mevorakh b. Meshullam, Aharon b. Laḥmon and Yehuda b. Ṭoviyyahu. On verso there is Hebrew Bible; Leviticus 4:1-5 and 2:13-3:2. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's notes.)

Debt contract. No witness signatures. Bahāʾ b. Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʿAṭṭār owes 61.5 dinars to Abū ʿImrān al-Kohen al-Tifʾeret. The sum is to be paid in monthly installments of 5 dinars, beginning on the Muslim New Year = 1 Muḥarram 611 AH = 1 Sivan 1525 Seleucid, which is 13 May 1214 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Goitein's notes identify Abū ʿImrān as Mūsā b. Abū l-Bayān and Bahāʾ as his uncle, but they do not explain why. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, 1:464.) EMS. ASE.

Power of attorney. Location: Fustat. Dated: first decade of Iyyar 1526 Seleucid, which is April 1215 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Moshe b. Berakhot (aka Mūsā b. Abū l-Barakāt) Ibn al-Maqdisi grants his attorney Sulaymān b. Maḥāsin a long list of rights to act as his substitute in his claim over the estate of Dalāl bt. Abū ʿImrān, the daughter of a paternal cousin who died in Alexandria. Witnesses: Ḥalfon b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen; Meir b. Yakhin.

Unsigned deed from Fustat, dated May 1217, concerning the potential marriage of a female slave, Akramiyya. She had been purchased by As'ad, the physician when she was an infant, raised under him, and then freed. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:82, 443; Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 283) EMS One of two copies; the other is ENA 2559.13 (PGPID 6594). Alternative description: this is a second draft of an unsigned testimony from late Iyyar 1528 sel., regarding the origins (and implicitly, eligibilty for marriage) of Akramiyya. It is not stated specifically that she was a slave, or that she was freed. ENA 2559.13 is not another copy but an earlier version, from mid-Iyyar 1528, which includes erasures of text which indeed is not to be found in the later version.

Legal document. Partnership record. Dated: July 1218. Location: Fustat. Emerging from the court of Abraham Maimonides, this document concerns the disintegration and settlement of a partnership in an apothecary which had been managed by Munajjā al-‘Aṭṭār b. Abū Sa‘d al-‘Aṭṭār and Abū al-Khayr b. Abū al-Riḍā al-Naqqād ha-Levi. There are a number of provisions concerning the assets of the concern: first, Munajjā is entitled to one dinar from Abū al-Khayr for fourteen months, a debt recorded in a separate document; second, the balance of all the shop’s merchandise is to be retained by Munajjā; third, the first 800 dirhams of the shop’s debts will be repaid by Munajjā (any excess will be repaid by the two partners jointly); fourth, both partners will share in collecting accounts receivable, with the funds divided equally between them; and, fifth, six copper basins will go to Munajjā (which previously belonged to Abū al-Khayr, as he is held responsible for anything missing from them). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 228)

Deathbed will of a rich woman, made during the absence of her husband. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 26 Iyyar 1454 Seleucid, which is 13 April 1143 CE, under the reshut of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Testator: Sitt al-Ahl bt. Abū l-Munā al-ʿAṭṭār al-Iskandarānī, the wife of Abū Naṣr al-Ḥalabī al-Tājir. Witnesses: Yosef b. Thābit ha-Levi; Shelomo b. Natan ha-Haver. "This remarkable deathbed declaration, on the one hand, shows the cosmopolitan character of Fustat: the daughter of a druggist called 'the Alexandrian' was married there to a merchant 'from Aleppo.' On the other hand, it betrays an extraordinary attachment of the testator to her paternal family and to local customs and concepts. The dying woman's husband was a tājir, or great merchant, who traveled far and was expected to be away from home for several years. He probably was on a business trip to India. She had a little boy (Mūsā) from a former marriage, who lived with her parents. As his guardian and her own executor she appointed a brother of her former husband (Abū Mūsā Hārūn/Aharon b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen). The main purport of the will was the legal protection of her parents, brother (Abū l-Surūr), and boy against her present husband and providing a sumptuous burial for herself. She wanted to have Muslim wailing women, presumably because the cries and shrieks of Jewish women exercising the same profession were not shrill enough for her taste. The most impressive detail is her wish to be buried together with 'one of her family' meaning her father, mother, or brother. To these she was attached by 'natural ties'; with her husband she was connected solely by a 'contract.'" There is also a clause about Sitt al-Ahl's female slave named Fūq and Fūq's daughter, who belongs to Sitt al-Ahl's mother. Sitt al-Ahl also intends for the daughter of her brother Abū l-Surūr to marry her son Mūsā. (Information in part from CUDL and mainly from Goitein's attached notes, where there is a full translation.)

Court record regulating the inheritance of the estate left behind by a Jewish merchant who drowned at sea near Alexandria. His estate was transferred to the Jewish court of Alexandria by the Sahib al-Mawarith (the Muslim judge in charge of estates). The handwriting is that of Amram b. Yiṣḥaq, the relative of Ḥalfon b. Nethanel, who was from Alexandria. (Information from Frenkel; Goitein sets the date as Tevet 4903/January 1143).

Legal document. Partnership settlement. Dated: October 1143. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of Nathan b. Solomon ha-Kohen. The recto records the settlement of a partnership and the verso records subsequent payments. The partners, Khalaf b. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Damsīsī and Joseph b. Ḥassān al-Mahdawī, took purple dye materials to Upper Egypt and sold it there. Conflict ensued, perhaps when the partners divided up profits or losses from the sale of the dye (since the division isn't specified in the document). The mutual release was complete, except for a payment of two dinars to be made from Joseph to Khalaf according to a payment schedule described in the document. If Joseph fails to make full payment, he must make a donation to the poor in the same amount as he owes. Khalaf is to be trusted (presumably, without an oath) concerning Joseph's payments. Despite the aforementioned penalty clause, Joseph apparently took longer than expected to repay the two dinars, since the final release which appears on the verso is dated six months after the end of the loan repayment period, in 1144. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 219)

Legal document. Dated: First decade of Elul 1458 Seleucid (July/August 1147 CE). In which Abū l-Riḍā Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, "the noble and generous," takes over the tax farming of al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā from Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and his son Abū l-Khayr. The nature of the tax is not specified; Goitein presumes that it was for the tax on the manufacture, dyeing, and sale of silk. The declaration begins, "I had intended to take over the tax farming of al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā, which is in the hand of the elder Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and of his son Abū l-Khayr. Then I pondered over the straitened circumstances of these people, their liabilities and indebtedness to the dīwān and thought that if I took that thing from them through machinations, force, and getting the better of them, they would suffer damage, both from the side of their relation with the dīwān and their loss of income. Thus, considering their welfare prior to my own and confident that with God's favorable decree and help the welfare of all us would be served, I make this proposal." The value of the tax farming lease is 335 dinars per year. The proposal is that they will transfer the rights to the tax farm to Abū l-Riḍā, and he will pay their debt of 80 dinars to the dīwān in four annual installments of 20 dinars. If the superintendent (mushrif) and director (ʿāmil) of the diwan raise the sum owed for the new tax farmer, the amount of the 'rise' (ziyāda) will be deducted from the 80 dinars. Signed by: Zakkay b. Moshe (the Jewish judge of al-Maḥalla in this period); and ʿAmram b. Yaʿaqov. In the margins of recto and on verso, there is a philosophical (?) work in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning natural science, astronomy, etc. (Information from Goitein's index card, Goitein's attached translation, and CUDL.) EMS. ASE.

Legal deed, bill of sale of a female slave - the seller is Moshe b. Shemuel Nagid, Fustat, Nisan 1459/March-April 1148.

Shelomo b. Adaya, known as Ben ‘Adi, receives a loan of 45 dirhams from Hibat Allah, the orphan of the recently deceased Abu al-Faraj, in the last third of Elul 1460 sel. (August-September 1149) to be paid back in monthly installments of two qirats. Written and signed by Avraham b. Sa‘adaya in Sunbat. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Court record concerning a gift made by a woman to her daughter of a house near the 'Street of the Chest Makers,' issued under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya (1142-1159) in Fustat, Elul 1462/August-September 1151.

Recto: statement, dated 1466 of the Seleucid Era (= 1155 CE), concerning a debt which Saʿadya b. Judah owes to Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā the doctor al-Levi. Jottings in Arabic and Hebrew script in the margin. Verso: jottings and writing exercises in Arabic and Hebrew script. (Information from CUDL)

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

Recto: Deed of release, in which Mufarrij releases Yehuda b. Moshe ('beḥir ha-yeshiva'), likely Yehuda b. Moshe Ibn Sughmār. Verso: legal document concerning a complicated case of Hillel b. Seʿadya, the agent of Yaḥyā b. Maʿ[ālī?], and Maḥāsin b. Shemuel and his divorcee (Qiwāma bt. Berakhot?). There remains no claim against him from the ketubba or maintenance. Mentions the son of Yoshiyyahu Av Bet Din and a document which was drawn up in ʿAkkā in Muslim court. Then a will of Efrayim b. Yosef ha-Levi is quoted, who sold half of his house in New Cairo in the Zuwayla quarter. Also mentions Yosef b. מרא. (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Fragment of an ordinance (taqqana) concerning the Jerusalem community in Fustat. The community decides to choose ten men who will manage the community with Efrayim b. Shemarya. Probably written July 7, 1028; in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 594-596, Doc. #325) VMR

Public letter in Arabic script. An appeal to the community, to be read in the synagogue, against a certain 'Rayyis' who had let to one Ibn al-Maṣmūdī, a Muslim, a newly acquired house behind the Iraqi synagogue, which was adjacent to the secret doorway through which 'the wives of the Jews and their daughters' ascended. See Med Soc II, 293 note 12 and V, ch. X, B, 1, note 47. Goitein's translation: "O ye Jews! How can you face God?! You allow the Rayyis to let Ibn al-Maṣmūdī live in the recently bought house behind the synagogue of the Iraqians, which is adjoining the secret doorway through which the wives of the Jews and their daughters ascend (to the women's gallery). May God burn the house of the man who lets him live there and does not avert this predicament. O ye Jews! You are inflicting disgrace upon your womenfolk by Ibn al-Maṣmūdī. How can you face God?! If you want to let him live there, or if this is the wish of the Rayyis, shut the secret doorway up, so that no one can get through it. God will summon the man who does such a thing to the public. Where is your self-respect?! Your sense of honor has obviously gone altogether. And peace!"

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Attesting that Sitt al-Gharb bt. Abū l-Faraj b. Semekh al-Daʿwa (known from other Geniza documents) gave a deed of manumission (גט חירות) to her male slave Munjib. There are several text blocks in different hands; all those on recto appear to pertain to the same case. On verso there are notes about other legal cases, as well as two lines from the beginning of a petition in Arabic script. Join by Moshe Yagur. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Natan b. Avraham, Ramla, to Netanel b. Rawḥ, Fustat, July 1039.

Legal query addressed to the Gaʾon Moshe (b. Netanʾel) ha-Levi concerning the claims of a creditor against the widow of the man who owed him. Goitein notes in Med Soc II, p. 528 note 46, that there is no document confirming that Moshe b. Netanʾel ever held the title Gaʾon—perhaps he did not consider this legal query to be a true document. But see also the various documents signed by Moshe's son Sar Shalom, who clearly regarded his father as having held the title Gaʾon (e.g., ENA 4020.4, T-S 13J31.3, T-S 10J20.21, and T-S 10J24.7 + T-S 10J29.4), and see M. A. Friedman's article on Zuta, pp. 474–75, for the point that at the time of Yehuda ha-Levi's arrival in Egypt (Elul of 1140 CE), Moshe b. Netanʾel definitely held the title Gaʾon.