Geniza Lab

Legal fragment, concerning the return of marriage payments and goods. Sums are quoted in bunduqi (בנדקי) (probably 16th century). (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe? Involves a certain Rosh ha-Qehillot; the orphans of Tamīm ha-Kohen; a list of luxury goods (e.g. ambergris and pearl bracelets); and a certain Moshe. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Dated: Dhū l-Qaʿda 419 AH, which is 1028 CE. Written transversely in relation to the text on the other side. Accompanied by Hebrew jottings (זכרון עדות, written twice, inverted in relation to the Arabic text). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Ishaq b. Avraham appoints Furat b. Yosef as a power-of-attorney against neighbors who had taken possession of the house he had inherited in the village of Manda in the Galilee. Dated ca. 1030 and written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya (Goitein) or by Efrayim b. Shemarya (Bareket). (Information from from Bareket, p. 147, and from Goitein's attached notes.)

Legal fragments. Recto and verso appear to be distinct but related documents. Recto: Mentions flax, and people including Abū Sahl, Yefet, [...] b. Mevorakh b. Naḥ[um?], and Maʿālī b. Khalaf. Verso: Manṣūr b. Khalaf the Tyrian. Mentions Yefet saying that Manṣūr ows him something.

Legal testimony. In Hebrew. Dating: Ca. 16th century. Yosef Ashraqī attests that he owes his wife 40 gold Venetian ducats. He will repay the total before the end of Iyyar. Scribed and signed by Yosef Ashraqī. Second witness: Sasson Zikrī. Information from Goitein's note card, though he read Florentine rather than Venetian (בנאדקה).

List of names (Seʿadya, Avraham, Yefet) and other things. Significance unclear.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dealing with the affairs of a woman following a divorce. (Information from CUDL)

Legal testimony. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dated: Wednesday, 12 Shevat 5321 AM = 29 January 1561 CE. Yosef ארוייויץ b. Yaʿaqov Toledano acknowledges that he owes his mother, Doña Masʿūda (the same as in ENA NS 49.20?), 40 large gold ducats, and he will repay them within 30 days whenever she asks. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Recto: partnership or other business agreement, mentioning Menaḥem Abū l-Saʿd. Verso: pen exercises, including alphabets. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Dating: Mentions the start of some period in Heshvan 1459 Seleucid, which is 1147 CE.

Legal document, small fragment. Contains remnants of some signatures.

Long and narrow damaged fragment written by Efraim b. Shemarya. Probably court records. Not much text has survived (two entries on recto, one on verso). AA

Draft of a legal document, notably made in a mixed Qaraite-Rabbanite court. Agreement by two parties in a complicated inheritance case stipulating obligations should one of the parties bring the case before a Muslim court. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tammuz 1366 Seleucid, which is July 1055 CE. Two women, Rayyisa bt. Tammam and Raḥma bt. Tammām, leave estates to their two brothers' sons, Mevorakh b. Yisrael and Shemuel b. Yehuda. A court of three (Avraham b. Shelomo, Nahray, and ʿEli ha-Kohen) will decide what will be sold and what divided between the two nephews. The new house of Raḥma bt. Tammām will be offered for sale. The verso contains Hebrew verses, rhymed piyyuṭ, headed ז׳ לשמעו. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger. Probably an indirect join with ENA 2727.13a.

Instructions for writing legal documents, in particular those dealing with debts, with formulaic examples in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Dated: [14]96 Seleucid = [5]81 AH, which is 1185 CE. Signed: Menashshe b. Yosef, Elʿazar ha-Kohen b. Shemarya, and Shelomo b. Natan.

Letter of appointment for Shabbat ha-Melammed (the teacher). According to Goitein, this is Shabbat b. Elazar ha-Melammed. Dated Tammuz 1366/ June-July 1055. (Bareket writes 1035, but this is obviously a mistake). Written by Eli b. Amram (Bareket). Bareket states that this appears to be the only deed of its kind in the Geniza. (Information from Bareket, Shafrir Misrayim, p. 44, n. 70; see also the Fustat on the Nile, p. 46)

Court record concerning mint management. Dated: 1513 CE. Issued in the court of the Nagid Yiṣḥaq Sholal. Witnesses include Yaʿaqov Beirav and Nissim Biba. The issue centers on an oath that the Nagid took when he was running the mint (dār al-ḍarb) to the effect that Avraham Talmid would not do business with anone in the world for as long as Sholal remained at the mint. There are mutliple sections to this document, some of which are testimonies from witnesses. See Avraham David's edition on FGP for further information.

Legal document. Location: Al-Maḥalla. Involves [...] b. Yefet ha-Zaqen and [...] b. Peraḥya ha-Levi ha-Zaqen and contains the curious phrase "I have leased myself to him (akraytuhu rūḥī) for the whole year for 1 dinar." Needs examination. See also Goitein's notes.

A rental agreement with Joseph ג׳לדיטי, priced in Venetian ducats (peraḥ zahav Veneziano). It is dated לצור according to the Pereq Qaṭan, which is probably [5]326 AM (=1566 CE). (Information in part from CUDL.)