Geniza Lab

Recto: Legal fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mainly formulaic phrases are preserved. Verso: Mysterious text in Judaeo-Arabic. "That which I exhorted (or willed?) Abū l-Māʿālī(?) b. Asad...." Includes the phrase "min dār al-fanā' ilā dār al-baqā'."

Legal record or records. There are several distinct text blocks. Very faded. Needs further examination.

Legal document. Looks like a release. Signed: ʿUlla ha-Levi and Yaʿaqov b. Shelomo.

The end of a will, mentioning the names Yehoshuaʿ b. Nathan, Abū l-Surūr, [Abū] Kaṯīr b. Ezra, Abū Sahl b. Azhar and Menashshe al-Maḡrebi. It is signed by Moses b. Shelomo and Shemuʾel b. Shemuʾel. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Apparently a released granted by Muvḥar to Berakhot.

Verso: Accounts for the year 1427 Seleucid, which is 1115/16 CE. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. May be related to recto.

Recto: partnership agreement between butchers, named Dāʾūd Kohen, Ezra Bargut (ברגות) and Saʿīd b. Nissim. Verso: list of names and numbers, and mirrored text. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: [14]38 Seleucid, which is 1126/27 CE. Involves [...] b. ʿAmram and Nuʿmān ha-Kohen.

Marriage document, small fragment.

Table in Judaeo-Arabic. Accounts of some kind. Payments to a communal official? Line 2 reads "ketubbot and sheṭarot: 1 1/4."

Deathbed will. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 29 Kislev 1448 Seleucid, which is 1136/37 CE. The testator mentions his niece (brother's daughter) Sitt al-Fakhr.

Legal document, it seems. In Hebrew. Dating: Probably late. Needs further examination. On verso there are various jottings (accounts? the word 'bunduqi' appears clearly).

Fragmentary document from Damascus in which [...] b. al-Tarir gives a house adjacent to his own to Yefet ha-Levi b. Ḥalfon, presumably his son-in-law. Dated 1040-1141 (Goitein). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 38)

A sermon in praise of marriage. Twelve advantageous aspects of marriage for men are mentioned, each illustrated by a biblical quotation. Based on BT Yevamot 62b (where only 6 such laudatory aspects are brought together). Written in very large characters. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 53; V, 312, and Goitein's index cards.) See also Goitein notes linked below(?).

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Saadya ha-Kohen acknowledges to have received from Abu al-Makarim a large silver plate (siniya) and acquits him from everything he owed him. Dated Tevet 1437/November-December, 1125 in Fustat.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves a Nubian female slave named ʿAlam, but it is not a deed of sale (or at least not a straightforward one). Involves: David b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Natan b. Yosef; Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ al-Arjawānī; [...] b. Efrayim; a woman and her husband; and confirmation of receipt of a sum of money. (Information in part from Goitein's attached notes.)

Qaraite settlement at court between Dāʾūd b. Mūsā and his divorcee ʿAzīza bt. Ḥusayn b. David the teacher. An alimony of 14 dinars had been fixed of which 2.5 dinars had been paid and the rest will now be paid on a monthly basis. ʿAzīza agrees to deliver her ex-husband's books to the court. Written in the hand of Abū l-Faraj Ṣemah b. al-Ḥasan b. Boʿaz. Dated: 429 AH, which is 1037/38 CE (perhaps specifically March 1038 CE). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 426, and Goitein's index cards)

Legal document in Arabic script. Agreement between Ḥasan b. Hārūn and his father-in-law Ḥasan b. Isḥāq b. Mūsā concerning Ḥasan's fiancee Maḥfūẓa and her early marriage payment of 20 dinars. The fiance gets the 20 of the muqaddam back, goes on a business trip, must send 21 during the first two months. Another 4 months are stipulated. There is also a sum of 70 dinars involved somehow. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Apparently a settling of accounts between merchants. Mentions: lac and myrobalan in Tripoli (Syria); Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm b. [...]; ʿAkkā (Acre). Needs further examination.

Berakhot b. Saadya receives in December 1126 from Abu Ishaq Avraham b. Sasson al-Mahalli, the perfumer, a loan of 32 dinars to be paid back by Passover 1127, which constitutes a term of 3.5 months. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 258, and from Goitein's index cards). Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi.