Geniza Lab

Bill of divorce. Husband: Yeshuʿa b. ʿEli ha-Kohen. Wife: Ẓāfira bt. Yefet. (Information from Goitein's index card on T-S 8J29.13, probably the same couple.)

Letter addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions business in fava beans, vetch, cucumbers, and wheat. Mentions Bilbays. Mentions people such as David ha-Dayyan, Bū l-Ḥasan Ibn Nufayʿ, and Mufaḍḍal Ibn al-Maqdisī. "In an eloquent letter a traveler details all he had sent: 6 irdabbs of wheat (making 36 waybas per year, or 3 per month, as so often reported up to now), 4 "gold dinars," and several smaller remittances in silver, totaling 51 dirhams; here one or two lines are lost, no doubt containing the remaining 30 or so dirhams which could make a grand total of 6 dinars, again half a dinar per month. The writer gets very excited. "I should neglect my wife?!" he exclaims, adding: "Has not God said [Proverbs 11:17]: 'He who wrongs his flesh [meaning: wife, Genesis 2:23] is a cruel one?!" and, quoting Proverbs 22:23, he invokes God to punish those who give him a bad reputation." (Translation from Goitein, Med Soc III, p. 194 note 164.) There are photostats and an edition in Goitein's files (to be uploaded).

Letter from Yehuda Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 23 Nisan 1532 Seleucid, which is 1221 CE. There is a lengthy opening with expressions of longing and pleasantries. The addressee is asked to convey a legal query (fatwā) to Avraham Maimonides. Yehuda reports on the death of Hilāl b. Thābit b. Munīr, the brother of the cantor Bū l-Majd (Meʾir b. Yakhin). “[Hilāl] went to rest in the evening and did not awake in the morning. It was the first day of the holiday, and he was buried on the same day; he left a fine boy of sixteen, who studies with me" (trans. Goitein, Med Soc II, 220 and V, 155.) There are photostats and an edition in Goitein's notes (to be uploaded).

Contract of debt. In the best hand of Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. Location: Fustat. Dated: Kislev 1452 Seleucid, which is 1140 CE. Sayyid al-Ahl b. ʿEli ha-Kohen he-Ḥazan known as Ibn al-Kāmūkhī receives 14 dinars from the banker Abū l-Bayān b. Abū l-Ḥasan known as Ṣaḥib Shamʿa. He will pay it back in the following month (Ṭevet). Signed by: Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen the descendant of Yehosef Kohen Ṣedeq (=the India trader Abū Zikrī Kohen); Avraham b. Yosef. (Information from Goitein's notes.) There are photostats and an edition in Goitein's notes (to be uploaded).

Legal document. Power of attorney. Dated: 1115. Location: Al-Maḥalla. ʿOvadya b. Efrayim ha-Levi Rosh ha-Qahal empowers 'ḥemdat ha-yeshiva' Avraham b. Natan ha-Sheviʿi to money owed to him ("from a partnership and a claim and a rental") on his behalf. ʿOvadya not only states that he has not retained Avraham only "to advance my cause and not to subvert [it]", but also that he will accept whatever the court rules, in stock halachic phrasing. The agent, Avraham b. Natan, is well-known from Geniza documents (Cohen 1980, pp.130-131) identifies him in the circle of the Head Mevorakh b. Saadya, noting that he acted as a mediator in other business affairs. His role in this document seems to have been settling the matter of the partnership, perhaps in court. Two of the witnesses to the power of attorney, Zakkay b. Shelomo and ʿEli b. Shelomo, may have been brothers. Also signed by Yehuda b. Shemuel and validated by Aharon b. Yeshuʿa ha-Rofe and Avraham b. Yeshuʿa. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 92-93)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 18 January 1061. Location: Fustat. This document initiates a partnership in the ritual washing of corpses. Sulaymān b. Ḥusayn and his son Isḥaq take on a third partner, Daʾūd b. Ḥasan (nicknamed Abū Jaʿd, "Curly"), who will receive a quarter of all revenues. The three worked in shifts, with one on duty at any given time, but the other two partners agree to work outside of their regularly scheduled shifts if necessary. Isḥaq’s share in the profits is not stipulated. All funds are to be given to Suleyman, suggesting that Isḥaq and Dāwūd may have been his apprentices. No partnership term is given. The document states explicitly that the terms of the contract are immutable. Signed by: ʿEli b. ʿAmram ha-Levi; Shemuel b. Avraham; and Surūr b. Ḥayyim Ibn Sabra. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 95)

Record of a birth, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic (in two different hands) and Arabic script. The date is given according to multiple calendars, including 13 Iyyar 4909 AM, which is 23 April 1149 CE. Also dated 13 Dhū l-Qiʿda 543 AH (should be Dhū l-Ḥijja, as Goitein comments). There are a photostat and a transcription in Goitein's attached notes (to be uploaded).

Document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Yemeni.

Official document in Arabic script. Dated: 1231 AH, which is 1815/16 CE. On a printed template perhaps from the customs bureau (ديوان كمرك . . مصر). It is filled out in the name of a certain Khwaja Eliyyahu. Needs further examination.

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Letter in Ottoman Turkish. Needs examination.

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Legal document. In Arabic script. Yaʿqūb Balūl al-Khayyāṭ ("the tailor") b. Khiḍr al-Yahūdī who lives in ḥārat al-yahūd owes Shūʿā Zayn(?) b. Ibrāhīm al-Yahūdī a sum of 122 Rūmī qirsh (piasters), 1 qirsh equaling 40 medins (niṣf fiḍḍa). Yaʿqūb must make repayments of 4 qirsh/week. If he fails to do so, he will have to pay the entire sum. 3 (or perhaps 4?) witnesses are signed on this contract. On verso there are records of payments totaling 45 qirsh over a period of about 4 months (significantly lower and less frequent than 4 qirsh/week). (Information mainly from the JRL catalogue.)

Official document of some sort. In Arabic script. Dated: 1236 AH, which is 1820/21 CE. (Information from JRL catalogue.) Needs examination.

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