Geniza Lab

Legal document. Dated: Nisan [13]34 Seleucid, which is 1023 CE. Binyamin b. Yūsuf (probably Ibn ʿAwkal) gives money to Aharon b. Yosef known as al-Ghazāl to trade on his behalf against 'the cost of my effort and work.' שכר טרחותי עמלי. The second signature is Yosef b. Yaʿaqov al-Ṭarābulsī. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Calendar calculations ca. 1060 CE. 53 weeks. Calligraphic script. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. [Sitt al-Sāda bt.?] Evyatar ha-Kohen and [Shelomo b. Abū] al-Riḍā al-Wakīl and Sālim (probably identical with Shelomo) are mentioned. Likely an indirect join with T-S Misc.28.79.6 or ENA NS 77.275, and related to the same parties as in T-S NS J11 + T-S 10J4.16 + T-S 16.158 + T-S 10J4.17,

Beginning of Genesis. On verso: “Book of Genesis of Manṣūr b. Khalaf," with additional jottings. This is the upper fragment under the ENA 4010.52 shelfmark. The lower one is calendrical and joins with ENA 4010.49–52.

Excerpt of a writ written in Ramla, 1076.

Legal deed? Signatures of various people. Was probably part of a legal deed or communal decree

Court deposition in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Dated: 1406 Seleucid, which is 1094/95 CE. Abū ʿAlī Yefet b. Menashshe accuses his wife Milāḥ b. Khayrūn of wishing to divorce him in order to marry Barakāt b. Abū Saʿīd al-ʿAṭṭār, who has "corrupted" (afsada) her. She takes mighty oaths, denying that she would ever marry Barakāt. Later, Abū ʿAlī verbally abuses Barakāt, "Yā fāʿil, yā ṣāniʿ, you corrupt my wife and tell her, 'Divorce him so that I can marry you!'" They have a great fight and hurl accusations at each other ("some serious, some trivial"). Barakāt takes a mighty oath that he will pay a fine of 50 dinars to the poor of Egypt if he ever proposed marriage or anything else to Milāḥ. Signed by Binyamin b. Avraham. NB: Three distinct fragments have been joined and are all photographed under the shelfmark ENA NS 19.14 (this is why there are no photographs under the shelfmarks ENA 4010.7 or ENA Misc. 17). The lower left fragment is still missing. Join by M. A. Friedman. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) ASE

Oath made by al-Parnas b. Yaʿaqov regarding 12 dinars owed to him by Avraham al-Malījī b. Mevorakh for jewelry.

Power of attorney. Netanel b. Yefet b. Meshullam known as Ibn Harnash permits a certain individual to collect all that is due to his late father in al-Mahdiyya.

Verso: Cheque by Abū Zikrī Kohen. The banker Abū l-Khayr Khiyār is to pay the bearer 25 dinars. Dated: Tishrei 1447 Seleucid, which is 1135 CE.

Recto: Legal or state document in Arabic script, in what looks like a chancery hand. Fragment from the bottom of the document (4 lines preserved). The document concerns Abū Ṭāhir al-ʿAsqalānī, riding animals (dawābb), and Buqṭur (=Victor)? The فاجاب واشهد clause at the end of l3 suggests that it could either be a rental agreement for the transport of weapons (asliḥa, l1) or a legal testimony.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender cites his debts in Fustat as an excuse for his delay. Refers to Abū Zikrī ha-Kohen (perhaps the well-known trader Abū Zikrī Kohen). Refers to a house or houses; a group of people the sender is worried about; and his hope that someone's wife will give birth soon. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Geṭ ḥaliṣa (release from levirate marriage). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: New Cairo. Dating: 1127–38 CE, based on Ḥalfon's years of activity and the fragmentary reference to Maṣliaḥ Gaon. The widow is named [...]a bt. Menashshe ha-Levi. Her late husband is Yosef ha-Levi (or conceivably [... b.] Yosef ha-Levi).

Recto: Table of names in Arabic script, together with sums of money mostly ranging from 1/6 dinar to 1 dinar. (But there are also entries that say 4 and 15—unclear if dinars or dirhams.) Perhaps a contributors list. Names include [...] al-Ṭarābulsī, [...] al-Iskandarānī, Abū l-Faraj, Abū Naṣr b. Ḥasan, Hibatallāh b. al-ʿArīf(?), Nāṣir [...].

Verso: Letter from Shabbetay b. Avraham, in Minyat Zifta, to the judge Zakkay b. Moshe, perhaps in al-Maḥalla. In Judaeo-Arabic. (Zakkay was in al-Maḥalla in 1147 CE, per T-S 13J3.6v.) Shabbetay asks Zakkay to assist the bearer Abū l-Surūr b. Abū Saʿd in getting his wife to come back with him to Minyat Zifta, as they need to pay the capitation tax there. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 178, 464 and from Goitein's index cards.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.12 as ENA 4011.34.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: [14]41 Seleucid, which is 1129/30 CE. The parties are Abū l-Munā and his agent Faraj b. ʿUkaysh. Involves a release from a power of attorney, and transporting something to Damascus. Or maybe this is the power of attorney itself, and it details the conditions under which Faraj will be released from his obligation (i.e. after he has successfully transported the thing to Damascus and returned.) Related to T-S AS 147.65 + T-S 6J8.12 but not a join with it. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Prenuptial agreement, 1100-1127, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

ENA 4011.16b (lower fragment): A cheque of Abū Zikrī Kohen. Abū l-Khayr Khiyār is to pay the bearer Dār Rayḥān (the wife of Rayḥān?) 2 dinars and 2 ḥabbas. Dated: Elul 1452 Seleucid, which is 1141 CE.

ENA 4011.16a (upper fragment): Legal document or communal accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic. Written and signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi. Very faded. There are at least two distinct entries. The first mentions a sum collected from Sālim al-Khādim. The second mentions the heqdesh and is dated: middle decade of Elul 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE.

Letter from David b. Daniel to a parnas (leader of the Jewish community). Written in his own hand, per Gil. In Judaeo-Arabic. Instructing the addressee to obtain from Abū l-Riḍā Shelomo b. Mevorakh 60 wariq (low-quality) dirhams and to pay them to the divorcee of Abū l-Baqāʾ Shemuel. He is to inform her that this payment is for maintenance of his (Shemuel's) daughter for a period of two full months. Her family and kin must cease their objections, because this monthly payment (30 wariq dirhams) is more than she has a right to by law. The parnas should convey this payment to her every month going forward.