Geniza Lab

Legal document in which a son frees his mother from her widow's oath. She was content to receive her delayed marriage gift of 30 dinars, while she renounced what was still left of her dowry and other dues to the amount of 20 dinars. Legal deeds. The left piece can be dated 1127-1138 and is written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe Halevi. A son frees his mother from her widow's oath; she was content to receive her delayed marriage gift of 30 dinars, while she renounced what was still left of her dowry and other dues to the amount of 20 dinars. Rumors reached the court that the deceased had left gold unaccounted for. The holy Torah scroll was taken out of the ark in the presence of the widow and a ban in general terms was pronounced against anyone who might have laid hands on the gold. Dated Nisan 1479/March 1168. On the top of the page there is a line from a marriage contract dated ca. 1158. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 416) top of the page, straight line, same direction as main text.

Deathbed declaration of Sayyid al-Ahl b. Abī ʿUmar known as Ibn al-Aqtaʿ. Location: al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā. Dated: middle decade of Tammuz 1487 Seleucid, which is June 1176 CE, under the reshut (authority) of the gaon Netanel b. Moshe ha-Levi. The court asks Sayyid al-Ahl if he is owed any money by Abū ʿUmar b. Abū Saʿd al-Iskandarānī, and he answers that no one owes him anything. Witnesses: Natan b. Ḥalfon; Majly(?) ha-levi b. Yefet. (Information in part from Med Soc V, 135, 542.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.50 as ENA 4011.51.

Marriage agreement. Location: Fustat. Dated: Kislev 1459 Seleucid, which is 1147 CE. The document is in need of conservation, and several names and words are hidden underneath folds of paper. The woman is probably named Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Abū l-Faraj Mikhaʾel ha-Meshorer. The man is probably named Abū l-Ṭāhir Shemuel b. Natan. (A previous description listed his profession as al-kaḥḥāl, but it is not clear where this is written.) Sitt al-Fakhr receives a piece of real estate in Fustat in מחרם עמאר. NB: When Goitein cites ENA 4011.51 (e.g., in Med Soc V, 135, 542), he means ENA 4011.50.

Letter. Dated: beginning of Kislev 1456/1144 (אתנו, not אתט). Mentions that tefillin had been sent, people who feel envy and the name Maḥrūz. Sends greetings to Abū Saʿīd al-Dimyāṭī and Muslim/Musallam al-Kaʿbī. India Book V, 10.

Legal document from 1145 in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Sitt al-Tujjar comes to court to collect her ketubba. the cort examines her ketubba and finds that she is trustworthy. The rest of the document deals with the sums she is owed and what she receives from the court and the orphans - since a third of the deed is still missing it is hard to understand the exact details. Join by Oded Zinger.

Legal document in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan he-Ḥaver (dated documents 1150-1181). Names mentioned: Barakat b. Abu al-Banin (or Bunayn) and Abu al-Khayr al-Sirafi . Signed by Menahem b. Berakhot, Jacob ha-Kohen b. Joseph, and Mevoralh b. Natan.

Legal minutes (tadhkira or tadhkir) regarding Ibn Bishr's case. Written in the hand of Natan b. Shmuel. Fustat 1153. Nazar bt. David, the wife of Musa b. Bishr also known as Moshe b. Mevasser, gives her husband a free hand (tasarruf) in half of a house she owns in Qasr al-shamʿ between the two synagogues. Then her husband gives this same half of a house to his son Abu al-Wafa Tamim as a gift on the condition that his child cannot sell it or give it as a gift as long as his father is alive. signed by Mevorakh b. Natan and Sa'adya b. Avraham. Musa b. Bishr also appears in ENA 4011.56. || Legal document written and signed by Mevorakh b. Natan in which Nazar bat David gives her husband complete freedom of disposition over one-half of a house belonging to him, which was also serving as their domicile. Second, the father gives this half to a son. Third, the son is not permitted to sell or give away that half during his father's lifetime. Dated Adar 1474/ March 1163. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 243, 479)

Legal agreement, crudely written in the hand of Natan ha-kohen b. Shelomo. Musa b. Bishr (who also appears in ENA 4011.55), about a partnership in a bread shop with Hiba. They shared the investment, work and profit equally. They owe 4 dinar to Abu al-Rida, the guard (shomer). But they have spent the money. Each demands that the other take the partners' oath in half the debt. In the end, those present mediated a compromise saying that Hiba would pay one dinar and Musa 3 dinars. Written in 1125.

Legal document. Partnership record. Dated 1125. Settlement of a dispute of two partners in a bakery concerning the repayment of depleted partnership capital. The creditor, Abū al-Riḍā ha-Shomer, loaned funds to the partnership as a corporation but not to the partners as individuals. Although the two partners contracted to work the same amount and to share profits and losses equally, the partnership lacks sufficient funds to repay the loan. Abū al-Riḍā asks the partners to demand the “oath of partners” each from the other, and himself demands that each pay half the loss, but one of the partners (Hiba) seems reluctant for unclear reasons. Pressured by Hiba's refusal to pay his share of the debt, the other partner (Mūsā) brings Hiba to court. The result of the court’s action was mediation (“tawassaṭū”), and Hiba agreed to pay Mūsā a single dinar, to which the latter would add the balance of three dinars. The initial loan amount and the repayment amount were both four dinars, and that it seems that Abū al-Riḍā did expect to garner profit from the loan directly. Signed by Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 54-56)

Legal document written and signed by Natan b. Shmuel in which Nazar bat David gives her husband complete freedom of disposition over one-half of a house belonging to him, which was also serving as their domicile. Second, the father gives this half to a son. Third, the son is not permitted to sell or give away that half during his father's lifetime. Dated Adar 1474/ March 1163. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 243, 479)

Legal document dealing with the death of a certain Yishaq. Abu al-Khayr Khiyar al-Sirafi and a parnas are mentioned. Signed by Yeshu'a b. Yoshiyyahu b. Shema'yahu and Natan b. Shemuʾel he-haver - who probably wrote the document. | Abu al-Khayr Khiyar the banker receives a testimony concerning one named Ishaq who died 3-4 days after he had made a declaration in his favor. Signed by Elazar b. Yosef, Yeshua b. Josiah nin Shemaya Gaon and Natan b. Shemuel. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal deed. Testimony of Abu al-Khayr Khiyar the banker concerning a certain Ishaq who died 3-4 days after he had made a declaration in his favor. Signed by Elazar b. Yosef, Yeshua b. Yoshiyyahu nin Shemaya Gaon and Natan b. Shemuel. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document written in Fustat 1122. Written in the hand of Avraham b. Shemaya who also signed together with Ḥalfon b. Yosef. The actual content of the document is not clear beyind the fact that it included a power of attorney.

Letter of Yoshiyahu ha-nasi to Elazar ha-sar. generous spacing between the lines. On the back is some text that is hard to make out.

Legal document. Dated: Monday, 9 Nisan 1469 Seleucid, which is 1158 CE. Sitt al-Dalāl bt. Seʿadya the widow of Abū ʿAlī Yefet b. ʿEli agrees with her elder son Abū Saʿd to receive from her two sons her delayed marriage payment to the amount of 30 dinars and to renounce her dowry and maintenance worth 20 d dinars. Since the younger son Makārim was a minor, Abū Saʿd agreed with his mother to pay her his share of 15 dinars and to deposit the other 15 dinars until Makārim would be a major, in which case either the latter would also free his mother of the obligation to give an oath, or, after her oath, pay her his share in both delayed marriage payment and dowry, i.e., a total of 25 dinars. The court ordered a ḥerem setam in presence of the widow because rumor had it that the estate had been tampered with. (Information from Goitein's index card.) At the top of recto there is a note for an unrelated legal document, concerning the marriage of the bride (a divorcee) Diyār bt. Yefet and the groom Abū [...] b. Avraham Levi. NB: Goitein refers to this fragment as ENA 4011.5. (Information from Goitein's index card.) (Written by Mevorakh b. Natan. AA)

Legal document. Record of a deposition in court, Mahdar, dated Sunday, 21st Av, Rabīʿ al-Awwal 442H (12.8.1050). Unsigned draft of a deposition, written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. A fine of 10 dinars will be paid to the qodesh if an accusation is proven to be false. The fine itself is styled "qodesh," and will be dedicated to the poor of Jerusalem. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 211 #31). Parties are Musāfir b. ʿAmram and Saʿīd b. ʿAllūn al-Qudsī.

Legal document dated (according to the Hijri calendar) 1050 (the date 1131 written in pencil on the document is wrong). Musafir b. Amram sues Sa'id b. Allun known as al-qudsi about a diadem that Musafir gave to Said to transport to Tyre but never arrived. Said took several oaths that if Musafir shows the court a letter from Tyre (testifying probably that the diadem never arrived) he will pay 10 dinars to the qodesh for the poor of Jerusalem. Musafir then shows exactly such a letter. Said then claims that his oath was only about a letter from Tyre from his father in law. Musafir then shows the court letters from the father in law. Edited as Gil, Pious foundations, doc. 31 (Gil's translation confuses some of the procedure).

Book, ownership page, in Arabic script: "this is the copy of Abu al-hasan" in small Hebrew script: "This is what Shemarya b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi bought with the money he laboured for" .

Recto: Bill of sale for a female slave. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Av 1466 Seleucid, which is 1155 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Seller: the trader (tājir) Abū ʿAlī b. Natan he-Ḥaver. Buyer: the trader (tājir) Abū l-Faḍl b. Elʿazar. Slave: An Indian woman named Ghazāl. The price is missing. On verso there is a communal account which Gil dates to ca. 1215 CE (see PGPID 775).

Verso: Account of the qodesh. Dating: ca. 1215 CE, according to Gil. This document records sums deposited by several collectors of the qodesh with its central administration. Details about 1,010 dirhams and other sums received from rents and delivered by the writer to various communal officials. The writer is apparently one of the judges of the court in Fustat. The account is written on the verso of a bill of sale for an Indian female slave, which was concluded in 1155 CE (see PGPID 11413). (Information from Gil, Documents, p. 409f, doc. #111, and Goitein, Mediterranean Society II, p. 428, App. A, sec. 138.)