Geniza Lab

Legal document. Possibly written in Damsīs. Little remains except for the date: Tevet 1424 Seleucid, which is 1112/13 CE. One of the witnesses is Aharon ha-Kohen b. Avram.

Statement signed in 1225 CE by Judge Eliyyahu about a sale in the bazaar of a woman's clothes-- see Goitein Nachlass material

Legal deed. Release given to Ṣedaqa ha-Levi by his divorcee. Written and signed by Natan b. Shemuel, Elul 1145 CE. Cosigned David ha-Palit b. Asaf and Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq. Same three signatories as in CUL Or.1080 J49. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Deed of sale for 1/12 of a house located in the ṣuqʿ Maḥras ʿAmmār. The seller is Shemuel b. Yehoshuaʿ he-Ḥaver. The original document had been lost. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Draft of the beginning of a legal query addressed to the judge Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim). Dating: ca. 1220 CE. The question is whether a woman who was suspected, but not convicted, of intimate relations with a man was allowed to marry him, in particular as he was prepared to give an oath that no such relations had occurred. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Beginning of the draft of a legal query to the judge Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim) concerning the trousseau of a woman in levirate status, most of which had been lost. It was local custom to return to such a woman the trousseau in full. Dating: Early 13th century. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter to Meshullam b. Elazar. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. It seems to consist solely of flattering greetings. Dating: Probably late.

Petition to the caliph, draft in the Arabic handwriting of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: January 1039. Concerns the closing of a synagogue in Fustat, following the requests of Natan b. Avraham and his family members.

Legal documents, drafts, in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya concerning a legal dispute between Yiṣḥaq (Surūr) b. Yaʿaqov b. Aharon, known as al-Jāsūs (אלגאסוס), and his ex-wife Surūra b. Shelomo the physician b. Rabīʿ who moved with their three children from Qayrawān to Fusṭāṭ. When her husband left, the wife claimed her dowry. As he has no money he suggests giving her his share (the roof) of a house in Qayrawān, which he had inherited along with his brother and sister from his father, instead. It is worth 295 dirhams, which is 5 dirhams less than her dowry. In a second document he hands over the roof and she states that he is no longer obligated to her. Dated 1351 Seleucid (= 1040 CE). T-S 13J8.2, part of CUL Or.1080 J7, and T-S NS J149 all include versions of the same document, or at least concerning the same case. Verso: continuation of the drafted documents and a preliminary draft of a petition to al-Mustanṣir (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Petition to al-Mustanṣir in Arabic, preliminary draft (possibly also in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya), complaining about the closure of the Palestinian synagogue in Fusṭāṭ, c. 1040 CE. Mentions Natan b. Avraham, who ‘arrived from the West, claiming the position of the head of our Academy, and who has been head of this Academy for 16 years’, the amir Munjiz al-Dawla, and the ‘slave of our master, Daʾūd b. Ishaq’. The situation concerns the leadership dispute between Shelomo b. Yehuda and Natan b. Avraham over the leadership of the Palestinian Academy. The congregation of the closed Palestinian synagogue had apparently been loyal to Shelomo b. Yehuda, and Natan b. Avraham had used his contacts in the government to have the synagogue closed. (Information from CUDL) This Arabic hand definitely belongs to Efrayim b. Shemarya (Marina Rustow).

Letter from Qūṣ in Upper Egypt. Fragment (missing a small piece from the top and a large piece from the bottom). In Judaeo-Arabic. Many blessings to the address (e.g., "may God avert the eyes of your enviers and rub in the dirt the noses of your opponents"). The sender reports that the addressee's letter (from Fustat) finally arrived in Qūṣ after a lapse of 50 days. From that letter, he learned about what happened to Abū l-Ṭāhir b. Nānū (perhaps the death of a son). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from the wife of Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Fustat, to her husband Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Alexandria. The letter was dictated to Abū l-Faraj, who gives his name toward the end of the letter (v9-10); Gil suggests that he is their son. The writer conveys her concern for what she heard of her husband's illness (wajaʿ). She describes her father's and her own misfortunes, and discusses the famine in Fustat. The sugar and the rose preserves that Yehuda said he sent never arrived. Dated September 26 (18 Tishrei), 1070 CE (Gil's suggestion based on the similarity between events described in the letter and those known to have transpired in 462H). ASE.

Letter from Abū Manṣūr, perhaps in Alexandria, to his 'brother' Abū Saʿd, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century, based on the script and appearance. Dealing largely with business matters. The writer has sent 1 2/3 raṭls of flax/linen with this letter. Both he and the addressee are in the garment-making trade. The writer gives instructions for hemming an ʿarḍī garment with either silk or linen or both. The addressee's mother is mentioned. Vitriol (zāj) is another commodity they deal with; the addressee had promised to send some, but he never did. T-S 12.309 is another letter with the same writer and addressee. ASE

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: ca. 1090 CE. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. One ‘Ulla and one Yaḥyā release one another from a partnership. These individuals are likely Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā b. Samuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī and Abū al-‘Alā ‘Ulla b. Joseph ha-Levi al-Dimashqī, who repeatedly release one another and rekindle their partnership in a number of documents in the Geniza corpus. The majority of the present document concerns the establishment of a 2-year long-distance trading partnership. This release from that partnership includes the text of the contract. One of the partners invested 120 dinars, and the other one 150. Both partners would trade actively. Profits and losses are to be split evenly. The active partner is liable for losses at sea, a departure from the commenda model (see also the verso of T-S K25.153, PGPID 9291, for an example). On the verso there are jottings and accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals ("expenses on Sunday: syrup(?)... sugar... a cup of [...]... chicken: 3...."). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 273-274; and from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter of condolence from the cantor Natan b. Mevorakh ha-Kohen, in Ashqelon, to the father of an Efrayim. The letter contains many biblical quotations. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The handwriting is very likely that of Mūsā b. Yaʿqūb/Moshe b. Yaʿaqov writing from somewhere in the Levant in the 1050s CE to an addressee in Fustat. Compare the documents edited in Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, #514–#517, all of which are addressed to Dāʾūd b. Shaʿya (and two of which also suffer from a milder version of the wet-ink problem). The distinctive feature of the present letter is that the ink was still wet when it was folded/pleated, so almost all of the text is obscured by mirror-image imprints of other lines. (Goitein glanced at it and wrote, "Letter in Hebrew characters on which decorative patterns were printed. (?)") Probably most of it will be illegible until someone devises a clever way to subtract the reflected text. Some of the phrases that can be read are as follows: "... selling the pepper of my master the elder, and I did not know the intention of my master the elder, and Ibn Hillel already received his share... in Damascus and the letter arrived... the caravan already departed from [...]... from Tyre to Egypt... it is not concealed from my master that... 200... if my master the elder has bought some merchandise, its price returned... what he collected from the comb traders (? al-mashshāṭiyyīn) and the Sindis (?! אלסינדיין - this would be exciting but is probably wrong)... (verso) ... in Damascus it is 2/3 dinars per qintar... Damascus... this week... the rosewater... the caravan from Damascus...[skipping to the end]... may your peace increase... if you see fit to write and for the agent to pay for the [...] and charge you(?) for it... writing harshly(?)... for he will come around by being gentle (ʿalā l-mulāṭafa)..." ASE

Booklet made of parchment, containing a calendar for the maḥzors 256 and 257, each year written on a separate little scrap. Beginning with 1095 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Large fragment of a detailed order for textiles, specifying 18 different colors, sent to Spain, perhaps from al- Ahwaz. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 106, and from Goitein's index cards)

Fragment of a letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, probably to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. The letter deals with trades, especially of fabrics. Yisrael b. Natan returns some pearls to Fustat because he is disappointed with their marred color. He asks that they be sold in Fustat, and some carnelians purchased with the money. Nahray is also asked to urgently provide parchment in order for Yisrael to do some work as a scribe. The last part is about Avraham b. ha-Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda. Yisrael asks Nahray for bitumen (qifār) for his eye problem because he cannot get any in Jerusalem; see also T-S 12.364; T-S 13J26.4; and T-S 10J10.24. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 145-148, #472) VMR. ASE.

Letter from Ayash b. Ṣedaqa, Alexandria, to an unknown addressee. Dating: January 1051. Lists of goods that were bought or sold. Some details about the market and credit conditions as well as details about shipping. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #486) VMR