Geniza Lab

Tiny fragment in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning a qinyan and a payment and God.

Recto: Letter of recommendation addressed to Aharon ha-Ḥazzan. In Hebrew, calligraphically written. Headed with the title 'Rosh ha-Seder.' Requesting that Aharon look after a blind man named Shabbat who claimed to have been cheated of his allocation. Verso: A woman pawns pieces of her trousseau against loans. The date 26 May 1050 CE appears in lines 4–5. Information from Goitein's note cards. Old description: Fragments of responsum by a Gaon, dealing with children of female slaves.

Court record containing a complete list of items of a trousseau (without prices) returned to Sitt al-Hasab on the order of the Nagid. Dated Tishri 1458/ September 1146. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 386)

Letter from Ḥalfon and Yosef, probably from Ascalon, to Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen the forth (Ha-Revi'i) b. Evyatar, Tyre, approximately 1094.

Block print. Welcome placard in Hebrew with black and red flower patterns. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. Large release in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated 1130 CE. Khalaf/Ḥalfon b. Yosef Ibn Qashqūsh declares to have no claims whatsoever against Abū l-Baqāʾ Elʿazar b. Evyatar al-Ahwāzī after the settlement of the inheritance of his wife. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Legal document. Dissolution of partnership between Saʿīd b. Seʿadya and Shemuel b. Avraham. Verso: Literary text in Hebrew. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. Dating: January 1112 CE. Large and well written fragment of a document in which Daniel b. Yiṣḥaq accepts 12 out of 20 dinars due to him from one Musallam b. Efrayim. The sum was paid by the latter's brother Yosef. Dealings in the villages Būra and Ibwān, near Damietta (called Kaphtor), are mentioned. Eight signatures. Information from Goitein's index card.

Business letter from Zikrī b. Khiyār to ʿArūs b. Yosef, in Fustat. The writer informs him inter alia that the only commodity which sold well in the "West" was lac. Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria, to his relative Abu l-Ḥasan Shelomo b. Nissim al-Barqi, containing instructions about selling goods such as textiles and lead in Fustat.

Letter from Me'ir to his friend or relative Abū ʿImrān, announcing his arrival and greeting the trustee Abū l-Makārim, the cantor Abū Manṣūr, Abū l-Munā, and various relatives. He also requests a detailed update on the news of the country, as if he were present, "and who died." Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter of recommendation for a cantor, preacher, and scholar Shemuel b. Yehosef, who had sojourned many years in Palestine ("arḍ al-Quds") and "Baghdad and Iraq," and had seen the tombs of the saints and the places where the prophets had wrought miracles and wanted now to proceed to (where?). Five signature and the rest of a sixth visible. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document: testimony on the date of a bill of divorce written by Yaʿaqov b. Avraham, Yosef Lebdi's travel companion. The document is dated to April 5, 1095.

Fragment of an agreement for a planned engagement from the city of Cairo in the year 1191. The fragment is faded and very difficult to decipher. The suggested reading is uncertain. From what can be salvaged, it appears that the son acts as his father's representative for the marriage. The father might have been going through the divorce procedures while the son was handling the arrangements of the wedding with the new wife. If this is the case, it is a unique situation which does not appear elsewhere.

Court record in the record book of Fustat dealing with the remains of an inheritance in Qayrawan. Dated Adar 1345/March 1034.

Legal document. Draft. Dated: 18 Av 15[..] Seleucid. More of the date might be deduced from the titles of the Nagid. The document involves Abū l-Munajjā b. Seʿadya and Hiba b. Shelomo.

List of books that [...] al-Dawla Abū l-Barakāt inherited from the late Abū l-[...]. The first two items are difficult to read (except for maqāla in both and al-malikī in item 2). The remaining items are two volumes of Kitāb al-Filāḥa, a volume of al-Mutanabbī, a volume of Adab al-Kātib, a volume of ashʿār wa-tuḥaf (sounds like a literary anthology), a volume containing a grammar treatise, and two volumes of Kitāb al-Aghānī. 10 books altogether. Dated: Tuesday, 1[8?] Av. The first two items are called نسخة and the remainder جزء. ASE

Legal deed. Dated 1145 CE. Involves Abū l-Makārim b. Abū l-Faraj al-Parnas, [...] b. Yeshuʿa, and Abū Saʿd Seʿadya b. Menashshe al-Kohen. Needs examination.

Fragment of a will, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, in which the donor, an old man being in good health, specifies the legacies made by him, especially in favor of his wife, emphasizing that they were irrevocable. Also he gives a bible codex, bible commentaries, and other books to synagogue in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 133)

Folio 1: Recto contains two names, perhaps Avraham ha-Rav ha-Gadol Yesod ha-Yeshiva b. Natan Av Bet Din she-le-Kol Yisrael and Ḥiyya b. Meshullam, perhaps witnesses to a legal document. Verso contains elaborate titles addressed to Avraham ha-Rav ha-Gadol Yesod ha-Yeshiva.