Geniza Lab

Letter from a local Dayyan to Avraham Maimonides. Dating: ca. 1229/30 CE.

Letter to a certain [...] Ḥemdat ha-Yeshiva b. Yosef ha-Zaqen. In Judaeo-Arabic. Generous space between the lines. Mentions the addressee's arrival in (or departure from?) Bilbays; a letter from a Gaon; and many people send their regards (Abū l-Barakāt; al-Baghdādī; Abū l-Faraj; Hiba; Abū Saʿd; and Yūsuf).

Deposition made in court, under duress. Dating: ca. 1130s–40s CE. The issue concerns a house worth 300 dinars; 150 were paid. Then it was estimated as being worth 270 dinars; 100 were paid, and someone had to pay another 10. Threats were made by the nephew Munajjā b. Sulaymān/Shelomo. There is a complicated issue of inheritance and heirs who had converted to Islam ("poshʿim"). Goitein notes that the nephew Munajjā b. Shelomo signed T-S 13J3.6 in 1145 CE (but this shelfmark does not appear to be correct). Munajjā b. Shelomo also signed T-S 8J7.6 together with Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Saʿdān b. Thābit al-Baghdādī ha-Levi, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1135 CE. Goitein identified the sender based on his handwriting (which is corroborated by the content of IV,89). Apparently, Saʿdān had sent Ḥalfon a shipment of pearls. He complains about Ḥalfon’s plan to travel to Damascus by land rather than by ship from Alexandria because Saʿdān expected them to meet there, and so Ḥalfon would pay all or part of the debt that Ḥalfon's brother Abū ʿAlī Yeḥezqel owed to Saʿdān. Ḥalfon had already described to Saʿdān the difficult illness of Yeḥezqel. According to Saʿdān, the deposit of silk which Ḥalfon had deposited with him was not sufficient to repay the debt. Goitein remarks, "The beautiful style abounding in courtesy, even as the writer complains of being harmed, is reminiscent of Spanish letters, and there is no doubt that the writing manners that Saʿdān found while in Spain stuck with him." (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; see Hebrew description below.)

Letter from a file of Avraham Maimonides, written to Nissim Ha-Dayyan (judge).

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (left side only). In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Location: Fustat. Dated: [14]66 Seleucid, which is 1144/45 CE. Groom: Avraham b. Abū l-Faraj. Bride: ʿAdhb. Marriage payments: 1 + 1 = 2. No dowry. Signed by Natan b. Yaḥyā. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Note from David b. Yehuda ha-Ḥaver, in Bilbays, to Avraham Maimonides, in Fustat/Cairo. Dated: 1532 Seleucid, which is 1220/21 CE. He asks to receive the 'reshut' (authority?) from Avraham to preside over this marriage between the groom Abū l-Munā and 'the girl,' who has appointed her father as her agent. He also asks if it is permissible to use the text of the ketubba drafted on the other side. ("If there is an error in the draft, instruct me to correct it.") "Whether or not the Nagid gave his approval to this ketubba is not preserved; the form, incidentally, does contain a few scribal errors." Information in part from Mordechai Akiva Friedman, "The Minimum Mohar Payment as Reflected in the Geniza Documents: Marriage Gift or Endowment Pledge?" (1976).

Legal document. Partnership dissolution. Dated: 1152. Location: Fustat. Under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Hiba al-Abzārī b. Abū Isḥaq al-Tawwazī and Abū l-Faḍāʾil Yaʿqūb al-Raffāʾ release one another from a partnership, leaving Hiba owing Abū l-Faḍāʾil 6 dinars, to be repaid according to a schedule. The separation of the partners also leaves the two partners returning what seems to be a debt to their investor Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-ʿUrs; Hiba will pay 60-70 dinars and Abū l-Faḍāʾil will pay 13 dinars. Interestingly, each of the partners is left with a separate debt to Abū l-Ḥasan, distinct from the assets of his partner; thus, following the separation, the parties are no longer jointly liable even for debts which were accrued during the life of the partnership. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 279-280; Jacob Mann, "The Jews in Egypt and in Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs," 1:230, 2:237; and Goitein's index cards.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Kislev 1414 Seleucid, which is 1112 CE. Groom: Meshullam b. David. Bride: Sutūt bt. Ṭahor, the divorcee of Yefet b. Khiyār. Marriage payments: 1 + 3 = 4. No trousseau. At the very end: "she produced her geṭ and we tore it." Witnesses: Elʿazar b. Ghālib; Yiṣḥaq b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel; Moshe b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Sason b. [...]. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter that mentions the death of Aharon b. Yeshu'a Ibn al-'Ammani. A man writes to his two brothers in Alexandria. He left Alexandria for Fustat in order to get from the sons of Aharon b. Yeshu'a an authorization to receive an inheritance that was deposited with him for them. The writer succeeded in receiving from the sons of Aharon a letter that instructed the third brother, Abu al-Jith, residing in Alexandria, to give to the bearer of this letter the appropriate document, as well as a letter from the Nagid, Shemuel b. Hanan that instructs his Na'ib (his deputy) in Alexandria to give assistance in regards to the will. The entire matter is connected with a dispute with Bani Musa, a powerful family in Alexandria. We learn from the letter that Aharon was in possession of the court documents and he was in charge of their safekeeping. With his death, this responsibility passed over to his son. (Information from Frenkel)

Legal document. Partnership record. Dated: October 1039.Location: Cairo. In April 1039, the parties Tuviyah b. Yefet ha-Levi and ‘Allūn b. Faraj (and perhaps Salāma ha-Kohen b. Nissan) came to the home of Suleymān b. Isḥāq b. Meir in Cairo. Suleymān was involved in a partnership (mufāwaḍa) with Tuviyah and ‘Allūn. The other partner to the agreement is Khalaf b. Ibrāhīm. When Tuviyah and ‘Allūn demand a payout from the partnership, to be distributed by Suleymān (evidently the senior partner), Suleymān disputes this, explaining that Tuviyah and ‘Allūn have received their final settlements, and Khalaf is free from his obligations to them. Suleymān and Khalaf terminate their relationship, and the April document is given to Khalaf as proof. ‘Allūn's attestation that Suleymān and Khalaf had “a joint enterprise (mu‘āmala) and not a qinyan”, complicating the understanding of partnership models in this period; the difference between a mufāwaḍa and a mu‘āmala (or between either of these and a qinyan) is unclear Immediately below, in different handwriting, appears the testimony of Salāma b. Nissan ha-Kohen to Suleymān that he (Salama) has made the same statement in a different location, at the home of an elder. Goitein believed that the Khalaf b. Ibrahīm mentioned in this document was the same one that appeared in T-S 18J1.6 (PGPID 3523); Lieberman disputes this. In yet another handwriting, the document validates the signatures of Tuviyah and ‘Allūn in the permanent court in Fusṭāṭ some months after their initial testimony was recorded in the home of Suleymān in Cairo. The signatories are the three judges Efrayim b. Shemarya, Avraham b. Mevaser, and Yefet ha-Ḥazan b. David. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 281-284)

Account of the Tahirti brothers dealing with the sale of flax worth 800 dinars in the Maghreb and containing details about buying textiles in the Maghreb and shipping them. Dated 1025. Accounts in the same hand and possibly from the same book are also found in T-S J1.54, BL OR5554A.53-54r, Moss. VIII,476.1-2.

Letter draft. In the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel. Addressed to Abū l-Mufaḍḍal al-Kohen. Consists solely of poetry and poetic praises.

Letter. Letter concerning a girl who had been regarded as being a Muslim and when she appeared before the Qāḍī, declared she was Jewish, whereupon her case was turned over by the latter to a Jewish judge for further investigation. (Information from Goitein’s index card and Goitein, “Slaves and Slavegirls in the Cairo Geniza Records,” Arabica 9 (1962), 14)

Letter from a man from the land of the Persians, who, after the loss of his fortune, had come to Egypt to seek a post as teacher. He asks for help, as he was unable to work owing to an illness of smallpox. He is living in the synagogue (this is written above the line; the scribe first wrote "living with [???]" and then crossed it out). "I came to this city empty-handed, intending to support myself by serving the people, but I fell sick with smallpox. Now I cannot work and I possess nothing." Information from Goitein's index card.

Legal query to Avraham Maimonides regarding a man who takes a 200 dinar loan and appoints his parents as guarantors, providing them with a house on his property equivalent in value to his debt. Over the course of the ten-year period of the loan, the debtor marries a woman in Egypt and then travels to India, leaving her in Egypt. When the ten-year period comes to a close and the debt has not been repaid, the creditors wish to sell the house on the property to recoup their funds. The question facing Avraham Maimonides is whether the wife who remained in Egypt has the authority to prevent the sale. Old IB number: 169. New IB number: VII, 31. (Nathaniel Moses)

Letter sent by the cantor Sheerith to Maimonides, in which the writer excuses himself for being unable to do a certain service for the recipient, since he had to officiate at a circumcision ceremony for a poor man. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 89, 541)

Letter from the office of Avraham Maimonides, in Fustat, to the community of Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1220 CE. He instructs them to help a woman and her little daughter to get to Palestine, where she had another daughter. She was the divorcee of Futūḥ, the cantor in the Yemeni synagogue in Jerusalem. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Yosef b. Simha, Alexandria, to the Taharti brothers (Isma'il and Salih b. Barhun), Fustat. The writer is aboard a ship in Alexandria and asks for help selling his musk.

Letter from Barhun b. Musa al-Taharti, probably from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dated: June 1, 1054. Mentions shipments and details about ships. Also mentions details about storing goods and some details about coins. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #347) VMR