Geniza Lab

CUL Add.3414 (c?). Noted and copied by Baneth. Goitein looked for this document in 1965 and could not find it; speculated that perhaps it was removed from this folder and placed under glass. Legal document. Shelomo b. Yefet al-Qudsī owes 102 dinars to Mevorakh b. Elʿazar. A delay of seven months is granted. Meanwhile Mevorakh will sell 70 garments (thawb) for Shlomo in Damietta. If he cannot provide all of the garments, he will pay 1 1/3 dinars for every garment. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

India Book I, 10–11: Court proceedings from Fustat dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. Dated: Monday, 12 Tammuz 1409 Seleucid, which is 14 June 1098 CE. These are the proceedings of the seventh session. Just before Lebdi and Yequtiʾel were about to make a solemn oath by the Torah, important merchants intervened in an attempt to prevent such a serious undertaking. The two sides agree to postpone the oath ritual until the arrival of the messenger of 'Yemen and India.' This agent was to deliver the testimony of Ḥasan b. Bundar, the representative of the merchants in Aden. A few further claims between the two were also dealt with.

Letter from the tailor Yaʿaqov b. Ṭahor to Yehuda al-Ḥalabī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 24 Elul (4800 +) 197 AM = 4997 AM, which is 1237 CE (the numbers for 4800 are implicit in letters from this period). The letter concerns textiles and asks the addressee to give 26 dirhams to R. Ḥananel (the father-in-law of Avraham Maimonides [d. 1237], who is also referred to in the document as 'our lord'). (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 409, and from Goitein's index cards.)

India Book I, 18a: Settlement (canceled draft) in the lawsuit between David ibn Sighmar, the representative of Moshe b. Labrat, against Yosef Lebdi. The final version of the settlement is preserved on the verso (I, 18b). The cancellation is marked by three vertical strokes.

India Book I, 18b: The settlement of the lawsuit between David ibn Sighmar, the representative of Moshe b. Labrat, and Yosef Lebdi. A draft of the settlement is preserved in the recto (I, 18a). This final version was signed by five prominent members of the community: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel, Avraham b. Natan, Nethanel b. Yefet, Hillel b. Eli and Avraham b. Shemaya.

India Book I, 16: Two court records regarding Moshe b. Labrat b. Moshe b. Sugmar and Yosef b. David al-Tarabulusi, from the court in Fustat. November 12, 1097 and March 8, 1098. In the handwriting of Hillel b. Eli. The records are regarding a disagreement about selling pearls. Yosef refuses to give Moshe his money and profit, because he has counter-claims. The disagreement came before the court twice (November 1097 and March 1098). Moshe is a judge in Mahdiyya, as his father was before him. The court members in Fustat are Hillel b. Eli, Shlomo ha-Kohen b. Yosef, Ishaq b. Shemuel ha-Sfaradi, Avraham b. Natan, Netanel b. Yefet, and Avraham b. Shma’aya. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #625.) VMR.

Recto: Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 1 Av 1543 Seleucid, which is 1232 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. The young man Abū l-Bahāʾ b. Abū l-Baqāʾ, known as the indigo merchant (tājir al-nīl), declares that he will diligently try to provide for himself(?). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Recto and verso: Draft of a legal document. Abu Saʿd al-Levi undertakes to provide his elderly father Shemuel with food and drink and the money for the capitation tax, since his father had traveled widely on business and was too exhausted for regular work. This fragment also contains an unrelated legal document dated 1232 CE (see separate PGP record). (Information from Mediterranean Society, vol. 5, pp. 122–23, and from Goitein's index cards.)

India Book I, 1–2: Court proceedings dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. Dated: Monday, 2 Kislev 1409 Seleucid, which is 9 November 1097 CE. The document lists their commercial dealings and contains much information on trade of textiles, silverware and corals. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Note that the lower part of CUL Add.3421 is Doc. I, 4 in the India Book (see separate record).

Recto: legal document from the Fusṭāṭ Bet Din, dated 18 Iyyar 1409 (= 22 April 1098 CE), regarding a financial claim made by Joseph b. Isaac against Abū Manṣūr Aaron b. Mevasser. Witnessed by Nathaniel b. Yefet, Nissim b. Nahray, and Isaac b. Samuel. Written by Avraham b. Natan AV Verso: continuation of a legal document starting at the bottom of Add.3420 verso, dated 15 Iyyar 1409 (= 19 April 1098 CE) in Fusṭāṭ. David b. Yaʾir testifies that he was in the synagogue on a certain Wednesday, 10th of the month, when Karīma bat ʿAmmār, known as Wuḥša the broker, went there and asked Moses the teacher and Maʿālī ha-Kohen, brother of the sexton, why the judge ʿUlla ha-Levi b. Joseph had summoned her. She was told it was because she owed ʿUlla 5 qirāṭs, but had neglected to appear in court when he had tried to legally recover the money from her. Karīma reportedly expressed surprise that ʿUlla was making such a fuss about a relatively small sum of money. Written and signed by Nissim b. Nahray, and witnessed by Isaac b. Samuel and Abraham b. Šemaʿya. (CUDL)

India Book I, 3: Court proceedings dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. The document deals with Lebdi's debt of 40 dinars to Yequtiʾel for a sale of indigo. The document is written in the hand of Nethanel b. Yefet (though the title was written probably by Hillel b. Eli) and is dated February 22, 1098.

India Book I, 15: Three testimonies regarding collateral given by and returned to Yosef Lebdi, the India trader. Lebdi owed Ḥasan b. Bundar, 'the representative of the merchants' in Aden, 40 dinars for an indigo deal. Until Lebdi could pay the debt in full he had to deposit collateral, probably because he was a foreigner, who was expected to leave the town. The first and last of these three entries are written and signed by Nethanel b. Yefet. This is the recto of the second leaf of CUL Add.3420. The first leaf contains document I, 3 and the verso of this page is document I, 8. Goitein referred to this document as CUL Add.3420c.

India Book I, 8: Court proceedings from Fustat dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. This is the verso of the second leaf of the bifolium that CUL Add.3420 once comprised. Goitein cited this side as CUL Add.3420d. At the bottom of the document there is a separate record (not found here) dealing with a complaint of Karima, known as Wuhsha. The recto contains the text of I, 15 and CUL Add.3420.1 contains the text of I, 3. At this court session it was agreed that Yosef Lebdi should settle his accounts with Yequtiʾel. He would then be entitled to take out of Yequtiel warehouse all the goods to which the latter could not make claim. Both agreed not to appeal to a Muslim court. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated April 19, 1098.

India Book I, 4–5: Court proceedings dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. After five months, the court in Fustat reconvened to discuss the litigation begun in India Book I, 1-2. Apparently the two sides waited for their merchandise to arrive from Aden, but when it failed to arrive, the legal proceedings were continuEd. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated April 8, 1098. The document begins with the lower half of CUL Add.3421 and continues in Bodl. MS heb. d 66/64v. The upper half of CUL Add.3421 is I, 2 in the India Book. I, 4: CUL Add.3421 (lower half) I, 5: Bodl. MS heb. d 66/64

Document regarding claims concerning, among other things, a Siddur that was purchased. Persons named as concerned (line 1) are Abu Fadl b. al-Assal and Ibn al-Lawwaz Sar Shalom b. Yakhin the cantor. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel, Avraham b Shema'ya, and Nissim b. Nahray, who were active, signing documents, at the beginning of the 12th century in Fustat. Part of a notary's notebook. CUL Add.3422 a-b CUL Add.3422 c-k (Information from Goitein's index cards).

Document regarding claims made at court. Persons named as concerned (line 1) are Ibn Hadida and Abu al-Ala al-Halabi and in the body of the document, Aharon b. Moshe and Shelomo b. Hillel, regarding transactions made by the claimant's father. Dated Nisan 1409/ March 1098. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel, Avraham b Shema'ya, and Nissim b. Nahray, and in the postscript adding more details, the same three plus Hillel b. Eli. Part of a notary's notebook, see also CUL Add.3422 a-b (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 601)

Deposition from Minyat Zifta, signed by five witnesses, in which two persons testify to the poverty of a man named Sulayman b. Ḥasan, who had been condemned to imprisonment for insolvency when his Jewish debtor had brought him before a Muslim court. Dated Sivan 1486/ June 1175. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 204)

Karaite marriage contract of the groom Hezekiah and the bride Sarwa written in Shevat 1339/ February 1028 in Jerusalem. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 50, 376)

Karaite ketubba (marriage contract) from Jerusalem, January 1028.

"A fragment of vellum containing a Latin text of a sermon by Saint Augustine — an unquestionably Christian text — is probably one of the last things you’d expect to find in the Cairo Genizah. Christian texts do find their way into the Collection, however, often as the undertext of palimpsests, as here, where a piece of vellum containing Book 2 Chapter 24 of St. Augustine’s De Sermone Domini in Monte (the Sermon on the Mount) has been reused by a Jewish scribe to write masoretic lists. The manuscript was barely scraped, or perhaps only washed, before being reused, and the Latin text, which is in a hand probably dating from the sixth century CE, is still clearly legible where it is exposed in the clear space between the columns of Hebrew text. The masoretic lists are in an early hand too, probably of the 9–10th century, and preserve notes to 1 Samuel 9, including a list of the occurrences of the plene spelling of ‘Benjamin’. As would be expected, there are a number of differences between the lists and the standard critical edition of the Masoretic Text in use today (which is based on Codex Leningrad B19a)." Information from Outhwaite, B. (2007). St Augustine in the Genizah. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, May 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.40134.