Geniza Lab

Accounts of the qodesh. Written in a hand different from that of Shemuel b. Seʿadya, who wrote the other extant accounts for Abū l-Bayān, it lists 22 apartments and compounds. The same categories of expenditures are listed in the second part of the account as in the previous one. The total revenue is 308 dirhams, a little more than the average for the two previous months. The expenditures as listed first come to a total of 223 dirhams, but thereafter several other items totaling 189.6 dirhams are added, so that there is altogether a total expenditure of 412.5 dirhams, i.e., a deficit of 104.5 dirhams.

Record of payment of rent, ca. 1186. A payment of 100 wariq dirhams (for a period of one year's rent) is received from Abu Ishaq al-Adani. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 361 #92)

Deathbed will. Dated: Wednesday, 18 Nisan 1493 Seleucid, which is 24 March 1182 CE. Testator: Abū l-Faraj b. Moshe known as Ibn al-Kallām. He leaves to his wife, the daughter of his maternal uncle, one third of a house, if she does not marry again. If she does, she will receive only what was still due to her from the delayed matrimonial gift. This man owed 2 1/2 dinars to Maimonides, 4 1/6 dinars to al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq (perhaps the physician Ibn Jumayʿ) for a capitation tax paid on his behalf, 1 dinar and 12 dirhams to the poet and judge Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk, 4 dinars to the faqīh Ibn Ṣawla, and 5 dirhams to Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥayfī. Scribed and signed by Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya. Also signed by Elʿazar b. Mikhael. (Information from Goitein's notes and from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 31.) Translated and discussed at length in S. D. Goitein, “The Moses Maimonides-Ibn Sana Al-Mulk Circle: A Deathbed Declaration from March 1182,” in Moshe Sharon, ed., Studies in Islamic History and Civilization in Honour of Professor David Ayalon (Leiden: Brill, 1986), 399-405.

Continuation of previous document. The clothing and household goods are divided between the two girls. The value of each object is indicated. 11 1/8 dinars to each (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: This portion of the document is on verso of Bodl. MS heb. f 56/45.

Abū Manṣūr Elʿazar b. Elʿazar al-Dimashqī gives the female slave Rahaj ("Arsenic") as well as clothing and household goods which he had inherited from his wife Fakhr bt. Abū l-Surūr al-Jashshāsh as a gift to his two daughters, Ḥasab and Kafā'. (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: This portion of the document is on recto of Bodl. MS heb. f 56/46.

A renewed betrothal contract from the month of Tamuz 1182. The date for marriage is set for the month of Av but the groom is given permission to 'delay' the marriage for another month, until the month of Elul. If he fails to marry her by the month of Elul the match will be cancelled and the bride will keep the money and the rings she was given in the early marriage gift.

Trousseau list (taqwīm). Groom: Tamīm b. Netanel. Bride: Sitt al-Khafar bt. Elʿazar. 42 + 83 + 55 + 30 = 210 dinars. Dating: ca. 1182 CE, as this folio seems to belong to the same legal register as the preceding sheflmarks. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounting of a single foundation ca. 1186.

Inventory of the books and furnishings of the Palestinian Synagogue received by Ṭāhir b. Maḥfūẓ al-Khādim. (Cf. previous fragment.) Dated: Ḥeshvan 1498 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. An addendum notes that Umm Thanā' the female embroiderer (raqqāma) has had a new muṣḥaq copied and granted it to the qodesh (aqdashathu). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Inventory of the books and furnishings of the Iraqi synagogue. (Cf. previous fragment.) Abū l-Faraj b. Abū Saʿd al-Miṣrī takes over the service of the Iraqi synagogue, receives from Maḥfūẓ what was listed before and many additional items. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Betrothal deed from 1185. According to Goitein, the bride and groom are also cousins. They are both extremely young, but still in the age of legal majority as can be seen in the expression of mutual consent in line 5. (Med. Soc. 3:29, no. 7)

Account of the expenditures, recorded by Judge Shemuel b. Saadya, made on one day in Dar al-Zayt, ca. 1182. The note is for building materials, utensils and labor. More than three years later, he started to list sums collected for clothes for the poor on the same leaf, but left the list incomplete after only two lines. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 362 #93)

3 entries in a court register. (a) Marriage portion of Munā the freedwoman of Ibn Futayḥ marrying Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham al-Tinnīsī. 10 + 30 dinars. Total value of dowry: 120 dinars. Cf. Bodl. MS heb. c 28/54. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

(b) Trousseau list. Bride: Sitt al-Furs bt. Abū l-Bayān al-Jābī (cf. Bodl. MS heb. f 56/43). Groom: Al-Munajjā b. Yosef. 10 + 25. Total value: 95 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

(c) Trousseau list. Dated: Sivan 1185 CE. Bride: Nasab bt. Abū l-Khayr al-Zayyāt. Groom: Munajjā Abū Saʿd al-Labbān. 10 + 25. Total value: 90 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

(b) Record of marriage conditions. Dated: Sivan of 1186 CE. Groom: Abū l-Barakāt b. Musallam al-Ṭabīb. Bride: Sitt al-ʿAlam bt. Netanel the Fifth. Delayed marriage payment: 10 dinars. Total of trousseau: 55 dinars, including a female slave valued at 15 dinars and books worth 5 dinars. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

(c) Continuation/ending of a record of marriage provisions (on verso, 90 degrees). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

(d) Legal testimony. Crossed out. Dated: Tuesday, 15 Sivan 1494 Seleucid, which is 1183 CE, under the reshut of Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Ghulayb b. Ṣadaqa al-Bilbaysī claims that Abū ʿImrān b. Abū Saʿīd al-Kohen still owes him 105 dinars out of the 345 dinars that he had deposited with him. Abū ʿImrān claims that he already gave all the money back. Signed: Shemuel ha-Levi b. Menashshe; Elʿazar. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

4 entries in a court register. (a) Record of marriage conditions. Groom: Abū Zikrī al-Kattanānī b. Aharon. Bride: Sitt al-Nās bt. Isḥāq. Delayed marriage payment: 10 dinars. Trousseau: total value 75 dinars (and Goitein checked the math!). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

4 legal records. (1) Taqwīm for the marriage between Avraham b. Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-Maghāzilī and Niʿam bt. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ḥazzan. Dated: Nisan 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 5 + 20 = 25. Dowry = 44. See also T-S NS J287, a petition from the same woman to the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi (1170–95 CE), written on her behalf by her father. (2) Taqwīm for the marriage between Abū al-Mufaddal b. al-Rayyis Abū l-Najm and Sitt al-Nasib bt. Eliyyahu. Dated: Nisan 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. The objects are evaluated by ½, ⅓ and ¼. Marriage payments: 0 + 30 = 30. Dowry = 55 (which includes a female slave named Shams valued at 15 dinars). Total = 85. (3) Taqwīm for the marriage between Abū l-Ḥasan b. al-Shammāʿ and Sitt al-Thanā' bt. Abū l-Makārim אלתווזי. Dated: Av 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 0 + 15 = 15. Dowry = 33. Total = 48. (4) Taqwīm for the marriage between Munajjā b. Hiba al-Ṭabīb and Ḥasab bt. Abū ʿUmar. Dated: Tishrei 1498 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 5 + 20 = 25. Dowry = 15. Total = 40. (Information from Goitein’s index cards.)