Geniza Lab

Ketubba fragment. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1462 Seleucid = 1151/52 CE, under the reshut of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Groom: [...] b. Ṣadaqa. Bride: Turfa.

Legal fragment. Marriage contract. Dated: 29 Nisan 1458 Seleucid, which is 1147 CE. Under the reshut of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. Groom :Yaʿaqov ha-Baḥur b. Yehuda ha-Zaqen. Bride: al-Sitt bt. Ḥalfon ha-Zaqen; she is the divorcee of the groom. Only the first 7 lines are preserved; no details about the dowry or marriage gifts. Information from Goitein's note card.

Recto: Responsum regarding a man who made many vows and repented of them. Verso: Appears to be the writer's notes more general notes to himself on the question of repenting of vows. Needs examination

Beginnings of a court record, Fustat, 1378.

Letter fragment, probably. The last two lines and three signatures survive. The format looks like a legal document, but it ends "from those who wish you peace/health," suggesting that it is rather a letter. Dated Heshvan 5358 AM (שנת משיח), which is 1597 CE. There is a postscript (or response?) underneath, regarding the sum of money that must have been the subject of the letter.

Letter from Ṭoviya b. Moshe, in Jerusalem, to his daughter, in Fustat, April 1040 or 1041. "The following description of the writer's well-being is altogether exceptional: 'I am completely comfortable in my body and all my affairs. My clothes do not hold me for all my happiness and success.' The story was indeed complicated. A Byzantine Jew had married a Muslim woman, certainly a captive whom he had ransomed. When the couple moved to Palestine they separated, and the wife took residence in Egypt with her daughter, who had meanwhile grown up. The mother fell on bad times, and in this letter the father tries to persuade the girl to return to him and the Jewish fold, pointing out that he (in contrast to her mother) was in excellent health and enjoyed material prosperity and thus was able to provide for her" (Goitein, Med Soc V, 47-48).

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. Only the last three lines are preserved, then two lines in Hebrew, 'may I be the ransom of the brother (al-akh al-shaqīq) from all evil.' Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic with rudimentary handwriting and spellings. "As for what you you mentioned that I should send you a boy, I send you a boy every day. As for other matters, I feared to introduce worrry (ghamm) into your heart and make you relapse (tantakis), for you are from [...] illness (wajaʿ), may God complete your recovery. As for the copper. . . as God is my witness, I was sick (ḍaʿīf)." ASE.

India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; English to come)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, late.

Letter from Moshe b. Nissim to an unknown addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. He asks the addressee to sell on his behalf four copies of th She'eltot de-Rav Aḥa (he seems to have been the copyist). He is in need of the proceeds, because before he left Cairo he took out a loan of 40 dirhams. The money is to be sent with al-Shaykh al-Rashīd Abū l-Fakhr, the brother of [Sayyid?] al-Ahl the Blind. (Information in part from Goitein's note card)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment from Shabbetay b. Avraham he-Ḥaver (the judge of Minyat Zifta, active 1135–78) to Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. This is the upper margin and the address only. Shabbetay includes a wish for Natan’s recovery in the address and reports that he was ill himself—with a bone in his leg that had not been set properly—and apologizes for not presenting himself. He had not come to Fustat for five months. Information from Goitein’s note cards and Med Soc II, 44. See also card #27137.

Bill of divorce (get). Date and location are not preserved. Husband: Abū l-Barakāt al-Bilbaysī. Wife: Sitt al-Dār. Witnesses: Yosef ha-Levi b. Shemuel and Moshe b. Elazar.

Letter from the members of the Jerusalem academy to Yiṣḥaq Sholal (d. 1524). (Information from Avraham David via FGP.)

Dowry list for Sitt al-[...]a bt. Abū l-Khayr b. Yosef. No details of the dowry itself are here. Probably a draft.

Legal fragment. Court records. In Hebrew. Dating: 11th century, based on Goitein's assessment and perhaps based on the reference to the higher authority of the court in Jerusalem. Recto: Involves "a certain man from Maddai (Persia)" and Abū Yūsuf known as Ibn Salīm. The case involves a numnber of coins, some of which are round and some of which are 'pieces.' Verso: Involves [...] b. Moshe b. Ghulayb ha-Samemani (the druggist). Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Yosef b. Shemuel al-Dani in Palermo to Isma’il b. Avraham in Damsis. The first part of the letter deals with the tragedy that happened in the sea, near Gabes (Qābis), on the way to Sicily. After the writer arrived in Sicily, he found out that he had been expelled from his house. In the other part, Yosef writes about his wife that is still in Egypt. He wrote her a divorce certificate in case he will not be able to come back. He is willing to sell his land and take the risk to come back to Egypt, to take her and their son to Palermo, if she swears she will go with him. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #173) VMR

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from a father to a son ("who is in my heart like Abu l-Faraj"). He asks his son to collect a debt of 11 dinars that is owed to him by Abu l-Ḥasan al-'Attar. A half-dinar and a (mother?-)in-law (ḥamātī) are also mentioned but their place in the story is not entirely clear. He blandishes Abu l-Ḥasan to give him the money immediately because he is in financial straits, and then threatens to take him to court if he fails to pay up. In the last few lines he reverts to speaking to his son, "This is distressing to me. Go out and take it. He knows that I cannot go out to him.... Whatever you send to me, send it with Musa." The handwriting and colloquial spellings resemble those of Abu Sahl (Levi) the cantor, the father of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, (cf. T-S 13J27.21, T-S 8J10.16, T-S 8J24.1); this is supported by the mention of Musa at the end but still conjectural. ASE.

Letter of condolence(?). In Hebrew. Needs examination.

Letter from Yehuda al-ʿAmmānī to the judge Eliyyahu. (Information from Goitein's index card)