Geniza Lab

Legal document. Very damaged. Location: Probably Cairo; only ''אל" is clearly legible of the location's name, but only three common locations begin with "al" (al-Qāhira, al-Maḥalla, and al-Mahdiyya), and the rest of the word is plausibly קאהרה. Dating: The date is lost, but Avraham ha-Rav ha-Gadol in line 3 has to be Avraham Maimonides, and Rabbenu Menaḥem is mentioned in line 12, a person known from other early 13th-century documents. (Menaḥem is introduced in line 7, where he is called Menaḥem ha-Rav ha-Gadol be-Yis[ra'el] Yeḥid ha-Dor, as in T-S 8J15.7.) Another person mentioned in this document: Yiṣḥaq ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad. Somebody attests that he received 25 dinars for something. Perhaps for a property sale, because a location is given in lines 11–12 (.... al-ākhar bi-darb qaḍīb). ASE

Legal document. Location: Alexandria. Dated: Ṭevet 4957 AM, which is November/December 1196 CE. Yeshūʿā b. Elʿazar receives from ʿAlīya (possibly his mother, or rather a more distant relative) a house located on the outskirts of Alexandria near the funduq. It seems that ʿĀliya owns this house in partnership with Mūsā b. Abī l-Munā al-Labbān. Against this he will provide her with domicile (in the same house), food, and medicine (mashrūb), and will pay her 15 dirhams per month. No signatures. (Information from Goitein’s index card.) The handwriting seems familiar and may be identifiable—the same scribe may have also left literary fragments in the Geniza.

Ketubba, fragmentary. Groom: Yosef Kohen b. Khalūf. Likely from North Africa. Resembles Bodl. MS heb. a 2/2 (from Barqa, 990 CE). (Information from Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, Vol. 1, pp. 165, 269, and 288.) On verso there are piyyutim.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: New Cairo. Dating: ca. 1080 CE. Groom: Yosef b. Yeshuʿa b. ʿAllūn. The bride is not a virgin. Marriage payments: 3 + 6 = 9. Dowry adds up to 15 dinars. Same (poor) handwriting as T-S 12.442. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (narrow strip from the middle). Location: New Cairo. Dated: Elul 14[..] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 1088–1189 CE. Names mentioned include Yefet, Abū Sahl ha-Kohen, and Yeshuʿa. The bride is not a virgin. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Business letter sent from Qayrawan by Efrayim b. Ismail, probably to Yaʿaqov b. Yosef b. Awkal in Fustat (Gil) or from Ifrīqiya by 'Alush b. Yeshua to Ismail b. Avraham in Egypt (Ben-Sasson). The letter deals mainly with merchandise and shipments of goods. Dated to the beginning of the 11th century (Gil) or the first third of the 11th century (Ben-Sasson). (Information from Gil, Vol. 2, p. 312 and from Ben-Sasson, p. 219)

An account for Yosef b. 'Awkal followed by a short letter, probably to Ibn 'Awkal.

Letter from Yūsuf b. Q[...] al-[...]ān to Abū l-Faḍl [ʿAṭallāh?] b. Yaʿqūb. In Judaeo-Arabic. Very rudimentary hand. The writer is in distress for some reason, and he seems to have run out of his money thanks to Ibn Asad, and he thanks the addressee for his prior help. The details of his story are difficult to decipher. Verso was reused for accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, but these are too faded to read.

Court record in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Moshe b. Elḥanan releases his wife Mudallala from the obligation to leave a house of his mother (in which he put her while going abroad) in the case that he does not return. This release is not valid if he should return. Witnesses: Avraham b. Yeshuʿa; Avraham b. Shemaʿya; the ḥaver Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli ha-Kohen; [...] b. Yosef b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Pinḥas b. Yahaboy ha-Levi. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (middle of the bottom part). Dating: 13th century, per Goitein. Groom: Tiqva b. Shelomo ha-Levi. Bride: Sitt al-Kuttāb. No dowry. The document was subsequently covered with jottings in Arabic script. On verso there are outlines of huge blocky letters in both Hebrew and Arabic. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Deed of sale of a house. Large fragment. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: 1467 Seleucid, which is 1155/56 CE, under the reshut of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The son of Bū Saʿd al-Ṣayrafī known as Ibn ʿUmayr sells to his partner in the house the quarter which he had inherited from his father in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in the alley (zuqāq) of Manā'il (? מנאיל), for 15 dinars. The buyer is Bū l-Faraj al-Kohen al-Ṣayrafī b. […] b. Moshe known as Ibn Mardūk. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Ketubba fragments. Lower part. One of the witnesses is Shelomo b. Yosef. There is literary text on verso.

Ketubba fragment. Opening only. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1[4]31 Seleucid, which is 1119/20 CE. Groom: [...] b. Tiqva. Bride: Ḥasana bt. [...].

Legal document, bottom part only, plus qiyyum/validation. Location: Fustat. Dated: [14]38 Seleucid, which is 1126/27 CE. Witnesses: Avraham b. Shemaʿya ha-Ḥaver descendant of Shemaʿyahu Gaon; Ḥalfon b. Menashshe; Meshullam b. Menashshe ha-Ḥaver; Ḥalfon b. Ghālib; Natan b. Yefet. The qiyyum is signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi; Zakkay b. Moshe; Menashshe ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver b. [Yaʿīsh?].

Ketubba (marriage contract). A four piece join from an early 11th century Palestinian style ketubba from Tinnīs. Groom: Mevasser b. Yiṣḥaq. Bride: ʿAzīza bt. Ḥasan. Location: Tinnīs (Egypt). Written by Ṣemaḥ the cantor. Dating: Between 942/43 and 1033/34 CE.

Letter from Avraham ha-Parnas b. Menaḥem to the brothers Yiṣḥaq and Yehoshuaʿ b. Khalfa(?). On vellum. Extremely ornate, calligraphic, scribal hand, vocalized Hebrew. It is torn off before the substance of the letter begins. On verso there is also a legal document, a release (שטר פיצוי). Unclear if this is a draft or not.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Upper left corner. Location: Fustat. Bride: Sitt al-Ahl bt. [...] ha-Kohen Rosh ha-Qahal.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Lower right corner. Signed by Shelomo Kohen b. Yehuda and Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Shelomo.

List of names and corresponding numbers. In Arabic script.

Legal document. Release. In Hebrew.