Geniza Lab

Very faded document in Hebrew, probably a letter of appeal, as it mentions the writer's misfortunes and how he falls upon the mercy of the addressee and of God.

Legal document. Draft of a acknowledgement regarding a sale of a store in Tiberias. Mid-September 1034.

Recto: Fragment of a faded Judaeo-Arabic letter signed by Menaḥem. Mentions that the addressee lived in Jerusalem; that someone came to stay in the writer's location and married Ghāliya the sister of R. Numayr; and may mention Tiberias. Verso: Draft of the beginning of a legal testimony, "What occurred before us, we the witnesses Abū Saʿd Avraham b. Shela and Abū l-Faḍl b. Sahl. . ."

Letter from Shelomo Ha-Kohen b. Yosef, Dalton, to Hillel Ha-Ḥaver b. Yeshua Ha-Hazzan, Tiberias, approximately 1030.

Fragment of a letter on behalf of the lepers of Tiberias.

Fragment of a ketubba (marriage contract) from Tiberias, May 1035.

Fragment of a letter from the lepers of Tiberias, probably to Fustat.

Fragment of a letter from the lepers of Tiberias to Mukhtar and his brother.

Fragment of a ketubba. Containing mainly part of the dowry list. May be in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Between the lines and upside down, there is an outline of an unrelated legal document to be drawn up. Concerning Natan b. Moshe al-[...], his sons Yefet, Ṣedaqa, and Mevorakh, and their sister Sitt al-Kull, and a property in Fustat.

Magical text. Six pages, Arabic script. See also Bodl. MS heb. c 13/3 (PGP 6406). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yeshu'a b. Yosef to Nahray b. Nissim.

Engagement (shiddukhin) agreement. Since there are no betrothal (erusin/qiddushin) agreements in the Geniza before the twelfth century, this document is probably an engagement agreement despite the fact that 'amlaka' means either 'betrothed' or 'engaged,' and despite the fact that the word engagement is not mentioned directly in the document. he engagements were conducted in front of both the Babylonian and the Palestinian congregation as both Yefet b. David, the leader of the Palestinian congregation, and Avraham b. Sahlān (mentioned here as the 'Aluf he-Ḥaver) and his son Neḥemya from the Babylonian congregation are mentioned. Friedman (Jewish Marriage in Palestine, 2:447) dated the document to 1028 CE, despite its verso: Bodl. MS. Heb. c 13, fol. 22v(?). From the same ledger: ENA 4010.28, ENA NS 8.15, and Bodl. MS heb. c 13/21.

Witness statement given on 25 April 1028. Mubārak b. Hiba, a beadle of the Babylonian community in Fustat, declares that he had caught a man on the last day of Passover and confined him in his house. Yaʿaqov Levi b. Yosef testifies that he saw the imprisoned man escape through a window of the beadle’s house. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.) Another court record from the same date is found in Bodl. MS heb. c 13/21 recto.

Letter by Saʿadya Gaon to the Jews of Fustat, fragmentarily preserved; this copy 11th century. Saʿadya stresses the importance of the Oral Law, mentions the names of his supporters in Baghdad and urges the Jews of Fustat to maintain close links with him and his Academy, viz., Sura. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 27; the classmark in Gil is incorrect.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1035.

Letter from a certain Yosef, in Aden, to Yosef Ibn Shanju, in Fustat/Cairo. In Hebrew. Dating: Early 16th century, based on the greetings to Efrayim Karo (v28–29). The sender is reporting on his business affairs in Aden, where he arrived from "Tabor" in Egypt (apparently there is a location that sounds like this between Fuwwa and Rashīd). The merchandise he was expecting to receive from India never arrived. He is planning a trip to Calicut. He mentions two Jewish traders in Aden, Moshe Hakan and David al-Kehlado, who are involved in business with him in Calicut and Surat. There is another, Ibn Yaqar, who is active in the city of Berbera (in Somalia). Information from A. David's edition via FGP.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: New Cairo. Groom: Natan b. David. Bride: Sitt al-Sāda bt. ʿOvadya. One of the oldest and largest illuminated medieval ketubbot from the Geniza. Containing six layers of calligraphic borders of varying widths, including piyyutim in micrography; one thin border of gold outlined in blue; one wide border of gold calligraphy on a blue background; two arches of intersecting circles of micrography interspersed with red, blue, and gold shapes, and the monumental calligraphy of the poetic superscription in gold and blue. As a whole, this ketubbah appears to have been executed to the highest standards of medieval Levantine Jewish book art. Some portions of other decorated and illuminated ketubbot from this period have been preserved, but because of their fragmentary state they have not yet received extensive scholarly attention (see, for example, T-S 16.104, T-S 16.73, and T-S 24.17). Join by Noam Sienna, and information from Sienna, N. (2018). Reunited At Last: T-S K10.4 and Bodl. MS. Heb. c. 13/25. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, July 2018]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.34050. Note that Goitein treats Bodl. MS heb. c 13/25–26 and Bodl. MS heb. c 13/27–28 as if they are pieces of the same ketubba. This is possible but not certain, as the fragments are not continuous.

Ketubba. Location: Cairo. Groom: Natan(?) b. David. Bride: Sitt al-Sāda b. ʿAdaya. In the handwriting of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe? (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Magical text. Six pages, Arabic script. See also Bodl. MS heb. c 13/2 (PGP 6405). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, at least partially for rental income, including for the year 1337/8 CE (1649 Seleucid).