Geniza Lab

Legal fragment from 1116/17 (1428 Seleucid) having to do with a betrothal or marriage.

Legal. Detailed description of the location of a building and its surroundings. Homeowners mentioned are Ibn Qumaylah (?) and Abu l-Qasim 'Abd al-Malik the broker.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (dates: 1100–38 CE). Fragment (upper left corner of recto). There is writing on both sides. Involves ʿUlla b. Yefet and Abū l-Ḥasan the brother of Aharon. The case probably involves the dissolution of a partnership in a shop, after a protracted legal dispute.

Two or three different legal documents bound together. The one on recto involves Sitt al-Kull bt. Ḥalfon.

Fragments of two legal documents. Recto appears to be a release involving a woman and her husband Abu l-Fadail, and an Abu Ya'qub is also named. Verso describes a situation involving a couple and their ketubba. ASE.

Recto: (a) List of names in Judaeo-Arabic: Isḥāq b. Khulayf; Khalfa b. Ismāʿīl; Hiba b. Mūsā; ʿImrān b. Mufarrij; Lu'lu'a bt. Ḥalfon. (b) Draft of a letter in Arabic script addressed to an amir. Containing only the opening blessings. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script (with one word in Judaeo-Arabic). Headed by a basmala. Itemizing funeral expenses such as coffin (tābūt), gravedigging (ḥafr qabr), "reception" (qubūl). Most are on the order of 1–2 dinars. ASE

Legal notes in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Probably concerning the ketubba payment and division of property following a divorce. "As for what she (or: you?) mentioned that the ketubba is missing a silver armlet weighing 12 dirhams..." There is also discussion of 3 caps (maʿāriq) and the rent of the house during the time she was living with him.

Deuteronomy 28.

Two business letters from Marwan b. Ibrāhīm al-Maghribi. The one on the left is addressed to R. Yosef b. R. Avraham al-Maghribi. The address of the one on the right is difficult to decipher. Someone named Ḥasan b. Shelomo features in both. These need further examination and transcription.

List of people who have donated to the synagogue (? the second line of the header is a little unclear). The quantities of money appear to be recorded in Arabic. It concludes with calculations of the total raised and the total spent and the quantity remaining. People listed include: al-Muwaffaq Ya'qub al-Sakandari, Ibrahim al-Rayyis, al-Najib Yusuf b. Shaykh al-Yahud, 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Katib al-'Arab, Yehudah [...], Sulayman [b.] al-Shaykh al-'Afif, 'Abd al-Rahim al-Maghribi, 'Abd al-Ghaffar b. 'Abd al-Wali, 'Abd al-Wahid b. Fayruz, Barzilay al-Faranji, 'Abd al-Ghaffar al-Kazaruni, 'Abd al-Karim al-Mawardi, 'Abd al-Latif b. 'Abd al-Wali, Sedaqah al-[...] and his son, Ibrahim al-Maghribi, 'Abd al-Wahid b. al-Mu'allim, Ya'qub b. 'Abd al-Wali and his mother and his maternal aunt, 'Abd al-Da'im b. Fayruz, 'Abd al-Latif b. M[...]n, and Yusuf al-Qudsi.

Talmudic.

A strikingly scorched fragment of Esther.

Isaiah 29.

Three different literary fragments, though the top two may be from the same source.

Three different literary fragments, though the top two may be from the same source.

Three different literary fragments, though the top two may be from the same source.

Bill of divorce (get) fragment from Fustat, dated 26 Elul 1633 Seleucid which is 1322CE. Despite the document's damage, the husband's name is legible as Yeshuʿa b. Shelomo of Bilbeis. MCD.

Psalms.

Recto: Hebrew letter of appeal from the old, poor man Yosef b. Elazar ha-Kohen to Avraham ha-Sar b. Elazar. The body of the letter occupies the middle third of the page sandwiched between fulsome blessings and learned biblical quotations and lessons about the importance of charity. Verso: very neat calendrical tables with molad calculations for the years 1122/3, 1125/6, and 1129/30 CE.

Testimony dated the 8th of Av, 1465 CE (1776 Seleucid), regarding Mansur b. Ibrahim ("known as the leprous (al-Abras)"?) and another party who had a terrible quarrel regarding the reading of Rahamim on the night of the upcoming Yom Kippur. All the numerous undersigned testify that Mansur has renounced his right to read them: Ovadyah b. Shemuel [...] known as Tajir; Aharon b. Moshe known as 'Ammani; Se'adyah b. Sedaqah Ghazzawi; Ovadyah b. Yehudah known as Amshati; Yeshu'ah b. [...] known as Sayrafi; Sedaq[ah?] b. Binyamin; Yeshu'ah b. Yehudah knonw as Fuhayd (?); and Yeshu'ah b. Moshe.