Geniza Lab

Marriage contract from Damascus, 956, which records a marriage gift of 225 dinars (of which only 25 were advanced) and a dowry evaluated at 395 dinars. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 197-9) EMS

Legal document. Dated: 14[..] Seleucid. The day of the month was left blank, so this is presumably a draft. Ṣadaqa ha-Kohen b. David makes a declaration concerning a quarrel (wa-jarā baynanā mushājarāt) over various large sums of money including 500 dinars. There is also a Yosef involved.

Letter addressed to Abū Yaʿqūb b. Yūsuf al-Fāsī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century. The writer's name may be preserved as well, but the conservators have covered it with paper. The writer gives updates on his own father and mother and broaches various business matters. He mentions the goods of Abū Isḥāq Ibn Barukh.

Prenuptial agreement, probably.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Beginning only. Dated: 20 Kislev 1550 Seleucid, which is 29 November 1238 CE. Groom: Yosef b. Yaʿaqov. Goitein's index card suggests that the Nagid at this time is already David I, but it is not clear if he deduced that from the phrases in the document or if he already knew that Avraham died before this date. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves [...] b. Munajjā al-ʿAṭṭār and his young daughter. Involves giving something to his in-law Abū l-Faḍl Menashshe al-Raffā' ("the darner").

Letter from Khalfūn b. Benaya(?) to Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā b. Mūsā Majjānī. (The names are very difficult to read; these may be not exactly right.) In Judaeo-Arabic. On vellum. Dating: 11th century. The letter itself is very faded. An 'iqtiḍā'" is mentioned twice, and perhaps the addressee's cousin (ibn ʿamm) Abū Ibrāhīm Isḥāq. ASE

Business accounts, mentioning goods from India, myrobalan, and pepper, among many other things.

Marriage contract, possibly. Only a few words of the inscription at the top (mentioning rejoicing and the Nagid) and the first line of the document are preserved. Dated: 1595 Seleucid, which is 1283/84 CE.

Letter from Hārūn b. Sulaymān ha-Ḥaver al-Kohen to [...] b. Ṣadaqa(?) Ibn Shaʿya(?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century, on paleographic grounds. The writer opens with complaining about his ear illness (if that is what ʿalā aṣli udhnī means; same phrase as in MS Heb. e 45/75). Mentions a jar of rose petal jam (ward murabbā); silk; a mandīl; a Nisapuri thawb; Sulaymān; Ghulayb; and "al-jawhara." Needs further examination.

Bill of divorce (get). Dated: Thursday, 2 Adar I 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. Location: Fustat. Husband: Avraham b. Shemarya. Wife: Esther bt. Namir. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi. The attestation on verso that she received the get is signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Yiṣḥaq ha-Melammed b. Ḥayyim Nafūsī.

Letter from Qayrawan to Efrayim b. Shemarya in Fustat. 23 July 1035.

Elegy for the Tustari brothers Ḥesed b. Yashar (Abū Naṣr b. Sahl) and Avraham b. Yashar (Abū Saʿd b. Sahl). Dating: ca. 1050 CE. There is a brief introduction which specifies the meter as mafāʿīlun mafāʿilun. Both brothers were assassinated (Abū Saʿd in October 1047 on the orders of his rival, the vizier Yūsuf al-Fallāḥī, whom the caliph’s mother then had killed in June 1048; and Abū Naṣr in 1049 or 1050). (Information from Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, 322.) See also Mann, Jews in Egypt and in Palestine, 1:82 and Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael, sec. 371. Transcription available here: https://maagarim.hebrew-academy.org.il/Pages/PMain.aspx?mishibbur=819004&mm15=000000001001%2010.

Bill of divorce (get). On vellum. Location: al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā. Dated: Monday, 10 Iyyar 1454 Seleucid, which is 1143 CE. Husband: Abū Naṣr b. Dinar(??). Wife: Sutūt bt. Abū l-Ḥasan. Signed by Zakkay b. Moshe and Tamīm b. Yosef ha-Levi. The same two witnesses also sign the attestation on verso that she received the get.

Panegyric addressed Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. ʿAṭā' (aka Avraham b. Natan), the Nagid of Qayrawān. Of note, this copy was probably made during Ibrāhīm's lifetime (perhaps ca. 1015 CE), as his name is followed by a blessing for longevity. See discussion and translation in Ann Brener, Isaac ibn Khalfun : a wandering Hebrew poet of the eleventh century, pp. 74–78, 116–17.

Fragment of the beginning of a letter to the Nagid. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. Cut roughly into the shape of an octagon ("perhaps to make a sign or an amulet"). Dated: Ṭevet 1529 Seleucid, which is 1217/18 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Yosef Beḥir ha-Misra sells 1/4 of a house to Abū l-Faḍl ha-Sofer ha-Mahir b. Yosef ha-Sar ha-Kohen for 150 dinars ("good gold dinars"). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yosef b. Ya’aqov al-Itrabulusi from Gabes (Ifrīqiya) to Yosef b. Ya’akob b. Awkal, Fustat. The writer traveled to Qabes after visiting Barka, Tripoli (Libya), and Qayrawan (Ifrīqiya). Describes his difficulties managing Ibn Awkal’s merchandise. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #172) VMR

Letter in ornate Hebrew. From Moshe ha-Ḥazzan ha-Zaqen to at least two addressees, including someone addressed as Nagid, R. Shela, and a certain Ḥamishi ba-Ḥavura. One of these people is also the son of Ṭoviyya.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: 14 Ḥeshvan 1849 Seleucid, which is 1537 CE. Groom: Shelomo b. Shemuel.