Geniza Lab

Remarriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (upper right corner). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (1100–38). Dating: Under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaon (1127–39), so 1127–38 CE. Elʿazar b. Shemarya remarries his divorcee Ḥasana bt. Seʿadya ha-Levi. For their previous marriage contract from 1126 CE, see Yevr. III B 634 + T-S 8J32.1 + Bodl. MS heb. f 108/61 + Bodl. MS heb. b 13/48. (Information from Moshe Yagur and Goitein’s index card.)

Court record. A settlement between a brother and his two sisters concerning their late father’s inheritance, dated 1128/9. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The late father’s property consisted of a perfumery, a storehouse, goods, capital and profit. The brother, Hillel, and the father were running the business as partners. According to the settlement, the older sister received a certain sum of money plus a monthly payment of 1 dinar. Her minor sister granted her share to her brother Hillel, as a gift, except for a certain amount of money, which was legally recorded in a bill of indebtness granted to her by Hillel, who continued to manage the business. The widow, Sitt al-Bayt, confirmed her daughter’s actions and guaranteed to be responsible to Hillel for any claims against him which the younger daughter might once make as heir of her father. No signatures are preserved. Verso is blank. (Information form Weiss, Legal Documents Written by Ḥalfon ben Manasse, Vol. 1, pp. 79-80 and Goitein index card and notes linked below.)

Bill of sale for a female slave. Complete but unsigned. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tammuz 1411 Seleucid, which is 1100 CE. Seller: Sayyida bt. Ṣadaqa Ibn Ṭayyib. Buyer: Moshe b. Yefet. The slave is a Nubian woman named Tawfīq. Price: 16.75 dinars. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Colophon of a book or scroll. Includes a detailed ownership/acquisition note in Judaeo-Arabic, and underneath in a different hand a dedication to the waqf of a synagogue.

Fragment of a ketubba (marriage contract). Bride: Fādila bt. Sahl. Little else is preserved, except for part of the dowry list. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Bottom of a legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating; Unknown. Involves Moshe b. Aharon ha-Kohen, his brother Shemuel, their sister Sarah, and shares in a house. It seems that Moshe ends up with 1/3 of the house and Sarah with 1/6 of the house. Signed by Yeshuʿa b. Shemarya and Avraham b. [...]. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by Yehuda b. Moshe and Peraḥya b. Sahlān.

Legal contract in Judaeo-Persian. Location: Hormshīr (Ahwāz). Dated: Shevat 1332 Seleucid (1020 CE). Signed by ʿAzarya b. Avraham b. ʿAmmār and Saʿdān b. Daniel b. Saʿdān. Ḥana bat Yisrael b. Yaʿaqov received a payment of 25 dinars (described as qawāmī sulṭānī) in exchange for six pairs of pearls which her husband, Daniel b. Reuven b. ʿAzarya, had illegally appropriated. The pearls belonged to Ḥana and her three brothers, the Tustarī brothers Sahl, Yosef and Saʿīd. Verso is blank. (Information from Olszowy-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Documents, p. 41. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.) The letter is labeled "L14" in Shaul Shaked's (unpublished) classification of Early Judeo-Persian texts. OH

November 962. A letter from Neḥemya ha-Kohen, Gaon of Pumbedita, probably to the Babylonian community in Fustat. Asks for financial assistance to the academy. Mentions the death of the writer’s brother Ḥofni, av beit din of the academy. Reflects tensions between different factions within the academy. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 54.) Neḥemya ha-Kohen complains that his former letter had been disregarded, and requests to show honour to his messenger, Shelomo b. ʿEli, known as b. Ṭavnay. (Information from the Bodleian Genizah site). On verso, a different hand identified the writer of the letter and copied a short phrase from the letter.

Marriage contract between Muna b. Shelomo and Mubāraka bat Avraham, Fustat, 1094 (Tishri, 1406 Seleucid). The couple are getting remarried after an earlier divorce. Although a divorcee, the bride is still a virgin. The value of the trousseau is 2 dinars and the marriage gift is 20 dinars. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, p. 391.)

Unidentified list in Arabic script. Very faded. On verso there is a note in Hebrew stating that a certain pamphlet (קטרס) belongs to the teacher ʿAmram b. Moshe.

Ketubba fragment (upper right corner). Dated: 1367 Seleucid, which is 1055/56 CE. Groom: Avraham. Bride: Wuḥsha bt. Yeshuʿa. The trousseau list mentions golden earrings (akhrāṣ dhahab) and a house. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: New Cairo. Dated: Wednesday, 10 Adar (אדר הנהדר) 1810 Seleucid, which is 1499 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Natan Sholal (here called Yehonatan). Groom: Shemuel b. Yosef b. Shela. Bride: Esther bt. Moshe b. Maymūn, virgin. Marriage payments: 40 + 57 = 97 dinars. Dowry is valued at 130 dinars. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document concerning an inheritance. Location: Fustat. Dated: first third of Iyyar, 1414 Seleucid, which is 1103 CE. Labwa b. Efrayim known as Ibn al-Malaṭī (אלמלטי) and her paternal uncle ʿEli, each of whom had been willed one-half of Efrayim's estate agree to be satisfied with the assets held by each side and to release each other from any further claims. No signatures. The facts are told in six lines; the remaining thirty-seven lines are legal verbiage. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

A Karaite marriage contract (ketubba) between Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef and Karīma bt. Avraham, whose father is also her legal representative. Karīma was perhaps a Rabbanite, as one of the witnesses was Yaʿaqov b. Hillel ibn ʿAwkal. The early marriage gift (muqdam) was only 3 dinars, for a grand total of 77 dinars. Five lines of trousseau, including one-half of a house worth 20 dinars and copper vessels estimated to be worth 15 dinars. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Bill of sale for a slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: Last third of Tammuz 1505 Seleucid, which is June/July 1194 CE, under the reshut of Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In the hand of the court scribe Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c.1181–1209). The slave (waṣīf) is an Indian man possibly named Padan (? פדן). Goitein at one time read it "Patan Patana," but the second word is rather ביעא ("sale"), and the first word is extremely faded; it needs to be checked in the physical manuscript. Seller: the druggist Abū l-Ḥasan Yefet b. Nadiv ha-Levi. Buyer: Abū a-Mufaḍḍal al-Sayrafī b. Abū l-Ḥasan of the Nānū family. Price: 19 ½ dinars. The seller guarantees (=provides ḍamān al-darak) against ḥiyal, i.e., against anyone else laying claim on the slave whether in Jewish or Muslim court. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) On verso there are 9 lines of Arabic script, undeciphered.

Copy of three court records concerning a dispute over a wall between two houses. Dated: 1102 CE. Details about the wall are given in lines 9, 11, 16, and 25–31. The records are bracketed by an introduction and a conclusion explaining the purpose of making these copies: [...] al-Lawwāz came to the court with these in hand and asked for them to be copied "lest they be lost." (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) Record #1: Names mentioned: Yefet; the parnas ʿUlla b. Shemarya ha-Kohen; [...] b. Naḥum; Abū Manṣūr b. al-[...]; Sason. Witnesses (judges): [...] b. Moshe; Avraham b. Aharon he-Ḥaver; [...]. Record #2: Names mentioned: Binyamin b. [Avraham]; Yefet; Abū Manṣūr al-Zayyāt; Ibn al-Layth. Witnesses (judges): Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel (ha-Sefaradi); the ḥaver Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver; Sason b. Natan. Record #3: Names mentioned: Yefet; Netanel; Binyamin b. Avraham; Shela b. Eliyya. Witnesses (judges): Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel; Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver; Sason b. Natan; Avraham b. Aharon he-Ḥaver.

Partly preserved marriage contract of Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo and Jawhara. The delayed payment of the dowry is set at 50 dinars. Dated ca. 1050. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 411)

Legal document. A father gives two houses and two stores to his first-born. (Information from Goitein’s index card) Join: Simḥa Assaf.

Legal document. Dated: [4]7[..] AM, which means no later than 1040 CE. In which Mevorakh and Manṣūr the sons of Suqlāb/Saqlāb empower Yaʿaqov b. Ṣalaḥ to claim from Shelomo b. Moshe their dues. Witnesses: Yosef b. Seʿadel, Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, and Qīmawayh b. Ḥasan (? קימויה בן חסן). The validation is signed by: Shemarya b. Elḥanan, David b. Aharon ha-Levi, Ḥasan b. Mevorakh b. Suqlāb/Saqlāb, and Menaḥem b. [...]. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. Abū al-Bahā' al-Kohen Ibn al-Naḥḥāl (“the beekeeper”) undertakes to pay back his nephew Moshe ha-Kohen 66(9)0 silver dirhams, 200 dinars, and 100 irdabb of fresh wheat in the course of five years. Many details preserved (though head and left side are missing). Dated: Sivan 1525 Seleucid, which is 1214 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card)