Geniza Lab

Marriage contract for a marriage between Yefet b. Saʿadya and Ṣiʾa b. Yehuda Mevorakh b. ʿElī (Fustat, Thursday, 14th of Adar, ca. 1020). The marriage gift amounted to 50 dinars, and the dowry to 240 dinars (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and from Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 403.)

Karaite ketubba (marriage contract), Ramla. Ca. 1030.

Recto: Marriage contract (ketubba), complete. Dated: Monday, 27 Sivan 1439 Seleucid, which is 27 May 1128 CE, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Groom: Shelomo b. ʿOvadya ha-Kohen. Bride: ʿAmāʾim bt. Berakhot/Barakāt, virgin. Marriage payments: 5 + 25 dinars. Total (with the dowry): 76 dinars + 25 silver zuzim (dirhams?). Other witnesses: ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen; Moshe ha-Melammed b. Yehuda; Yeḥezqel b. Natan; Yosef b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen; Ḥalfon b. Ghālib; and Natan b. Shemuel.

Verso: Legal document, on the back of the ketubba. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Last third of Ṭevet 1443 Seleucid, which is 1131/32 CE. In which ʿAmāʾim receives control over her dowry (nidūnya) (except for three precious items (aʿlāq), namely, the lamp and cushion and pail) and frees her husband of all obligations except the me'uḥar. He promises not to beat her and to treat her well, but no fine is fixed for contravention. There is also someone named Faḍā'il b. Abū Saʿīd b. Yakhin ha-Ḥazzan somehow involved (representing her? "al-muʿarrif lanā bihā"). Witnesses: Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Meshullam b. Menashshe; Natan b. Shemuel. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Ketubba dated 15 September 1847 (5 Tishrei 5608) from Tangier for Ḥayyim Neḥemias b. Avraham b. Moshe b. Yiṣḥaq and Ordueña bt. Menaḥem b. Aharon. The currency used is אותייות. Scribed and witnessed by Masʿūd ha-Kohen. The groom also seems to have placed his name underneath. ASE.

Karaite marriage contract from Fustat.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Thursday, 25 Ḥeshvan 1371 Seleucid, which is November 1059 CE. Groom: Yosef b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Bride; Milāḥ bt. Yosef, a virgin. Marriage payments: 15 + 50 = 65 dinars. Dowry: 535 dinars. See Mediterranean Society, Vol. 3, App. II, 148; and Med Soc IV, IX, A, 4, note 9. The document was subsequently reused (recto and verso) for a densely written literary text. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Betrothal (erusin) contract, Karaite. Fragment (upper right corner). Groom: Yehuda b. Khalaf(?). Bride: Miriam bt. Shelomo, a widow. Although she is a widow, she has a paqid (representative), Faraj b. Shelomo. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Marriage contract for a marriage between Ḥasan b. Yefet and ... bat Mevasser (Fustat, Monday, 25 1345 Seleucid (1034)). The marriage gift amounted to 18 dinars and the dowry to 32 dinars. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and from Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 415.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Dated: 13 Tishrei 1608 Seleucid, which is 11 September 1296 CE. Groom: Elʿazar b. Shelomo. Bride: [...] bt. Yosef. Lists the trousseau and stipulates that the wife’s earnings should belong to her husband. Bears only one signature: Yosef b. Netanel b. Shela ha-Levi ha-Ḥazzan. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and from Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, pp. 133, 159, 461 note 89.)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 1151. Location: Minyat Ashna (near Fustat). Following appeals by his deceased brother Binyam's widow to the court, Kathīr b. Avraham takes over the maintenance (1 dinar a month, an aboslute requirement) of his sister-in-law's orphaned children as a sort of partnership. The sources of this funding are a) rent revenue from shops in Malij left to the children by Binyam and b), the profit earned by Kathīr from 20 dinars’ worth of silk from estate of Binyam. Unusually, the "partnership" profits are not split according to a fixed percentage, but rather the children, as the "silent partner", receive a fixed amount each month. This is effectively a long-term loan or trust created under the structure of a partnership agreement. Per Goitein, Shemuel b. Yehuda ibn Asad, previous caretaker of the orphans, was apparently a regular caretaker and trustee for orphans; see PGPID 2658. Shemuel is the same Abū al-Ma‘ālī in PGPID 6581. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 7-10)

Legal document. In the hand of Shemeul b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Iyyar 1480 Seleucid, which is April/May 1169 CE, under the authority of an unidentified Seʿadya, during the lifetime of the Gaʾon Netanʾel b. Moshe ha-Levi (see line 16; he may have even signed this document, but this needs to be checked against his handwriting elsewhere). Statement about an oath to be given by the executor of a will, Abū l-Maʿālī (aka Shemuel b. Asad). He had had to spend 220 dinars in order to get back a property belonging to the orphans under his responsibility from the hands of some state officials. He was then able to sell the property for 300 dinars. The uncle of the orphans bore the title Raḍiyy al-Dawla ("Pleasing the Government"), and the father of their guardian was a kātib, or government official. Signed by Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi; Netanʾel b. Moshe; Moshe b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen; and Shemuel b. ʿOvadya. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 299, 493.)

Legal document. Record of release. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1125 CE. This document describes release from a partnership in glasswork, explaining that Shemarya ha-Kohen (also known as Abū al-Wafā b. Menashshe ha-Kohen) demanded 9 and 1/6 dinars of his erstwhile partners Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda and Yiṣḥaq's son Abū al-Karam. Yiṣḥaq gave Shemarya a settlement, andShemariah released him and his son from the partnership. The settlement of the partnership is effected through arbitration (“bederekh peshara”) by a number of “Elders of equity and propriety”. Per Goitein, Jewish courts of the Geniza period generally first sought settlements outside the court. Court decisions themselves not only required the attention of a higher court, such decisions also required an oath (a troublesome process for the court and the community). But a settlement through arbitration did not even require a qinyan. The judges in this case, Avraham b. Shemaʿya and Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi, are the two “permanent judges” of Fusṭāṭ of the period. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 12-14)

Legal document. Court record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1134. Abū Sa‘d and Abū Sahl form a partnership lasting 6.5 months to manufacture and sell glass. Half the capital (20 dinars in total) invested by Abū Sa‘d is considered a loan to Abū Sahl, who pledges title to his home as a security. This may suggest diversion from the commenda model, where the active partner is not liable for loss. But the partnership also diverges from the ‘eseq model, wherein only the active partner transacts. Both the profit/loss characteristics and the working arrangement between the partners suggests a craft partnership. Abū Sa‘d is likely the senior partner: he is identified as al-Zajjāj, “the glazier” (i.e., a known personage in the field), while Abū Sahl is given no professional designation; as well, Abū Sa‘d invests all of the capital, suggesting that he may be short of liquid assets). Finally, the partnership stipulates that Abū Sa‘d need only work two shifts a week (suggesting he may have other business elsewhere), while Abū Sahl will work the rest of the week. Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, mentioned in line 54, functioned as leader of the Jewish community of Fusṭāṭ from 1127 to 1139. The signatories to the document, Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Natan b. Avraham ha-Levi, signed 5 months after the agreement was initiated, for unknown reasons. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", pp. 17-21)

Legal query regarding a partnership between merchants. See also T-S 20.152 and T-S NS J161 + T-S 12.5.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq. Probably Ca. 1030

Letter from Moshe b. Yiṣḥaq the Qaraite, in Jerusalem, to Shemuel b. ʿAzarya b. Mevasser, one of the leaders of the Qaraites in Fustat, Dating: ca. 1044 CE. Reporting on the state of the barley crop (for calendrical purposes) among other matters.

Letter sent to Shemuel ha-Nagid dealing with the production of cheese in Bashmur and its transport to Fustat. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 124, 428, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document, mentions ziqnei ha-yishmaelim. Deed of authorization of son to represent mother before her two brothers concerning the collection of debt at Efrayim b. Shemarya's court. Written in Tyre, confirmed in Fustat.

An interesting begging letter by Yosef, the Samaritan priest, who apparently belonged to the Samaritan congregation in Fusṭāṭ. The letter has been edited, translated, and analyzed by A. Cowley. There is a long preamble listing a great many names of God, grouped in alphabetical order, in Samaritan Aramaic. Here is Cowley's translation of the substance of the message: "The Lord reward [you with goodness] and favour and truth for the words which you spoke on the Sabbath to the distinguished elder, the Lord preserve him. Now, my brethren, if the word which you spoke before him had been (spoken) to a stone or a flint which can neither answer nor speak a word back, it would have been ashamed and confounded before you, but up to the present he has not given me any help, nor will he. I know the Samaritans to be without intelligence, caring only for the things that are seen (?), and that they have not done good in the sight of God, and will not. For they seek only a reputation in this passing world, whereas if they took pleasure in what is lasting they would have shown kindness to the poor, the afflicted and needy, the strangers and priests, such as I am. Now, brethren, I did not ask him for either gold or silver. I am a carpenter. I can make boxes, bedsteads, doors, and beams. I asked him to speak to the head carpenter for me that he should take me with him to work every day for wages enough for me and my family to live upon. He has not done so either from the fear of the Lord, or because of what you said, or for my sake. And now it is right that we turn our faces to the Lord our God, the fountain of goodness which is not shut up, the well of mercy. . . . " Part of a pair with T-S 16.26.