Geniza Lab

Recto: Legal document. There is a single signature (probably that of the scribe), but there are several blanks which were never filled in. In Hebrew. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dated: 5550 (or perhaps 555[.] with the last digit never filled in), which is 1789/90 CE. Needs further examination for content.

Verso: Letter drafts or copies. In Judaeo-Arabic. One of them is signed by Shimʿon Frances. Needs further examination.

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Fragment from the bottom of a medieval legal document. Yehuda b. Shelomo ha-Sofer is one of the witnesses.

Legal document from Fustat/Cairo, dated 1730 CE (8 Heshvan 5491), involving the partners Moshe ʿAzarya and Yosef Buntol (? בונטול) and a debt of 16,495 diwani medins. A Muslim named al-Amīr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān is also somehow involved.

Recto: Legal document from Fustat/Cairo, dated 1730 CE (1 Heshvan 5491), involving a debt of 5000 diwani medins owed by Moshe Benvenist to Shabbetay b. Merkado מוגנאגי (?). Verso: A legal record of the kiddushin of Seʿadyah Maymūn b. Moshe Maymūn and Esther bt. Raḥamim ha-Levi, from the same year as recto but in a different hand.

Incomplete late legal document in which Yaʿaqov Maṣliaḥ acknowledges that Me'ir b. ʿAnīs (?) has invested 2000 medins with him.

Legal document from Fustat/Cairo, dated January 1819 (Tevet 5579), in which Moshe Ḥafis (?) and his wife (titled "senyora") acknowledge their debt of 2085 esedi gurush to Yehuda Kafiyanti (?) and Seʿadya Agi.

Legal document from Fustat/Cairo, dated March 1802 (Adar II 5562). Me'ir ben Naʿim had borrowed 150 reals from the old woman Raḥel known as Kuḥla bt. Shalom Narbonah. She lost the original contract, so they made another one. Me'ir ben Naʿim has recently paid her back and asked for the contract so they could tear it up, but she says she doesn't know where it is. This document certifies that the debt has been paid even if the contract later surfaces.

Draft or notes of court proceedings (legal document) regarding a sale of half a house for 300 dinars. Abu Sahl, Menashshe b. Yehuda, sold half of a house that he inherited from his mother to Abu al-Faraj, Amram b. Yosef. Apparently the second half was sold by Menashshe to Yosef Lebdi in a transaction which was probably a cover for a loan with interest. In order to remedy this situation, it was decided that Amram would buy Lebdi's share while permitting Menashshe to continue to dwell in the house and even to rent it to others. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated to January 22, 1102. At the end of the document there are the remains of a legal opinion, in another hand. Apparently the draft of the agreement was shown to a rabbinic authority who gave his opinion regarding how it should be formulated to remedy the appearance of taking interest from a fellow Jew. The document is full of interesting corrections and additions.

Legal document dated 1819 CE (Shevat 5579) in which Yosef Yuʿbaṣ makes a declaration about 400 gurush that had been invested with him.

Legal documents in Judaeo-Arabic dated "195" since creation, probably meaning 4800+195 = 4995 = 1234/5 CE. Both have to do with a controversy between judges in Alexandria. The judge Yiṣḥaq b. Ḥalfon seems to admit that he has been making errors in his judgments and will henceforth defer to Yūsuf Ibn Rabbenu [...]. Recto preserves the intriguing sentence, "He further said that the most insignificant judge in the lands of the Arabs is better than [...]." The signatures are difficult to make out; one witness is named Yehudah. The text on verso is at 90 degrees relative to recto and refers to the same case: "tashwīsh al-aḥkām alladhī tajrī fī al-Thaghr."

A list from a greengrocer or druggist? Or a shopping list? In Judaeo-Arabic. Written in a crude or at least hasty hand. Many names of foods and herbs are given along with some people's names. Items include sumac, chard (salq), rue (sadhāb), green onion (baṣal akhḍar) or alternatively another kind of onion (baṣal [...]), mulūkhiyya, taḥīna, coriander, linseed oil (zayt hār), olive oil (zayt ṭayyib), honey ("from the kitchen/factory (maṭbakh) of Bū [...]"), saffron (followed by the name Bū Manṣūr), mastic (followed by the name Bū l-Faḍl), pepper (followed by the name Bū ʿAlī b. Bū Daʾūd), and cinnamon (followed by the name Saloman [sic!] al-ʿAṭṭār). In line three the writer seems to offer an option: "and if we/you think best (wa-in kān narāhu [or yarāhu?]... or mulūkhiyya...."

Legal document from Fustat/Cairo, dated 28 December 1812 (25 Tevet 5573) in which David Dayyan b. Avraham declares that he owes 12000 silver medins (מ״כ) to Yehudah Konān (?). The document was not witnessed and was reused for scribal practice: a second scribe has copied out the opening of the document three different times on the same page. The remaining pages have been used for sums, accounts, and writing practice.

Fragment (lower left corner) of a legal document in Hebrew and Aramaic. What remains mostly consists of partially legible names: [...] b. Netanel ha-Hazzan, Natan b. Zekharyah, Shemuel b. Yosef, [...] b. ʿElī, Ḥalfon b. Yiṣḥaq.

Fragment from a book of legal formularies. One is for a contract to appoint an agent to marry (leqadesh) a woman on one's behalf. Elegant, vowelized script

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Avraham Dhabbāḥ probably to his sister in Fusṭāṭ/Cairo. He begs forgiveness for not yet having sent his brothers 27.5 qirsh and reminds them that he previously sent 50. He sends regards to their mother and asks for news of their nephew Ḥayyim. He mentions that he is cutting a garment (wa-aqṭaʿ qumāsh) that will be delivered soon.

Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic (missing its upper part), possibly 11th century, in which two parties release each other from all claims for ever and ever, specifically mentioning that no one owes anyone gold or silver or copper or lead or clothing (among other things). All this is contingent on Abū l-Khayr giving a certain woman minimum of 1/2 dirham on a weekly basis, it seems depending on how much money he has made that week. Furthermore, if she dies and he is in the same country, he is to make the arrangement for her coffin bearers and burial. At the bottom, the names of some of the protagonists are revealed: Abū l-Khayr Mubārak b. David ha-Zaqen and Sitt al-Bayt. Also mentioned is Ibrahīm b. Shemaʿya ha-Ḥaver. Witnesses are Efrayim b. Sason and Shemarya [...].

A writ of qiddushin (betrothal), Tyre, ca. 1011-1037.