Geniza Lab

Letter from Farajallāh to the judge al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Naṣrallāh. In Judaeo-Arabic with occasional Hebrew and with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter deals with the complicated legal case of R. Ḥasday, which the sender already described in a previous letter and repeats here. Ḥasday had made a deposit in ʿAqraba (near Nāblus?) but there was no record of it in the daftar, and the depositee died and the deposit was lost. There follows a very convoluted story. The sender refers to his main opponent as ʿAmaleq. Also mentions Amīn al-Dīn; ʿAbd al-Dā'im, Ibn Ḥabashī; the arrival of somebody from Cairo; Ibn Fayrūz; Ibn al-Fallāḥa; Saʿdallāh al-Ḥalabī; Ṣadaqa al-Ṣayrafī; Mūsā; Ajīr b. Fayrūz; al-Ḥanbalī. The sender gets to his request from the addressee and from Sayyidnā Moshe ha-Ṣefati about halfway through the text on verso (where the writing becomes larger). He wants them not to permit somebody (presumably "ʿAmaleq") access to something. He concludes with updates on various other matters the addressee had asked/ordered him about. Needs further examination.

Fragment of a ketubba. Dated: 24 Sivan 1313 Seleucid, which is 1002 CE. Groom: ʿAmram b. Maymūn. Bride: Zahra bt. Elishamaʿ. This fragment was reused in 1054/55 CE as a model for the ketubba for the groom Yoshiyya b. Neḥemya Rosh Pirqa (b. Avraham b. Sahlān) and the bride Karīma bt. Yiṣḥaq. Goitein comments ("this is surprising, because Yoshiyya was a payṭan"). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Fragment of a marriage contract of the groom Elazar and the bride Sitt al-Dar, in which the bride undertakes to bring up the groom's children. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 310, 311)

Report about selling merchandise in Qayrawan, from the beginning of the 11th century; probably for Ya’aqov b. Yosef b. Awkal. Mentions several different products, including indigo, food, wax, and pearls. It is not clear who are the owners, but mentions the names of Abu al-Bishr and Salah. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #114) VMR

Ketubba. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver ("at his best"). Groom: Elʿazar (l. 5). Bride: Dalāl bt. Maḥbūb (l. 2). In the portion preserved, Maḥbūb gives a house (or part of a house) on al-Sūq al-Kabīr (‘the large market’) to his daughter, the bride, while her mother renounces her rights (nazalat ʿan al-shiʿbud). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Legal document, probably 11th-century, attesting to the sale of half of a vineyard to a certain Sha'ul. The other half of the vineyard belongs to Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq. The vineyard abuts the public domain on three sides and the property of the Muslim Aḥmad b. מיריל (?) on the fourth side. The vineyard is located on the other side of the the river Tagus (תאגה) in the place known as ואדי לעפש (=wādī l-ʿafṣ?) in the village of אלבֿיגֿש. The bulk of the document is in Hebrew, but four lines from the bottom begins a list of all the potential defects in the vineyard in Judaeo-Arabic, which Sha'ul accepts. Goitein: "Unlike orchards, vineyards, as fields—in one document, wine- growing areas are indeed designated as "fields"—were legally the prop- erty of the government or its amirs. Therefore, a karrām, or "wine-grower," is not to be regarded as a proprietor of vineyards, but as one who leased them from the government and took care of them. Of cases like this we read in our papers, for example, about an exquisite vineyard belonging to, or being under the jurisdiction of, the governor of Alexandria, which the writer of the letter had for years tried in vain to lease. For this purpose a letter of recommendation had been sent to the governor from influential people in the capital.52 In Spain, the legal situation was different. The Hebrew documents or formularies that have reached the Geniza from there show that private persons possessed vineyards and sold or leased them at liberty. Of particular interest is one deed of sale of half a vineyard, which, after having detailed all the legal aspects of the transaction in most elaborate Hebrew, enumerates in Arabic, "in the terminology in vogue in Muslim courts," no fewer than fifteen defects and diseases that the vineyard might have and in which the buyer was prepared to acquiesce." Med Soc I, p. 123. Verso: Piyyut.

Recto (with address on verso): Letter in rhymed Hebrew prose and calligraphic script (which deteriorates over the course of the letter) to Mevorakh b. David ha-Bavli ("the leader of the Babylonian congregation," line 15) from Yehuda Sofer b. ʿEli. The main purpose seems to be to apologize for a failure to respond. The writer sends regards to Avraham ha-Rofe b. ʿEli. He adds a postscript in Judaeo-Arabic, asking Mevorakh to forward a letter to Abū ʿImrān b. Yaḥyā al-Raqqī, who it seems will then give Mevorakh a gift from the writer's son Abū l-Ḥasan. Verso: In a different hand, detailed accounts regarding transactions in lāsīn silk. The main block of text has to do with a purchase from Abū l-ʿAlā. The remaining text names many women, including the wife of Ibn Ghallāb; Sitt ʿAlam; Umm Faḍā'il; the daughter of Umm Dāwud; Umm ʿAzīza; and the sister of Tāj al-Maʿānī. ASE.

End of a legal document written and signed by Elḥanan b. Shemarya. Verso is blank.

Letter of thanks from Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Menashshe to Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq. Fustat, ca. 1120s.

Letter dated September 1040 (Gil), sent from al-Mahdiyya by Yahya b. Musa al-Majjani to Zechariah b. Tammam in Fustat. The letter deals with a financial dispute between the writer and Abu al-Faraj Yaʿaqov b. Avraham Ibn Allan. The Qayrawan Nagid Yaʿaqov. b. Amram and Rabbi Hananel b. Hushiel are mentioned in this matter. The letter also mentions mail that was sent and the state of Mediterranean maritime and land transport. (Information from Gil, Vol. 4, p. 87)

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Qayrawan. Around 1045. The writer is still in Egypt (before he moved to Byzantium) and his cousin, Nahray, did not leave the Maghreb yet. Israel writes information for Nahray about purchases he made in Egypt. He bought goods from Abu Naser, who is Hesed b. Yashar ha-Tustari. Mentions details about several people and trades, mainly of pearls and beads. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #408) VMR

Letter dated ca. 1050, sent by Sedaqa b. Zakariyya from Alexandria to his partner Barhun b. Salih al-Tahirti in Fustat. The letter mentions shipments of lacquer and specifies amounts of money available to the addressee. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 567)

Marriage contract. Location: Barqa (Libya). Dated: Thursday 5 Elul 4750 AM, which is 28 August 990 CE. The contract explicitly states that it follows the local custom of Tripoli, Libya, and has some peculiar traits which set it apart from similar documents from other countries. The bride, Ḥasana bt. Yosef al-Ṣarfī, was an heiress. This may account for the fact that she was not provided with a trousseau by her father but received a payment from her future husband, Aharon b. Yeshuʿa, to buy herself an outfit. The settlement is signed by 36 persons, possibly all guests present, only two of whom were witnesses. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter from Mūsā b. Yiṣḥaq in Sfax to Yehuda b. Moshe Ibn Sughmar in Fustat. Contains details about shipments of coins, oil and soap from the Maghreb to Fustat. The recipient is asked to buy goods, mainly flax, in Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom)

Letter in the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel to his father-in-law. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. He complains about neglect. He mentions al-Shaykh al-Rashīd, whom he forgives for neglecting him because he is usually so generous, and Abū Manṣūr, whom he does not forgive because he cannot imagine his excuse. He concludes by asking the addressee to conciliate his daughter (the writer's wife, ṣāḥibat al-bayt), because, as a result of his pain and his illness and the meager support he receives (or "care," as in the wife being remiss in household duties, which is Zinger's suggestion), his "character became constrained" and he became irritated (ḍāqat akhlāqī wa-ḍajirtu), and they had a fight. The addressee should do this in such a way that she doesn't sense that the writer told him. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 188, 189.) Same writer as T-S 13J21.35, which is signed Abū l-Barakāt. There are many more letters in his hand. See Zinger's dissertation, p. 261. ASE

Letter to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) concerning public affairs.

Legal document concerning settlements among a family. Location: Qayrawān. Dated: Wednesday, 14 Iyyar 4810 AM, which is 1050 CE. Yosef b. Adoniyya ha-Kohen gave to his second wife, Ḍiyā' bt. Elḥanan, a complete ʿuluww (architectural term). The wife gave 1/2 of the ʿuluww to her daughter from a first marriage (Mawlāt bt. Yosef ha-Kohen) and 1/2 to the narrator of this testimony, her son from a second marriage, Abū l-Maʿālī b. Yefet; Abū l-Maʿālī now gives his half to his stepsister Mawlāt. This ʿuluww is located above the portico (sqīfa) of Zina bt. al-Fājū(?); its eastern boundary is the house of Yehuda b. ʿAmram; its southern boundary is the house of Yehuda b. Seʿadya b. Rawāda(?). Witnesses: Yosef b. Yehuda Rosh ha-Seder; Nissim b. Avraham Ḥarīrī; Avraham b. Yosef. Ed. Simha Assaf, "Old Genizah Documents from Palestine, Egypt and North Africa (conclusion)," Tarbiz 9 (1938), p. 215. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document. Location: Damietta. Dated: 7 Tishrei 4750 AM, which is 9 September 989 CE. Action concerning an estate in Nisibis [Naṣībīn], Mesopotamia, brought before the elders of Damietta (here called Ḥanes). Sahl and Ḥusayn, the sons of the late Yehuda, complain about Neṭira b. Toviyya ha-Kohen, with whom their late father had left 1,320 silver pieces. The sons now claim the estate of their father from Neṭira, who had “confessed before God and the elders,” whereupon each son received his share of the estate: 330 silver pieces each. It is difficult to tell from the digitized images, but it seems that this document was cut into pieces, the pieces were pasted into a long vertical strip, and the blank verso was reused for a Hebrew literary/liturgical text. (Information from Goitein’s attached notes and translation.)

Marriage contract written by Yefet b. David, signed between the groom Yefet b. Shelomo and the bride Beracha bat. Shemarya in October 1029 in Jerusalem. (Information from E. Bareket)

Marriage contract (ketubba). In the hand of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 15 Sivan 1368 Seleucid, which is 1057 CE. Groom: Mawhūb b. Kathīr. Bride: Mubāraka bt. Shelomo. Witnessed by Ḥalfon b. Shabbat, Ḥasan b. [...] ha-Kohen, Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, Shelomo b. Yaḥya, Mevorakh b. David, Yefet b. David b. Shekh[anya], Seʿadya b. Yaʿaqov, and a poor signature (שלהן כרר) that may be misspelled. On verso there is liturgy in Hebrew, apparently relating to the peace offering. (Information from CUDL.) NB: Goitein's index card for Bodl. MS heb. a 2/5 erroneously refers to a 1492 CE ketubba for Ḥayyim b. Moshe Fakharūn and ʿAzīza bt. Shelomo b. Shūsha.