Geniza Lab

Legal document. Memo about the actions taken by the rabbinical courts in Alexandria, in an unspecified place, in Fusṭāṭ, in Minyat Ziftā, and again in Fusṭāṭ. In Alexandria, al-Karīm b. ʿAlī had received ten dinars from Abū l-Munā Iṣḥāq b. Yehuda. Before, al-Karīm had declared that he agreed to that settlement (i.e., had made a mōdaʿ) only under duress and would not honor it. On examination, the court in Fusṭāṭ found that the mōdaʿ preceded the settlement in Alexandria and invalidated it, and instructed Avraham b. Shabbetay of Minyat Ziftā (where the case originated) accordingly. Thanks to the intervention of “righteous, upright, and peace-loving elders” of Minyat Zifta, Abū l-Munā agreed to pay six more dinars and Shelomo ha-Kohen ha-Zariz stood security. Finally, in Fusṭāṭ, Abū l-Munā paid the dinars, and three releases were issued: Karīm to Abū l-Munā, al-Karīm to Zariz, and Zariz to Abū l-Munā. Since this is only a memo, only two people signed it: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and the scribe, Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. See also ENA 4101.16c. (Information from Gershon Weiss's edition and Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document from Minyat Zifta in which a wife conveys to her husband full proprietorship of half a house given to her by her father and renounces her rights in a house belonging to her husband, serving as a collateral for her marriage gift. Dated Shevat 1471/ January 1160. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 389)

A court record, Fustat, 1148. Bu al-Ḥasan, the cantor, confesses to have beaten and cursed his wife and to have falsely accused her of filching money and utensils from his house. The wife ran away from the house as a result. In the present settlement, Bu al-Ḥasan forgoes all his claims against his wife and promises not to beat or curse her, under penalty to divorce her and to pay in cash the sums due to her under her marriage contract, in case he relapses. Written and witnessed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Recto is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, pp. 187-188.)

Letter from the yeshiva to Eli ha-Parnas b. Hayyim, Fustat, approximately 1065.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Abraham b. Sahlan, noting that in a previous epistle he thanked Abraham for the donation the Fustat community had sent through the elder Shelomo b. Sa‘adya, to Levi b. Menahem. The Gaon writes this current letter on behalf of a certain Sadaqa b. Menahem, who eulogizes Abraham for his kindness and repents his former misdeeds, furthermore relating that the "mighty elder" had promised to write to some his representatives to find Sadaqa some employment in Egypt. The Gaon requests Abraham to interest himself in Sadaqa. (Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimids (New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1920-22; reprint 1970), 1:118, 2:134-5) EMS

Letter from a Karaite to his community, asking for the proclamation of a ban against certain people who suspect him of stealing.

Genealogical list of Eleazar Ha-Kohen b. Shelomo.

Legal document. Debt contract. Date not preserved. The names of debtor and creditor are very effaced. The sum of money is given in Kāmilī dirhams, but the amount is not preserved. A weekly payment plan is specified. Signed by Shelomo b. Yefet.

Fragment of a legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Account of building operations ca. 1215. A list of expenditures made at Dar b. Pinhas in the course of several days in the month of Marheshwan, using Coptic numerals. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 408 #110)

Account in Judaeo-Arabic.

Booklet of four pages, listing contributions in dinars or fractions of a dinar. About seventy-two numbers preserved. The list is headed by the Nagid, who pledges 3 dinars, while the others give 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, 1/24 dinars, respectively. A number of the persons listed are known as having lived around 1100; consequently, the Nagid referred to was Mevorakh b. Saadya (d. 1111). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 502, App. C 115, first supplement. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

A hybrid letter/account beginning, "My master, may God extend your life, you asked me for the noble (?) account of Mawlāy al-Shaykh, but I could not find it." The writer explains various other business circumstances and then recreates the accounts requested (wa-hādhihi sharḥ ḥisābihi. . .).

Letter from Zikri b. Hananel, from Alexandria, to Arus b. Yosef, Fustat. Around 1080. The writer is about to travel to Mahadiya and Spain. He asks the addressee to send him power of attorney to deal with his goods that need to be send from Alexandria to Mahadiya. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #785) VMR

Fragment of a letter, mentioning many names and small sums of money (between 3–10 dirhams). A father is wished that God may increase his numbers and let him see the wedding of his sons. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 474n19.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, 1040.

Short note in dreadful handwriting in which the writer orders some wine, because he has just had blood let (wa-qad ukhrijtu l-dam). The name Avraham appears at the top.

Letter from a certain Dāʾūd to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning alimonies (15 dirhams and 3 waybas per month) which the wife of Faraḥ was being paid during the period she was nursing a boy. After she weaned the boy, the family of Faraḥ said they would pay only the money, not the wheat. The sender is fighting with them about this. The brother of Faraḥ, Sālim, left and went to the army camp (al-ʿaskar). The sender asks Eliyyahu to bring up this matter with 'sayydinā' (probably Avraham Maimonides).(Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter sent to Sitt al-Ghazal, wife of the judge Eliyyahu b. Zechariah (?), by her elder son (?), Abu Zikri, asking her to put up a newly acquired friend, Abu l-Faraj Hibatallah, and his wife. Information from Mediteranean Society, V, pp. 36, 515. Mentioned in Rustow, "Formal and Informal Patronage," Al-Qantara (2008), p. 363. [Goitein's identifications here are not completely certain. The individuals named and the content support the identification with Abu Zikri. It is not his usual handwriting, so Goitein suggests that he dictated it. Judge Eliyyahu's wife in other documents was Sitt Rayḥān. Abu Zikri's younger brother Abu l-Barakat Shelomo was married for a time to a woman named Sitt Ghazal. If Abu Zikri is the writer, could he be writing to Shelomo's wife intead ("the mother," not "my mother")? It seems that Shelomo is currently with him (lines 19-21), so he couldn't have directed this request to Shelomo. And he opens, "God give you joy with the precious boy, the master, the brother" (line 5), consistent with a letter to a sister-in-law. ASE.]

Much faded letter to a certain Shemuel in which the writer expresses his longings and writes about enemies. Needs further examination.