Geniza Lab

Ketubba fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Sivan 1438 Seleucid, which is 1127 CE. Groom: Tiqva b. Peraḥya ha-Levi. Details of the dowry (nidūnya) total 174 as far as visible. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: middle third of Iyyar 1414 Seleucid, which is 1103 CE. Unsigned but complete document on vellum, in which a court, as warden of the two minor orphans of Shemuel b. Yefet, permits to use 50 dinars out of the 74 dinars left to them, for urgent repairs of a house in in the alley of מכיל, Old Cairo, left to them also. The money is held by Abū l-Faḍl al-Sharābī Shela b. Elʿazar. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document dated Nissan 1145 CE (1456 Seleucid), under the reshut of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya, certifying that Abū l-Faraj has paid the 20 dinars he owed to Abū l-Maʿānī.

Will of a silk-weaver named Abū l-Faḍl b. Barakāt Ibn al-Maqdisī, dividing his house, workshop, and other belongings to his four sons. In the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 15 Kislev 1500 Seleucid, which is December 1188 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Signed by: Shelomo b. Nissim and Levi b. Avraham ha-Levi (may be identical with Abū Sahl Levi the cantor, father of Yedutun and Moshe b. Levi; may also be the same Levi b. Avraham who appears in T-S NS J273 in connection to a silk workshop). There is a full translation and commentary in Goitein's attached notes. ENA NS 76.435.6 + ENA NS 76.435.7 is an earlier, messier version of the same document (same scribe, same date, signed by the same witnesses).

A long letter of recommendation on behalf of Obadiah the Proselyte, by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq of Aleppo, written in elegant and vocalized Hebrew. For more information, visit https://johannes-obadiah.org/navigator.php?Manuscript=Epistle%20of%20R.%20Barukh%20of%20Aleppo&PageNum=1.

Legal document in Arabic script. Dating: mentions the end of Dhū l-Qaʿda 563 AH = 1168 CE. Seems to be a commercial contract involving a shop and specifying the goods to be sold. Mentions "bayʿ al-ḥiṣṣa" "sale of the share". Needs further examination. It was cut up and glued into a rotulus configuration to be reused for piyyuṭ on the other side (an interesting Hebrew poem in the voice of Moses, addressing God). In the margins of the original document, there are another few lines in Arabic script (different hand/document), probably the beginning of a letter starting with a basmala and a Judaeo-Arabic recipe involving rosewater and boxthorn (ʿawsaj), perhaps a medical prescription.

Letter of appeal for charity addressed to a certain Rosh ha-Qehillot. It is written entirely as a Hebrew poem. There are lengthy descriptions of the sufferings of the sender and his children as well as praises for the addressee.

Recto: Letter from a woman to her distant husband, al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab, who has been away for many years, urging him in various ways to return. She appeals to his charitable deeds; how the Jewish community has been bereft of his presence; and how at this rate, his children will only know him through those charitable deeds (8–11). She urges him not to listen to anybody else but to her only, "Get up! Rise! And earn the World to Come" (14–15). By repenting and returning he will also earn [the merit of saving] her life, "for as long as this continues, I have become very weak. Every hour I wonder if my weakness will increase. [If you return,] you will not have grief in your heart that you did not see me and that I did not pray for you before my death. I do not doubt in your love for me, as you must not doubt in my lasting love for you. Even if you have changed with the separation for all this time, and have been absent from my sight, my heart too has been absent" (17–23). She then reiterates her old age, her weakness, and her poverty. This letter is noted by Oded Zinger in his dissertation, p. 54, in the context of other letters from women to distant husbands. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic tafsir, Psalms 113:4–116:6 (Neubauer-Cowley Catalog). ASE.

Letter from Khaluf b. Musa, probably from Mahdiyya, to Yoshe’a b. Isma’il al-Makhmuri, Fustat. September 8, 1051. The writer mentions goods that he bought and shipped. It seems that there is tension between the business partners, but they keep the business as usual. The goods are mainly linen, spices (pepper and others), and textile. Also mentions a Jewish sailor. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #581) VMR

Autograph letter by Avraham Maimonides to the muqaddam of Minyat Ghamr and Minyat Zifta. A cousin of the muqaddam, al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab, was per earlier agreement allowed to substitute the muqaddam in leading communal prayers and ritual slaughtering. However, the muqaddam was worried that this arrangement would weaken his own position and tried to prevent al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab from acting as his substitute. Avraham Maimonides admonished the muqaddam for his jealousy and urged him to keep the agreement. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.) Possibly related to T-S 24.38, a letter from Minyat Zifta reporting on a squabble between al-Shaykh al-Sadīd and al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab over the duties of the muqaddam.

Legal document. Partnership record. Dated: 1140. Location: Fustat. The brothers Abū al-Faḍl and Abū al-Riḍā Yosef b. Berakhot, owners of a sugar factory, take on Yosef b. Peraḥya and Peraḥya b. Nissim (possibly Ibn Yiju, great-grandson of Avraham Yiju, the India trader) as investors, investing 400 and 200 dinars respectively. There is a reference to "Arabic documents" which record the dimensions and location of the factory, and the fact that the brothers inherited part of the factory and purchased the balance from their father. The investors allow the brothers to pursue other investments outside the partnership with partnership funds. Withdrawals from the partnership capital are recorded as a transfer of a share of the ownership from the brothers to the investors, and any rent on this share goes to the investors. The investors are required to return the partial ownership of the factory when the funds are repaid. The Arabic documents record the sale of the factory (and presumably the transfer of the shares) as a "fixed" purchase. The brothers remain active partners in the five-year partnership. Partnership profits are divided equally, despite the unequal investments. The brothers will account for their expenses by subtracting from partnership profits 2 dinars per molded block of sugar. Per Goitein, a document at shelfmark T-S NS J215 describes the eventual sale of the factory discussed in this document. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 23-25)

Letter from Daniel b. ʿAzarya (Damascus) to the court physician Avraham b. Iṣḥaq b. al-Furāt (Fustat). Daniel b. ʿAzarya congratulates the addressee on his transfer to Fustat from Ramla and reports that letters from the Ramla people sent together with a letter by the addressee were lost. The writer promises to act in favour of a cantor Yefet b. David from Fustat. Daniel b. ʿAzarya expresses gratitude for a robe of honour that Avraham b. Iṣḥaq obtained for him from the vizier. He mentions his troubles in the past year and his plans to travel to Jerusalem. Daniel b. ʿAzarya also asks the addressee to intervene for him with Qadi Abi Muhammad and more generally to act on his behalf in Fustat so that the authorities there exert influence on the people in Palestine. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Gil, Palestine, Vol. 2, pp. 662-663.)

On recto there is a letter draft addressed to a certain Shemuel ha-Sar. In Hebrew. Quite florid: "your letter wafted fragrant odors... I placed it on my heart like a seal... my hands dripped with myrrh...." On verso there are multiple formularies for letters of appeal. In the margins of recto there are three medical recipes. Everything on this fragment is in the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel.

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Abu Zikri Kohen. Aden, 1130s.

Very long letter dated ca. 1100, issued by the two judges of the capital in the name of the Nagid Mevorakh, in which a circuit judge is strongly rebuked for having given judgment in a town in the absence of the local muqaddam and for having taken other actions without consulting him and the elders. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 74, 537)

Legal testimony concerning a partnership release from a commenda. Dating: 1098. Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuʾel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī and ʿUlla ha-Levi b. Yosef ha-Levi al-Dimashqī release Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh al-Ḥalabī b. Shelomo from any further claims on their partnership — called shirka, mu‘āmala and muḍāraba (commenda) variously throughout the document, though some of those terms are used in the course of legal indemnification clauses, so don't necessarily reflect the exact structure of the partnership. Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuʾel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī and ʿUlla ha-Levi b. Yosef ha-Levi al-Dimashqī testify that they gave Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh al-Ḥalabī b. Shelomo 100 dinars, which he took to Yemen as the active partner; on his return, he gave them back their capital and the profit he accrued. This is one of three documents in Lieberman's corpus involving Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuʾel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī and ʿUlla ha-Levi b. Yosef ha-Levi al-Dimashqī; the others are T-S 8J4.11 and T-S Misc. 27.4.29. Lieberman additionally points to CUL Or. 1080 J73 as concerning the same business partners, as well as ENA 4020.2, also a partnership release. One source of the investment capital of Yaḥyā and ‘Ulla could be a money-changing stall (dukkān al-ṣarf), mentioned in TS Misc 27.4.29, and one of Yaḥyā’s partners in ENA 4020.2, verso, is a money-changer (l.16). Possibly in the hand of Hillel b. Eli, but not in Weiss's corpus. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 27–32)

Letter to the community of Jerusalem from Elhanan b. Shemarya, 1013 CE.

Letter addressed to Shelomo ha-Sar known Saniyy al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā. Consists solely of flattery and praises, perhaps a letter of gratitude for some benefaction.

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Simha al-Naysaburi, in Alexandria, to Ulla ha-Levi b. Yosef, Fustat. Dating: around 1080. Concerns trade in saffron and other spices, and in silk, and lists prices. Mentions some details about ships. The writer mentions a third partner. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #739) VMR

Letter about the Mongol invasion. Mosul, December 1236.