Geniza Lab

Marriage authorization. Part A: An authorization from the legal court that there is no legal hindrance to the marriage, from 1159. The authorization is written in approximately the same style as other such documents. This document, like others of its type, shows that matters of marriage were monitored by the community and that the court kept a systematic record of such matters. Part B: in the bottom of the page, written up-side down a short registration of marriage.

Legal document, unfinished, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100-1138). Jayyida who possessed two thirds of a house was in need of fifty dinars. She received the fifty dinars from David the dyer in exchange for her house for a period of two years during which she was to pay him a total 'rent' of 16 dinars, 8 per year. In other words this document records a loan with a usurious yearly interest of 16 percent. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 329, 500)

List, incomplete and partly defective, of about 33 contributions in gold. Late 11th or early 12th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 476-477, App. C 15)

List, incomplete and partly defective, of about 33 contributions in gold. Late 11th or early 12th century (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 476-477, App. C 15)

Collection made at a circumcision feast. The ba'al ha-mila, or father of the boy, gave 1 (presumably: dirham), a few others did the same, most of the rest contented themselves with 1/2 or even 1/4. Only the lower part of the list, with about thirty-four contributors, is preserved. Some names are overlined (having paid their pledges?) Early twelfth century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 498, App. C 80)

List of names and numbers. In Judaeo-Arabic.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Ibn al-Nagid is mentioned. There is one line in Arabic script at the bottom. From line 6 onward, written in the hand of Nahray b. Nissim. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Jayyida, wife of a scholarly grape-presser, gives two-thirds of a house in the Hudayji street, which was her share, as a collateral against a loan of 50 dinars granted by a dyer. She remained in the house promising to pay 16 dinars as rent for two years. The remaining third was or became communal property. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 280)

Letter from an unidentified man, in Fustat, to his brother al-Musāfir al-Kattānī ('the traveling flax-merchant'), in Aṭfīḥ. The writer urges the addressee to come back soon. He reports that the ṣāḥib al-ʿasl (owner of the honey) arrived but the writer managed to get rid of him by making a vow and saying something about his brother. Regards from Ṣadaq b. al-Ṭāqī, Abū Naṣr, Faḍā'il, and Ḥasūn.

A bashful pauper informs the judge Rabbi Eliyyahu b. Zechariah who was in charge of public charity, that he had not eaten anything for two days and that he dared to address the judge only because he was in a state of extreme need. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 466; X, p.88)

Informal note (with a legal purpose) in the hand of Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef Kohen addressed to a judge called 'Rabbenu ha-Rav.' In Judaeo-Arabic. Abū Zikrī reports that as he was passing by the hospital (māristān) he saw a young man (al-ṣabiyy) delivering a court summons in the hand of al-Nezer (=Natan b. Shemuel) to his legal rival Abū Saʿīd b. Qaṭṭūs. Abū Saʿīd refused to obey unless an official court messenger (rasūl) delivered the summons. Abū Zikrī butted in and told Abū Saʿid to comply, and Abū Saʿīd said he would do so. But shortly afterward, the young man caught up with Abū Zikrī and told him that Abū Saʿid didn't comply. On verso there are a few words in Arabic script (and possibly more than a few words—they are currently covered by a sheet of paper). (Information from Goitein's notes and from Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Letter from a woman named Qamr, in Jerusalem, to her brother Moshe Farikh (פריך), in Fustat/Cairo. Dating: Likely early 17th century, based on A. David's identifications of some of the names.

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Netanel ha-Levi, probably in Qalyūb, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Sunday, 2 Shevaṭ (1451 Seleucid) = 24 December 1139 CE. Written nine days after Yeḥezqel's preceding letter (IV, 59). He reports that he arrived safely, probably to Qalyub, and that he took care of the things mentioned in certificate IV, 59 and also in the subsequent documents, such as his sale of khazz silk and a payment to Abū Yiṣḥaq. At the end of the letter he greets his son Abū l-Fakhr, who was staying with Ḥalfon in Alexandria. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

On recto there is a list of medical books in Judaeo-Arabic. Respectively on the non-naturals, colic, and diet (אלאשיא אלכארגה ען אלטביעיה, רסאלה פי אלקולנג, אלאגדיה). There are numbers underneath each, perhaps prices. There is then a poem (qaṣīd) in Hebrew. On verso there is a different book list in different handwriting, this one clearly business accounts. It *may* be in the handwriting of Abū l-Bayān Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, and Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Bayān who appears in line 2 *may* be his son. Other people mentioned are Ibn al-Dayyān, Abū l-Thanā', Ibn al-Mashmiaʿ(?), Abū Saʿīd al-Ṭabīb, and Abū l-Faraj b. Abū l-Riḍā.

Legal query involving Sitt al-Ḥusn and the property of an orphan. With responsa from Moshe Maimonides, Sason ha-Dayyan, and Shelomo b. Natan. There is another legal query with responsum on verso. This document has been published by both M. A. Friedman and Joshua Blau. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Deed of gift to an engaged woman. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: 1440 Seleucid, which is 1128/29 CE. This gift was given in addition to the payment of the ketubba and the 'added to the ketubba',and the women could do with it as she pleases. Edited also at Weiss, Ḥalfon, Doc. #9.

Court record. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dated: 5307 AM, which is 1546/47 CE. The case involves the payment of the ketubba for Esther, the widow of Moshe Castro, and a debt that the late Moshe was owed by the well-known merchant Avraham b. Shānjī, also dead. The story begins in Jerusalem when the widow demanded payment from Shemuel b. Avraham Ibn Shānjī that he repay the debt of his father (80 Venetian ducats). Later, in Fustat/Cairo, the case came before the judge David Ibn Abi Zimra. See A. David's edition on FGP for further information.

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. Concerning a certain Kohen who is seeking a restraining order against his divorcee and to prohibit her from entering the alley where he lives, because he is scared of her and her witchcraft (כישוף). She keeps visiting her female friends who live the same alley as he. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) ASE

Fragment of a marriage contract between the bridegroom X b. Yosef [the great Rav] and the bride Sitt al-Adab daughter of Yehuda b. Nissim the sar b. Masliah the haver, the judge. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 103)

Copy of a copy of a ketubba from Ashkelon, 1100.