Geniza Lab

Copy of a story about the edicts against the Jews in Baghdad and how they were saved. Dating: ca. 1120 CE. The scribe reused numerous documents to create this booklet; see individual PGP records. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, pp. 228-229.) VMR. ASE.

Legal document. Dated: 1440 Seleucid, which is 1128/29 CE, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Involves Yehuda ha-Zaqen. Signed by [...] b. Netanel ha-Levi. The addendum is signed by Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver (ZL) among others.

Will, in which the testator grants a lot of valuable property to various people in his family, including a kānūn sharābiyya (a syrup-maker's brazier?) and a female slave named עב[...] to one of the women in his family.

Verso (original use): Marriage contract (ketubba). Central piece. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Groom: Mordekhay b. Saʿadya ha-Levi. Bride: Sitt al-Kuttāb. Containing many items of dowry with realistic values. Dated: [14]76 Seleucid = 1164/65 CE, under the authority of Daniel ha-Nasi. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 367, and Goitein's attached index card.)

Legal document, probably. In Arabic script. Needs examination. Probably a join with Bodl. MS heb. f 56/13 + Bodl. MS heb. f 56/15.

Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragmentary, so difficult to figure out the details. Sets out provisions for the care of a minor boy. Mentions a female slave (al-jāriya al-kabīra) twice, once in the context of someone being granted ownership (תצרפת פי גאריתהא תצרף אלמלאך).

Hebrew poetry. In a familiar hand. There is one line of Arabic script at the bottom of each page; one of them is clearly Arabic poetry, the other requires examination.

A few words in Arabic script. Reused for bible in shorthand. Unless the Arabic script is actually on a different fragment and peeking through from underneath—it is hard to be certain from the image.

Chancery or fiscal document, presumably Mamluk period. There are two lines preserved, consisting of a date (the month Rajab is visible) and the ḥamdala. The text was folded down the middle to form a bifolio and reused for notes on the Jewish calendar, a roster for the years starting with 1275/6 until the mid-fourteenth century. But the roster contains errors, such as parts of the sequence that are repeated. There are also jottings, including a biblical quotation. (Marina Rustow, with information on the calendar roster from Sacha Stern)

Trousseau list to accompany a marriage contract. Groom: Abū Naṣr Elʿazar ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā. Bride: Sitt al-Maʿālī bt. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Simsār. Real value: 57 dinars. Including a female slave (unnamed) worth 20 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounts of the qodesh. Gil edited 12 lists of revenue and expenditure pertaining to Abū l-Bayān al-Jābī b. Abu Naṣr Elʿazar ha-Levi al-Ḥalabī spanning the years 1181–84 CE. All except for #81 are written in the hand of the judge Shemuel b. Seʿadya. Account for Elul and Tishri 1492-1493 sel. ca. 1181. The accounting lists 21 apartments and compounds of the qodesh. The total revenue is 632.25 dirhams, including a 26 dirham balance from a previous account. The expenditures include khikr, nightwatch, oil for the synagogues, payments to scholars and to the poor, maintenance and repairs. The total expenditure is 472 dirhams, so there is a surplus of 134.25 dirhams, after the deduction of a collection fee of 60 dirhams. The former balance of 26 dirhams was not included in the final calculation; otherwise the surplus would have been 160.25 dirhams. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 327 #80.)

Accounts of the qodesh. Written in a hand different from that of Shemuel b. Seʿadya, who wrote the other extant accounts for Abū l-Bayān, it lists 22 apartments and compounds. The same categories of expenditures are listed in the second part of the account as in the previous one. The total revenue is 308 dirhams, a little more than the average for the two previous months. The expenditures as listed first come to a total of 223 dirhams, but thereafter several other items totaling 189.6 dirhams are added, so that there is altogether a total expenditure of 412.5 dirhams, i.e., a deficit of 104.5 dirhams.

Record of payment of rent, ca. 1186. A payment of 100 wariq dirhams (for a period of one year's rent) is received from Abu Ishaq al-Adani. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 361 #92)

Deathbed will. Dated: Wednesday, 18 Nisan 1493 Seleucid, which is 24 March 1182 CE. Testator: Abū l-Faraj b. Moshe known as Ibn al-Kallām. He leaves to his wife, the daughter of his maternal uncle, one third of a house, if she does not marry again. If she does, she will receive only what was still due to her from the delayed matrimonial gift. This man owed 2 1/2 dinars to Maimonides, 4 1/6 dinars to al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq (perhaps the physician Ibn Jumayʿ) for a capitation tax paid on his behalf, 1 dinar and 12 dirhams to the poet and judge Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk, 4 dinars to the faqīh Ibn Ṣawla, and 5 dirhams to Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥayfī. Scribed and signed by Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya. Also signed by Elʿazar b. Mikhael. (Information from Goitein's notes and from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 31.) Translated and discussed at length in S. D. Goitein, “The Moses Maimonides-Ibn Sana Al-Mulk Circle: A Deathbed Declaration from March 1182,” in Moshe Sharon, ed., Studies in Islamic History and Civilization in Honour of Professor David Ayalon (Leiden: Brill, 1986), 399-405.

Continuation of previous document. The clothing and household goods are divided between the two girls. The value of each object is indicated. 11 1/8 dinars to each (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: This portion of the document is on verso of Bodl. MS heb. f 56/45.

Abū Manṣūr Elʿazar b. Elʿazar al-Dimashqī gives the female slave Rahaj ("Arsenic") as well as clothing and household goods which he had inherited from his wife Fakhr bt. Abū l-Surūr al-Jashshāsh as a gift to his two daughters, Ḥasab and Kafā'. (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: This portion of the document is on recto of Bodl. MS heb. f 56/46.

A renewed betrothal contract from the month of Tamuz 1182. The date for marriage is set for the month of Av but the groom is given permission to 'delay' the marriage for another month, until the month of Elul. If he fails to marry her by the month of Elul the match will be cancelled and the bride will keep the money and the rings she was given in the early marriage gift.

Trousseau list (taqwīm). Groom: Tamīm b. Netanel. Bride: Sitt al-Khafar bt. Elʿazar. 42 + 83 + 55 + 30 = 210 dinars. Dating: ca. 1182 CE, as this folio seems to belong to the same legal register as the preceding sheflmarks. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounting of a single foundation ca. 1186.

Inventory of the books and furnishings of the Palestinian Synagogue received by Ṭāhir b. Maḥfūẓ al-Khādim. (Cf. previous fragment.) Dated: Ḥeshvan 1498 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. An addendum notes that Umm Thanā' the female embroiderer (raqqāma) has had a new muṣḥaq copied and granted it to the qodesh (aqdashathu). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)