Geniza Lab

Court proceeding from the court of Yoshiyyahu Gaon, approximately 1010. Testimony of two business partners who quarreled. Original document of their partnership done in Fustat by Shemariyah b. Elhanan.

Letter from Yehuda b. Saadya to the leader of the community of Sahrajt demanding that the case of a widow, the sister of a prominent banker to the government, be settled expeditiously.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Sunbāṭ (סמבוטיה). Dated: Monday, 1 Ḥeshvan 1445 Seleucid, which is 2 October 1133 Seleucid, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon. Avraham b. Shelomo remarries his divorcee Rafīʿa bt. Shemaʿya. The bride and groom are very poor. Marriage payments: 1 + 3 =4. The dowry consists of 3 items, amounting to 5 dinars. Witnesses include: Elʿazar b. Avraham; Refaʾel b. Eliyya; Menaḥem b. Yosef; ʿAmram b. [...]. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Avraham b. Moshe ha-Kohen releases his cousin Sāda (i.e., Sitt al-Sāda) b. Abraham, the widow of his late brother Joseph, who was obliged to marry him as Joseph died without offspring, from all financial obligations resulting from her former marriage. Incomplete. Highly detailed legal definitions. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Ketubba fragment (the beginning and the signatures are torn away). Groom: Yeshaʿya b. Yehuda (his own name appears in l.16 and his father's name in l.1). Bride: Mu'ānis (? מואנס, in l.1). Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30 (Naṣirī dinars?). The total with the dowry: 373. Details of the dowry are in ll.7–10. Based on the menstrual purity clause (ll.15–16), and perhaps also based on the currency, Goitein estimates the date to be ca. 1190 CE. One of the conditions is that the bride may stay in her father's house for the first 2 years (l. 15). In verso there is an unidentified text block in Judaeo-Arabic, jottings in Arabic script, and medical ingredients together with quantities (part of a recipe), e.g., opium, boxthorn (khawlān), and zinc oxide (tutty/tūtiyā'). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Jerusalem. Dated: Friday, 6 Ṭevet 5211 AM, which is 11 December 1450 CE. Groom: Khalaf Allāh b. Yiṣḥaq. Bride: Sitt al-Banīn bt. ʿImrān, a widow. The currency used is the gold ashrafī (first referred to with the generic name "peraḥim" and then glossed within the document as "the coin of the king of Egypt, called ashrafī"). Marriage payments: 5 + 10 = 15 ashrafīs. Dowry: 10 ashrafīs. One of the conditions states that "the inheritance is according to the custom of Damascus." Witnesses: Shemarya b. Yosef; Avraham/ʿAṭiyya b. Yaʿaqov. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (lower left corner). Groom: Natan b. Yosef ha-Dimashqi. Bride: Baṭrīqa bt. Ṣemaḥ, a virgin. No details of the marriage payments or dowry are preserved. Witnesses include: David b. Aharon ha-Levi; Shemuel b. Avraham; Yeshuʿa b. Avraham ha-Levi; Efrayim b. Ṣibyān ha-Kohen; the ḥaver Natan b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi; Yaʿaqov b. Yosef b. ʿAmram ha-Shofeṭ. There is a validation signed by ʿAmram b. Shemuel and Sahlān b. Avraham (the head of the Iraqi congregation of Fustat 1034–49 CE). Here, Sahlān has the title Segan ha-Yeshiva and his father is called Beḥir ha-Yeshiva.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: New Cairo. Dated: Monday, 28 Kislev 1370 Seleucid, which is 1058/59 CE. Groom: Yaʿir b. Mevasser. Bride: Mubāraka b. Khalaf. No trousseau. The marital status of the bride is not defined. She most probably was not a virgin, nor a widow or a divorcee. Therefore, the worst conditions. Marriage payments: 1 + 2 = 3 dinars. Witnesses: Ṣedaqa b. Aharon ha-Levi; Ṣedaqa b. Yosef; Faraḥ b. Yaʿqūb; Ṣedaqa b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Shemuel b. Maṣliaḥ; ʿEli b. Yeshuʿa; Bishr b. [...]; and Aharon ha-Mumḥe b. Avraham. On verso there is a Hebrew panegyric to a Gaon. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Deed of release. Yaʿaqov b. [...] releases a woman from all claims. Fragment (the beginnings of 9 lines are preserved).

Legal document. Small fragment from the bottom. Mentions a qāḍī known as Ibn Shaʿra, a certain Shabbetay(?), and a certain Sitt al-Tujjār. The scribe's hand may be known.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. David b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn al-Ṣafaṭ (? אלצפט) acknowledges receipt of a sum of money from Abū l-Barakāt Berakhot b. Yaʿaqov to conduct business with it abroad. When he returns to Egypt, 1/3 of the profit will go to the investor and 2/3 to the active partner. The same David b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi appears in T-S Misc.27.4.28.

Remarriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (upper right corner). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (1100–38). Dating: Under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaon (1127–39), so 1127–38 CE. Elʿazar b. Shemarya remarries his divorcee Ḥasana bt. Seʿadya ha-Levi. For their previous marriage contract from 1126 CE, see Yevr. III B 634 + T-S 8J32.1 + Bodl. MS heb. f 108/61 + Bodl. MS heb. b 13/48. (Information from Moshe Yagur and Goitein’s index card.)

Court record. A settlement between a brother and his two sisters concerning their late father’s inheritance, dated 1128/9. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The late father’s property consisted of a perfumery, a storehouse, goods, capital and profit. The brother, Hillel, and the father were running the business as partners. According to the settlement, the older sister received a certain sum of money plus a monthly payment of 1 dinar. Her minor sister granted her share to her brother Hillel, as a gift, except for a certain amount of money, which was legally recorded in a bill of indebtness granted to her by Hillel, who continued to manage the business. The widow, Sitt al-Bayt, confirmed her daughter’s actions and guaranteed to be responsible to Hillel for any claims against him which the younger daughter might once make as heir of her father. No signatures are preserved. Verso is blank. (Information form Weiss, Legal Documents Written by Ḥalfon ben Manasse, Vol. 1, pp. 79-80 and Goitein index card and notes linked below.)

Bill of sale for a female slave. Complete but unsigned. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tammuz 1411 Seleucid, which is 1100 CE. Seller: Sayyida bt. Ṣadaqa Ibn Ṭayyib. Buyer: Moshe b. Yefet. The slave is a Nubian woman named Tawfīq. Price: 16.75 dinars. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Colophon of a book or scroll. Includes a detailed ownership/acquisition note in Judaeo-Arabic, and underneath in a different hand a dedication to the waqf of a synagogue.

Fragment of a ketubba (marriage contract). Bride: Fādila bt. Sahl. Little else is preserved, except for part of the dowry list. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Bottom of a legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating; Unknown. Involves Moshe b. Aharon ha-Kohen, his brother Shemuel, their sister Sarah, and shares in a house. It seems that Moshe ends up with 1/3 of the house and Sarah with 1/6 of the house. Signed by Yeshuʿa b. Shemarya and Avraham b. [...]. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by Yehuda b. Moshe and Peraḥya b. Sahlān.

Legal contract in Judaeo-Persian. Location: Hormshīr (Ahwāz). Dated: Shevat 1332 Seleucid (1020 CE). Signed by ʿAzarya b. Avraham b. ʿAmmār and Saʿdān b. Daniel b. Saʿdān. Ḥana bat Yisrael b. Yaʿaqov received a payment of 25 dinars (described as qawāmī sulṭānī) in exchange for six pairs of pearls which her husband, Daniel b. Reuven b. ʿAzarya, had illegally appropriated. The pearls belonged to Ḥana and her three brothers, the Tustarī brothers Sahl, Yosef and Saʿīd. Verso is blank. (Information from Olszowy-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Documents, p. 41. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.) The letter is labeled "L14" in Shaul Shaked's (unpublished) classification of Early Judeo-Persian texts. OH

November 962. A letter from Neḥemya ha-Kohen, Gaon of Pumbedita, probably to the Babylonian community in Fustat. Asks for financial assistance to the academy. Mentions the death of the writer’s brother Ḥofni, av beit din of the academy. Reflects tensions between different factions within the academy. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 54.) Neḥemya ha-Kohen complains that his former letter had been disregarded, and requests to show honour to his messenger, Shelomo b. ʿEli, known as b. Ṭavnay. (Information from the Bodleian Genizah site). On verso, a different hand identified the writer of the letter and copied a short phrase from the letter.

Marriage contract between Muna b. Shelomo and Mubāraka bat Avraham, Fustat, 1094 (Tishri, 1406 Seleucid). The couple are getting remarried after an earlier divorce. Although a divorcee, the bride is still a virgin. The value of the trousseau is 2 dinars and the marriage gift is 20 dinars. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, p. 391.)