Geniza Lab

Unidentified list in Arabic script. Very faded. On verso there is a note in Hebrew stating that a certain pamphlet (קטרס) belongs to the teacher ʿAmram b. Moshe.

Ketubba fragment (upper right corner). Dated: 1367 Seleucid, which is 1055/56 CE. Groom: Avraham. Bride: Wuḥsha bt. Yeshuʿa. The trousseau list mentions golden earrings (akhrāṣ dhahab) and a house. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: New Cairo. Dated: Wednesday, 10 Adar (אדר הנהדר) 1810 Seleucid, which is 1499 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Natan Sholal (here called Yehonatan). Groom: Shemuel b. Yosef b. Shela. Bride: Esther bt. Moshe b. Maymūn, virgin. Marriage payments: 40 + 57 = 97 dinars. Dowry is valued at 130 dinars. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document concerning an inheritance. Location: Fustat. Dated: first third of Iyyar, 1414 Seleucid, which is 1103 CE. Labwa b. Efrayim known as Ibn al-Malaṭī (אלמלטי) and her paternal uncle ʿEli, each of whom had been willed one-half of Efrayim's estate agree to be satisfied with the assets held by each side and to release each other from any further claims. No signatures. The facts are told in six lines; the remaining thirty-seven lines are legal verbiage. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

A Karaite marriage contract (ketubba) between Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef and Karīma bt. Avraham, whose father is also her legal representative. Karīma was perhaps a Rabbanite, as one of the witnesses was Yaʿaqov b. Hillel ibn ʿAwkal. The early marriage gift (muqdam) was only 3 dinars, for a grand total of 77 dinars. Five lines of trousseau, including one-half of a house worth 20 dinars and copper vessels estimated to be worth 15 dinars. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Bill of sale for a slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: Last third of Tammuz 1505 Seleucid, which is June/July 1194 CE, under the reshut of Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In the hand of the court scribe Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c.1181–1209). The slave (waṣīf) is an Indian man possibly named Padan (? פדן). Goitein at one time read it "Patan Patana," but the second word is rather ביעא ("sale"), and the first word is extremely faded; it needs to be checked in the physical manuscript. Seller: the druggist Abū l-Ḥasan Yefet b. Nadiv ha-Levi. Buyer: Abū a-Mufaḍḍal al-Sayrafī b. Abū l-Ḥasan of the Nānū family. Price: 19 ½ dinars. The seller guarantees (=provides ḍamān al-darak) against ḥiyal, i.e., against anyone else laying claim on the slave whether in Jewish or Muslim court. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) On verso there are 9 lines of Arabic script, undeciphered.

Copy of three court records concerning a dispute over a wall between two houses. Dated: 1102 CE. Details about the wall are given in lines 9, 11, 16, and 25–31. The records are bracketed by an introduction and a conclusion explaining the purpose of making these copies: [...] al-Lawwāz came to the court with these in hand and asked for them to be copied "lest they be lost." (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) Record #1: Names mentioned: Yefet; the parnas ʿUlla b. Shemarya ha-Kohen; [...] b. Naḥum; Abū Manṣūr b. al-[...]; Sason. Witnesses (judges): [...] b. Moshe; Avraham b. Aharon he-Ḥaver; [...]. Record #2: Names mentioned: Binyamin b. [Avraham]; Yefet; Abū Manṣūr al-Zayyāt; Ibn al-Layth. Witnesses (judges): Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel (ha-Sefaradi); the ḥaver Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver; Sason b. Natan. Record #3: Names mentioned: Yefet; Netanel; Binyamin b. Avraham; Shela b. Eliyya. Witnesses (judges): Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel; Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver; Sason b. Natan; Avraham b. Aharon he-Ḥaver.

Partly preserved marriage contract of Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo and Jawhara. The delayed payment of the dowry is set at 50 dinars. Dated ca. 1050. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 411)

Legal document. A father gives two houses and two stores to his first-born. (Information from Goitein’s index card) Join: Simḥa Assaf.

Legal document. Dated: [4]7[..] AM, which means no later than 1040 CE. In which Mevorakh and Manṣūr the sons of Suqlāb/Saqlāb empower Yaʿaqov b. Ṣalaḥ to claim from Shelomo b. Moshe their dues. Witnesses: Yosef b. Seʿadel, Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, and Qīmawayh b. Ḥasan (? קימויה בן חסן). The validation is signed by: Shemarya b. Elḥanan, David b. Aharon ha-Levi, Ḥasan b. Mevorakh b. Suqlāb/Saqlāb, and Menaḥem b. [...]. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. Abū al-Bahā' al-Kohen Ibn al-Naḥḥāl (“the beekeeper”) undertakes to pay back his nephew Moshe ha-Kohen 66(9)0 silver dirhams, 200 dinars, and 100 irdabb of fresh wheat in the course of five years. Many details preserved (though head and left side are missing). Dated: Sivan 1525 Seleucid, which is 1214 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter signed by Makhir b. Avraham and Natan b. Yiṣḥaq addressed to an unidentified dignitary. In Hebrew. Dating: Might be 10th or 11th century. The signatories seem to be writing on behalf of a larger community, but the context of this letter has yet to be determined. They complain about being persecuted by other people, their general suffering, and they ask for help and pray for the addressee's well-being. Quite faded. Needs further examination.

Judaeo-Arabic translation of Daniel, with detailed historical commentary discussing the origins of Christianity and various wars.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 16 Iyyar 1359 Seleucid, which is 1048 CE. Yosef claims that Shūʿa b. Menaḥem al-Shaʿālī (perhaps the same as Yehoshuaʿ b. Menaḥem al-Shaʿālī who appears in AIU VII.E.55) owes him 8.5 gold coins and 1 qirat. The story also involves Efrayim b. Yiṣḥaq b. al-Aʿraj of Malīj. Also mentions a purchase made in the city of חנס (Hebrew for Tinnīs?). (Information from Goitein's index card)

General power of attorney. The presiding court is Qaraite (per Goitein). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar II 1396 Seleucid, which is 1085 CE. Abū l-Ḥusayn Manṣūr b. Yiṣḥaq b. ʿAllūn appoints Efrayim b. Allūn ha-Kohen as his attorney. Signed by David b. Ṣedaqa b. Yisrael; ʿEli b. Efrayim b. ʿEli. The validation is written and signed by Mevasser b. Mevorakh. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Mutual release contract between a firstborn, his younger brother, a stepbrother and a stepmother, stressing three times the privilege of primogeniture. The parties declared that this was a free agreement, not imposed by a court, and had it also confirmed by a Muslim notary. In spite of the stress on primogeniture in this document the first-born, a son of a butcher, received only eleven dinars. Dated Tishri 1406/ October 1094 (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 279, 280, 489)

Deed of sale of a muwallad (born in the home) male slave named Fayrūz. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: Middle decade of Kislev 1487 Seleucid, which is 1175/76 CE. In which the physician al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab Abū l-Faḍāʾil Yequtiel b. Moshe ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad ha-Sofer ha-Mahir Paqid ha-Soḥarim (ZL) sells his slave (waṣīf) Fayrūz for 12 dinars to his maternal uncle al-Shaykh al-Thiqa Abū l-Barakāt Yehuda b. Elʿazar (ZL). (One incidental detail is that this transaction was witnessed in the house of the seller, who was sick.) Witnesses: Yeshuʿa b. Ḥotam ha-Levi; Moshe b. Avraham ha-Levi. On verso there is a filing note in Arabic script (ʿuhdat Fayrūz). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) ASE

Legal document. In Aramaic. Dated: Nisan 1488 Seleucid, which is 1177 CE. Involves a woman named Sāda, her husband, and something to do with land that was sold (relinquishing her "shiʿbud"?). Other names in the document are Bū l-Fakhr and [...] b. ʿUziʾel. Signed by Elʿazar b. Ṣadoq ha-Levi he-Ḥaver; Ḥisd[ay . . . .] ha-Meshorer. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by Sar Shalom [...] Gaʾon Yaʿaqov (ZL) and Yosef b. Daniel ha-Levi. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

A covenant (כתב אמנה) of the congregation of the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat, drawn up in Adar 1522 (=1211 CE), which enumerates the venerable liturgical rites they inherited from their ancestors and which they refuse to allow anyone to change. The context is the controvery over the prayer reforms that Avraham Maimonides attempted to introduce. There is an extensive literature on this controversy, and this document sheds important light on the practices that the traditionalists wished to preserve. The handwriting is that of the cantor Yedutun ha-Levi, a fact first noted by Fleischer; see 'לסדרי התפילה בבית הכנסת של בני ארץ-ישראל בפוסטאט' in his collected articles, תפילות הקבע בישראל בהתהוותן ובהתגבשותן, vol. 1, p. 827 (p. 245 in the original article); thanks to Shulamit Elizur for this information. Two lines were added in a different hand, reiterating the main point that it is forbidden to change these traditions, signed by [Nissim] b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen. Verso contains a liturgical composition in a different hand. (Ed. Fleischer, Tefilah u-minhage tefilah Erets-Yiśreʼeliyim bi-teḳufat ha-genizah, 1988, 218–57. Trans. Friedman, Teuda, vol. 10 (1996), 251–53.) ASE.

Court record. In Hebrew. Fragment (left half only). Location: Fustat. Dated: 21 Tevet 1[3]27 Seleucid, which is 1016 CE. In the time of Efrayim b. Shemarya (who might be called al-Ghazzī here). Relates the events of a rainy and muddy day in the marketplace of Qaṣr al-Shamʿ, when a merchant named ʿImrān b. Eliyya from Palermo, Sicily, complained to the police ("in the בי דואר that is called שרטה in the language of the Ishmaelites") that he had already waited a full month for a Jewish court to deal with his case, whereupon the head of the police apprehended the Jewish judge for a night. Witnesses: Yehuda b. Ḥadīd(?); [...] ha-Kohen b. Avraham; Shemuel ha-Kohen b. Ṭalyūn (aka Avṭalyon); and Yosef b. Binyamin. (Information in part from Goitein, Med Soc II, 321–22).