Geniza Lab

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Bill of gift and release granted to grandchildren. In the hand of Halfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. One of the parties name is ʿAmram. AA

Legal document concerning a trousseau. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan (1150–81). Wife: Sitt al-Jamīʿ. Husband: Yeshaʿya ha-Levi. On verso there are pen trials. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Detailed business and personal letter from Alexandria to Fustat. The letter narrates the difficult situation in Alexandria during a siege, probably al-Afdal's siege of 1094, when Nizar took refuge in Alexandria after the death of the caliph al-Mustansir. The writer was very sick for six months and bed-bound for four months. He describes the regimen he was prescribed, and says that people had given up on him. Frenkel suggests that the writer describes an epidemic, which is known from other letters, but here there seems to be no sign of an epidemic (the reading of the last word of line 7 as al-nās is tentative and does not completely fit the context). He reports that no pepper, cinnamon or ginger were available in Alexandria, and asks the recipient to keep these commodities for the Byzantines, saying that all Byzantines are set to leave for Fustat as soon as two ships from Constantinople arrive. Information from Frenkel and from Goitein, Med. Soc. 1:44 and 5:104. ASE.

Legal document in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Dated Shevat 1450 Seleucid, which is approximately January 1139 CE, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon. (This is the latest known document to invoke the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon before his death.) Dalāl bt. Maḥbūb sells to Munā bt. Yiṣḥaq a quarter of a house with two shops in the Great Bazaar for 14½ dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 280, 352.)

Ketubba fragment. Likely in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel (Goitein initially thought it was his son Mevorakh b. Natan). Dating: ca. 1140 CE. Part of the dowry list is preserved. The bride is a virgin. She will live with her husband in Fustat/Egypt. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Top right strip from a Ketubbah of Ṣedaqa [b. ...] (groom), with no further details preserved. AA

Legal document, probably a bill of release. Fragment: lower left corner. Dating: Early 13th century. In which Shela b. Berakhot acknowledges that he has no claims against Yaḥya ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad. Witnesses: Eliyya b. Zekharya; [...] b. Meyuppe (probably the same as in T-S AS 152.1, where his own name is missing as well). The validation (qiyyum) is written and signed by Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim. On verso there are pen trials. AA

Legal document. Location: Alexandria. Dated: 4980 AM, which is 1219/20 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. Involving Yefet ha-Rofe and his wife Sitt al-[..]Mʿ, and the right of living in an upper floor. Witnesses: the teacher Berakhot b. Ḥalfon; Raṣon b. Fityān. Witnesses for the validation (qiyyum): the judge Anaṭoli b. Yosef; Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov; and Ḥafeṣ b. Yosef. (Information from Frenkel and Goitein's index card.)

Bottom of a legal document. On parchment. Dating: 12th century. Involves medicinal syrups (sharārīb). Witnesses: Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. AA

Letter from [...] b. Avraham ha-Kohen to Abū l-ʿAlā' Ṣāʿid b. al-Munajjā al-Ne'eman. In Judaeo-Arabic (recto) and Arabic script (verso; the text block containing 8 lines of Arabic script appears to be a postscript to the previously Judaeo-Arabic letter). Contains a great deal of information about business arrangements. People mention include Abū Muḥam[mad] al-Ḥalabī, Abū l-Māḍī Khalīfa known as אלכאורגֿי al-Ḥalabī the Muslim, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf al-Raqqī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllān, and Bū l-Ḥasan Zikrī. Concludes with greetings, "written on the 6th of Kislev," and then a postscript about how "the testimony that is between me and her (or: you?) is deposited with Salāma b. Saʿīd." In the Arabic-script postscript on verso, he reports that the wife of Abū Saʿd al-Muqaddasī has begun to recover (qad tawajjahat) [from her illness]. He then mentions Abū l-Najm Hilāl and having sent a gourd/vessel (fuqqāʿa) of oil with somebody to Abū Ṭāhir. There may be Goitein attachments for this document that have yet to be uploaded.

Accounts in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Bill of divorce, Qaraite. In Hebrew. T-S 12.54 and T-S 12.70 are two very rare examples of Qaraite bills of divorce. Husband: ʿAmmār al-Khāṭirī. Witnesses: Yefet Kohen b. ʿEli; Mevorakh b. Yehuda ha-Levi.

Small strip from the top a Ketubbah of Sason b. [...] (groom), in Fusṭāṭ. No further details are preserved. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe Halevi. AA

Recto: Last lines of a legal document, probably pre-nuptial agreement. Party issuing: Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-Faḍl. written by Nathan b. Samuel and signed by Beraḵot ha-Kohen b. Shela, Mevorakh b. Sar-Shalom. Attested by the Bet Din and signed by Menaḥem b. Beraḵot, Ja[cob] b. Joseph. Written by Mevorakh b. Natan (1150-1181). Verso: Judaeo-Arabic note. AA

Legal document: power of attorney (authorization), written by Yefet b. David on behalf of Efrayim he-Ḥaver b. Shemarya to a certain [...] b. Aharon he-Ḥaver 'in the great Sanhedrin' (probably b. Hiyya). Dated [1]341 (= 1029/30 CE). Verso: unfinished legal document, party: Moshe b. Yishaq dated Tishri [...].

Letter from a community in an unknown location addressed to the community in Fustat. Fragment: bottom part only. In Hebrew. Written by a scribe. The preserved text conveys greetings to the the head of the Academy Maṣliaḥ. The date is added in a different hand. Dated: Elul [4]893 AM, which is 1133 CE. Signed by: Yaʿaqov b. Moshe ha-Kohen; Yisrael b. Ṭoviyya; Naḥum b. ʿEzra; Moshe b. Avraham the judge; Shemuel b. Avraham ha-Kohen; and Matitya b. Moshe Palermi (=from Palermo). On parchment. AA

Fragment from a bill of release to Abu al-Faraj b. Judah. Probably by the hand of Hillel b. Eli. AA

Bottom part of a Legal document, on vellum, only the signature of Avraham ha-Levi b. Ḥāriṯ Zeqan ha-Qehillot is preserved. This Avraham is known from other documents, such as TS 10 J 28.9 (1130-1138; published by Friedman, Polygyny, pp. 88-91). AA

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Last decade of Iyyar 1438 Seleucid, which is 1127 CE; the signing was deferred to the first decade of Sivan. This fragment contains the end of an agreement about a fictive sale of 1/3 of a house possessed by one Shelomo known as Tamīm, also involving a woman. On "fictive sales" as vehicles for obtaining interest, see Med Soc III, p. 330n77 and T-S 12.502 (doc. 43 in Gershon Weiss's dissertation). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)