Geniza Lab

Letter addressed to a community. In Hebrew and Aramaic. Dating: Probably 11th century. The addressees are instructed to honor, assist, and raise money for (or hire as a communal official?) a certain person (presumably the bearer). The letter refers to (purchasing?) a work on slaughter by Yosef b. Ḥizqiyya (the 11th-century Nasi). On verso there is Psalm 91 and a jotting in Judaeo-Arabic that says "Umm Yūsuf and her sister." AA. ASE.

This document lists the differences between the Palestinian and Babylonian calendars in the years 921/2–923/4CE. The purpose of this text is unclear, but it confirms an abiding interest in the calendar controversy nearly two hundred years later.

Recto: Letter from Yefet b. David, Tyre, to his father, David b. Shekhanya, Fustat, informing him of his arrival in Tyre and expressing his disappointment at finding only two letters waiting for him. Greetings are sent to various family members. Dated ca. 1007 or 1010 CE. Verso: Address in Arabic along with a draft of a document in a different hand. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: legal document referring to an agreement between [... b.] Meshullam and his wife Maymūna, possibly concerning a dowry. Signed by Abraham b. Isaac ha-Talmid and Ṣedaqa ha-Kohen b. David. There is a diagram in the right margin. Ca. second half of the 11th century. Verso: Arabic and Hebrew jottings and a drawing. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a ketubba (שטר פרנא). Location: Likely Tyre. Dating: ca. 1090s. The handwriting of the scribe seems to be identical with T-S 16.198, T-S 16.375 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 46), T-S AS 146.83 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 60), and ENA NS 3.22 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 64). Bride: Sutūt bt. Ṣabāḥ, a virgin. Her agent is Elʿazar b. Yosef. Few other details preserved. Goitein also identified T-S 8J4.18c and UPenn E 16516 as having been written by the same scribe. (But there is some potential ambiguity since on his index card for T-S 16.198 (#8182), he writes, "No! Simply Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.") (Information from Friedman's edition and Med Soc III, pp.201–02 and 466–67 note 145.)

Fragment of a document containing signatures, including Isaac b. Mevorakh, Abraham b. Maṣliaḥ ha-Talmid, Subah Hakoen the cabtor, Solomon b. Ṭoviah b. Benjamin, Hibah ha-Kohen b. Pinḥas, ʿAmram b. Isaac b. Sahlān, Solomon ha-Kohen b. Aaron Rosh ha-Seder, Pinḥas ha-Kohen b. Moshe, Hibah ha-Kohen b. Solomon, David b. Jacob, Avraham ha-Levi b. Aaron, [Ef]rayim b. Yosef. The nature of this document is unknown. The hand seems early, 10th century. AA

Ketubba fragment (upper left corner). Bride is a virgin. Marriage payments: 5 + 10. Dated: 1453 Seleucid, which is 1141/42 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya (1140–59).

Dowry list. Dating: Early 12th century. The marriage is between a widow and a widower, both promising to educate the children of the other party until they would marry. Signed: Shela b. ʿAmram; Yosef b. Natan ha-Levi ha-Ḥazzan; Kawkab b. Naʿīm. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Legal document, probably a form or copy, as there is no room for signatures. The parties are Ezekiel b. Abraham ha-Bavli and David b. Sha'ayah. Probably written by Ephrayim b. Shemarya Verso text is inverted in relation to recto text. AA

Fragment of an answer by the Sura Gaon, likely a general question from the Babylonian Talmud rather than an answer to a specific question from a community member. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #44) VMR

Replacement of the original contract of marriage between Abū Manṣūr Elazar and his wife Sitt al-Sāda daughter of Abū Karām Nadīv, by a new one, according to which she receive only 25 dinars as “sacred [sic] statement, and her husband will not provide her with clothing, whether she has work or not (ll. 16-20), while her earnings will be hers. Handwriting of Nathan b. Samuel. Med. Soc. III, p. 133, n. 80, and Appendices. See Goitein's index card #7960

Marriage contract (ketubba), fragment. See Goitein's note card for some details, including a reference to Med Soc III, p. 414 no. 319a.

Fragment of deed of sale in Hebrew in which Esther bat Yosef b. Shalom, her husband Yosef, David b. Shalan and Dosa sell to each other parts of two buildings in Fustat. The buildings are described in detail. Dated ca. 1000. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, in Qalyūb, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Alexandria. Dated: Friday, 7 Shevaṭ [4900 AM], which is 29 December 1139 CE. Written on a reused state document in Arabic script. (Information from India Book 4; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Eliyyahu ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon to the trustee of a Yeshiva in an unidentified place, approximately 1055.

Legal document. Dated: Ramaḍān 538 AH, which is 1143 CE. Abū Manṣūr Yakhin b. Elʿazar ha-Ḥazzān known as Ibn Thābit promises to Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Berakhot Ibn al-Dayyān that he will continue to pay a rent of 15 wariq dirhams for a store in the bazaar of the seeds dealers (abzāriyyīn) and to be responsible for it to the government. Yakhin has also the right to live in the store. (Information from Goitein's note card.)

Legal document. Containing testimonies about a certain document (kitāb) that is deposited with the Nasi Abū l-Ḥasan, which is a debt contract for 200 dinars. Someone testifies that the document's contents are not what they seem from the outside (laysa bāṭinuhu ka-ẓāhiruhu). It seems that there is also testimony that that document is not a maʿase bet din. Signed: Natan b. Yeshuʿa; Yefet b. [...]. On verso there is Talmud, unrelated to recto. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Very faded legal document written by Hillel b. Eli in 1096. Parties: Meshulam b. Solomon known as b. Safināt al-Muqadasi who serves as a representative of a young women regarding a legal document written in Muslim court. Also mentioned Berakhot and יהודה הרב המובהק which might be Judah b. Joseph. AA

Small fragment of a marriage document.

Letter from a scholar from Ramla (who had lived for twenty years in Baghdad) to Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1095. Seems like a part of a regular correspondence between the two. Nahray was blind at that time and needed someone to read him the letter. Mentions the book by the Gaon Aharon b. Yosef (Khalaf b. Sarjado) and one of Shemuel b. Hofni’s grandsons. The writer asks Nahray to find a few products in Fustat, including indigo, pepper, arsenic, ammonia water and more. Between his request for funds due to him and his discussion of an ongoing divorce, he interposes the line, “for I am a lump of flesh waiting to die,” continuing later that “I am in need of mercy, my strength is fading” — a common rhetorical strategy for gaining the sympathy of one's correspondent. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #85) VMR, revised following the analysis of old age (and complaints about old age) in the seminar paper of Jake Brzowsky ('21), Fall 2018. Same writer: T-S 24.46, T-S 12.780, ENA 2594.12.