Geniza Lab

Recto: sermon or ethical treatise, quoting many biblical sources, continued on verso. Verso: form of a divorce deed (geṭ) with spaces left for the names, with Judaeo-Arabic interlinear text. (Information from CUDL)

Rescript of the judges of the court appointed by the Nagid Mevorakh to the community of al-Mahalla, advising the community in strongest terms to take back their judge who had left. Dated ca. 1105. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 193, 561; V, 49, 519, 542 and from Cohen)

Rescript of the judges of the court appointed by the Nagid Mevorakh to the community of al-Mahalla, advising the community in strongest terms to take back their judge who had left. Dated ca. 1105. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 193, 561; V, 49, 519, 542 and from Cohen)

Fragment of a ketubba. The trousseau is listed in ll. 3–9. (Information from Goitein's index card.) The hand is probably known; Natan b. Shemuel?

Business letter from Yisrael b. Yūsuf, in Qayrawan, to Abū Sahl Menashshe b. David, in Fustat. The writer describes how the Rav (the highest authority in the Ifrīqiyan Jewish community) had visited him often during his illness, especially on Sabbaths when it was particularly welcome. Yisrael further tells his associate, “I regretted that you did not charge me with buying things for your boys and the inhabitants of your house [wife], for I am most happy to carry out such orders for you.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:110, 280, 537, 584) EMS

Bill of sale for a female slave. Not completed. In the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Dated: Friday, 2 Tammuz 1409 Seleucid, which is 4 June 1098 CE. The slave is named Naʿīm, of Nubian origin. The seller is Shemarya b. Ḥalfon. The buyer is a woman named Khāliṣa. There is the heading שהדותא in the top margin. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating: Probably 1094–1111 CE, as it was drawn up in the court of [Mevorakh b. Seʿadya after he became known as] Sar ha-Sarim. Involves Yehuda b. Faḍlān; [...] b. Moshe known as Ibn ʿUṣfūra; and several members of the Ibn al-Shuwaykiyya family, including Meshullam [b. Hiba] (who is probably dead), Abū l-Faḍl, and Nissim and his mother Bahiyya bt. Ḥalfon (the wife or widow of Meshullam). Refers to a person who presented powers of attorney and two people who separated after a mutual release. The court questions various people, including relatives of the parties. Mentions the large sum of 102 dinars and a sum of 72 dinars. Needs further examination. T-S 12.94, T-S 10J5.13, and T-S 13J37.9 are all draft documents related to each other (possibly a join), and they are somehow related to T-S 20.30. All need further examination.

Fragment of a marriage contract stipulating a total of 20 dinars as a marriage gift at the conclusion of the contract in the event of the termination of the marriage. Partial listing of the dowry, ca.1100.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Bride: Nājiya bt. Hiba. Fragment (upper right corner). On verso there is a rhymed poem of praise for a certain person, with the acrostic ‘... b. Isaac’, mentioning the names Isaac and Ezekiel. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a marriage contract giving details of the remarriage of a divorced couple. Tishri 1370/February-March 1058. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 391, 395, 448)

Letter from Shemuel b. Hofni to the community of Qayrawan. Dated ca. 1008 CE. In it Shemuel reminds the community that the academies of Sura and Pumbeditha had made peace before the death of Sherira Gaon, and that Sherira’s son, Khai, is now Samuel’s son-in-law. (Information from CUDL) Only T-S 12.99 is edited in comparison with manuscript.

Copy of a Gaon’s responsum (might be Rav Hayya Gaon) that includes details about the house of Bustenai and an answer regarding the status of the family’s children. There are two other versions for this answer (one of them is T-S 8 G1). This version is probably the closest to the original. (Information from Gil, Kingdom. Vol. 2, p. 1-3, #1). VMR

Testimony about a certain Elhanan and a Muslim slave, and the refusal to accept a si'aya (work imposed on a slave for obtaining his freedom), witnessed in Aleppo, in the month of Tishri '[1]326'/1014-15.

10 pages of Hebrew poems and/or piyyutim. Headings are in Ladino (e.g., "el triste amador") and Hebrew.

Legal document concerned with a case of slander. Dated: Tishrei 1326 of the Seleucid Era (= 1014 CE). Location: Aleppo. A notable was suspected of "having kept a Muslim boy" (ghulām). Mentions [...] b. Elḥanan. Signed by at least 13 people, including: [...] b. Isaac, Avraham b. Yefet, Shabbat b. Nuʿmān, Shelomo b. Efrayim ha-Kohen, [... b. Ma]nṣūr and [... b.] Yefet. Below are jottings and pen exercises. (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Attestation of the court of the Babylonian community in Fustat bearing the signature of Sahlan [b. Avraham] and dated 1355/1044.

Release after the remittance of a debt (piqadon), from mid-January/mid-May 1045, Jerusalem. The releasing parties: Mevasser b. Shela al-'Amtani and his wife Ghāliya bt. Ashlimon al-Dalātī. The released: Yiṣḥaq b. Yaʿaqov "the Sanhedrin member" and his mother Salma bt. Yefet ha-Kohen. VMR

Document of divorce settlement, signed by Eli b. Amram, head of the Jerusalemite congregation in Fustat, and Avraham b. David [b. Sighmar], and dated Kislev 1361/November 1049. Last witness signed Tevet (December 1049).

Legal document. One of three copies (T-S 12.580 is another). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar 1368 Seleucid, which is February/March 1057 CE. In which Ṭoviyya b. Sahl ha-Levi undertakes to work in a glass factory at the bellows for a period of one year for wages of 5 dirhams plus 1 dirham lunch. The factory belongs to ʿEli/ʿAllūn b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Ṭoviyya/Ṭībān b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen. There is a fine of 5 dinars for violating the contract. Unsigned. There is a draft of another legal document on verso mentioning [...] b. Yefet ha-Kohen.

Power of attorney from the court of Daniel b. Azarya (1051-1062) in Ramla, 1368/October 1056.