Geniza Lab

Writ of agency written in Banias.

Legal deed, appointing a representative to execute a will. Fustat. Adar 1377/February 1066.

Fragmentary record detailing how a father was compelled by the court to pay his daughter one dinar per month for her baby boy, for eighteen months. Whether the daughter was widowed or divorced is not specified. Summer, 1065. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:247, 481) EMS

Testimony concerning a tarika (inheritance) of two women recorded at the court of Avraham b. Ishaq, Ab 1389/July 1078, Fustat.

Writ of agency written in Tripoli, Lebanon, May 1081.

Court record from 1015 concerning a woman in Ramla appointing a representative to sue her Damascene husband who had disappeared two years earlier without leaving her anything. She was prepared to renew their common life, or else demand a divorce, with all the payments involved, including the cost of maintenance for two years. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:198-9, 314, 375, 468) EMS

One entry of a sheet of accounts written by Arus b. Yosef. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 465)

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Rental contract. Location; Fustat. Dated: Thursday, 2 Av 1461 Seleucid, which is 27 July 1150 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The property is a ground floor (qāʿa) and mezzanine (mustaraqa) belonging to a famous house located in the Zuwayla quarter in New Cairo, the street of the Slavs (Darb al-Saqāliba), across from the oven. Lessor: Sitt al-Ahl bt. Ibrāhīm known as Ibnat bint al-Wuḥsha (i.e., the granddaughter of the famous Wuḥsha), the wife of Abū l-Maʿrūf Ṣedaqa b. Ḥasan. Lessee: Abū Naṣr b. Sulaymān al-ʿAṭṭār (the druggist). The period of the lease is 8 years, and Abū Naṣr will pay 40 dinars total, coming out to 5 dinars a year or 10 qirats a month. The renovations made by Abū Naṣr are worth those 40 dinars. Signed by: Berakhot b. Yefet and Mevorakh b. Natan (dates: 1150–81). (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Court archive describing a working woman (an unraveler of silk) from Tyre, Lebanon who possessed a house and was able to pay a bill of twelve dinars over the course of several years, yet claimed in court to be bankrupt and too poor to even buy bread; dated 1091. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:128, 430; 2:602; 5:88, 530) EMS

Legal document involving a man from Alexandria and signed by ʿAmram the banker son of Ezra, Head of the Congregation, the Alexandrian', issued in Fustat, Ab 1404/July 1093.

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: September 1016. Location: Fustat. ‘Ammār b. Joseph the Dyer releases Samuel ha-Kohen b. Moses b. Ṣemaḥ from all claims, and relinquishes any claim to funds owed by a number of named individuals in Malīj. These debts may have been accounts receivable, or may have been partnership investments made by ‘Ammār and Samuel. Goitein suggests that the document was written on 9 Tishri (Erev Yom Kippur) "because people from Malīj, where the workshop was operated, had come to Fusṭāṭ for [the holiday] and were able to witness the release", though Lieberman says there is no evidence that any of the witnesses came from Malīj. Still, the court in Fusṭāṭ may have been busy just before Yom Kippur, with litigants wanting to set their affairs in order before the holiday began – this could explain the number of witnesses. It may be no coincidence that this release from partnership obligations is written just before the festival which marks divine release from transgressions in the year which has just ended. Goitein characterizes this as an "industrial" partnership centered around a workshop, because ‘Ammār is identified as a dyer. But there are no details concerning the object and nature of the partnership itself, and ‘Ammār leaves all claims to Samuel, leaving open the possibility that he was not the principal, but was instead working for Samuel. There are nine signatures, including that of Elhanan b. Shemarya. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 212)

Court record dealing with a loan of one dinar that, according to Ya'ish ha-Kohen b. Avraham, was given by him to Yosef b. Avraham. Yosef denied this, whereupon Ya'ish was asked by the judge Yaʿaqov b. Yosef to provide evidence for his claim. Dated 1018. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 602). On bottom a partial dating according to the Hijri calendar, in Arabic script

Power of attorney. Fragment (upper left corner). Location: Fustat. Dated: 1336 Seleucid, which is 1024/25 CE. In which Ḥusnā bt. Yeḥezqel b. Masʿūd al-ʿAqrabānī, appoints the cantor Meʾir b. Mevorakh, to act on her behalf in order to recover her share of an estate from the daughters of Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen the butcher. (Information from CUDL)

Document describing a Damascene husband who had settled in Jerusalem and went bankrupt in Ramla, and who was being sued by his Egyptian wife. Her attorney, appointed in Fustat, was to extract alimony from him for the year of desertion, twenty dinars as delayed marriage gift, and a bill of divorce. Summer, 1024. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:199, 468) EMS

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Deathbed will of Khalaf b. Yeshu'a, mentioning the lepers in Tiberias, Elul 1345/August 1034.

End of a legal deed; only the date and signatures are preserved. Nine signatures, Nisan 1041. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Part of a rhymed letter. In the top right-hand corner is a note of the name Shemarya the teacher. (Information from CUDL)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.