Geniza Lab

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

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

Legal document: bill of sale for a slave. See also Perry's annotated edition of T-S18J1.17.

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

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

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

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

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: May 14, 1238. Written in the hand of Solomon b. Elijah (identified by Goitein), teacher and court scribe. Concerning a partnership in a "kitchen" (maṭbakh), likely a facility engaged in food preparation. The mention of a "division" (that is, of assets) and the statement that "only […] remains" suggests that this may be a partnership settlement and release, or at least this release was not accompanied by a final settlement of all accounts, though the document isn't sufficiently well-preserved for certainty. The partners were Abū al-Riḍā Yaḥyā b. Samuel and al-Makīn b. Shela ha-Levi. The exact date is given in the Islamic calendar (28 Ramadan 635), and is also dated in the Jewish calendar (last ten-day period of Iyar) with the Seleucid year (1549). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 236)

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

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

Draft of a legal document. Confirming a settlement (ṣulḥ) negotiated by elders. A release for Nissim b. Meshullam and his brother Ṣedaqa b. Meshullam, along with their mother Bahiyya bt. Ḥalfon, from debts incurred by their deceased father Abū l-ʿAlā Meshullam b. Hiba known as Ibn Shuwaykiyya ("the little artichoke"). Mentions 'the judge of judges' (qāḍī l-quḍāh). 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.

Legal document from Minyat Ghamr concerning a debt; during the holiday of Passover 1537 sel., mid-April 1226 CE. Reshut of Abraham Maimonides. Ḥalfon b. Elazar known as ben al-Meshorer received from Nadiv b. Shelomo fifty dirhems in "Egyptian cash," to pay back in four half-monthly installments. (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR and EMS

Legal document. Location: Bilbays. Dated: First decade of Sivan, 1564 Seleucid, which is 1253 CE. Under the reshut of David I Maimonides. Concerning a settlement between Sulaymān b. Yaʿaqov and his brother Nafīs b. Yaʿaqov and Dā'ūd b. Yosef regarding payments for wine left by the late Abū l-Waḥsh b. Sulaymān, who died when a grave collapsed on him. Signed by Avraham b. Elʿazar and Yaḥyā b. Ṭahor ha-Levi. (Information from CUDL and E. Struss-Ashtor, History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the rule of the Mamluks, 3:12-14) VMR.

Deed of compensation in the handwriting of Emanuel b. Yehiel concerning Sulayman ha-Kohen b. Efrayim, who engaged in dyeing silk with turquoise blue. Also mentions the Nagid David; Fustat, 1564 Sel. (1253/1252 C.E.). (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:107, 420; Joseph Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine, 2:329; E. Struss-Ashtor, History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the rule of the Mamluks, 3:8-10) VMR and EMS

Deposition in which denunciation is alleged. Dated: Thursday, first decade of Tishrei 1581 Seleucid, which is September 1269 CE. Testimony of ʿAmram b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen that he had unwillingly written an acknowledgement of debt to Moshe ha-Kohen (known as Ibn Bashāra). Signed by Yehuda b. Sar Shalom ha-Kohen and Yoel b. Shela ha-Levi. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Deed of indebtedness. Location: Fustat. Dated: 5 Iyyar 1603 Seleucid, which is 1292 CE, under the authority of David I Maimonides. Legal document concerning a loan of 400 dirhams from the perfumer Abū l-Faḍl b. Abū l-Ḥasan the doctor to Abū l-Faḍl Ibn al-Akram the banker ha-Levi (known as Ibn Nuʿmān). No signatures. On verso is a drawing of a star or flower. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Statement concering the mamraq (passage) between houses, the proprietor of which allows two neighbors to build on it, Tebeth 1555/January 1214.

Two betrothal contracts. See individual records. The hand is very close to that of the clerk who wrote many of the letters of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355); perhaps a coincidence, or perhaps he had a long life.

F. 1r: Betrothal contract between Moses b. Shelomo and Muwaffaqa bint Shemuʾel b. Moses. Location: Cairo. Dated: Kislev 1691 of the Seleucid Era (= 1379 CE), and signed by Joseph b. ʿOvadya and Joseph b. Moses. Information from CUDL.

F. 2r: Betrothal contract between Ṣedaqa b. M[oses?] and Wazīra bt. Mūsā b. Isaac. Dated Kislev 1691 of the Seleucid Era (= 1379 CE), and signed by Shemuʾel b. [...]. There is a delayed installment gift of 400 dirhams. (Information from CUDL.)