Geniza Lab

Letter from the judge Menashshe to the Cairene judge Avraham b. Natan regarding a personal and communal affair in the small town of Sumbutya (Sunbāṭ), Lower Egypt, signed by the judge, the rosh ha-qahal ('head of the congregation') and five others, ca. 1100.

Letter from Moshe b. Yaʿaqov, Jerusalem, to his wife's brother Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: June 1053 CE. The letter is mainly about arrangements for the long-deferred pilgrimage of Mūsā b. Barhūn al-Tāhirtī to Jerusalem. On verso, amidst family greetings and business matters, Moshe conveys his wife's urgent request for myrobalan for her to drink. There are no details about why she needs it, but presumably it is as medicine for an illness.The block of text containing the order set off from the previous block. At least four letters from Moshe to Nahray survive: see also T-S 13J13.5 (from March), T-S 13J17.18 (from July), and Halper 411 (May 1054 CE).

Fragmentary record of communal dispute in which Shelomo ha-Kohen, Head of the the Yeshiva, became involved; written in Fustat.

Power of attorney. In Judaeo-Arabic. A woman with the strange name of Qirā al-Lawn (קרא אללון), the widow of the late Marwān, appoints Shelomo b. David b. Shimʿon to claim from Ṣemaḥ b. Shemuel what was due to her from the estate of her paternal uncle. She had already received 38 dinars. On verso the name Sittnā bt. Yeshuʿa appears. (Information in part from CUDL.) VMR

Recto: Acknowledgment of debt of seventy dinars Abu l-Tana al-Sukkari (the sugar seller) b. Abu l-Barakat the perfumer by Aharon Ha-Kohen the perfumer. Verso: Rhymed funerary poem.

Legal document (actually two different documents concerning the same persons) concerning the poor treatment afforded to R. Moshe, a new hazzan, by R. Nissim, the muqaddam of al-Maḥalla, and centered on issues relating to a marriage ceremony and the public evaluation of a dowry. Thirteenth century. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:74, 538; Mordechai Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, 1:296; Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS (1967), 238) EMS.

Legal document written under the authority of Nathaniel ha-Levi concernning payment of fees for an orphan preparing himself for the profession of his late father, Manṣūr b. Khalaf (known as Ibn al-Muṭrī). His mother Mulūk, widow of Khalaf the cantor, wants Manṣūr to be taught Torah by Abū Saʿd Saʿadya the cantor (known as Ibn al-Muʿallima, ‘the son of the female teacher’) b. Avraham. Fustat, Adar 1471/February-March 1160.

Recto: Bill of divorce (geṭ). Location: New Cairo. Dated: Friday, 24 Adar 1[6]50 Seleucid, which is 5 March 1339 CE. Husband: ʿEzer b. Yehoshuaʿ. Wife: Shumaysa bt. Mordekhay. The divorce was not completed on this occasion, as there are no witnesses. Cf. T-S 20.10 (dating to 1310 CE), which may involve the same couple. Bottom of recto and verso: unrelated jottings in Judaeo-Arabic, and three lines of a child’s handwriting exercise. See ENA NS 55.18 for a similar geṭ with similar reuse (same scribes?). (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Recto with the address on verso: Letter from an unknown sender, in Ṣahrajt, probably sent to Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: First half of the 11th century. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, in beautiful script. Describing the machinations of a rascal. The amīr and the qāḍī are mentioned several times. Perhaps connected to T-S 10J22.7 Verso: Business accounts in Arabic script. Probably the secondary use.

Letter by Shemuʾel Gaon to Egypt appointing one disciple as receiver of collections for the Academy.

Letter from Yosef to Abū l-Fakhr asking him to help contest his obligation to pay the capitation tax of his brother, who was missing in Syria; he explains that his brother had not charged him with this payment before his departure.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Ḥeshvan 1350 Seleucid, which is 1038 CE. The contents are difficult to understand because of the poor state of preservation. Signed by: Mevorakh b. David, Maḥfūẓ b. Yiṣḥaq; Yiṣḥaq b. Khalaf; and Shelomo b. Mundhir. The validation is written by Efrayim b. Shemarya (as head of the Beit Din) and signed by himself and by the cantor Yefet b. David. (Cited in Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law: Marital Disputes according to Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 383; Jacob Mann, Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs, 1:99) EMS

Draft of an oath to be taken by Yosef Lebdi in which he enumerates his assets. Due to the litigation between Yosef Lebdi and his nephew, David b. Shelomo, following Shelomo's death, Yosef Lebdi was to make a formal oath stating that he had cheated neither his brother nor nephew. The draft is incomplete, probably because the elders of the community intervened and prevented such a respectable merchant as he from the shame of making such an oath. There is reason to believe that the detailing of Yosef's assets and dealings is complete.

Prenuptial agreement between a Karaite bridegroom and a Rabbanite bride, stipulating a fine to be paid to the Rabbanite and Karite poor by the bridegroom Abu Sa'id, scion of a family of Karaite bankers, should he break any of the stipulations of the contract.

Business letter in Hebrew and Arabic script to Abū l-Ḥasan Binyamin requesting the dispatch of merchandise to Qalyub, including medical supplies, via a ghulām, and mentioning the broker Banin.

Legal document. Partnership document. Dating: 1300-1350 (per Goitein). This manuscript mentions the two partners, Abū al-Ḥasan b. Abū al-Faraj and Khalaf b. Ḥasan, who withdrew from a group involved in banking, because some of the partners had loaned funds without the permission of Abū al-Ḥasan. Apparently, Abū al-Ḥasan visited the seems to have been in charge of the workplace but visited only periodically. The withdrawal appears to have taken place six years before this document was written and the account with Abū al-Ḥasan was settled. The partnership likely charged interest on some of its loans, since the clients include Muslims and Christians (e.g., a Coptic clergyman from Barbaya). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 234)

Beginning of an official epistle to a community headed by [Goitein left empty] b. Shela the judge (הדיין), the fifth judge in the group (Havura) enumerating the various groups of which the community consisted. (Information from Goitein's index card). VMR

Court record of sale of a slave who had already lived in the house of the buyer and was therefore known to her.

Part of a legal document, dated the month of Shevat. Witnessed by Menashshe ha-Levi b. Abraham b. Aaron b. Shuʿayb, Manṣūr b. Shelomo b. Azhar, Elʿazar b. Yefet, Shemuʾel b. Isaac, Ṣedaqa b. Naḥman, Abraham b. [...], and Muḥsin b. Ḥusayn. (Information from CUDL)

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