Geniza Lab

Legal document. Record of release. This document describes the termination of a partnership and a release from Efrayim b. Ḥalfon Ibn Zaffān, upon the apparent death of his partner Moses b. Ḥalfōn, who may have been his brother. In addition to their mu‘āmalāt or joint enterprises, Efrayim and Moses also seem to have had an interest in a partnership with a Muslim, described as a khulṭa. Efrayim and Moses clearly shared an interest in a number of shipments with each other (ll.8, 13). Moses’ son Ḥalfon seems to be the primary heir; he is mentioned in lines 11 and 30 as Efrayim’s primary counterparty in the qinyan. Unlike in T-S 12.606 (PGPID 3187), another partnership release in this documentary corpus, the partnership cannot survive its partners, as is well-known in Jewish and Islamic law alike. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 116)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Report to the Fatimid chancery. In Arabic script. Dating: beginning of the 12th century, during the reign of al-Afḍal. Describing a battle against the Crusaders. This fragment reports on the strategies used by the army. On verso of T-S 16.114 and T-S 24.57 there is a Hebrew poetic eulogy; on verso of T-S AS 11.383 and T-S AS 146.195 there is the beginning of a letter draft in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

Legal document: deathbed declaration, made by a woman whose name is not preserved. The upper part of the document is missing, but the reconstruction, as proposed by Assaf, would be approximately as follows: "This is what happened before us, the undersigned witnesses, on the date of ... We entered the house of ... and found her sick in her bed, etc." The woman bequeaths one third of a compound owned by her in Qasr al-Sham' to the two synagogues, of the Palestinians and the Babylonians, in equal parts. One sixth of the compound is handed over to a certain Fa'iza, on the condition that she marries; if she dies unmarried, this sixth also would pass to the two synagogues, and not to any of Fa'iza's heirs. Another third of the compound is willed, in equal parts, to the testator's brother Sahlan and to Rayyisa, the daughter of her other brother, Efrayim. One twelfth of the compound has previously been sold to another niece of the testator's, Sutayt, the daughter of her sister Sayyida, for 14 Mu'izzi dinars. This sum was spent for timber, to be used for repairs in the compound. Another twelfth is to be sold, and the revenue (14 dinars) used to cover the expenditures for the transportation of the woman's body to Jerusalem and her burial there. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 119 #1)

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1010 CE. Shelomo b. Avraham b. Malkī (Mulkī?) sells nine parts out of eighteen of a house in the Qaṣr Edom (Qaṣr al-Rūm), which he had inherited from his wife Salma bt. Moshe b. Ṣemaḥ ha-Kohen to Yaḥyā the banker. The house borders on three others belonging to women and one man, and on one side to the house of Malīḥ, a Christian glassmaker. Styled in beautiful Hebrew and calligraphic script. Fragmentary. 3 out of 5 houses as borders belong to women. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Bill of sale in which a seller of potions sells to a perfumer 1/8 of a house in the great Bazaar in the Surayya Lane, a blind alley, for 7.5 dinars. Half the house belonged to Christians and 1/6 to a seller of oil. Dated July 1179. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 281)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Bill of release from a partnership, after the death of one of the partners. Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: Middle decade of Elul 1432 Seleucid, which is 1121 CE. Abū l-Faḍl Shela ha-Levi Ibn al-Baṣrī was engaged in a partnership with Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Netanel ha-Sar, and after Netanel's death the partnership was dissolved, and Netanel' daughters (Sitt al-Khāṣṣa, Sitt al-Kamāl, and Sitt al-Karam) issued a release to Shela. Also signed by Yaḥyā b. Shemuel. (Information from CUDL.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Recto: Lease of a compound in Ascalon, ca. 1120(?)-1147. A compound in Ascalon is leased by the representatives of the qodesh to to Shelomo ha-Zariz b. Ḥalfon. Verso: Record of the yearly rent paid to the elders of the Heqdesh, kept by the tenant. The yearly rent was one quarter of a dinar or 8.5 wariq dirhams, which covered the rent from Tishri to Elul. The payments were generally made several months after the end of the year. Records of ten such parments are preserved, from a period extending from 1131 through 1147. The lease itself bears four signatures, whereas the yearly payments are confirmed by two members of the court. The document includes writing in three different languges: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Confirmations of the payments are listed in chronological order. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 277 #57)

Ketubba for the remarriage of a couple, Ramla, 1052. This ketubba is cancelled, implying that the couple later divorced for a second time. Verso: Calculations and notations. (Information from CUDL)

Bill in which Shelomo b. Hakim promises to pay back to Nissim b. Yaʿaqov a sum of thirty 'pieces of gold' (dinars). The latter is represented by Moshe b. Avraham b. Khalifa. Written by Elhanan b. Shemarya. Signed by Avraham b. Sahlan, Efrayim b. Shemarya and Shemuel ha-Kohen. Dated 1328/1016-17. (Information from Bareket, pp. 84, 162, 196-198)

Marriage contract of Hayyim b. Moshe and Aziza b. Shelomo. Dated July 28, 1492. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 450)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Fragment of a settlement between Simha b. ? and Khalifa, his son-in-law, after long litigation. Dated Av 1412/1101. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Beautiful letter of introduction. In a mixture of Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Dated: Tishrei 1343 Seleucid, which is September/October 1031 CE. Written by a high dignitary in Iraq on behalf of a man traveling to Syria and Egypt, containing a veritable sermon on the meritoriousness of hospitality. Large letters, wide space between the lines; ends with the motto "yeshuʿa" (the same as that of Daniel b. ʿAzarya). (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 29.)