Geniza Lab

Simha, daughter of Moshe b. Job, wife of Yosef al-Bali, sells a Pentateuch with gilded ornaments to Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham. Dated Iyyar 5159/April-May 1399. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from a note on the typed text)

Letter from Hayyim b. 'Ammar (Gil) or Zakkar b. 'Ammar (Ben-Sasson), Palermo, to Yūsuf b. Mūsā Tāhartī in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1069 (Gil).The writer writes how two ships had sunk together with their merchants and goods. He also describes doing business both with Jewish and Muslim merchants from Sicily and mentions Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ and the ʿushr tax imposed in Sicily on imported goods. (Information from Gil and Ben-Sasson)

Beginning of a circular letter by Nisi b. Shemuel, head of a congregation (of Rabbanites? Palestinians? Babylonians? Karaites?) to all Israel, emphasizing the duty to act like zealots of the type of Phineas and Eliyyahu in religious matters. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Release given by Karima bat Sedaqa the teacher to Avraham b. Hujayj. Signed by many people, but only four of the signatures preservEd. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

An early legal document, in Hebrew rather than Arabic, in which a woman in al-Bana near Faqus, Nile Delta, sells a quarter of a third of a house owned by her to her son in law for 3.5 dinars. The latter lived in the house and had already received another twelfth as the dowry of his wife. Dated Tishri 4759/1309 Sel./998 C.E.. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 39, 435; IV, p. 277)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Bill of release (draft or copy). In the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dated: Tishrei 1356 Seleucid, which is 1044 CE. Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Shelomo Ibn al-Raqqī, representing also his mother Mubāraka bt. Levi b. Yaʿaqov and her sister Bahiyya bt. Levi (the widow of Aharon ha-Levi and the mother of Mevorakh b. Aharon), releases Yaʿaqov b. David Ibn al-Dawātī from all claims having to do with the support of Yaʿaqov's three children Faraj, Bishr and Sitt al-Bayt. Yaʿaqov is providing food and tuition for them and is also providing a Nubian female slave named Shaʿith (who remains the property of Yaʿaqov). Yaʿaqov has paid rent to Bahiyya for his apartment in Dār Ibn al-Shaʿʿāb. (Mentioned in Goitein, Med Soc I, p. 135.)

Letter from Elḥanan b. Shemarya to the community of Malīj. He has received the petition (ruqʿa) of the Alexandrian woman whose divorced husband is not providing enough alimony. He is giving only two dāniqs, which is 1/3 dirham, when she needs at least 2/3 dirham. Elḥanan b. Shemarya orders the community of Malīj to assist her. Originally published in Abramson, Bamerkazim ubatefutsot bitqufat ha-Geonim (Hebrew), p. 116. See separate record for document on verso.

Beginning of the taqqanah (ordinance) of al-Mahalla, continued in T-S 16.135. This is an enactment passed by the Jewish community of al-Maḥalla, in which they pledge their loyalty to their judge Peraḥya [b. Yosef], to retain his position as long as he remains in the country and does not want to emigrate to the Land of Israel. Peraḥya was Avraham b. Peraḥya Ibn Yijū’s nephew (his brother’s son), and was married to his daughter Sitt al-Dar. He served as the muqaddam of al-Maḥalla. The enactment is authorised by Yehoshua b. Iyov, Moshe ha-Kohen b. Berakhot ha-Kohen, Shemuʾel b. Yefet, Natan ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, ʿUlla b. Natan, and Berakhot b. Efrayim. The community passed this enactment in response to a power struggle that was taking place between Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā (later known as Mar Zūṭa), the head of the Jews, and local communities. Zūṭa had attempted to force the local judge Peraḥya to collect a tax from anyone approaching him for halakhic rulings - a fee that was to be passed on to Zūṭa. To prevent Zūṭa from appointing a different judge who would be loyal to him, the community of al-Maḥalla pledged their loyalty to Peraḥya in this enactment. (Information from CUDL) Ed. Blau, Teshuvot ha-Rambam, vol. 2, 516-518.

Marriage contract (ketubba) from Tyre, ca. 1079.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: August 9, 1077. Location: Alexandra. This release document, written in the Alexandria rabbinical court, concerns a partnership between Yosef b. Yoshiyya Ibn al-Dhahabī and Khalaf b. ʿIzrūn, which seems to have been canonized in an "Arabic document" in the hand of the latter. The document seems to have been the product of an Islamic court, as it "bear[s] testimony of non-Jews". The partners release each other from a number of possible partnership forms: the khulṭa, the shirka, and the muʿāmala. The partners also release each other from any qirāḍ later in the release clauses; this is certainly because of the linguistic relationship between qirāḍ and qarḍa (though qarḍa refers to a loan, not a partnership agreement). The partners also absolve each other from all oaths, including the ḥerem setam or "anonymous ban" (imposed by the Geonim as the "oath of partners" to prevent malfeasance). These partners likely worked together as partners for a number of years. In T-S 13J1.16, dated to 1066, Yosef appoints Khalaf his agent. It's possible that T-S 16.138 is a release from that agency relationship, but lines 18-19 suggest that the two parties later restructured their relationship and contracted as partners, from which the present document grants release. The signatories, Mawhūb the Ḥazzan b. Aharon the Ḥazzan and Shela b. Mevasser, are well-known members of the rabbinical court of Alexandria at the end of the eleventh century. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 131.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Recto: poetic letter in square script. Each line ends in the rhyme -let and is followed by a dot. Letters are extended to give a (mostly) neat left-hand margin. The final word of the last line is put in the middle of the page. No names preserved, but does address אדוני. Worman states that it was ‘sent by a son of Yehoshuaʿ the Ḥaver to Yehoshuaʿ’s brother’, but there is no trace of this in the fragment now. Verso: collection of halakhic rulings regarding marriage, which continues in the blank space under the letter on recto, overwriting the final word. (Information from CUDL)

Promissory note written by Yefet b. David, given by Moshe b. Shahariyar to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov on June 1007. (Information from Bareket)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Legal document acknowledging a debt on account of a dowry. Fustat A.D. 982. The groom is Yosef ha-Kohen b. Avraham.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: 4 Elul 1410–1429 Seleucid, which is 1099–1118 CE (yielding a likely range of 1100–18 CE based on Ḥalfon b. Menashshe's years of activity). In which Mehullal ha-Kohen gives his wife the right to dispose of (complete taṣarruf with) her dowry, and in return she releases him from any responsibility for her dowry. The documents specifies that her entire family was present and "signed" for her. Signed by Meshullam b. Menashshe he-Ḥaver, Moshe b. Moshe ha-Levi, the cantor Menashshe b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen, and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The following validation is signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya, Yiṣḥa b. Shemuel, and Netanel b. Yeshuʿa ha-Parnas. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Legal document containing an acknowledgment by a creditor, Khalaf b. Aharon, of the full payment of the debt.