Geniza Lab

Marriage contract (53d according to Friedman) between ʿEli b. Wahīb and Hiba bt. Yonah. One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 4693 AM (= 932/33 CE). This fragment contains four independent documents, nos. 53a-d. Documents 53a, 53b, and 53c are betrothal registers. Document 53d is a marriage contract, written at the time of the "nissuʾin." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 401–35) EMS

Betrothal register (53a according to Friedman) between Biqa (?) b. Moshe known as Abu Kāmīl and Mimuna bt. Ḥasan. One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 4693 AM (= 932/33 CE). This fragment contains four independent documents, nos. 53a-d. Documents 53a, 53b, and 53c are betrothal registers. Document 53d is a marriage contract, written at the time of the "nissuʾin." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 401–35) EMS

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Court record regarding the sale of a house. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Abū Saʿd buys one-third of a house from his maternal aunt, which she had previously inherited. The neighboring house is owned by Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef b. Shelomo, the parnas of Jerusalem, who now resides in Fusṭāṭ. (Information from CUDL.)

In the form of a legal document (see lines 3-4), a fragment of a petition to a Nagid from a small town, signed by twenty-six persons in different hands, of whom seven were opposed and three were out of town. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 62; V, p. 118)

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

Bill of sale for a female slave. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tuesday, 15 Ṭevet 1416 Seleucid = January 1105 CE. Abū Saʿd Ḥalfon (lines 18, 20, 26 but spelled Khalaf in line 4) and Abū l-Faḍl Yosef, sons of Moshe ha-Kohen, a high government official (titled Saniyy al-Dawla), sell a Nubian female slave named Ḥidhq ("Dexterity") to their sister Zayn Sitt al-Dār for 20 dinars. Signed by Ṣedaqa b. Shelomo ha-Levi and Aharon b. Namir ha-Kohen. Validated by Avraham b. Natan Av Bet Din, who was also the scribe for the document. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 137.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 1 Ḥeshvan 12[..] Seleucid, which is 888–987 CE. Bride: Zahra bt. ʿAlī. The groom's name is missing. Witnessed by Shelomo b. [...], Ṣadoq b. Yiṣḥaq, Ḥabīb b. ʿAday, Moshe b. Shelomo, ʿEli b. Ḥasan b. Ba[bad?]. On verso there is an unidentified and difficult to read text in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)

Book list. Dating: Probably 13th century (per Frenkel, based on the names mentioned; Assaf thought it was 12th century). It lists nine covers as being red, six as black and five as white. (Information from CUDL and Allony et al.)

Quittance from uncle named Yeshua b. Avraham to his nephew, Sa'dan, after the latter returned a piece of land which had been taken illegally by his late sister. Five witnesses signed the document: Menashshe, Shelomo b. Fashshat (also mentioned in Mosseri A 134 dated 1007; T-S 13J1 f. 3 dated 1016; T-S Loan 137. See Mediterranean Society, II, p. 471), Yiṣḥaq b. Sedaq, Sahlan b. Avraham and Yeshua b. Sa'dal. Dated Adar 47xx/ ca. 1000 (Goitein)/1010 (Bareket) in Fustat. (Information from Bareket, pp.184, 251 and from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 437)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Bill of release, issued by Abū Kathīr Efrayim b. Maṣliaḥ al-Ghazzī to Abū Isḥāq Avraham ha-Levi. Signed by Yefet b. Menashshe, ʿOvadya b. […], and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi, who also wrote the document. Dated: Ṭevet 1416 Seleucid, which is 1105 CE. (Information from CUDL.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Legal document. Record of release. Dating: 1150-1181. Written in the hand of Mevorakh b. Nathan. In this document, Abū al-Makārim Nadiv ha-Levi b. Moses ha-Levi settles a partnership account on behalf of Samuel due the father of Abū Naṣr and Abū al-Majd, perhaps upon the death of the father and the termination of the partnership. Upon payment of the balance to the two sons Nadiv is given a document of release, which indicates that Samuel had fulfilled his agency. In addition to the details concerning Nadiv’s payment to the two sons, the fragment is missing the partnership stipulations concerning term and distribution of profits and losses; it refers to the partnership as a "shirka", though the sons release Samuel from mu‘āmalāt. Line 19 replaces the Hebrew "ḥakhamim" with the Arabic "‘ulamā’" in a common rabbinic phrase; Nadiv had dealings in both Jewish and Muslim courts. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 143)

Draft, in the hand of the scribe Hillel b. Eli, of an addition to the last will of the parnas Eli ha-Kohen b. Yahya (documents signed by him 1057-1107). In his previous will, drawn up by the Andalusian judge Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel (see Mediterranean Society, II, p. 512 section 13) Eli had mentioned that one of his partners, Abu al-Muna Tiqwa b. 'Amram from Ascalon (see Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 212-214, 566, 567), owed him forty-eight dinars. The next day the witnesses reported that the partner had testified that Eli had withdrawn about six dinars, whereupon Eli asked them to include a declaration that he had been under the impression that the sum withdrawn had been profit made leaving the forty-eight dinars Eli had invested in the partnership intact. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 134, 212-214, 542)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Marriage contract. Location: Tyre. Bride: Sitt al-Bayt bt. Yaʿaqov. There is a header decorated with fleurs-de-lis. (See Goitein's index card and the PGP record for T-S 12.760 for more on this scribe.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.