Geniza Lab

Testimony that Abu al-Rida known as al-Subki had gifted all his property in Alexandria to his wife, Sitt al-Zaman bat Yiṣḥaq. Dated May 1185 in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 359)

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

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Betrothal deed, in which Yisrael b. Daniel (groom-to-be) betroths Sittuna bat David b. Avraham (bride-to-be), dated Sunday, 11th Tammuz 4767/1318 (= 1007 CE), in Fustat. The bride’s father is her representative, as witnessed by David b. Shemaʿya, and Kalaf b. Avraham. The marriage gift is 250 dinars, of which 100 dinars has already been advanced. (Information from CUDL)

Deed of sale of a female slave named Sa'ada. Dated Av 1501/ July 1190. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 139, 140, 434, and from Goitein's index cards)

Calligraphic copy of release in which a grandson confirms having received from his grandmother, named Sitt al-Rida bat Saadya, the estate of his father. Dated Adar II 1524/ March 1213. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Dissolution of partnership, remarkable for its inclusion of female relatives. Dated 1539/ 1227-28. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 45, 46, 436)

Legal document dealing with a debt of Hiba/Natan the dyer b.'Ulla to al-Sheikh Abu 'Ali Yefet b. David for two qintar of indigo he bought from him for 1000 dirhams and which he agrees to repay by the month of Nisan of the same year. Dated Tevet 1541/December/January, 1229-1230.

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Legal document in which Mordechai ben Naʿim and David ben Naʿim settle the estate (particularly the terms of the ketubba) of the woman Ashkenaz, wife of David ben Naʿim, following her death. Signed by David ben Naʿim, and witnessed by Abraham Noah and Nissim Shelomo. Dated 1st Tammuz 5509 (= June 1749) in Egypt (Cairo). (Information from CUDL)

Magnificent Hebrew will in which a rich man gives his second wife and the mother of three of his children 200 dinars if she does not marry again, but only 50 dinars if she does get married. He also empowers the elder son to give his younger brother his share in the estate only when he, the executor--not the courts-- is satisfied that the boy is ready for the responsibility. Dated 18 Heshvan 1318/ October 1006. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 251, 283, 411, 481)

Fragment of a letter by Israel ha-Kohen Gaon b. Shemuel to a certain Alluf, concerning books which he promised to send the addressee. The sender also mentions a conflict he is engaged in and describes his efforts to conciliate his rivals. Dated Heshvan 1334/ October 1022. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 171)

A religious slaughterer who was careless in the exercise of his duties is flogged and forced to make a public confession. Dated 9 Iyyar 1339/ May 1028 in Cairo. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 330, 568)

Deed of compensation to peqid ha-soharim (representative of merchants) in Tyre, January 1037. CUDL: Deed of indemnity, written by Yefet b. David, dated Monday, 27th Ṭevet 4797/1348 (= 1037 CE), in Fusṭāṭ, in which Isaac b. David (called Ibn Sujmār), confirms that he has received from Ḥalfon b. Moses (called Ibn Abī Qīda), in Tyre, a sum from the estate of the deceased Saʿadya b. Solomon, for the benefit of his sister Banīna bat Solomon.

Compensation bill from Fustat. April 7, 1055. Three witnesses approved (not in front of the court) that Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sugmar received money that Menashshe b. David al-Madini, the money exchanger, owed Yehuda’s uncle. The uncle is David b. Yehuda from Qayrawan. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #618) VMR

Legal document. Court proceeding. Location: Fustat. Dated: February 1160. Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq (the son of Isaac b. Samuel ha-Sefardī) invested 65 dinars with Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn Ṭibān Tobijah ha-Levi al-Tājir b. Abū Sa‘d Samuel ha-Levi al-Tājir as a commenda, with profits to be split evenly between the two. Trading losses reduced the capital to 39 dinars, and Ḥiyya retained Abū al-Rabī‘ Suleymān Solomon ha-Kohen al-‘Aṭṭār b. Judah ha-Kohen to collect the remaining proceeds from Tobijah. Solomon received 30 of the 39 dinars he expected, the same amount which Solomon seems to have advanced Ḥiyya prior to Solomon’s departure. Abū al-Tājir Adōnīm Nānū collects an additional 10 dinars, which he had also advanced Ḥiyya. The document does not specify any initial partnership stipulations in terms of losses, but the court seems to have ruled that Abū al-Ḥasan was liable for one-third of the losses of 26 dinars (eight and two-thirds dinars). Having already repaid 40 dinars, he still owes seven and two-thirds dinars. For this balance, Abū al-Ḥasan wrote a debt document. Abū al-Ḥasan was then free of any obligation to Ḥiyya, and Solomon handed over the document that obligated Abū al-Ḥasan in the portion of the commenda assets, though he was clear that Abū al-Ḥasan was still subject to the "oath of partners", indicating that Abū al-Ḥasan would be liable for mishandling of the commenda assets. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 238)

List specifying the expenses for building the Jerusalem synagogue. Dated 1039-1040. (E. Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, 135)

Letter to Abū l-Ḥusayn b. Abū l-Khayr al-ʿAkkāwī, Fustat, from his uncle (khāl) Ṣadoq b. Namir he-Ḥaver, Tiberias. "The imprisonment (and torture) of defaulting debtors was common practice. The letter here tells about the imprisonment of the wives and children of absconding debtors, who owed money to Eschiva (Echive), the countess of Tiberias and wife of the renowned Raymond III of Tripoli. One wonders for what services Jews could owe considerable sums to the countess so that they had to flee to Egypt in order to try to collect there funds for repayment. The most likely assumption is that the services were the same as those found so often as a source of disaster in the relations with the Muslim government, namely: tax farming, see Med Soc II, 361–63. Raymond, who is referred to in this letter, returned from Muslim captivity in 1173/74, and Eschiva remained ruler over Tiberias until it was taken by Saladin in 1187. Thus the letter must have been written sometime in between these two dates." Goitein, Nachlass material. This document is also mentioned, considering the perspective of the addressee's wife, in Ashur, Engagement and Betrothal Documents, p. 116, no. 121. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Minyat Zifta to Fustat. The writer had been sent to Minyat Zifta to deliver an instruction to the judge Shabbetay b. Avraham (active 1135-78), it seems to summon him to Fustat. Upon arriving in Minyat Zifta, he found an epidemic that had caused a large number of deaths in the Jewish community. The writer emphasizes Shabbetay's willingness to obey but awaits instruction on whether he still needs to come in light of the circumstances. The writer also conveys the complaint of various locals that every other town in the Rif has a synagogue, but they do not. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 113, 537). EMS; ASE.

Court record written by Efrayim b. Shemarya. A woman named Muluk claims to be the only heir of Tiban, the grandson of her maternal uncle. Dated Elul 1361/ August-September 1050. (Information from E. Bareket, Yehudei misrayim, pp. 194)