Geniza Lab

Recto: Ketubba for the remarriage of a divorced couple. Location: Fustat. Dated: 25 Ṭevet 1622 of the Seleucid Era (= 17 December 1310 CE), under the jurisdiction of Avraham II Maimonides. Groom: Elʿazar b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi. Bride: Shamsiyya bt. Mordekhay b. Yaʿaqov. She has the right to choose the domicile of the couple but renounces her earnings for his obligation to provide her with clothing. Witnessed by [...] b. Yehuda and ʿOvadya b. Binyamin. T-S 13J6.28 (probably dating to 1339 CE) may involve the same couple. Verso: short list of books.(Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

No. 1: Letter of condolence from a Gaon on the death of the addressee's son. (Bamerkazim, pp. 69-72); No. 2: Copy of a letter from Hayya Gaon to Qayrawan, probably to Ya’aqov b. Nissim. The original letter was written in August 11, 1006. Handwriting of Shemarya b. Elhanan. The Gaon writes to the Yeshiva and asks to copy letters and send them to other communities in the Maghreb. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #37) VMR. In No. 1, T-S 20.100 begins at end of verso line 22. No. 2 begins with T-S 20.100 and continues on T-S 10G5.8 on line 53.

Ketubba with a valuable dowry listing gold jewellery, pearls, rubies, and turquoise, second half of the 15th century. (Corrected by comparison with photocopy of MS & Goitein's notes) (Z.F.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, probably summer 1029.

Writ of agency, probably written in Acre, probably the first half of the eleventh century.

Statute (‘taqqana’) about the conduct of two slaughter houses, one at the Great Bazaar and one at the Bath of the Mice, issued by a committee of seven individuals elected by the community. The document records the decision to appoint Yefet b. David to be cantor and the supervisor of the slaughter instead of his father, who had passed away. Yefet will be responsible for these two markets in Fustat where ritually pure meat was available, and must send one-half of the weekly income to Yoshiyahu, the Gaon and head of the Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Goitein dates the document to after 1024. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 583-585, #319; Goitein, “The Social Services of the Jewish Community as Reflected in the Cairo Geniza Records” Jewish Social Studies (1964), 10; and Goitein’s index cards) VMR and EMS

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Poem on the occasion of a marriage, followed by a letter from Shelah b. Nahoum, probably from Tyre, to Abu al-Khair Efrayim ca. 1085, which continues on verso. (Information from CUDL)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter of condolence from from al-Mubārak, Hiba, Faḍl, and Isḥāq, the sons of Yeshuʿa b. Samḥūn, to the ḥaver Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllun b. Meʾir upon the death of Abū Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script on verso. Also wishing blessings upon the community of the Jerusalemites. The rest of the verso is taken up with a collection of piyyuṭim for mourning, in different hands. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Prenuptial agreement. Dating: end of the 13th century. Fiancee: Shamsūn bt. Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq b. Yeshaʿya ha-Levi, the ex-wife of Avraham. Goitein describes it as a "rather complete example of late conditions." Marriage payments: 5 + 25 = 30. The dirham:dinar exchange rate was 20:1 when this document was written. The husband will not take a second wife. Her handiwork belongs to her. He has to pay for her clothing. Her home will belong to him(?). She will observe menstrual purity laws. She is considered 'trustworthy' without having to take an oath. Signed by Moshe b. Shelomo; Ṣedaqa b. Moshe ha-Kohen. See Med Soc I, 386, sec. 79. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba from the late 13th–14th century, with no names preserved other than a signatory, Joseph ha-Levi. Information from CUDL.

Rough draft of a deed of partnership in the hand of David b. Daniel, August -September 1086.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

List of receivers of loaves of bread, similar to List T-S 24.76 (S.D Goitein, Mediterranean Society, II, App. B 1), in the same hand having many names and figures in common with it. Much damaged and effaced. It represents partly the left and partly the lower part of App. B, 52 (T-S 18J2.4). Together, the two pieces comprise 42 lines. Still, the original manuscript was longer, for there is clearly a scissors cut through the last line. Dated 1020-1040. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, 2:439, 453, App. B 2a and B 52) EMS

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Benveniste (possibly from Narbonne, France), Dimyāṭ (Damietta), to Yehoshuaʿ b. Dosa asking for letters of recommendation to the government in order to be able to continue traveling. Mentions the Fatimid vizier al-Malik al-Afḍal (r. 1094–1121), Tripoli, Jabla, and the lands of Ishmael and Edom (possibly Byzantium), to which Yiṣḥaq was hoping to travel. Address in Judaeo-Arabic on verso. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a legal document witnessed by ʿEli ha-Kohen b. [...], Yehoshuaʿ, and Avraham, and attested by the Bet Din: Ṭoviyya ‘the Third’ b. [Daniel?], Shelomo [b. Yehuda] (later Gaʾon). Most of the ink has rubbed off. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fifty-two closely written lines of a legal verbiage written by Hillel b. Eli, dealing with the settlement of the debt of half a dinar owed after the purchase of one and one/half hundredweights of flax (worth about 14 dinars). Dated 1088. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 252, 463)

Settlement made in the court of Fustat between Mufarraj b. Yefet b. Shuʿayb the Damascene and Yaʿaqov b. Yosef the Iraqi. The Dayyan consulted the Gaon, probably Shelomo b. Yehuda, who said that one of the two must take an oath. (Information from E. Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, pp. 51, 60, 84 and from Ben-Sasson, Yehudei Sitzilya, p. 187.) Draft in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya (ca. 1020-1050) (MR).

Statute in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 11th century. Condemning and prohibiting all the alleged abuses in vogue at the sanctuary at Dammūh. Here is Goitein's summary of the document (Med Soc V, 21–22): I have no doubt that this document was issued at the time of the rigorous enforcement of Islamic law and mores by the caliph al-Ḥākim (996–1021). When the Jewish authorities realized what was happening in their environment, they understood that they had better put their own house in order. Like al-Ḥākim himself they overreacted, and, as happened with the caliph's reforms, the disapproved practices at Dammūh probably surfaced again after some time. In order to enable the reader to join me in the study of this intriguing document, which is almost a thousand years old, I provide here a full analysis of its contents. As so often happens in the Geniza, about one half of the sheet is torn away and much precious material is lost. It is all the more remarkable how much can be learned from what has been preserved.The Hebrew preamble states that "the Court," that is, the judge, and the elders had proposed to the members of the community to take action to remove all abuses from the sanctuary of Dammūy, that the community had accepted the proposal, whereby it had become a statute binding for all and forever, like an ordinance imposed by the God-fearing sages of old and approved by God. In the [Judaeo-]Arabic text, as far as preserved, the following points are stressed, enumerated here in the sequence they appear in the manuscript. The reader must keep in mind that originally there was at least one item between each two items noted here. 1. All should attend solely for devotion. No merrymaking would be tolerated. 2. Marionette shows ("Chinese shades," the medieval movies) and similar entertainments are not permitted. 54 3. No beer should be brewed there. 55 4. No visitor should be accompanied by [a Gentile] or an apostate. 56 5. No woman should be admitted except when accompanied by [a father, a husband,] a brother, or a grown-up son, unless she is a very old woman. 6. The synagogue building should be respected and revered like any other synagogue. 57 7. Boys, or a grown-up man together with a boy, should not [ ... ], in order not to expose themselves to suspicion and make for themselves a bad name. 8. Both men and women should take utmost care not to desecrate the Sabbath in any way.58 9. Playing chess and [ ... ] is forbidden. 59 10. Likewise games like "watermelon and clay" and [ ... ]. 11. Making noise by hitting something with a bang or clasping hands is disapproved. 12. No instrumental music. 13. No dancing. 14. On Sabbath water should be drawn from the well only when needed for drinking. 60 15. Men should not mix with women, nor come near them [ ... ], nor are they permitted to look at them. 16. In the synagogue women should pray in the gallery upstairs and men in the hall downstairs, as is established by ancient custom, sunna. 61 17. Visitors to the place62 (in times other than those of pilgrimages) should go there only for a serious purpose, not for pleasure or for something that, by deed or word, might endanger them or others or damage the compound. They should provide themselves with keys and not tamper with the locks, nor enter through the gardens or by scaling a wall.63 18. The community has empowered [ ... ] to represent them in anything concerning that synagogue-may God keep it. The statute summarized above had no reason to mention one important aspect of the pilgrimage to Dammūh besides prayers and pastimes: the place and time when so many people flocked together provided a convenient opportunity for public announcements, especially those that had serious consequences for the persons concerned, such as bans and excommunications.