Geniza Lab

Draft of a petition to the caliph al-Ḥākim al-Hakim, with tarjama and opening formulae. Verso contains a Hebrew legal deed (see separate entry). From Hibat Allāh b. Abū Manṣūr al-Yahūdī. It reads: ṣalawāt allāh wa-barakātuhu wa-nawāmī zakawātihi wa-afḍal taḥiyyātihi wa-salāmihi ʿalā mawlānā wa- sayyidinā l-Ḥākim bi-amri llāh amīr al-muʾminīn wa-ʿalā ābāʾihi al-ṭāhirīn wa-abnāʾihi al-akramīn. (Information from Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 468 note 15.) Cf. ENA 2742.4 which contains similar petition-like phrases from [...] b. Bū Manṣūr b. Yehuda.

Marriage contract. On parchment. Fragment (lower left corner). Might be in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. Grand total of marriage payments: 350. Border contains 2 vertical lines (and a teardrop loop) of micrography. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba for Mikhal bat Sason b. Yefet and Saʿadya b. Nathan, in the hand of Nathan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Verso: part of another document relating to the same couple, dated 1451 of the Seleucid Era (= 1140 CE) in Fusṭāṭ, witnessed by Nathan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Joseph b. Ayyūb ha-Levi. The bride’s father, Sason b. Yefet, is known from T-S 13J2.17 (dated 1116 CE), T-S 13J6.21, and T-S 8J4.23 (dated 1110 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Recto: autograph responsa by Shemarya b. Elḥanan (active 966–1011 CE) with his signature. Verso: an abridgement of BT Yevamot 65b-72a. (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba or prenuptial agreement in the hand of the scribe Hillel b. ʿEli (1066–1108 CE). Bride: Sitt al-Wafā b. Shela ha-Levi. Groom: Berakhot ha-Levi. The woman agrees to live in the home of her mother-in-law. Witnessed by Peraḥya b. Yeḥezqel, Eliyya b. ʿEli the Adept, and Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav. Attested by the Bet Din. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Legal testimony. Location: Aden. Dating: Ca. summer 1131 CE. Concerns the controversy caused by a Persian Jew, the nephew of the exilarch in Baghdad, who came to Aden and opposed the invocation of the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon in the qaddish prayer. Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq supported Maṣliaḥ and was the only one willing to set the controversy down in writing; the other Jews of Aden were too afraid to do so. This document may be written in the hand of the North African trader Yosef Ibn ʿEzra, a partner of Ḥalfon. The Egyptian members of the congregation, by contrast, saw Maṣliaḥ as their authority. (Information from Goitein, The Yemenites, pp. 57–61, and Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Court record. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 21 Adar II 1377 Seleucid, which is 21 March 1066 CE. Maymūn b. Yaʿaqov declares that he acted as the authorized person for the brothers Shelomo and Moshe b. Avraham b. al-Lebdī, to receive the inheritance(?) of their father’s maternal uncle from Nissim b. Ḥalfon b. Benaya. It seems that Nissim b. Ḥalfon was supposed to pass on the money, books, and other items to the sons in Sicily, but he had traveled to Egypt instead. The completed document, signed by five people, shows that the brothers lived somewhere in the Maghrib and the problem was how to preserve for them the items concerned until they had them in hand. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #823, and from Goitein and Friedman, India Book.) The witnesses: Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq Fāsī; Salāma b. Avraham; Menashshe b. Yefet ha-Levi; ʿEli b. ʿAmram ha-Levi; Yehuda b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by the ḥaver ʿEli b. ʿAmram (distinct from the ʿEli b. ʿAmram ha-Levi who signed the main document); Mevorakh b. Seʿadya; and Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe. VMR

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Testimony about power of attorney regarding Musa b. Alush’s bequest, 1046. Musa, from Jerba, had businesses in Sicily and he drowned on his way to Alexandria. The people that are involved in managing his belongings, including the judge Masliah b. Eliya and Avi Musa, approve that all of his money belongs to his partner Berekhya b. Nissim. Berekhya gives the money to Yehoshua b. Natan, for purchase of goods. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #821) VMR

Recto: letter by Elḥanan b. Shemarya, referring to Abū Saʿd and Abū Ibrahim al-Andalusī, with three lines of a piyyuṭ composed by Sahlān b. Abraham. Verso: piyyuṭ composed by Sahlān b. Abraham. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Sitt al-Milāḥ sells her Nubian female slave ʿAlam to Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā for 23 dinars. Her husband Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe confirms that he has no objection. Large document with many legal details. Dated: 1137 CE. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Menashshe b. Yiṣḥaq the cantor. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Part of a Karaite betrothal deed from the time of the Nasi Ḥezekiah b. Shelomo b. David, dated 9th Shevaṭ 1373 of the Seleucid Era (= 1062-1063 CE) in Fusṭāṭ. It is identified as a betrothal deed and not a ketubba because the quotation from Hosea 2:21-22 is typically found in betrothal deeds. The names of the couple are not preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Lists of debts and payments. (Information from CUDL)

List of books sold in the Palestinian Synagogue at Fusṭāṭ belonging to the late Abraham he-Ḥasid, in the presence of Abraham Maimonides the Nagid on two consecutive Tuesdays. The names of buyers are given and the prices fetched. Folded down centre so as to make 4 columns. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Elijah (probably in Salonika) to his brother, a scholar (probably in Fusṭāṭ), written in the 11th-century. The letter mentions Elijah’s compatriot, Abū ʿAlī, who had visited Fusṭāṭ and brought back letters from Elijah's brother, and letters for a community leader, Elijah b. Shabbetay, dealing with the case of a Jewish man in prison. Elijah’s brother had sent him a gift of a scroll of Esther on vellum, and in return Elijah sent his brother a collection of piyyuṭim. Elijah describes friction between the Karaites and Rabbanites in Byzantium and requests his brother’s help in championing the Karaite cause. (Information from CUDL)

Memorandum of testimony written at the margins of an inventory belonging to the synagogue of the Iraqis in Fustat, made out on the same day, June 28th 1080. (Information from Goitein, typed texts and S. Reif, Published Material from the Cambridge Genizah Collection)

Legal document. Marriage agreement in the hand of Yosef b. Moshe, son and assistant of the provincial judge. The agreement is a tawqīm ("estimate") of the trousseaux for the bride, Sitt al-Suʿada ("Mistress over the Happy Ones"). The groom approved of the evaluation of the tawqīm of the dowry and took on the responsibility of keeping the items safe. The items listed include twelve items of gold and silver jewelry, thirty-four articles of clothing, four pieces of bedding, and thirteen copper items and other household goods, totaling 145 dinars. The verso contains two statements, one by the father of the bride stating that the dowry has been given to the bride as her exclusive irrevocable property, and one by the groom stating he would be responsible for the care of these items as his "iron sheep," i.e. something which he would need to return in full in the event of divorce. The judge had a preference for obtaining explicit acknowledgement of the contents of the document in simple Arabic in order to ensure everyone understood and was in agreement. This was because the official Rabbinate marriage contract, which also listed these details, would be in formulaic Aramaic. This would be further reiterated by T-S 10J21.13, another document which outlines the groom's acceptance of the estimate. (Information Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society)

Letter of questions and demands that was sent by R. Elhanan b. Shemarya to R. Sherira and to R. Hai, ca. 1001 CE. Elḥanan seeks clarification on various Talmudic quotations and asks that they copy and send him a full commentary on the tractates ‘Vows’ and ‘Idolatry’, as he has lost his own copy. Elḥanan’s signature is surrounded by his motto. (Information from CUDL)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Ketubba. Groom: Sahlān b. Avraham, the leader of the Babylonian community in Fusṭāṭ. Bride: Esther bt. Yosef b. ʿAmram the judge. Location: Fustat. Dated: 26 Elul 1348 Seleucid, which is 9 September 1037 CE. The dowry includes a half share in the house of the al-Ghallāq family. Witnessed by Yefet b. Ṭoviyya ha-Levi, the ‘Ḥaver in the great Sanhedrin’ Yaʿaqov b. Shemuel, Shelomo b. Natan, Aaron b. Efrayim, […] b. ʿAmram, Salaḥ b. Yosef, Aharon b. Moshe, and Mubārak b. Yisrael. (Information from CUDL.) This document was originally published by Assaf in Tarbiz 9 (1937), pp. 30–32.