Geniza Lab

Ketubba (marriage contract).In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday 26 Adar II 1426 Seleucid, which is 1115 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Moshe b. Mevorakh. Groom: Shemarya b. Menashshe ha-Kohen. Bride: Malīḥa, a virgin and a poor woman. Marriage payments: 5 + 10 = 15 dinars. Dowry = 28 1/3 dinars. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (long vertical strip from the right side). Very similar to T-S 12.659 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 6). Groom: David. Date and other details are not preserved. Witnessed by Simḥa b. [A]haron ha-Kohen, Yehuda b. ʿImrān, Yaḥyā b. Nahum, Sāliḥ b. Ḥasan ha-Levi, Avraham b. Pinḥa[s] ha-Kohen, Nuʿmān b. ʿUmar. (Information from CUDL and Friedman's edition.)

Letter of appeal for charity from Ḥasday b. Mevorakh b. Mordekhay, written on behalf of a poor man named Yehuda. In Hebrew. Late. The writer quotes passages from the Talmud on the virtues of helping the poor. The word סוריא appears at the bottom after the sender's name. (Information from CUDL.)

Part of a poorly preserved letter, perhaps from [...] b. Joseph, to Shemuʾel he-Ḥaver b. Shelomo, mentioning the good deeds of Yeshuʿa b. Isaac. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Copy of a divorce settlement, dated 11th Adar I 4973 (= 1213 CE), from Alexandria, in which Yeshuʿa b. Yosef b. Raṣon Tinnīsī (i.e. linen merchant), declares that he is bankrupt and thus unable to pay the second instalment, thirty dinars, that is still outstanding from the original marriage contract, to his wife, Sitt al-Kull bat Solomon b. Zechariah. The debt is divided into fifteen-dirham 'of good silver' monthly payments, but if he is unable to pay this amount, he must give half of his wage day-by-day instead. Other stipulations forbid Yeshuʿa from leaving Alexandria for four years and from ever remarrying his first wife, and instruct him to sell his clothes and to give the proceeds to Sitt al-Kull. There is also a continuation of the text of the letter from the verso. Verso: Letter, predating the legal document (i.e. prior to 1213 CE), from a certain Beraḵot, who appears to have written the legal document. The name of the recipient has been carefully rubbed out. There is also a continuation of the legal document from the recto. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card)

Recto: Marriage document (ketubba) in Palestinian style executed in 979/980. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 226-36) Verso: The end of a halakhic treatise on clean and unclean animals, meat preparation etc. (Infromation from CUDL)

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq, in Aden, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dating: October 20, 1137 CE (Heshvan 3, 1449 Seleucid). Long letter in which Khalaf writes about an unfortunate turn in his business affairs. Khalaf had sent goods with Abū l-Yumn al-Maḥallī and Abū Zikrī al-Ṣā'igh to Egypt for Abū ʿImrān Ibn Nufayʿ and at that time had asked Ḥalfon to help Abū ʿImrān with the sales and purchases (r17–23). But Abū ʿImrān died, and Ḥalfon traveled to the West, and the two messengers suppressed Khalaf's letters and acted as if the merchandise belonged to them (r23–27). Abū l-Yumn was going to return to Aden, but he fell ill in Qūṣ and had to return to Fustat, and Khalaf does not know his current condition. Abū Zikrī al-Ṣā'igh is planning to travel on to the West. He had with him a container (mikḥala) of musk that was destined for Ḥalfon, but the head of the Jews, Maẓliāh Gaon, took the container from him before he traveled (r27–38). Khalaf has already asked Abū Zikrī Kohen, the representative of the merchants, to go to the courts with the purpose of recouping the value of the goods Khalaf has lost and sending the money back to Aden. In this letter, Khalaf asks Ḥalfon to assist Abū Zikri Kohen in this (r38–53). The letter continues with other business matters, including an update on the shipment of nard (sunbul) for Ḥalfon and his partner Mubārak al-Māliqī (i.e., from Malaga) that was detained in al-Qaṣṣ, evidently a location in NW India (r53–v3). Khalaf concludes with regards for Maṣliaḥ Gaon; for Ḥalfon's brother ʿEli Nezer ha-Maskilim; and for "the congregations." Khalaf is preoccupied that he has received no letters from Ḥalfon (v4–10). Information from Goitein and Friedman. ASE.

Recto: Letter from an unknown busybody in Minyat Zifta to the Nagid Avraham (II?) in Fustat/Cairo. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The purpose of the letter is to relate various improprieties ("matters proceeding not as they should," r13–14) of a muqaddam (perhaps of Minyat Ghamr?), al-Shaykh al-Sadīd. The first episode (r17–32): The local schoolteacher had to go to Cairo to pay his capitation tax (jizya) because he was originally from the Levant. When the teacher was delayed in returning, the community began talking about hiring a new teacher. Al-Sadīd caught wind of this and vetoed the proposal, fearing that a new teacher would be a nuisance (tashwīsh) to him, and he insisted that he teach the children himself. They responded that he was far too busy with his medical practice and serving as muqaddam, not to mention his business dealings. He persisted, and they said, "But you don't even live here!" He said that he would come live there until the original teacher came back. The teacher came back, and al-Sadīd was so enthusiastic about the additional income that he refused to let the children return to the original teacher, and he had made their parents vow to that effect. The community felt pity on the original teacher because of his poverty. The second episode (r32–45): During the same period of al-Sadīd teaching the children, someone fell sick in Minyat Zifta. A group of people, including another physician named al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab, came to visit the patient and found al-Sadīd attending him. Al-Sadīd rudely ignored al-Muhadhdhab. After everyone had sat around the patient, al-Muhadhdhab said, "Are you angry at me? I have been courteous to you, just like the community. I don't know what you want from me. I left you the synagogue and didn't attend today." Al-Sadīd (saracastically): "Thank God you found people to support you (against me?)." The writer of the letter editorializes: There were many people present who also don't attend the synagogue, but not because they were supporting al-Muhadhdhab, rather because they heard about how al-Sadīd had disparaged them. Back to the story: Al-Sadīd sighed and said: "How I hold back from complaining about my travails!" The writer: He didn't hold back at all. The third episode (r45–end): A certain judge (qāḍī al-ḥukm) was seriously ill (marīḍ bi-maraḍ shadīd), and al-Muhadhdhab was attending him "[against] his will and not for his good." This is unclear: was al-Muhadhdhab treating the judge incompetently, or was al-Muhadhdhab the one somehow coerced into this job? Meanwhile, al-Sadīd had been angling to get a connection to this judge. The judge had a slave with jaundice (khadīm bihi yaraqān). This too is unclear: is the slave acutely ill, or is this simply a description of his chronic state? Al-Sadīd came and spoke to the slave, and then came back with something to give to the slave—and the story ends here, unless the join is found. This document is possibly related to Bodl. MS heb. a 3/15, a letter from Avraham (I) Maimonides ordering a territorial muqaddam in Minyat Zifta/Minyat Ghamr to share his duties with his cousin al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 189, 560.) Verso: Mysterious page of notes in Judaeo-Arabic in at least two different hands. The items on this page include two recipes for staining (or dying? or removing stains? the word is tulaṭṭakh/laṭkh); Judaeo-Arabic poetry; a riddle or two; and an extended grammatical discussion of case endings after 'kāna and her sisters' and related topics. ASE.

Recto: Saʿadya's Tafsir on Psalms 116:7–118:2. Verso: a letter containing praises (Information from CUDL)

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim and Barhun b. Ishaq. 1061. Details about shipment of silk and linen cloths and a partnership in trading pearls. Mentions the news about the death of Isma’il b. Barhun al-Tahirti. Also mentions that the trading with Sicily is still happens despite the events in the island. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #295) VMR

Letter from Daniel Bavli b. Saadia, regarding a stranded Nasi, perhaps Yoshiyyahu b. Yishai, 1211 CE. Greetings are sent to various people, including Ḥananel, his brother Shelomo (i.e. the sons of Shemuel) and their sons, Avraham, Yosef and his son Yitzkhak, Shemarya, David, Yechezkel, Yeḥiʾel and his son. Mentions Meir (perhaps the son of Baruk from France), Yefet, Eliyahu, Kalev ha-Kohen, Saʿadya and his sons, Eliyahu, who is from Alexandria, and Elʿazar. A marginal note mentions a certain Yehuda. Verso: An ethical piece, a Midrashic passage. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shelomo Ha-Kohen Gaon b. Yehosef to a notable in Fustat and to its Jewish communities. This is the second leaf of a longer letter, which was pasted onto the (now lost) upper leaf. In Hebrew. Dating: 1025 CE. In particular, the letter is written to Yefet b. Toviyya (known as al-Nīlī, the indigo merchant), David b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Nasi, and Shelomo b. Ḥakīm al-Fāsī, and also to the heads of the congregations, the elders of the Jerusalemite and Babylonian communities, in which the Gaʾon asks that the recipients hasten to obtain, on his behalf, an overdue letter confirming his office from the caliph in Egypt (specifically al-Ẓāhir (r. 1021–35 CE)). It mentions the noble ḥaver Toviyya, who has come from Jerusalem, and refers to the Jerusalem Talmud. The Gaʾon complains about intercommunal strife, particularly in respect of Muḥsin b. Ḥusayn, who is praying at home rather than at the synagogue. (Information from CUDL and Goitein.)

Legal deed. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: Av 1413 Seleucid, which is July/August 1102 CE. The blind teacher Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Mevorakh sells to Turfa, the daughter of the late Ṭayyib al-ʿIblānī, half of a house in the Ḥarrānī street in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ for 51 dinars. The money was offered to him by the daughter’s mother, who is described as being from Aden. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 283, and from Goitein’s index card, where he adds: cf. Worman, JQR 18 (1905): 25–26.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter probably from Ḥalfon b. Netanel, probably in Fustat, to Yehuda ha-Levi. Dating: September 1140 CE. India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; full English to come).

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter from Evyatar ha-Kohen to ʿEli ha-Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: 1070 CE (per CUDL). Containing an agreement about sending letters from Jerusalem to Egypt; mentions a courier, ʿAzarya b. Ṣemaḥ, from the Qaraites "our friends". (Information from Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, 126-128) VMR

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar 1422 Seleucid, which is February–March 1111 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Mevorakh b. Seʿadya (who died in December of the same year). Groom: Salāma the freedman. Bride: name missing; a virgin. Marriage payments: 3 + 10 = 13 dinars. The marriage portion consisted of the price of half a house (in cash 14 dinars) and cloths, furniture, and household goods (at least 20 dinars); the total is not preserved. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter in the hand of Shemuel b. Natan to a circuit judge (Goitein's index cards). Nine persons mentioned by name acting as a board of arbitration with a circuit judge sent from the capital presiding. The circuit judge was advised by his superior to attempt a decision by law only if arbitration failed. Damira, dated ca. 1150. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 339, 601)