Geniza Lab

Letter from Me'ir to his friend or relative Abū ʿImrān, announcing his arrival and greeting the trustee Abū l-Makārim, the cantor Abū Manṣūr, Abū l-Munā, and various relatives. He also requests a detailed update on the news of the country, as if he were present, "and who died." Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter of recommendation for a cantor, preacher, and scholar Shemuel b. Yehosef, who had sojourned many years in Palestine ("arḍ al-Quds") and "Baghdad and Iraq," and had seen the tombs of the saints and the places where the prophets had wrought miracles and wanted now to proceed to (where?). Five signature and the rest of a sixth visible. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document: testimony on the date of a bill of divorce written by Yaʿaqov b. Avraham, Yosef Lebdi's travel companion. The document is dated to April 5, 1095.

Fragment of an agreement for a planned engagement from the city of Cairo in the year 1191. The fragment is faded and very difficult to decipher. The suggested reading is uncertain. From what can be salvaged, it appears that the son acts as his father's representative for the marriage. The father might have been going through the divorce procedures while the son was handling the arrangements of the wedding with the new wife. If this is the case, it is a unique situation which does not appear elsewhere.

Court record in the record book of Fustat dealing with the remains of an inheritance in Qayrawan. Dated Adar 1345/March 1034.

Legal document. Draft. Dated: 18 Av 15[..] Seleucid. More of the date might be deduced from the titles of the Nagid. The document involves Abū l-Munajjā b. Seʿadya and Hiba b. Shelomo.

List of books that [...] al-Dawla Abū l-Barakāt inherited from the late Abū l-[...]. The first two items are difficult to read (except for maqāla in both and al-malikī in item 2). The remaining items are two volumes of Kitāb al-Filāḥa, a volume of al-Mutanabbī, a volume of Adab al-Kātib, a volume of ashʿār wa-tuḥaf (sounds like a literary anthology), a volume containing a grammar treatise, and two volumes of Kitāb al-Aghānī. 10 books altogether. Dated: Tuesday, 1[8?] Av. The first two items are called نسخة and the remainder جزء. ASE

Legal deed. Dated 1145 CE. Involves Abū l-Makārim b. Abū l-Faraj al-Parnas, [...] b. Yeshuʿa, and Abū Saʿd Seʿadya b. Menashshe al-Kohen. Needs examination.

Fragment of a will, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, in which the donor, an old man being in good health, specifies the legacies made by him, especially in favor of his wife, emphasizing that they were irrevocable. Also he gives a bible codex, bible commentaries, and other books to synagogue in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 133)

Folio 1: Recto contains two names, perhaps Avraham ha-Rav ha-Gadol Yesod ha-Yeshiva b. Natan Av Bet Din she-le-Kol Yisrael and Ḥiyya b. Meshullam, perhaps witnesses to a legal document. Verso contains elaborate titles addressed to Avraham ha-Rav ha-Gadol Yesod ha-Yeshiva.

Legal document. Possibly written in Damsīs. Little remains except for the date: Tevet 1424 Seleucid, which is 1112/13 CE. One of the witnesses is Aharon ha-Kohen b. Avram.

Statement signed in 1225 CE by Judge Eliyyahu about a sale in the bazaar of a woman's clothes-- see Goitein Nachlass material

Legal deed. Release given to Ṣedaqa ha-Levi by his divorcee. Written and signed by Natan b. Shemuel, Elul 1145 CE. Cosigned David ha-Palit b. Asaf and Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq. Same three signatories as in CUL Or.1080 J49. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Deed of sale for 1/12 of a house located in the ṣuqʿ Maḥras ʿAmmār. The seller is Shemuel b. Yehoshuaʿ he-Ḥaver. The original document had been lost. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Draft of the beginning of a legal query addressed to the judge Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim). Dating: ca. 1220 CE. The question is whether a woman who was suspected, but not convicted, of intimate relations with a man was allowed to marry him, in particular as he was prepared to give an oath that no such relations had occurred. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Beginning of the draft of a legal query to the judge Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim) concerning the trousseau of a woman in levirate status, most of which had been lost. It was local custom to return to such a woman the trousseau in full. Dating: Early 13th century. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter to Meshullam b. Elazar. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. It seems to consist solely of flattering greetings. Dating: Probably late.

Petition to al-Mustanṣir in Arabic, preliminary draft (possibly also in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya), complaining about the closure of the Palestinian synagogue in Fusṭāṭ, c. 1040 CE. Mentions Natan b. Avraham, who ‘arrived from the West, claiming the position of the head of our Academy, and who has been head of this Academy for 16 years’, the amir Munjiz al-Dawla, and the ‘slave of our master, Daʾūd b. Ishaq’. The situation concerns the leadership dispute between Shelomo b. Yehuda and Natan b. Avraham over the leadership of the Palestinian Academy. The congregation of the closed Palestinian synagogue had apparently been loyal to Shelomo b. Yehuda, and Natan b. Avraham had used his contacts in the government to have the synagogue closed. (Information from CUDL) This Arabic hand definitely belongs to Efrayim b. Shemarya (Marina Rustow).

Legal documents, drafts, in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya concerning a legal dispute between Yiṣḥaq (Surūr) b. Yaʿaqov b. Aharon, known as al-Jāsūs (אלגאסוס), and his ex-wife Surūra b. Shelomo the physician b. Rabīʿ who moved with their three children from Qayrawān to Fusṭāṭ. When her husband left, the wife claimed her dowry. As he has no money he suggests giving her his share (the roof) of a house in Qayrawān, which he had inherited along with his brother and sister from his father, instead. It is worth 295 dirhams, which is 5 dirhams less than her dowry. In a second document he hands over the roof and she states that he is no longer obligated to her. Dated 1351 Seleucid (= 1040 CE). T-S 13J8.2, part of CUL Or.1080 J7, and T-S NS J149 all include versions of the same document, or at least concerning the same case. Verso: continuation of the drafted documents and a preliminary draft of a petition to al-Mustanṣir (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Petition to the caliph, draft in the Arabic handwriting of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: January 1039. Concerns the closing of a synagogue in Fustat, following the requests of Natan b. Avraham and his family members.