Geniza Lab

Legal document recording that Yaʿaqub al-Rumi deposited the trousseau of his wife Zayn with the beadle Ma‘ali pending a dispute between husband and wife. 18 Av 1098. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Legal document concerning the miller Yefet b. Eli, who undertakes payment of two dinars to his divorced wife, which he still owes her, in monthly installments. 1 Nisan 1100. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Legal document describing that Avraham b. Moshe and Shelomo ha-Kohen al-Bilbaysi dissolve their business and proposed family relations. Shelomo still owes 12 dinars, of which he pays six in cash and for securities he gives ‘khanaqa’ (a gold necklace). 24 Shevat 1100. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Legal document concerning a nasty financial quarrel between Shemarya b. Ḥalfon and his son Eli, detailing that Eli initially took their dispute to a shari‘a (Islamic) court where he sued his father for property that originally belonged to his mother. The case then went before a beit din (Jewish rabbinic court) where father and son agreed that the mother’s property would be sold and Eli would receive half. After Shemarya had fulfilled his end of the bargain, Eli would write him a writ of release in a shari‘a court, which would absolve him of all further claims according to Islamic law. Their agreement further specified that that the Islamic writ of release would also absolve Shemarya of all further claims in a Jewish court. Dated Shevat 1412 of the Seleucid Era (= 1100 CE). (Jessica Marglin, “Jews in Shari‘a Courts: A Family Dispute from the Cairo Geniza,” in Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times: A Festschrift in Honor of Mark R. Cohen, ed. A. Franklin, et al., Brill, 2014; 207, 216-24) EMS

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Deed regarding alimony provided by a husband for his wife in Tyre, while he travels to Egypt. The husband will provide wheat, oil, fuel, cash and service to his wife. Tyre or Tripoli, Lebanon, September/October 1102.

Bill of release. Location: Minyat Zifta. Dated: Monday, 23 Ṭevet 4864 AM, which is 24 December 1103 CE. Shelomo b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen had sent with Yāsīn Ibn al-Khabbāza a bale of flax and empowered Abū ʿAlī b. Fahd (al-wakil), known as Ibn Khulayf, to sell it. Abu Bishr Shelomo b. Furqan al-Kohen was present and reported the price garnered for it. One qintar belonged to Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:188, 446; Med Soc 2:532, n. 41; Goitein’s index cards; and Norman Golb, “Topography of Jews of Medieval Egypt,” JNES, 33 (1974), 145.) EMS

Lawsuit concerning a consignment of oil, which upon its arrival in Alexandria was left in the ship instead of being forwarded immediately to Fustat because the merchant in charge of it went directly to Palestine. Dated December, 1026. Verso: arbitration after the breaking off of a betrothal (PGPID 2120). (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Arbitration after the breaking off of a betrothal. A board of arbitration, consisting of four prominent citizens, decided that the brother of the bride, Tarib (Avraham, known as Abu Tarib) had to pay the groom nine of the fifteen dinars paid as a first installment of the marriage gift. Tarib also renounces any future claims of himself, his mother and sister might raise against the groom and his brother. December 22 1026.

Legal document regarding potential claims of Hayya al-Kohen b. Yeshu'a against the orphan son of Abu l-Surur al-Halabi. Mentions Perahya b. Natan. Dated Kislev 1419 of the Seleucid Era (= 1107 CE), and signed by Berakhot ha-Kohen b. Aharon and Yefet b. Hillel (GRU updated by MRC 05.17.16) See Frenkel, Qehillat Halab, 63-69.

Legal document. Inventory of estate. Dated: August 1108. Location: Cairo. Signed by Abraham b. Ḥalfōn b. Abraham and Isaac b. Abraham. Eleazar b. Araḥ assumes management of his father’s estate (including a shop) on behalf of his widowed mother and his brother, a youth. The valuation of the store one is in total 11.5 dinars (including 169 dirhams, rose marmalade, sugar, honey, and "potions"). His brother’s share, 5.75 dinars, is to be loaned to Eleazar for his investment or other use. There is no discussion of profit or loss sharing. Eleazar is charged with sustaining the widow and boy from assets that have been set aside for the purpose and upon which he has no claim. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 179)

Inventory of various kinds of building materials and wood (probably after the dismantling of a house), followed by "we saw the house and nothing remained after the aforementioned matter." Goitein calls it the inventory of the estate of a poor interior decorator. Signed by Eli b. Yeshu'a, Mevorakh b. Natan, Ḥalfon b. Saadya, Shela b. Menashshe, Ya'ir ha-Kohen b. Saadya (Information from CUDL and Goitein, Med Soc IV, p. 464 no. 240)

Verso: Betrothal deed between Nathan ha-Levi b. Isaac and Sitt al-Bayt bat Nathan ha-Parnas from Cairo. Dated Marḥešvan 1420 of the Seleucid Era (= 1108 CE). Written and signed by the clerk Moses ha-Levi b. David, also signed by Ṣemaḥ ha-Levi b. Jacob and ʿAmram b. Šemarya. (Information from CUDL) See T-S 8J4.22v, T-S 8J4.22A and Goitein's index cards below.

Agreement concerning a debt of 15 dinars for which Sedaqa ha-Levi b. Meshullam had stood surety for Hussein al-Hammami in a document drawn up in the Muslim court (wathiqa bi l-muslimin). 1110 (MRC 05.17.16)

Fol. 2v: Entry in a court notebook detailing that Sitt al-Milāḥ bt. Efrayim ha-Levi Rosh ha-Qahal ("the fairest of the fair"), the (ex-?)wife of Sason b. Yefet, sells part of her trousseau, each item specified, to pay for repairs on a house belonging to her in the al-Khandaq quarter. Dated: Thursday, 21 Elul 1421 Seleucid = 8 September 1110 CE. Written and signed by Avraham b. Natan Av. Also signed by Ḥalfon b. Yosef. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) EMS

Betrothal between two possible cousins (both named Levi), a groom whose father had died and a bride called Baghdad with a wedding gift of 25 dinars and the promise of the groom to be responsible for the payment of the expenses of the wedding which was to take place seven months later. Written by Avraham b. Natan, the judge. Cairo, October 1110.

Court record concerning the claims of Avraham ha-Levi b. Toviah, later referred to as Abu Ishaq b. Tiban, who has received 34 out of the past-due 68 dinars owed to him by Abu al-Faraj b. Ma’mar. 1108-9 CE. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 20 Shevaṭ 1422 Seleucid, which is 1111 CE. Quittance of the debt of Shelomo b. Ḥayyim ha-Sheviʿi made in court. Also mentions Abū l-Munā b. Ḥayyim (possibly identical with Shelomo) and Maṣliaḥ b. Yosef, the one granting the release. Cf. JRL Gaster heb. ms 1760/5 (upper fragment).

Verso: Legal memorandum submitted by Avraham b. Shemaʿya to Avraham (b. Natan) ("Foundation of the Yeshiva"). He reports that Yosef and his wife appeared before the court, and the wife appointed the elder Abū Sahl ʿAṭiyya as her agent to sue her husband on her behalf. (Information from Goitein's index card). EMS

Recto: End of a court record written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Monday, 25 Av 1423 Seleucid, which is 1112 CE. The case involves Abū l-Munā and Abū ʿImrān and the sale and purchase of various "ruqʿas" (promissory notes?) for different amounts of money (some are for 3 dinars and some for 5). One of the transactions was witnessed by 'Rabbenu.' Witnesses: Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, Avraham b. Shemaʿya, and Maʿrūf b. Yehuda. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)