Geniza Lab

Engagement (shiddukhin) contract. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 9 Kislev 1473 Seleucid, which is 29 November 1161 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Netanʾel b. Moshe ha-Levi. Groom: the teacher Shemuel b. Yosef. Bride: Sitt al-Baqāʾ bt. Yefet. Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30 dinars (the 10 dinars will be paid at the time of the wedding, 'dukhūl'). The bride’s representative (wakīl) is Abū Yaʿqūb b. Avraham Ibn Abū l-Zakkār, the paternal uncle of her mother. She will live with the groom’s mother and brother in one domicile (maskan) as long as this does her no harm. At the engagement, one ring of silver and of gold was handed over to the representative. Signed by Avraham b. Elʿazar and Avraham b. Yaḥyā ha-Levi. The validation (qiyyum) is written in the margin at 90 degrees and it is signed by Menaḥem b. Berakhot and Mevorakh b. Natan he-Ḥaver. (Information in part from Goitein’s index cards.) EMS

Verso: Record of the donation of one quarter of a compound by Sitt al-Naẓar bt. Ḥalfon to the qodesh. Dating: ca. 1161 CE. She also donates one-sixth of the same compound to Faḍāʾil b. ʿAwāʿiḍ Ibn al-Katnānī, a brother or some other relative of hers, on the condition that she herself shall have the usufruct of that part during her lifetime. After her death it will go to him, to his son, and to his mother Sitt al-Dār. After that, this part also will pass into the possession of the qodesh. Written by the judge Mevorakh b. Natan on the verso of an engagement contract dated 29 November 1161 CE. (Gil, Documents, pp. 299 #66.) EMS

Conditional bill of divorce. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: Av 1480 Seleucid, which is 1169 CE. The trader Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet gives this conditional divorce to his wife before setting out on a journey to Yemen. Signed by: Mevorakh b. Natan and Shemuel b. Seʿadya. See also T-S 12.585 recto and verso. (Information in part from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:192, 467; Amir Ashur and Ben Outhwaite, “Between Egypt and Yemen in the Cairo Genizah,” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, Vol. 5 (2014), 213.) EMS.

Avraham al-Najib I, a community official, wrote this document recording the support of two witnesses of the religiosity, piety and meticulous observance of Abu Zikri b. Mevorakh, in reaction to a claim made to the contrary by Avraham al-Najib. Fall 1172.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Sunday, 1 Sivan 1572 Seleucid, which is 1 May 1261 CE. Concerning a legal/administrative action taken by “Avraham ha-Darshan (the preacher) and the elders of the holy congregation” regarding the estate of the late Fakhriyya bt. Sulaymān b. Ḥananya of Mosul, daughter of Miryam. Her maternal uncle, Yosef b. Ḥabīb, was her sole heir. Signed by the elder Muḥriz b. Ṭahor, an almoner and public figure. (Information from CUDL and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:219, 494, 568; 3:188, 466.) EMS

Power of attorney given by a woman to a representative of hers by a third person, confirmed by her husband. She was introduced to the court by ‘Umm Abu al-Faraj, a woman from Jerusalem. July, 1127. Witnessed by Abu al-Faraj Yeshu‘a ha-Levi b. Sedaqa ha-Zaqen al-Musta‘mil al-Ramli. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 3:497; Moshe Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations from the Cairo Geniza, Brill, 1976, 258; and from Goitein’s index cards) EMS Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi. AA

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Legal document. Employment agreement. Dated: June 1127. This document records a qinyan between Abraham ha-Kohen b. Aaron and Isḥaq b. Sa‘īd in which Isḥaq agrees to work for Abraham to repay a debt of an unspecified amount. Isḥaq is to be compensated the fixed wage of 2 dirhams a day, with half a dirham going towards repayment of the loan. If Isḥaq leaves before the debt is fully repaid, his compensation is to be retroactively reduced to 1.5 dirhams a day, and he must still repay the debt; and if Abraham terminates him before the debt is fully repaid, his compensation is to be retroactively raised to 2.5 dirhams a day. As the two work together for a longer period, the incentive for each not to terminate the relationship increases. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 181)

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Yusuf b. Ali buys a Moroccan female slave from Shelomo b. Sameh for fourteen Egyptian dinars.

Court proceedings in the case of al-Wuhsha (or al-Wahsha) against Yosef Lebdi. Wuhsha's representative, Moshe b. Yeshua, sued Lebdi for what he claimed was the share of Wuhsha's brother, Abu Nasr, in Lebdi's merchandise, sold or unsold. The document is written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and was signed by Eli ha-Levi b. Nethanel and Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel, one of the two Fustat judges. The document is dated to June 30, 1104.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: shortly before Elul 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. Abū l-Munā Yiṣḥaq b. Netanel ha-Levi sued Abū l-Faraj Menaḥem b. Shemarya ha-Levi with a document that had been drawn up in Muslim courts requiring Abū l-Faraj to repay debts and silk and everything else owed to Abū l-Munā (perhaps after the dissolution of a partnership?). A compromise was reached in Jewish court, namely, that Abū l-Faraj will settle and pay 1 defective (? ʿālil) dinar and 2 proper dinars. He pays the defective dinar at this time and agrees to a monthly payment plan (for a period of 3 months) for the outstanding 2 dinars. Joins: Oded Zinger.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location; Fustat. Dated: Monday night, 29 Ṭevet 1438 Seleucid, which is 1127 CE. The wife, "out of her free will," gives the husband Yeshuʿa the right to lock her in whenever he likes and accepts upon herself not to leave the house without his permission. There is mention (details missing) of 20 dinars owed by him to her. Signed by: Ḥalfon b. Ghālib the cantor; Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Note to Abu l-Makarim Moshe b. Yehezqel ha-Levi, urging him to come to court because of alimony claims from his wife, threatening him with a heavy fine should he not oblige. Signed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. (Information from CUDL)

Acknowledgement of receipt of money by Abu al-Faraj b. Shanuda the Christian seaman, leader of the sailors of "the weavers," from Abu Sa’d Daniyal b. Mina in the town of Akhmim. Dated: Jumada II 534 (January–February 1140). (Information from Khan) EMS Reused by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo (see PGPID 34347).

Court record concerning evidence of possession of a compound in Fustat, mentioning lanes and buildings in the city. July 1130.

Record of testimony. Fragment (upper left corner). Location: Fustat. Dated: End of Sivan 152[.] Seleucid, which is 1209–18 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Involves [...] b. Abū l-Yumn (ZL) and [...] al-Ṣabbāgh b. Abū l-Surūr. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterannean Society, 3:327, 500.) EMS. Same scribe: T-S 8J6.1, T-S 8J6.2, T-S 8J11.6, and probably T-S 16.341.

Petition in which the sender reports that a certain person (dhāt al-shakhṣ) had not come down from the citadel (al-qalʿa), and the ruler and Jamāl al-Dīn were busy with the arrival of Ibn al-Jawz (or perhaps Ibn al-Jawzī). In addition, R. Yehuda has gone out to the shop, and the payments for alimonies (presumably orphans staying with the writer) were incomplete, and he asks for relief. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards) EMS

Verso: Record of the scribe Abū l-Faraj b. Abū Naṣr b. al-Mesos in which he testifies to having received from Shelomo ha-Nasi one Egyptian dinar. He will repay by copying. Dated: end of Av 1549 Seleucid, which is 1238 CE. No signatures. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Leaf from a notebook or register of some sort. The two pages are each headed "faṣl," like other documents from the dossier of the Mosul Nasi Shelomo b. Yishay (and this document may be in the same hand). Goitein initially read the date on verso as Elul 4955 AM, but it seems more likely that it is Elul 1553 Seleucid, which is 1242 CE. On recto there is a formulary for a clause in the marriage contract in which the groom is held responsible if he has intercourse with his wife before she has counted the full seven days and immersed in the ritual bath (miqve), in which case he has to divorce her with full ketubba payments. On verso there is the beginning of a court record, mentioning Shelomo ha-Talmid ha-Mevin, with pen trials in Hebrew script and jottings of accounts in Arabic script (mentioning two commodities and their weights; one of them is ṭabāshīr/bamboo chalk). (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's notes.) ASE