Geniza Lab

Letter recounting a dispute. The writer is scared that someone will kill him should he fall into his hands. Mentions Elʿazar the judge, Abū l-Ḥasan, Abū l-Ṭāhir, Fusṭāṭ and Cairo. On verso are accounts in Arabic and the rest of the letter, obviously written around the Arabic accounts. (Information from CUDL)

Note, written in the first person and addressing R. Abraham in the second person. It concludes with ושלומך יגדל (probably). The matter of ‘Joseph son of the beadle’ is mentioned. Late 12th-13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document draft detailing that Makin, son of Moshe, the judge, was a proprietor of part of a sugar factory and agreed to sell his share to Ibrahim b. Abu Sa‘id. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:91, 373) EMS

Letter (petition) addressed to a certain notable named Perhaya. AA

Letter from Damietta to the Fustat community (קהלת מצר) to collect money for alimony and travel expenses, it seems, to Palestine, for two individuals. David and his father are addressed; Avraham, the judge, and “our teacher Hillel ha-hazzan ha-parnas” (the cantor and leader) are greeted. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) VMR and EMS

Recto and verso relate to the same case: the betrothal of a nine year old orphan girl. A court document recording the refusal of the grandmother of an orphaned bride to pay her granddaughter's dowry in full when the groom Abraham b. Yefet, fails to live up to the promises he made in the betrothal agreement. The elders arranged a compromise between the groom and bride's grandmother. Bilbays 1221. See also PGPID 2223.

Engagement (‘shiddukhin’) contract drafted in Bilbays, 1218, for a nine-year-old orphan girl named Sutayt, noting that she will “enter the huppa in the year 1523 (= 1221 CE), three years from today.” (Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 84, 251). Recto and verso relate to the same case; see also T-S 8J9.13 recto. EMS Written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who serves as the muqaddam of Bilbays. Published by Ashur, Engagement documents, p. 116-120. See also Mosseri VII.124.1, probably another contract related to the same couple.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Yemeni hand, according to Goitein. Wide space between the lines. Dealing with various commodities related to the India trade, including ambergris, ʿūd, unpierced pearls, camphor, pepper. Mentions ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Join: Oded Zinger. See also Goitein notes linked below.

Letter of recommendation from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides to be read in "the two synagogues," to help an old man named Yeshuʿa to travel to Jerusalem where his children lived. Bibliography: Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 67–104.

Letter of thanks addressed to the Nagid making reference to recommendations granted. The writer uses the phrase “the Mordechai of the age,” a common designation for communal leaders and court physicians. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:491, 642; and Elisha Russ-Fishbane, Judaism, Sufism, and the Pietists of Medieval Egypt: A Study of Avraham Maimonides and His times, Oxford University Press: 2015, 18 ) EMS Written by a person named Daud, who is well attested during this period. AA

I. Sale of 1/12 of a house containing two connected apartments and four silk workers shops. 1160. II. Note concerning claims on trousseau items between Tahir b. Abu Sa'd and his wife Fakhr bt. Abu Yiṣḥaq.

(I) Document concerning claims on trousseau items between Tahir b. Abu Sa'd and his wife Fard bat Abu Isaac. (II) Payment of a debt of five dinars less twelve dirhems in monthly installments. Khalaf al-Mutasawwiq b. Abu al-Surur owes Abu al-Muna b. Barakat; October 3, 1160. (III) Legal document concerning the partnership of a house. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Awaiting description

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Agreement to pay back a debt. Qalyub, March 1265.

Large fragment of a letter with accounts, especially of goods brought from Syria. “You have received from Muhammad al-Shami 1-1/6 for the price (‘an qimat) of the 40 dirhams that he borrowed from me.” Also mentions a clay vessel (barniyya) with melted butter; Egypt, twelfth century. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:381; 4:144, 397) EMS

Copy of three court proceedings involving the sale of a house. Najiya, the wife of the Yefet b. Avraham, 'The Pride of the Community,' made a 'conditional sale' of a house to Yosef Lebdi for 500 dinars. Lebdi moved his family to the ground floor and rented out the upper floors. For a year and ten months after the sale of the house, Lebdi still owed Najiya 80 dinars for the house. Only after he returned from another successful India voyage, he could pay this debt. The three court sessions were concerned with the rents due Najiya, an issue compounded by Lebdi's claim that the rent for the ground floor was included in the 80 dinars and the fact that the subtenants claimed that they paid part of their rent by repairs and upkeep to the house. The last court proceeding is apparently dated to April, 20, 1103. T-S 8J9.2 = IB I,24a.