Geniza Lab

India Book I, 3: Court proceedings dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. The document deals with Lebdi's debt of 40 dinars to Yequtiʾel for a sale of indigo. The document is written in the hand of Nethanel b. Yefet (though the title was written probably by Hillel b. Eli) and is dated February 22, 1098.

India Book I, 8: Court proceedings from Fustat dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. This is the verso of the second leaf of the bifolium that CUL Add.3420 once comprised. Goitein cited this side as CUL Add.3420d. At the bottom of the document there is a separate record (not found here) dealing with a complaint of Karima, known as Wuhsha. The recto contains the text of I, 15 and CUL Add.3420.1 contains the text of I, 3. At this court session it was agreed that Yosef Lebdi should settle his accounts with Yequtiʾel. He would then be entitled to take out of Yequtiel warehouse all the goods to which the latter could not make claim. Both agreed not to appeal to a Muslim court. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated April 19, 1098.

India Book I, 15: Three testimonies regarding collateral given by and returned to Yosef Lebdi, the India trader. Lebdi owed Ḥasan b. Bundar, 'the representative of the merchants' in Aden, 40 dinars for an indigo deal. Until Lebdi could pay the debt in full he had to deposit collateral, probably because he was a foreigner, who was expected to leave the town. The first and last of these three entries are written and signed by Nethanel b. Yefet. This is the recto of the second leaf of CUL Add.3420. The first leaf contains document I, 3 and the verso of this page is document I, 8. Goitein referred to this document as CUL Add.3420c.

India Book I, 4–5: Court proceedings dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. After five months, the court in Fustat reconvened to discuss the litigation begun in India Book I, 1-2. Apparently the two sides waited for their merchandise to arrive from Aden, but when it failed to arrive, the legal proceedings were continuEd. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated April 8, 1098. The document begins with the lower half of CUL Add.3421 and continues in Bodl. MS heb. d 66/64v. The upper half of CUL Add.3421 is I, 2 in the India Book. I, 4: CUL Add.3421 (lower half) I, 5: Bodl. MS heb. d 66/64

Document regarding claims concerning, among other things, a Siddur that was purchased. Persons named as concerned (line 1) are Abu Fadl b. al-Assal and Ibn al-Lawwaz Sar Shalom b. Yakhin the cantor. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel, Avraham b Shema'ya, and Nissim b. Nahray, who were active, signing documents, at the beginning of the 12th century in Fustat. Part of a notary's notebook. CUL Add.3422 a-b CUL Add.3422 c-k (Information from Goitein's index cards).

Document regarding claims made at court. Persons named as concerned (line 1) are Ibn Hadida and Abu al-Ala al-Halabi and in the body of the document, Aharon b. Moshe and Shelomo b. Hillel, regarding transactions made by the claimant's father. Dated Nisan 1409/ March 1098. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel, Avraham b Shema'ya, and Nissim b. Nahray, and in the postscript adding more details, the same three plus Hillel b. Eli. Part of a notary's notebook, see also CUL Add.3422 a-b (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 601)

Deposition from Minyat Zifta, signed by five witnesses, in which two persons testify to the poverty of a man named Sulayman b. Ḥasan, who had been condemned to imprisonment for insolvency when his Jewish debtor had brought him before a Muslim court. Dated Sivan 1486/ June 1175. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 204)

Karaite marriage contract of the groom Hezekiah and the bride Sarwa written in Shevat 1339/ February 1028 in Jerusalem. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 50, 376)

Karaite ketubba (marriage contract) from Jerusalem, January 1028.

"A fragment of vellum containing a Latin text of a sermon by Saint Augustine — an unquestionably Christian text — is probably one of the last things you’d expect to find in the Cairo Genizah. Christian texts do find their way into the Collection, however, often as the undertext of palimpsests, as here, where a piece of vellum containing Book 2 Chapter 24 of St. Augustine’s De Sermone Domini in Monte (the Sermon on the Mount) has been reused by a Jewish scribe to write masoretic lists. The manuscript was barely scraped, or perhaps only washed, before being reused, and the Latin text, which is in a hand probably dating from the sixth century CE, is still clearly legible where it is exposed in the clear space between the columns of Hebrew text. The masoretic lists are in an early hand too, probably of the 9–10th century, and preserve notes to 1 Samuel 9, including a list of the occurrences of the plene spelling of ‘Benjamin’. As would be expected, there are a number of differences between the lists and the standard critical edition of the Masoretic Text in use today (which is based on Codex Leningrad B19a)." Information from Outhwaite, B. (2007). St Augustine in the Genizah. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, May 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.40134.

Piyyutim, as well as divorce and marriage contract formulae from a Palestinian siddur with Judaeo-Arabic instructions (probably not the siddur of R. Nathan).The marriage formulae follow the Palestinian tradition but the divorce formulae follow the Babylonian tradition, and the place given is Ṣoʿan Miṣrayim (Fusṭāṭ). One piyyuṭ, a rahiṭ, is dedicated to ‘our lord Evyatar’ (Evyatar b. Elijah Gaʾon, died prior to 1112 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba (marriage contract), formulary, found inside of a Palestinian prayerbook. The booklet also contains formularies for a bill of divorce and the husband's instructions to the scribe and witnesses for issuing that deed. For the location, the bill of divorce gives "City X, adjacent to Ẓoʿan Miẓrayim (=Fustat), which is situated on the river Nile." There is also a poem dedicated to "our lord Evyatar (b. Eliyyahu)," who was the Gaon during the last two decades of the elevent century. There are eleven additional leaves from the same booklet in MS. Dropsie 211. Information from Mordechai Akiva Friedman.

Legal document or letter, fragment, probably written by Hillel b. ʿEli. (Information from CUDL)

Various Geonic responsa. (Information from CUDL)

Maimonides’ responsa to the sages of Lunel. Headings שאלה and תשובה. (Information from CUDL)

Book list and a quotation from a halakhic source or a responsum. Probably in the hand of Joseph Rosh ha-Seder (late 12th and early 13th century). (Information from CUDL)

Medical recipe. (Information from CUDL)

Responsum in a literary style concerning a dispute between husband and wife, written in the hand of Yeḥiʾel b. Elyaqim (active 1213-1233 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Quittance or bill of release (barāʾa) from Almeria, in al-Andalus, confirmed in Egypt. Individuals mentioned include […] b. al-Naḡara, Ḥalfon ha-Levi, Yiṣḥaq b. Aharon, Yosef ha-Levi b. Ḥarith, Yiṣḥaq b. ʿOvadya b. Yiṣḥaq, and Yiṣḥaq b. Yaʿaqov. The document is probably connected with Ḥalfon b. Nathaniel ha-Levi. (Information from CUDL.) Join by Mordechai Akiva Friedman.

Poems in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew attributed to Shalom Shabazi (poet of 17th-century Yemen).