Geniza Lab

4 late responsa about excommunication enforced on a banker who took a loan and refused to pay it back (data from FGP by Glick) .

Ketubba for Sitt al-Banāt. In the hand of Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (1125–50). The ends of 6 lines are preserved. The groom undertakes not to curse the bride or treat her with disrespect. The identification of the scribe as Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen allows us to tentatively date the letter to the last years of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon (1138–39) when there was a mutiny against the government, and Maṣliaḥ picked the wrong side, so that many Jews were jailed and Maṣliaḥ himself was executed in 1139. (Information from Amir Ashur.)

Verso, continuing onto recto between the lines (secondary use): Letter describing a requisition (muṣādara) carried out against a whole town, in which Muslims, Christians, Samaritans and Jews were all affected, with the latter suffering even more than the others. All clothing and provisions of wheat and wine hoarded in the house of the writer's maternal uncle were plundered; even the rope of the well was taken way. The authority ordering the requisition is referred to as the biblical 'Haman the wicked'. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 393.) The sender himself was interrogated by the raqqāṣīn who were searching for his uncle, but he pretended to be not from there and fled. The letter refers to three obscure torture devices or techniques: "they in{ser}ted the ʿṬY (עטי), the hinbāzīn (הנבאזין), and the khazm (? כזם) in their (the Jews') noses (v3). Later, the sender explains that a person who has had the ʿṬY enter his flesh will not heal (r5–6). The meaning of ʿṬY is not clear; khazm is also not clear, but comes from a root referring to piercing, sometimes nose piercing. The term hinbāzīn/הנבאזין/هنبازين is apparently known from Coptic martyrologies (according to some sources deriving from Greek ἑρμητάριον < Latin armentarium < Armentarius, the nickname of the emperor Galerius Maximianus); see https://st-takla.org/Coptic-Faith-Creed-Dogma/Coptic-Rite-n-Ritual-Taks-Al-Kanisa/Dictionary-of-Coptic-Ritual-Terms/9-Coptic-Terminology_Heh-Waw-Yeh/henbazeen.html and Phillips Barry, "Martyrs' Milk" (1914) (https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Open_Court/VuoXAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=ermetarion&pg=PA563&printsec=frontcover). Recto (original use): Ketubba for Sitt al-Banāt. In the hand of Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (1125–50). The ends of 6 lines are preserved. The groom undertakes not to curse her or treat her with disrespect. The identification of the scribe as Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen allows us to tentatively date the letter to the last years of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon (1138–39) when there was a mutiny against the government, and Maṣliaḥ picked the wrong side, so that many Jews were jailed and Maṣliaḥ himself was executed in 1139. (Information from Amir Ashur.)

A letter, almost complete, from Shelomo b. Shem Tov, who served as a proxy of the Jerusalemite community in Egypt. The writer admonish the addressee for his lack of support for him. Closer to the end of the letter the writer explain his mission, to encourage Jews to arrive and live in Jerusalem. Probably 2nd half of the 15th century (data from FGP by Avraham David)

Query to the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda (lines 1–7), with his responsum below (lines 8–15). See also PGPID 31556.

Recto: Legal query in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Yiṣḥaq the judge (perhaps Yiṣḥaq b. Sason from the court of Maimonides). Concerns a business partnership between a Muslim and a Jew. The Muslim collected interest from the Jew on the Muslim's money which the Jew was doing business with. The interest amounted to the entire sum that the Jew would have earned as his salary. The Muslim drew up a document against the Jew for collecting this debt. The question is if the Jew may deny the validity of the document in front of the Muslim court (here called "Beit Din") and even to swear falsely to prevent the Muslim from getting the money. (Information from עקיבא סילבצקי via FGP.)

Verso: List of names and numbers in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Probably a contributions list. E.g., Bū l-Manṣūr al-Sadīd, Bū l-Ḥasan b. ʿImrān(?), al-ʿAmīd, al-Rashīd, Bū l-Fakhr al-ʿAṭṭār (=Seʿadya Ibn al-Amshāṭī?), Bū l-Fakhr Ibn al-Ḥalabī, Ibn al-Ṣūrī, Faḍāʾil, Bū l-Munā al-Ṣayrafī, Bū l-Maʿālī al-Simsār. These are all typical names of the second half of the 12th century, which would support the identification of the Yiṣḥaq on recto with Yiṣḥaq b. Sason.

Letter from Yehuda b. Ṭuviyyahu ha-Kohen, in Bilbays to Berakhot ha-Sar, presumably in Fustat. The subject matter is cryptic; Yehuda assures the addressee that he is fulfilling his promise. He excuses the lack of a letter by saying there was no messenger, but then he found the addressee's brother outside of the Muslim court (dār al-qāḍī) one morning with a riding beast, so he asked him to wait until he could scrawl this note. On verso there are two legal queries in adifferent hand.

One of two drafts (the other is Moss. Ia,7) of a curious and obsequious letter from a man whose handwriting is known, apparently to a man named Yahya b. Khalid who has a son named Abu l-Mahasin. In this version: he describes how he saw the recipient in the kitchen on Sunday and an idea occurred to him that the recipient approved of (possibly to travel to somewhere other than Bilbays?). However, the writer decided it would be better for him to travel to Bilbays. He has not traveled yet, because it is unthinkable to travel when the doors of the house are still in their sorry state: the main door needs to be fixed, and the door of the upper floor/apartmnet needs to be replaced completely. He alludes in very vague terms to his personal difficulties (according to the other copy, a febrile illness since Friday). He then gives his excuse for not having come to attend the recipient (before he traveled?) as requested; he says merely that he had a good reason (in the other copy, he cites his fever) and that he cut off his prayers and tried to fulfill the command. He goes back to the matter of the doors to explain why he has not yet left the house. Other letters that may be in his handwriting (distinctive in part for including Arabic diacritics over Hebrew letters, e.g. two dots for "t" and three dots for "th"): T-S 12.346, T-S 8J15.20, T-S 12.652 (dated after 1165/6), and T-S AS 151.22. ASE.

No such number exists

Legal declaration, probably the concluding page of a deposition, signed by Shem Ṭov al-Ḥāmī. In Hebrew and Ladino. Dating: Late. Shem Ṭov declares that he vowed to undertake the nezirut of Samson (i.e., abstain from wine and let his hair go wild) when his son had an eye disease. He wanted his mother-in-law to come visit her daughter and sick grandson, so Shem Ṭov told her that he had beaten her daughter. This had the desired effect, but led to a great quarrel, in which both Shem Ṭov and his wife denied any beating, and the mother-in-law asks, "Why are you denying the truth?" At this point they wanted the mother-in-law to leave them alone, but she refused to leave without her daughter. Shem Ṭov made a fist and threatened her in order to end the argument. The husband concludes by reporting the words of his vow to refrain from wine and, it seems, not to leave his wife alone on Sabbath (meaning that he would fulfill his conjugal obligations), "Yo recibo nezirut Shimshon bar Manoaḥ baʿal Delilah con todos sus tena'im de non dexarla עלא דומתי (?) on the Sabbath." He signs Shem Tov ("Good Name") al-Ḥāmī, watchman of a quarter. "The purpose of the declaration was, of course, that the impulsive watchman thirsted for wine and wished to be absolved from his overhasty vow." Information from Weiss and Goitein (Med. Soc, II, 608 n. 41 and Med Soc V, 110 and 536–37). ASE.

Legal query in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (found by Amir Ashur), with the responsum at the bottom signed by Shelomo b. Natan.

See T-S 12.397

Letter from Abū l-Faḍl, in Alexandria, to his son Ismāʿīl al-Fāṣid al-Yahūdī, in Aden. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dated: Iyyar of the year 571 AH, which is 1175/76 CE. Awaits more detailed summary. See Goitein notes linked below.

Rough draft of a question probably sent to a Gaon in Palestine.

Query to Avraham Maimonides.

Responsum of a Babylonian Gaon.

Responsum from Shelomo b. Yehuda Gaon, in the hand of his son Avraham, regarding levirate marriage, Palestine.

Copies of various texts written by Yosef Rosh ha-seder, including Maimonides responsum no. 138 and more.

Fragments of responsum by a Gaon, dealing with children of female slaves.