Geniza Lab

Fragment of a copy of a letter by Sherira Gaʾon. (Information from CUDL)

Letter opening from Shelomo b. Yehuda to the communities, first half of the 11th century.

Original use: Short letter from Yosef b. Avraham, in Aden, to Avraham Ibn Yiju. Dating: ca. 1135–38 CE. The address is on part B as Yosef used to write so it would be seen when the letter is folded. In the available space Ibn Yiju wrote drafts of two questions about Halakhot (see PGPID 4718). (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book III: Avraham Ibn Yiju. pp. 84-88). VMR

Secondary use: Fragment of three responsa written by Ibn Avraham Ibn Yiju, most probably in Yemen. Dating: ca. 1151 CE. Written on a reused letter (see PGPID 4719). (Information from India Book III; IB III, 34 = T-S 10J9.24v IB III, 35 = T-S 10J32.6.)

Letter from [...] b. Aharon, in Ramla, to Abū Saʿīd Yaʿqūb, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf and Abū Sahl Saʿīd, sons of Yisrael (Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf and Abū Sahl Saʿīd are probably two of the known Tustarī brothers), and (Abū Yūsuf?) Yaʿqūb b. Yūsuf. The writer mentions several people including Abū ʿAlī Samuel, and items such as kerchiefs (mandīl; information taken partially from CUDL). The fragment is labeled "L18" in Shaul Shaked's (unpublished) classification of Early Judeo-Persian texts. OH

Letter from the Gaon Shemuel b. Yosef ha-Kohen perhaps to Shemarya b. Elḥanan. (Gil revised his guess as to the letter's writer after Menahem Ben-Sasson found the join T-S NS 310.43.) Previous description (Gil's original identification?): Letter fragments by Yoshiyyahu Gaon, concerning a dispute with the ‘father of the court’ Yosef b. Menaḥem ha-Kohen, approximately 1020. (Information from CUDL; see also Goitein's index card.)

Letter to 'al-haver al-Me'ulle Hakkam ha-Yeshiva' (the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya, 1095-1112) regarding business matters. Verso: Petition to a caliph.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Adar I 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. Abū l-Munā al-ʿAṭṭār Yaʿaqov b. David ha-Parnas declares that he has received from Abū l-Munā Shelomo b. Ḥayyim the Seventh a sum of 57 dinars as an investment that he is free to use as he pleases in the drug/perfume trade for a period of one year. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card)

Legal query concerning a newlywed girl who is scared of her husband who has a convulsion every time they attempt sexual intercourse. She is begging for divorce. She is still a virgin, dealing with whether a geṭ is necessary or not and what to do with the dowry payments. (Information in part from CUDL)

Lease of land belonging to the Qodesh, ca. 1180. Written on the surviving upper part of a leaf, this is a draft of a deed leasing a parcel of land belonging to the qodesh to Avraham ha-Levi (B. Yahya) al-Najib (al-Watiq). The parcel (saha) is in Dammuh, near the synagogue. It had been dedicated to Yesha'yahu ha-Levi b. Misha'el (Maimonides' brother-in-law) who, in a previous document, was appointed general administrator of the qodesh. The lessee is granted the right to build on the land and also to cultivate it and operate the saqiya on it. The lease is for a period of 30 years, for 180 dirhams, i.e. six dirhams a year; it is apparently a small parcel. In 30 years, it will revert to the qodesh. The purpose of the deal, from the point of view of the qodesh, might have been the revival of the Dammuh area, to prevent it from falling into decay. This was a practice known in Egypt during many centuries, taken over by the Muslim administration from the Hellenistic-Roman-Byzantine emphyteusis, meaning lease for a symbolic price, and sometimes exeption from taxes, in order to revitalize abandoned land. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 319 #75)

Fragment of power of attorney signed by four persons including the judge Shemuel b. Saadya (in office 1165-1203) and deputy judge Jephthah b. Yaʿaqov (in office 1182-1219). Dated to the last quarter of 12th century. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 124, 546.) Looks like the hand of the court scribe Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c. 1181–1209).

Release given by Avraham b. Moshe al-Talmid to Banat b. Khalaf al-Baidayani and her daughter Durra bat Yeshua. Dated ca. 1030. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Informal note addressed to a certain Yosef. Dating: Ca. 1210 CE (per Goitein). The hand may be known. (1) Abū l-Riḍā al-Wathīq has a power of attorney from Abū l-Bahā' al-Dimashqī regarding textiles (qumāsh), against Thiqa al-Dimashqī, demanding in particular a new silk shawl (miṭraf), which will be given as a pawn. The addressee Yosef will loan them the 40 dirhams. So now everyone is waiting for the addressee to advance them those 40 dirhams and himself take possession of the shawl. (2) The addressee is to get a copy of Avoda Zara (or its price) from Abū ʿAlī, and tell him what the sender had mentioned about Abū Zikrī and the raisins. (3) The addressee is asked to meet with Abū l-Maḥāsin b. Sitt Ghazāl and ask for news of Sitt Ghazāl. The sender wants to know where she lives so that he can go there and ask after her. He also wants to stay at Abū l-Maḥāsin's house with a friend. The pronouns are a bit tricky in this section, and it is not entirely clear if Abū l-Maḥāsin and Sitt Ghazāl live together or not. (Information mainly from Goitein's index card)

Beginning of a deposition about the payment of debts in a transaction involving a pledge of four books. Drafted in Fustat in Shevat 1489/January 1178. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 259, 465)

Beginning of a responsum in Judaeo-Arabic, calligraphically written. About the definition of "moredet" ("rebellious (wife)"); this authority says that it refers only to a woman who refuses to sleep with her husband, not other kinds of 'rebelliousness.' Also mentions the consequences for the return of the dowry. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document concerning a partnership between David ha-Levi and Ḥayyim Ṣanuaʿ (known as ʿAjamī), written in Fusṭāṭ in 5564 of the Era of Creation (= 1804 CE). Text is in Hebrew with Judaeo-Arabic translation after every few lines. Mentions sums of money such as 4500 meydim and 5000 meydim. Signed by the two parties and Matatiya b. Shekhanya, with a monogram signature of ʿAlī b. Shalom. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Salama b. Musa ha-Safaqusi, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Date: August 25, 1059. The writer informs the addressee about letters that arrived for him in ships. In addition, he details the ships movement from Mahdiyya, Sfax, and Sicily. The writer is about to sail from Alexandria, probably to Sicily. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #747) VMR

CUDL: Part of a legal ruling from Ramla, mid-11th century CE, in which the brothers Joseph and Nahum, sons of Yannay b. Nahum al-Baradānī the cantor, enlist the Sicilian judge Maṣlīaḥ b. Elijah, in a claim against Hillel b. Isaac. Gil: Segment of a court proceeding in Jerusalem, approximately 1065, in the hand of Shelomo b. Ṭoviya ha-Shelishi.

Fragment of a deed signed by Efrayim b. Shemarya (dated documents: 1007-1055), head of the Palestinian congregation and court of law, and four others. Dated to the middle of the 11th century.

Recto: calendar reckoning. Verso: legal document, mentioning Shela, his brother and a half qinṭar of mercury. (Information from CUDL)