Geniza Lab

Legal document. Partnership agreement (copy). Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Tishrei 1424 Seleucid, which is 1112 CE. Same case as T-S NS 321.50. Both fragments refer to the renewal of a trading partnership worth 3,750 dinars for which profits are divided equally, and the partners are granted an allowance for their maintenance. The parties are Berakhot b. Yaʿaqov; Abū l-Wafāʾ Tamīm b. Ḥalfon. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 260.) NB: T-S Misc.28.263 is sometimes mistakenly cited as T-S Misc.28.283.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Dated: Tuesday, 17 Elul 16[29?] Seleucid, which would be 1318 CE. (Goitein suggests 1292–97 CE, but that does not seem possible.) Under the reshut of the Nagid Avraham b. David (Avraham II) Maimonides. If indeed this is from 1318 CE, it might be the latest known mention of Avraham II as Nagid. Groom: Shemuel b. Shela ha-Talmid. Bride: Muwaffaqa bt. Yeshuʿa, a widow. No dowry mentioned. 5+20=25. Information in part from Goitein's index card.

Ketubba. Dating: Drawn up under the authority of the Nagid Yiṣḥaq Sholal (d. 1524). Groom: Yaʿaqov b. Yosef b. Yaʿqov. Bride: Raḥma/Ruḥama bt. Yosef, a divorcee from a previous betrothal. Cf. T-S Misc.28.71 (dated 1492 CE). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba. 16 lines preserved. Dating: Probably 13th century. (See Goitein's index card for further information.)

Receipt in Arabic and Hebrew script for a purse full of coins from Nahray b. Nissim to Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy in Alexandria.

Shipping certificate from Nahray b. Nissim probably to Moshe b. Yahya al-Majani. Around 1065. Detailed the coins that were in a coin packet. Verso: Details about several dinar amounts, as well as the name b. al-Majani. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #301) VMR

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Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below. This letter may be continued in Bodl. MS heb. d 66/14 (identified by Oded Zinger).

Letter from Yehuda b. Ismāʿīl al-Andalusī, Sicily, to Nissim b. ʿAyyāsh, Fustat. Dating: ca. 1060. Mentions a shipment of shelled almonds and lāsīn silk sent from Sicily in the ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ and its distribution to its owners in Fustat. Also mentions selling pepper that was sent to Sicily. Ismāʿīl, Yehuda’s father, is mentioned in the blessing for the people who passed away. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #577) VMR

Letter addressed to a parnas. On parchment. In Hebrew. Presumably written by a European or Byzantine Jew. Asking the addressee to increase the allotment of two loaves of bread, which was not sufficient, and also toa ddress the community on Shabbat that they should do something for the foreigner. (Information from Goitein's index card.) See Med Soc II, App. B, 94.

Small part from a legal document, mentioned: יאשיהו. Written by Nathan b. Shmuel ha-Haver (Date: 1128-1154)

List of persons, headed by R. Nahray (Nahray), on the payroll of the community. Goitein says: scholars on the payroll of the Cairene commuity. Similar to BodlC28.6 (App. B 12) and T-S K15.70 (App. B 13), both ed. Mann, Jews, II, 246-247. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, 441, App. B 14).

end of a legal document signed by: [...] Mevorakh, Hillel b. Zadoq, Hiyya b. Ishaq, Frihuna b. Yeshu'a Probably from 1150–1160.

Legal document. On parchment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves [...] b. Ṣadaqa ha-Zaqen and an Abū l-Riḍā. Mentions the port of ʿAkka and somebody who drowned in the Indian Ocean. Med Soc III, IX, C, 4, n. 48. Acre was taken by the Crusaders in 1104. (Information from Goitein's attached notes.)

Bill of divorce (geṭ). Dated: Kislev 1100 CE. Signed by Ḥillel b. ʿEli and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Husband: Shela b. Yehuda. Wife: [...] bt. Avraham. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

A draft of few line of an opening formula of a legal document written by Nathan b. Shmuel ha-Haver (Date: 1128-1154)

Inventory of silver vessels and expensive fabrics belonging to the two Rabbanite synagogues in Fustat, which were given to Maḥfūẓ, the beadle of the Jerusalemite synagogue. Dated: Av 1470 Seleucid, which is 1159 CE. The right side of this document is TS Misc.28.51 and the left side is TS NS J296. NB: This was previous listed as "Responsum of a Babylonian Gaon" on PGP. (Seems ro be written by Meir b. Hillel b. Zadoq. AA)

Petition of a teacher. Fragment of a letter written by a teacher, apparently to one of the parnasim of the qodesh. Insisting that he is in distress, the applicant evokes a decision of the Nagid, David b. Avraham, giving him the right to live in an apartment of the qodesh for the reduced rent of 12 dirhams. It appears that after having lived in it for 13 years, he is faced with a demand for increased rent. (Information from Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations, pp.480-481, #146)

Court document. Declaration of a ban of excommunication against anyone who owes money in any form to Abū l-Khayr al-Ṣayrafī known as Ibn Khalfa and does not hand it over to his son Abū Saʿīd, and against anyone who has relevant testimony and does not bring it to the attention of the court. "He will be cursed to the God of Israel etc., after the Torah scroll is dressed in black and the shofar is blown." There is the beginning of a postscript perhaps stating that anyone owed money by Abū l-Khayr should also come forward. On verso there is a very similar document but wiht stronger curses.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Thursday, 9 Adar 1373 Seleucid, which is 1062 CE (this appears on verso). Involving Hiba b. Avraham and his wife. He may be pawning the items of her dowry. Needs further examination.