Geniza Lab

Recto: Large legal document. Mentions Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham, and deeds of trustworthiness (שטר נאמנות) and/or release (שטר אביזאריה). Verso: Two columns of difficult Arabic script. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) Needs further examination.

Recto: opening of a Hebrew letter, with much of the text illegible. The poetic opening is neatly arranged in two columns, with extended letters, and the main text has a reference to prisoners. Verso: probably a draft of another Hebrew letter. Written inverted in relation to the main text, there seems to be the draft of a Judaeo-Arabic legal document. (Information from GRU catalogue via FGP.)

Marriage contract. Location: Cairo. Date is missing. Groom: Natan ha-Kohen b. Shela ha-Zaqen. The trousseau list may be found in ll. 6–13. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.) On verso there are jottings of Hebrew literary text.

Letter, in Judaeo-Arabic with an opening in Hebrew, from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to Shelomo b. Sa'adya and the community of Rafah, concerning a dispute over an inheritance that drove the losing party to appeal to the Muslim court, approximately 1020. (Information from CUDL)

Draft of a letter of recommendation by Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon, on behalf of the scribe of the Yeshiva, Shemuel b. Semah the cantor (left side). (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba fragment. Groom: Ḥalfon b. ʿEli. Bride: Zayn, a virgin. See Goitein's index card.

Legal deed: record of payment (שטר שילום), written on parchment. Nine signatures. Dated: 1419 Sel. (1108 CE).

Fragment of a Karaite ketubba, 11th-century Fustat. Information from FGP.

Recto: Ketubba fragment. Groom: Yefet b. Maṣliaḥ. Bride: Zahr bt. Yosef ha-Kohen. Verso: Document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, written on the eve of Yom Kippur, 1120 CE, after the couple had long been separated, concerning the conditions for their divorce. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Needs further examination.

Marriage contract in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated October 1116 (Thursday, 11 Marḥershvan, 142...). The marriage gift consists of 16 dinars. The bride is a divorcee on whose earning the husband will have no right, but who will provide her clothing by herself. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 380.)

Marriage contract in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated October 1116 (Thursday, 11 Marḥershvan, 142...). The marriage gift consists of 16 dinars. The bride is a divorcee on whose earning the husband will have no right, but who will provide her clothing by herself. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, p. 380.) NB: Goitein identified T-S 8.210 as a join with T-S 12.164 + Bodl. MS heb. b 12/19, but this does not seem definite.

Verso: Marriage contract dated 1050, between Saadya b. Maymun and Ḥasana bat Levi, mentioning 5 dinars that will be given at the time of the wedding and 20 dinars deferred. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 398) Recto: various texts, including a formula for a bill of divorce, and a Hebrew poem.

Legal document. Location: al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā. Dated: 1503 Seleucid, which is 1201/02 CE. Nasab bt. Barakāt sells part of her house with the permission of her husband Yefet b. Nadiv b. Shelomo ha-Meshorer. One quarter of the house, out of one half belonging to her. Price: 13 dinars. The house is in the neighborhood of the Jews (bi-khuṭṭ ḥārat al-yahūd), but one of its neighbors is Christian. The house is held by her in partnership with her husband. Signed by [...] b. Yefet ha-Melammed. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba fragment. Groom: Aharon b. Shemuel. Bride: Mulūk bt. Mukhtār. Dated: 1339 Seleucid, which is 1027/28 CE. Signed by Saʿīd b. Aharon, Yeshuʿa b. David, Shelomo b. Seʿadya, Aharon b. Moshe, and others. See Goitein's index card for further information.

Letter from Yehuda b. Yosef (of Qayrawān, active 990s–1030s). In Judaeo-Arabic. Written on parchment. Mentions "my partner" Barhūn b. Faraḥ. The left side of the letter is damaged, and it is difficult to understand the content.

Letter to the Gaon, probably from Aleppo, complaining that the Gaon is paying too much heed to those who slander the writer, approximately 1035. Verso: Very faded and mostly illegible text, possibly liturgical or a sermon. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. In Hebrew and Aramaic. Dating: 966–1011 CE, because the qiyyum is signed by Shemarya b. Elḥanan. Involves Yiṣḥaq b. Sha'ul and his wife Ramla(?). Signed: Avraham ha-Kohen b. Seʿadya; Tamīm ha-Kohen b. Shemuel; Ḥusayn b. Yiṣḥaq; [...] b. Seʿad'el; and Yehoshuaʿ b. Khalfa (a payyeṭan and the subject of Shulamit Elizur's 1994 book: פייטן בעידן של מפנה ר' יהושע בר כלפה ופיוטיו). The qiyyum (validation) is signed by Shemarya b. Elḥanan.

Letter from Musa b. Barhun al-Tahirti to Yosef b. Awkal and to his sons Hillel and Benjamin.

Deed of sale for a house. In Arabic script. Dating: 11th–12th century CE. Ḥusayn b. Ḥāzim al-Bayyāʿ (the food vendor) purchased a house from Ḥasan b. ʿAlī al-Baqqāl (the grocer). (Information from Khan.)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Approximately the 17 bottom lines are preserved, very densely and neatly written. Dated: 4[..] AH, so probably 11th century CE (the full date is present, just needs examination). Reused on verso for Hebrew literary text. There are pinpricks all along the edges of the paper. Needs further examination.