Geniza Lab

Right side of a court record, so only few words from each line are preserved. Involving R. Yehuda Pride of the Yeshiva. Also mention Abu 'Amr and al-Maghrib.

Very damaged betrothal deed, probably between Rabbinate bride and Karaite groom (See Ashur, Engagement and Betrothals, p, 69). It is the bride's second marriage and the groom is responsible to provide them with cloths. An apartment in Qasr al-Sham' is mentioned. Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi who signed together with Isahq b. Shemuel the Spaniard and Nethanel b. Efrayim, probably between 1100-1127, because the reshut formula for Masliah Gaon is lacking. AA

Fragment from the beginning of a legal deed, probably a prenuptial agreement. In the hand of ʿImmanuel b. Yeḥiel (active ca. 1231–79). Dated: Probably Kislev 15[8.] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 1278–88 CE, under the reshut of D[avid] I Maimonides (in office ca. 1237–1300). The bride is a "mature virgin" and her name has not preserved. The groom is probably [...] b. Moshe (נ״ע). AA. ASE.

long discussion between a woman and the court about taking an oath in a legal dispute she had with a man (the document mentions that she “lived with him for several years” so he might have been a husband or a relative). The document is fragmentary and very hard to decipher, but it seems that the court kept asking her whether she was willing to take the oath. Her answers seem to be that she is willing and even wants him to be present. When asked again, she said “I prefer nothing but that the Torah scroll be brought forth” (i.e. for her to take the oath). It seems that in this court session the oath was not administered. Dated 1105. Written by Ishaq b. Shemuel (the Spaniard) who signed it together with Sasson b. Nathan, Avraham b. Shema'yah ha-Haver, and Halfon Halevi b. Menashshe. (Info from Oded Zinger, PhD, p. 172n142)

A short private letter. On verso a short Arabic list or account0 needs examination

Letter from Jalāl al-Dawla (or at least a person from the family of Shelomo b. Yishai the Nasi), written during an epidemic, and mentioning the Nagid [Avraham Maimonides] as being ill and also mentioning his (father?)-in-law the judge R. Hananel, who says, "These days are like the Day of Judgment: everyone is preoccupied (mashghul) with himself." He goes on, "We are doing our utmost to escape from this terrible epidemic. There is not a house in Fustat or Cairo among the important Jews—or anyone else—that does not have at least one sick person. The people are in terrible distress, too preoccupied to care for each other--let alone for a stranger." Jalāl al-Dawla also provides an update on his own diarrhea (v7–8): it is intermixed with white phlegm, coiled/twisted (multaff), and it burns when it comes out (yaldhaʿu waqta majī’ihi). ASE.

Judaeo-Arabic: list of names followed by a figure (indicating a sum of money) (recto); Arabic: letter (verso) - needs examination. (Info from FGP)

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender insistently urges the addressee to act according to his request, "because the muqaddam wishes to be like an angel of God (2 Samuel 19:28); the wise man's eyes are in his head (Ecclesiastes 2:14)."

An amulet destined to silence the woman's opponents, particularly Abu al-Surur. The two people in question may perhaps be identified with a married couple mentioned in T-S 12.559, a release document given by Sa'adya b. Joshua, the father of a woman named Sitt al-Husn to her husband Perahya Abu al-Surur b. Yosef, after Sitt al-Husn's death. (Info from Bohak and Saar, Genizah magical texts prepared for or against named individuals, p. 87)

Legal document likely in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. Needs further examination.

Beginning of letter written by Yehuda b. Joshiah, a Nasi in Egypt during the second half of the twelfth century, to Moshe ha-Dayyan b. Yosef.

Opening of a letter in poetic Hebrew to Ya'aqov b. Binyamin.

Letter addressed to ʿEli the Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender petitions on behalf of a divorcee who came to him "complaining and crying" that her ex-husband, Avraham b. Khalaf, had not paid her and her nursing infant alimony for eight consecutive months. The woman had previously gone to the Parnas for help ("threw herself down in the house of the Parnas"), evidently to no avail. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger. ASE

Letter probably from Menashshe b. Yehoshuaʿ, in Tyre, to the ḥaver Abū l-Faraj Shemaʿya b. al-Faraj, in Jerusalem. See neighboring fragments. T-S NS 322.101–17 all belong to the same dossier as Gil, Palestine, #521–23. This batch is unedited and unmentioned in the literature.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. In the same hand as the nearby fragments: probably Menashshe b. Yehoshuaʿ of Tyre to Abū l-Faraj Shemaʿya b. al-Faraj of Jerusalem. Dating: mid-11th century. Needs examination for content.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic, in the same hand as the nearby fragments: probably Menashshe b. Yehoshuaʿ of Tyre, mid-11th century. Needs examination for content.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic, in the same hand as the nearby fragments: probably Menashshe b. Yehoshuaʿ of Tyre, mid-11th century. Needs examination for content.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, in the same hand as the nearby fragments: probably Menashshe b. Yehoshuaʿ of Tyre, mid-11th century. This is the lower right corner. Mentions small sums of money.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, in the same hand as the nearby fragments: probably Menashshe b. Yehoshuaʿ of Tyre, mid-11th century. Needs examination for content.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, in the same hand as the nearby fragments: probably Menashshe b. Yehoshuaʿ of Tyre, mid-11th century. Needs examination for content.