Geniza Lab

Bifolium from a notebook. One page has a poem in Ladino involving a husband and wife and a knight, with refrains which are different from each other but which all end with "yo" (continuation of the poem on the preceding framgent). Another page is filled with accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew.

Recto: From a rabbinic literary work in Aramaic. Verso: "Moshe b. Hillel, grandson of [...]."

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Probably belongs with the preceding shelfmarks.

Blank. Probably belongs with the preceding shelfmarks.

Letter in Arabic addressed (in Judaeo-Arabic) to a certain Hiba in Alexandria, urging him to come quickly and mentioning the purchase of wheat. Needs further examination.

Fragment of detailed accounts written by Avraham Ibn Yiju, India, apparently 1132-1139, 1145-1149.

Letter from Yefet to Eliyyahu the Judge giving him instructions for drawing up a deed of rent (ijāra) for a building between Yefet and Abū l-Barakāt.

Shelomo b. Eliyyahu writes to a notable, "I was told that you have made a marriage contract (ṣadāq) for your daughter at a Muslim court. I cannot believe it." Med Soc III, p. 444, n. 50. Information from Goitein's note card.

Recto: Decree, fragment, to two local officials stating that a certain Abū l-Faraj b. Bū l-Waḥsh should be exempted from paying taxes (or from standing surety on the tax-farm?) on a shop (ḍamān al-ḥānūt) and that he requires no further documentation of his exemption. Join: Mordechai Friedman and Amir Ashur.

Verso: Letter from Daʾūd (probably muqaddam of Bilbays) to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekharya. This is a petition in which the sender expresses his alarm over the fact that a responsum from the Nagid Avraham Maimonides with instructions had been sent some time before this present letter to Eliyyahu, who had not acted upon it yet. On recto, there is also an Arabic document (see separate record). (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society, II, p. 338.) Join: MAF and AA.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions labdanum (lādan) twice.

Account of payments to officials and to the families of deceased officials during the sixteenth week of the liturgical year. R. Menashshe, so frequently mentioned in previous lists, as well as his colleague R. Daniel, are mentioned here as dead. The collector 'Shemuel b. Shelomo, the partner of R. Ḥalfon' is identical with Bū Manṣūr b. Shelomo of T-S K15.93, but his description as the partner of another man shows that he must have been comparatively inconspicuous. Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, the writer of the account, paid out the total of 44 1/2 dirhams he had received from the collector. When no money was left for one of the beadles, he had to 'transfer' him to another social officer, the Kohen al-Naḥḥāl (Mr.'Beekeeper,' often mentioned as a donor). Only 16 dirhams were spent for bread, presumably for only one of the two weekly distributions.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 453, App. B 49 [dated 1210-1225])

Legal document, possibly a release. Involving [...] b. Shela and a woman (his wife?) named Sitt al-ʿAlam. Signed by Shelomo b. Nasi(?).

Bill of lading for a shipment of pearl (luʾluʾ) and satin (zaytūnī) intended for Nahray b. Nissim. Possibly from Nissim b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein’s attached notes.)

List on two pages, torn apart, it seems in the hand of Immanuel b. Yehiel (ca. 1231–65). 41 contributors to charity, peculiar in the wide differences among pledges made (from 1/2 to 28 dirhams). On T-S NS J108b, recto, an Arabic list.

Memorial list or lists. In several different hands. There is also the draft of the beginning of a legal document, in Fustat, dated 24 Nisan '54 Seleucid. Probably 1454 or 1554 Seleucid = 1143 or 1243 CE.

Legal document. Agency agreement. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. T-S 10J4.16: agreement granting Abū l-Riḍā Shelomo b. Mevorakh power of attorney to collect from the assets of a partnership between three parties – Abū Sa‘īd Ḥalfōn b. Nissim Abū Ḥusayn al-Tinnīsī (the senior partner), Abū l-Faḍl Amram b. Abū Kathīr Efrayim, and Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Menashshe ha-Levi al-Jubaylī – once the partnership has ended. The partnership lasted three years, from January 1115 to January 1118, and its purpose was to export valuable items from Upper Egypt for resale in Yemen. The principal who retained Shelomo is eligible to collect from the entire partnership, which includes funds which Shelomo himself had placed with the partnership, acting as both principal and agent. Most of the legal form of the power of attorney is missing. The verso contains a copy of a release, in which Shelomo absolves his erstwhile partners from any further obligations, except for part of the profits which they owe him. Shelomo releases Ḥalfon and ʿAmram separately from Yeshu‘a. Here, the word ṣuḥba (T-S 10J4.16, line 4) refers to a joint investment or partnership, not a deposit. The unrelated(?) document (T-S 10J4.17) is a release document from Sitt al-Sāda, daughter of the last Palestinian Gaon Evyatar ha-Kohen to Menashshe b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen. The nature of their relationship is unclear. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 196, 261-263)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "A litigation concerning an inheritance. Two partners were operating a store and upon the death of one of them the heir, a certain Naḥman, who was the nephew of the deceased sued the other party for whatever was due to him of this inheritance. He had not protested earlier because he was still a minor then. Abū l-Faḍl b. ʿUmayr was one of the customers. Naḥman, whose share in assets in the partnership was half, demanded his legitimate rights, and in the litigation pursued he asked for half of everything, i.e., capital (aṣl), income (nāqī), and goods such as a lamp made of copper. The sums of money preserved in the document are 600 dinars, 2015 dinars, 5 qirats and half a ḥabba, 20 dinars, and 32 dinars. A freed female slave is also mentioned, whom he manumitted after "he received her price from her." What may be understood from the end of the document preserved is that a settlement was reached according to which the defendant was freed from the oath due to him. No signatures are extant." (Information from Weiss)

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim. 1060. Daily account that was probably a draft. Might be the account of Maymun b. Khalfa. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #289) VMR

Legal document. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel or Natan b. Shelomo? Dated: 1456 Seleucid, which is 1144/45 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Involves: Abū l-Barakāt; a small house (duwayra) in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat; Abū l-Makārim. (Information in part from CUDL.) Join: Oded Zinger. Needs further examination.