Geniza Lab

Accounts in Hebrew. Listing numerous Talmudic and halakhic texts (including Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ). Dating: No earlier than 14th century, possibly substantially later.

Legal documents (one each on recto and verso). Recto: Involves a certain Seʿadya and Sitt al-Tujjār bt. Peraḥya b. Zuwayn. It might be the sale of an eighth of a house. Interestingly, the word "taqlīb" is used in the section where the recipient accepts all the blemishes in the new acquisition. This word often appears in the context of inspecting slaves, but maybe it simply means physical inspection in general. One of the witnesses is [Faraḥ?] b. Karmī (maybe the same one as in T-S 6J3.26, from 1210/11 CE). Verso: Involves a certain Seʿadya, a certain Meʾir, a sum of 15 dinars, a period of one year, and a house. Dated: Nisan 4979 AM, which is 1219 CE. Signed by the teacher Yehuda b. Aharon the physician (Ibn al-ʿAmmānī).

Will of a wealthy man in favor of his wife, concerning twenty-seven assets and liabilities. Dated: 1431 Seleucid, which is 1219/20 CE. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 602) EMS

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals. Dating: Probably no earlier than 13th century. Lists numerous people and interesting titles, including Saʿd al-Dīn Nā'ib al-Bardār; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Muʿāmil; Aḥmad al-Rasūl; a ḥaqqān (enema-giver); a ḥāshir; a duwaydār; a jabbān; a Sambari or Samkari; a nushādirī; etc.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Zayn al-Tujjār and Rabbenu Nahray Gadol ha-Yeshiva (=Nahray b. Nissim?). The sender's name may be Yosef (there is a very faded address on verso).

Letter from a schoolteacher from Algeria who taught in small town in Egypt and travelled every year to Fustat to obtain a pesiqa there (i.e., a post), instead of teaching privately, but was not successful. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:107, 553) EMS

Recto: Legal document dated 1089–1188 CE, describing a son whose father, before traveling to Yemen, had given him, as ẓedaqa, two houses. The father then gives this on his death-bed to his wife (the son's mother) and declares that everything in and outside the house either belongs to or is given to her. He frees her from all oaths. (Information from Goitein's index card). VMR

Verso: Letter to a family member who had inquired about distant relatives. The writer states that his wife, son, and sister-in-law had died, while his mother and her brother (the writer's uncle) are still alive but need help paying the capitation tax and buying clothing (גאליה וכסוה). The writer includes reports about marriages, and notes there were certainly long times out of touch. (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR

Lists of names and accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Needs examination.

Letter of appeal for charity for assistance in moving to the land of Israel.

Strongly formulated note by the prominent judge Natan b. Shemuel to a prominent member of the community, urging the man to send him money for the sick people while staying in his house. EMS. On verso there is a probably-unrelated name in Arabic script, perhaps from a chancery document: ʿabduhā al-Kāmilī Masʿūd.

Legal document. Upper right corner. Dated: Tammuz 15[..] Seleucid, which is 1189–1288 CE. Involves Abū l-Faraj, Abū Saʿd, 40 dinars, a bustān and a qāʿa, and a sale.

Legal document. Scribed and signed by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Dated: Thursday, 17 Nisan 1540 Seleucid, which is 1229 CE. Also signed by Ṣadaqa b. Elʿazar. A woman appoints her father Mūsā to sue her husband for money that he owes her. The addendum on verso, from the same date, attests that Tamīm gives (or wills?) all of his possessions to her.

Upper part of a will in a hand that resembles that of ʿImmanuʾel b. Yeḥiʾel (active ca. 1231–65), in which the husband of Sutayt bt. Nadiv clarifies that half of the house in which he lives belongs to his wife, as well as the jewelry that has been given as collateral to Yosef Ibn Nufayʿ in Fustat against a loan of 150 nuqra dirhams; "it must be ransomed with the money of the orphans." Lastly, the female slave named Nasrīn [belongs to Sutayt]. (Information from Goitein's index card and from Med Soc III, p. 255 n. 35.)

Ketubba fragment (upper left corner). Bride: Baṭrīqa bt. Aharon. From the time of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. (Goitein, Med Soc, 3:409.) EMS

Inventory or accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals. Lists items such as a large turban for 60 (dirhams); a white bordered ʿarḍī; a tailored nuṣfiyya; a thawb samsamī; a hair (? shaʿrī) turban; and then additional household items such as a large good mat for 40, and a good pillow for 25.

Petition from Ḍiyāʾ bt. Yūsuf al-Qamrī (or possibly "bayt Yūsuf al-Qamrī" = his wife) to her relative Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn al-Firnās (=ʿEli b. Yaḥyā ha-Kohen). In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: 1094–1111. She is in distress over her son’s imprisonment and asks the addressee to appeal to Sar ha-Sarim (=Mevorakh b. Saʿadya) for aid. She states that she must pay the jailer several dirhams every day, which she cannot afford, and suggests that Mevorakh will be able to secure the release of her son simply by writing a note (ruqʿa) to the Alexandrian qāḍī. (Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, Princeton University Press, 1980, 113, 260, 261; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:373) EMS

Letter from Alexandria to a man from Jerusalem, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1060 CE. Concerning a communal dispute in Fustat. At the center of the dispute is Surūr Ibn Sabra, who is accused of converting to Islam in the west and marrying there a woman of low social standing. This is evidently related to the same dispute as in T-S K25.244, where Yehuda b. Yosef ("the Rav") had been accused of converting to Islam. Here, one of his accusers is accused of the same thing. Partial translation by Moshe Yagur: "[. . .] and Surūr b. Sabra is slandering you, vilifying you with every kind of ridiculous slur . . . and this letter from him, which I came across, speaks of you and me and Rav Yehuda the rabbi . . . and we have already agreed unanimously, I and the congregation, that we will excommunicate him on the Sabbath [. . .] and please notify the “head,” the judge, that the people of Jerusalem [. . .] that he, Surūr b. Sabra, this accursed one, had apostatized in the Maghrib and remained an apostate for several years. And his wife, Ibn Muhayyar [should be Ukht Muhayyar, as below] . . . was from the most despicable people. And when Ibn Sabra came nobody wanted him except Ukht Muhayyar, for the people considered him an apostate (fāshīʿ)." (Information from Moshe Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam," (2020).)

Letter from Eli b. Yakhin, probably from Alexandria, to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Aaron, Fustat. Around 1050. Regarding money and payments, including a debt of 50 dinars. Also mentions purchases, shipments, and delivery of letters. The writer expresses his preoccupation for the illnesses in the household of the addressee and his relief that they have recovered (r6). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #778) VMR

Fragment on vellum listing communal officials and needy families in receipt of loaves of bread; ca. early twelfth century. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 2:455) EMS