Geniza Lab

Account of the qodesh, ca. 1220. A double leaf of a notebook. The list contains mainly expenditures, mostly for the synagogues and for scholars and officials. Among them are beadles, including the beadle of the synagogue of Dammuh. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 423 #126). Four pages of drafts of communal accounts, all crossed out [vertical and diagonal strokes], which was usually done after a clean copy was made. Page one is almost entirely identical with the T-S NS J251. The other pages are highly interesting for they contain many instructions by the Nagid Abraham Maimonides showing administrative practices in times of severe hardship. For instance, a collection, totaling 30 dirhems had been promised to a young Maghrebi, for which a notable had stood security and paid to the foreigner. When only 17 dirhems came in, the Nagid ordered 13 dirhems taken from a collection for a man from Damira, Egypt, and turned over to that notable. The situation probably was that the traveler from the Maghreb had to leave, while the man from Damira could wait, and people who had stood security should get their money back immediately, otherwise no one would be found in the future to undertake that task about which we read so much in court records.

Account in Judaeo-Arabic

Letter from Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Aden, probably to Ibn Yijū, in India. Fragment, preserving the margins only. Mentions the customs tax (maks), various items that are being sent, and the news of Aden (peaceful now, but there was recent military activity). Information from Goitein's transcription and notes, see attachments.

List of thirty-two names with Coptic numerals (recipients of loaves of bread), for example, “the son of little Sesame.” A Maghribi scribe is recorded as receiving ten loaves and the water carrier Wafa two loaves. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 2:463) EMS

List with Coptic numerals, apparently of contributors. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 2:497) EMS

Trousseau list recording a washed skullcap worth one dinar and a secondhand kerchief worth one-half dinar, amongst other items. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100–38 CE). (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 3:410; 4:184, 413) EMS

List of twenty-six names and contributors of wheat. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:479.) Dating: Probably early or mid-12th century, since Abū l-Naṣr Ibn Zubbaybāt appears also in T-S NS 323.19, a document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. EMS. ASE.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves Abū ʿAlī b. al-Sukkarī and 20 dinars.

Accounts of a druggist. The right column gives the commodity, the middle column gives the weight, and the left column gives the price in Greek/Coptic numerals. One of the entries is ‘daqq abyaḍ,’ a type of fine, white flour frequently used for preparing sweetmeats. (Information from S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 4:248, 439; and F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 612.) EMS. Similar format to T-S Ar.39.450, which is in Arabic script.

Detailed accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning Mardūk, brazilwood, chebulic myrobalan, and may other things.

See PGP 20645

Bill of sale for a Nubian female slave. Dating: 1204–38 CE. THe seller and the buyer are named Hiba and Mevasser. On verso there is another legal document that mentions 'the house of Eliyyahu the Judge.

Recto: Note in Judaeo-Arabic in which Shelomo b. Eliyyahu requests from an unidentified philanthropist a sum of money to cover Sabbath expenditures. Verso: Jottings in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Document concerning a shiddukh (matchmaking) for a first-time bride in Dammuh, Egypt. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and records a fine for the benefit of Dammuh. Early thirteenth century. (Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 90, 260; and Moshe Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations from the Cairo Geniza, Brill, 1976, 102) EMS

Legal document. Yaʿqūb b. Yūsuf known as בן כדורה attests that he owes 71 dinars to Barakāt b. Yosef Ibn al-Lebdī (who died prior to 1146 CE, giving an approximate date for this document). It seems that Yaʿqūb is now paying 20 dinars toward the total. Mentions "al-muʿāmilīn."

Legal query concerning a house owned by two sisters in partnership. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 612) EMS

Letter concerning oaths to be given in a complicated case involving a divorce. The husband, a merchant who travels, complains “I have no one to hand me a cup of water” and states that the female slave “is better than you and your mother.” The letter also includes the expression “cut your hair and ransom yourself.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:273, 487; Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 136; and F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 612) EMS

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to two people, one of whom may be Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan and one of whom may be Abū l-Surūr al-Abyaḍ(?) al-Shofeṭ al-Mumḥe. The name Ṭaybūs (?טיבוס) also appears, as does a certain al-Kohen al-Dimashqī b. Ibrāhīm. Most of what remains of the letter consists of elaborate greetings and well wishes.

Court record concerning a divorce. Location: Aleppo. Dated: 1189 CE. The husband, from Fustat but now in Aleppo, divorced his wife who had remained in the Egyptian capital. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:262, 485.) EMS. See description for MS 8254, fol. 15 (PGPID 32292) for the whole story.