Geniza Lab

Legal document, damaged, perhaps regarding a partnership. Protagonists include Moshe ha-Kohen known as Abū ʿImrān. and Abū Saʿd b. Abū l-ʿAlā. Witnesses include [...] ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, Moshe ha-Levi b. Ṣedaqa, and Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib al-Ḥazzan. ASE.

Contract in which a scholar known from a number of dated manuscripts gives sums of money to his two daughters. The money is destined for their trousseaus when they reach maturity, but will in the meantime be supervised by a merchant in the form of a partnership to which the merchant himself contributes a small sum. The capital is ensured as a 'deposit of the court,' for which the highest possible form of security had to be given. Dated to the last third of the 11th century. (Information Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 175-176, 442)

Confirmation of a former deed of sale in which Yosef and Maymūn sons of Yaʿaqov al-Ghallāq (? אלגלאק) are interested. The document in question was drawn up in 966 CE before the Beth Din in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ. Of the five original witnesses, only ʿAli b. Shelomo is still living, and he confirmed that his own signature was valid, and others were brought to confirm the remaining signatures. Information from FGP.

Legal document fragment, probably late 11th century, since witnessed by Yakhin b. Netanel who also signed T-S 13J5.2 ca.1085. Other witnesses: Shemuel b. Mevorakh; Avraham [...]; and Maṣliaḥ [...]. Verso contains a few jottings in Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic. ASE.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Written in the hand of Avraham b. Natan. Moshe ha-Levi and his father (identified as Ṣedaqa ha-Levi b. Moshe in T-S 12.464) participate in a partnership in a shop. The relationship itself resembles an apprenticeship, as Ṣedaqa explains that Moshe is to transact only with his father’s permission. Furthermore, line 16 makes it clear that the two are to work side by side. That line 17 assigns to “each of the two of them…total responsibility” suggests a corporate liability, not restricted to each partner’s share in the joint concern but instead to fulfillment of the sum total of partnership losses or debts. Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman edited both T-S 12.464 and T-S 16.168 in his dissertation, but these could not be proven to be a join until T-S NS 325.11 was identified as the missing piece by Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from "A Mediterranean Society, I," 443; "A Mediterranean Society, V," 331, 336, 597, 599; Goitein's index cards; and Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 138)

Marriage contract written by the court clerk Mevorakh b. Natan (dated documents ca. 1150-1180) mentioning a brocade sadr with two 'sidepieces,' and preserving the groom's name, Yahya ha-Levi. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 120, 382, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. A father disinherits his younger daughter Sitt al-Nās (and her husband) with a 1/4 dinar and gives all he has to his daughter Dalāl. This is presumably because Sitt al-Nās did not look after him in his time of need (line 2: I perished from nakedness and hunger and [illness, probably]). Information from Goitein's note card. Mentioned in Med Sod V, p. 123, n. 419.

Legal document, extremely faded, perhaps regarding the sale of a house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ. Possibly 10th century. Information from FGP.

Testimony of receiving a shipment that belonged to a person who passed away, Qayrawan, 978. Avraham b. Kabīr asks for an approval about a shipment of indigo to Qayrawan for the person who previously had the indigo in Fustat, Kimui b. al-Ḥasan. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #106) VMR

Testimony by Avraham b. Kabir concerning the heritage of Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham. Qayrawan, 978 A.D.

Legal document fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Story of (illicit) love involving a woman named Hind and her husband, a man named Bishr and an old woman.

Recto: Letter in Arabic to a certain Amīr [...] al-Dawla wa-[...]hā, perhaps reporting on business setbacks. The body of the letter begins in line 6 after the space. The writer may be discussing wool (al-ṣūf) and the wool merchants (al-ṣawwāfīn) in the margin. Verso: An unusual Judaeo-Arabic composition, giving recipes and instructions, purpose unclear. Perhaps for detergents and/or dyes and/or bleaches. ASE.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Dating: 13th century. Location: Fustat. Groom: Netanʾel. Bride: [...] bt. Yefet ha-Talmid. Marriage payments: 3 + 10 = 13. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba (marriage contract). Fragment written in a calligraphic hand. Dating: probably late 10th or 11th century. Mentions the name חביבה מפרג כהנה. Witnesses: Natan b. Peraḥya; Kalev b. Yosef; Yehuda b. Efrayim; Menaḥem b. Efrayim; Avraham b. Yehuda; Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. [...]; Yosef b. [...]; Shela b. [...]; Zarʿa b. [...].

Marriage contract (ketubba). Written and signed by Hillel b. ʿEli. Groom: Seʿadya b. Efrayim. Bride: Turkiyya (? תרכיה). A few phrases from the dowry list are preserved. Also signed by Moshe b. Ṣalḥūn. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Marriage contract containing a list of jewelry apparently of Syro-Palestinian manufacture, to be sold by Shemuel b. Ḥasan two months after the signing of this document by Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe, Shimi ha-Levi, and Avraham ha-Levi. Drafted in Damascus. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 215, 426, 473, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Unusual format (written like a letter, with text going up the margins of recto and onto verso). Unusual hand, too (distinctive אל that looks like a curvy ט). This is a deposition made before the judges appointed by David ha-Nasi. Seems to be the settlement of a protracted dispute between ʿOvadya b. Ḥamīd(?) and his father-in-law Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo, involving ʿOvadya's absence and his wife's property. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Legal document involving a dispute involving Shemuel ha-Levi. Possibly 10th century, per FGP. Verso: Perhaps a writing exercise of Genesis 1, but this seems to be prefaced in Judaeo-Arabic: "[...] al-ṣalā [...] taqūl."

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic, mentioning Cairo, witnesses, a document (wathīqa). In between the lines of recto, and on verso: Probably a Hebrew letter, in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya, discussing a document that may or may not have been in the handwriting of a Gaon, and his quarrel with someone who was wrongly trying to take money from the fund for the orphans. Needs further examination. ASE.