Geniza Lab

Release document from Saadya b. Yehoshuaʿ in favour of his son-in-law Abu al-Surur Farhiya (Peraḥya) b. Yosef for everything he owed in the marriage contract of his deceased daughter Sitt al-Ḥasan and all other obligations due him. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Avraham b. Shabbetay, the judge of Minyat Zifta, to Abu Ishaq, the jewelry-maker discussing gambling, news and other issues. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 45, 531)

Legal document written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: [..]3[.], which must be 143[.] Seleucid, meaning 1118–28 CE. Also signed by Nissim b. Shemuel.

Power of attorney. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. Dated: Tishrei 1556 Seleucid, which is 1144 CE. Yosef b. Yeshuʿa known as Ibn al-Dijlī(?) appoints Meshullam b. Yefet known as Ibn al-Musk(?) as his agent to sell one half of his house in al-Maḥalla which he had bought from his daughter Sitt al-Yumn. No details about the border and situation of the house. On verso there are jottings in Hebrew script. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Business letter from Fustat to Alexandria in which Musa b. Yahya al-Majjani writes his business friend Abu al-Faraj Yehoshuaʿ b. Ismail that he had dissolved his partnership with his former 'master.' Dated 21 March, 1029. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 371)

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashse. Dated: 1444 Seleucid, which is 1132/33 CE. Yakhin Rosh ha-Qehillot gives a gift to his son Abū Saʿd Netanʾel, and the latter's wife [...] bt. Yefet promises that she will have no claim on this gift from her ketubba or otherwise. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. It seems the daughter of a dead person asked the court to declare her trustworthy (neʾemenet). Involves [...] b. [...] ha-Levi ha-Meshorer known as Ibn Ḥamā[..]. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tishrei 1465 Seleucid, which is 1153 CE, under the reshut of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Debt contract between Abū l-Maʿālī (lender) and Abū l-Faraj b. Ḥasūn (borrower). Signed: Hillel b. Ṣadoq Av Beit Din and Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver.

Letter/petition from a woman to Yakhin Rosh ha-Qehillot. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. She asks for help for her son, who suffers in prison due to cold weather and mistreatment. (Information from Goitein's note card.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Acknowledgement made in front of the rabbinical court of Denia, Spain, by Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham. Yiṣḥaq states that a certain Ḥasan b. Ḥasan had received nothing from a consignment of cinnamon carried by Qasim's slave, Mufarrij, a business agent from al-Mahdiyya, Ifrīqiya. Dated Tuesday 10 January, 1083. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Ketubba fragment. Only the ornate text in the upper margin and a few words from the first two lines are preserved.

Document concerning the sale of the part of a house owned by a young woman named ‘Shams.’ The names of her father, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather are also recorded, along with a designation of their profession as doctors. The list consists of names with sums in two columns written on the reverse side of the deed connected with the sale of a house, written in 1378 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:245, 497) EMS

List of names with sums in two columns written on the reverse side of a deed connected with the sale of a house written in 1378, time of Amram Nagid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 497, App. C 73)

Power of attorney. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Fustat. Dated: Middle third of Iyyar 14[.]3 Seleucid. The tens digit may have still been preserved at the time of Worman, who read it as 1463 Seleucid, which is 1152 CE. Aharon ha-Kohen b. [...] Pe'er ha-Kohanim appoints Abū Saʿd al-Ṣabbāgh al-[...] b. Avraham (ZL) as his agent in suing Abū l-Ḥasan Yefet b. Tiqva to repay the 195.5 dirhams that he owes Aharon. Signed: Natan ha-Kohen b. Shemuel (ZL); Tiqva b. Simḥa b. Mevasser ha-Ḥaver; Mevorakh b. Natan. The qiyyum (validation) is signed by Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen b. Yosef (ZL); Menaḥem b. Berakhot (ZL); and Hillel b. Ṣadoq (ZL) Av Bet Din. (Though this last signature is oriented at 90 degrees in the margin.)

Letter on behalf of a Byzantine woman named Rachel, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. The main part of the letter (in Judaeo-Arabic) is scribed by the teacher and court clerk Yehuda b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī; there is a postscript (in Hebrew) added by Shemuel (a.k.a. Kalev) b. Yaʿaqov. Dated: 19 Adar 1538 Seleucid, which is 1227 CE. The letter concerns Rachel's husband, Yosef of Barcelona, who is about to marry a local woman, leaving their children orphans in their lifetimes (and "pieces of meat"). Eliyyahu is asked to relay her case to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205–37), to intervene and prevent Yosef from doing this to her. Yehuda switches to writing in his own voice on verso, line 3. He sends various respectful greetings and adds that Rachel's eyes (or those of her mother?) have developed ophthalmia (ramad) from all her weeping. The postscript in the hand of (and signed by) the French rabbi Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov corroborates the story in the body of the letter and blames the husband's mother, who tempted him to do these bad things, and also "his wife, the snake, who married him against his will"—which makes it sound that Yosef has already married the local woman. Shemuel seems to conclude by saying that he has taken on the name "Kalev" (or vice versa?) on account of his illness, evidently an effort to change his fortune by changing his name. ASE

Marriage document. Groom: [...] b. Yefet, probably. Bride: Qā'ida bt. [...]. Signed by: Yefet b. David ha-Ḥazzan; Yeshuʿa b. Yosef; Yosef b. Yefet; Zekharya b. Yosef; Yehuda b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi.

Deed of sale for a house. Location: Fustat. Dating: Probably 10th century. Mentions Manṣūra bt. Yosef and 30 gold coins. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Fragment of a ketubba. Written by Hillel b. ʿEli in an unusually large and beautiful script. The dowry includes a case decorated with tortoise shell. Signed by Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli he-Ḥaver and Yakhin b. Ḥotam. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal deed. In Hebrew, with some Babylonian vocalization. Location: Fustat. Dated: Kislev 4787 AM = November/December 1026 CE. Maymūn b. Efrayim receives a loan of a sum of Muʿizzī dinars from Yosef (perhaps Ibn ʿAwkal). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim, Fustat. Discusses the matter of the 18 dinars owed to the poor of Jerusalem. Daniel b. Azarya is on his way back to Jerusalem. Possibly alludes to the drought and epidemic in Fustat ("I am very preoccupied about your situation," verso, line 2), and mentions several people in difficult straits.