Geniza Lab

Legal document. One of three copies (T-S 13J1.13 is another). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar 1368 Seleucid, which is February/March 1057 CE. In which Ṭoviyya b. Sahl ha-Levi undertakes to work in a glass factory at the bellows for a period of one year for wages of 5 dirhams plus 1 dirham lunch. The factory belongs to ʿEli/ʿAllūn b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Ṭoviyya/Ṭībān b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen. There is a fine of 5 dinars for violating the contract. No signatures preserved. The hand is like that of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya or perhaps his son Bishr. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Letter to Abu Imran in which the writer, a perfumer and judge in Minyat Zifta, describes repairs to the local synagogue along with news of other matters. The writer also notes payment of capitation tax at the rate of 2 dinars. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:46, 276, 532, 546, 586; Geoffrey Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 370-1) EMS

Legal document detailing how Ṣāfī, the slave (ghulām) and agent of the Jewish Academy in Fustat, insulted a notable in ʿAydhāb, Ibn Jamāhīr, in the presence of Jewish merchants. Ṣāfī accused the man of having a child with a female slave and then disposing of her, in Berbera, on the African coast. Ibn Jamāhīr filed a complaint of slander against the ghulām, although the governor tried to convince him otherwise because of Ṣāfī's special status. Ṣāfī was ordered to be flogged and jailed, although after intervention by a Jewish merchant from the Maghreb, he was set free, although “not without loss of money.” Goitein dates the document to 1141 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:133, 432) EMS

Debt acknowledgement for five dinar to be repaid in monthly installments. Written by Hillel b. Eli in Kislev 1402/October 1090. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 250, 261, 391, 462, 466, 492)

Bottom of a legal document written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashse. The document was also signed by Shemarya b. Natan ha-Kohen and Peraḥya b. Yosef. The qiyyum (validation) was also written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. It is signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya, Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi (with Psalms 31:2 around his name in tiny letters), and ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Legal document. On parchment. In the handwriting of Mevorakh b. Natan. In which Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet the head Parnas leaves to his wife Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya, their two daughters, and their female slave 25 dinars and 5 irdabbs of wheat for the duration of his absence in Yemen, in addition to the rent of a new house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat (which he has already sold to her, as certified in a separate document in her possession). Verso: Draft of a legal document. In which Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya testifies that she has received from her husband Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet all that was due to her from her ketubba (dated Av 1468 Seleucid = 1157 CE), including all but 5 dinars from the delayed marriage payment (muʾakhkhar) of 60 dinars and her dowry worth 400 dinars (except for the female slave who "was lost"—ran away?—from the house even before Moshe b. Yefet traveled). Moshe b. Yefet is also known from other documents; he signed PER H 161 in Yemen in 1156 CE. And T-S 8J5.23 (dated 1169 CE) is a conditional bill of divorce which he granted to Sitt al-Fakhr before departing for Yemen (perhaps T-S 8J5.23 and T-S 12.585r were drawn up at the same time, and T-S 12.585v is evidence that the conditional divorce was fulfilled?). There is additional text in the upper margin and beneath the main text block at 90 degrees. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and Ashur and Outhwaite, "Between Egypt and Yemen in the Cairo Genizah" (2014).)

Marriage contract. Dating: first half of the 13th century, on paleographic grounds. The handwriting is similar to that of ʿImanuel b. Yeḥiel (also compare T-S 16.682 from the same period). Fragment (lower middle part) containing part of the trousseau list and referring to half of a ḥujra (lit. "room," but probably an independent building consisting of one room) in Alexandria given to the bride near the al-Qashmīrī mosque. Signed by: [Yose]f Melammed b. Yaʿaqov. (Information from Goitein's index card and Med Soc IV, 363n43.)

Legal document. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan? Location: Fustat. Dated: First decade of Tammuz 1489 Seleucid, which is June 1178 CE. Abū l-Faraj b. Ḥotam ha-Levi (known as 'al-Masos') promises to pay to Abū l-Barakāt b. Abū l-Faḍl al-Quṣayyir a sum of money, when 50 ṭamāwiyā of wine sold to the letter by the former's son (who meanwhile had left for Aden) had been found to be bad. On verso the payments actually made are recorded (signed by Shemuel b. Yiṣ[ḥaq?] and Yeshuʿa b. Tiqva). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Bill of divorce. Location: Cairo. Dated: Tuesday, 7 Av 1559 Seleucid, which is 1248 CE. Husband: Avraham b. Yishmaʿel, from Cairo. Wife: Ḥana bt. Netanel, from Fustat. No signatures (or at least no preserved signatures). On verso there is a note in Judaeo-Arabic, but it does not seem to be a note that the bill of divorce was given to the woman.

Legal deed. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dated: Tuesday, 2 Elul 5319 AM, which is 1559 CE. In which Yiṣḥaq Luria Ashkenazi (the famous kabbalist) sells 8 1/3 kikars of pepper from his stock in Alexandria to Natan Ḥefeṣ for a sum of 150 Venetian peraḥim. The pepper is to be given to Reuven Bavli, evidently Natan's agent. Information from FGP.

The very end of a legal document, consisting of just a few signatures: Yaʿir b. Isaac, Sahl b. Faraj, Yefet b. Shemuʾel, and Abraham b. Joseph. (Information from CUDL)

Deed fragment in which 'the people of Haifa's fortress' are mentioned, 11th century. CUDL description: Recto: the very beginning of a legal document referring to ‘the people of the Fortress of Haifa’, with only a partial date preserved. Verso: two lines, either a title or a short book-list: משלי ואיוב לגאון ז״ל, and underneath in a smaller script וטומאה וטוהרה. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Fragment (lower right corner). Dated: 13 Iyyar 1[...] Seleucid. involving Sittāna bt. [...] the wife of Mevasser b. [...]. Signed by: Shelomo b. ʿEli; David b. [Shekhanya?].

Letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat regarding an inheritance of a widow and her orphans. Dating: ca. 1080 CE. The local Jewish judge (Heb. dayyan) issued a ban (Heb. ḥerem) against anyone who withheld information about property belonging to the orphans, but the ban did not help. Apparently there was also an attempt to take over the property by an appeal to non-Jewish courts. The writer of the letter asks the recipient to ask the Nagid, Mevorakh b. Saadya, to intervene. Join: Oded Zinger. NB: The letter does not seem to be dated; 1080 CE was Goitein's estimate.

One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dating: 932/33 CE. None of the document itself is preserved, only six signatures, several identical with those in T-S 16.181, including Shemuel b. Shelomo b. ʿUzayyir and Nissin b. Sabuy. Underneath there are calligraphic writing exercises in high quadrangular Hebrew script, no distance between words. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

On recto a right side of a bill of release, written on vellum, regarding woman’s ketubah. Written by Hillel b. Eli. On verso mirror letters of another document, probably a ketubah. AA

Legal document. Dated: January, 1144 CE (1455 Seleucid). Location: Al-Maḥalla (probably). Goitein's description: "This short document is an excellent illustration of the administration of justice in a provincial town. The presiding judge is assisted by elders, two of whom sign with him, in order to constitute the legal quorum of a court of three. A Muslim document is admitted as proof without much ado. The judge rules according to strict Jewish law and imposes a heavy fine in the case of non-fulfillment of obligations. No opposition to the rulings of the judge on the side of the parties is noted. The sessions of the court are held on Mondays and Thursdays as in the capital. The judge is Zakkay b. Moshe, who also wrote and signed Bodl. MS heb. d 65/41 (ed. Assaf, Tarbiz 9 (1938), p. 34), dated 1143 CE, and T-S 13J3.6v, dated 1147 CE. Both of the other documents are also from al-Maḥalla. Therefore, there is little doubt that our document (which is written less carefully than the two others and does not contain the name of the place of issue) also originated in al-Maḥalla like the documents preceding and following it in time. Three types of oath are referred to here. One of the Torah, i.e., mentioned in the Bible, namely that to be sworn by a debtor who acknowledges part of the sum claimed by the creditor; secondly, a statutory oath, created by the rabbis of the Talmud to be given by a debtor [...] the entire claim made against him; finally, a "rider," which might be imposed by any party on another obliged anyhow to swear a legally acknolwedged oath."

Lamentations recited on the anniversary of the death of a relative (ʿEli ha-Kohen the father of ʿAmram). Possibly in the handwriting of Zakkay b. Moshe. Containing many poetic phrases. (Information from Goitein's note card and from Med Soc V, p. 558.)

Ketubba in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The bridegroom is possibly Is[aac b. ...]. The name of the bride and further details are not preserved. May belong with T-S 12.604. AA

Fragment from a decorated Ketubbah of Menaḥem b. [...] (groom) and Rayna b. [...] (bride). Dated 21st Iyyar 5372 (= 1612 CE). AA