Geniza Lab

On recto piyyut. On verso fragment from a ketubbah contains mostly the dowry list. AA

Legal document in which a loan of 200 ‘black coins’ is made by a school teacher, to be repaid in monthly instalments of 40 coins. Dated: Thursday, 28 Adar II 1535 Seleucid, which is 1224 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Signed by Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim and Namir b. Eliyya. On verso, the court testifies that this loan will not be cancelled in the shemiṭa (sabbatical year). Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Ḥalfon, Ḥananel b. Shemuel and Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's attached notes.

Certification of ritual purity of a cheese shipment is signed by Judge Eliyyahu in 1241.

Fragment of a Qaraite ketubba. Bride: [...] bt. Sahlawayh b. Ḥayyim. Groom: Ḥesed (presumably Abū Naṣr al-Tustarī). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubbah of ʿEli [b. ...] (groom). No further details preserved. Signed by Nissim b. Hillel, Harun b. Fūhīd ha-Levi, Solomon b. Zakkār, Yeshuah b. Jos[eph], [Ja]cob b. Isaac, Ḵalaf [b. ...]. On verso one signature probably from another document, signed by Mevorakh b. Yeshu'a. May belong with TS 12.622. AA

Legal fragment. In Aramaic. Involving a woman named Mubāraka, a virgin. Dating: Looks like 11th century.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating: Under the reshut of the Nagid Avraham, so probably the period of Avraham Maimonides. The document concerns a property. Names of protagonists: Sulaymān ha-Kohen b. Munajjā ha-Kohen; [...] ha-Kohen b. Sar Shalom ha-Kohen; Abū l-Faraj.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (lower right corner). Dating: Second half of the 11th century. Decorated borders with criscrossing small letters and red dots. The wife will not leave the home without the permission of the husband. There are two sisters. If one preferred to live elsewhere, she could let her store only to her sister. If they should receive additions to their estate from the Maghreb, the two sisters would share equally. Signed by: Merayot b. Yosef ha-Kohen Av ha-Yeshiva; Binyamin b. Avraham; Yabqa(?) b. Menaḥem; Yiftaḥ b. [...]; and a few more. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Bill of release involving real estate, granted by the woman Nasāba bt. Maymun b. Ḥusayn b. Baqā to a certain Thābit. Signed by Menashshe b. David and Moshe b. Khalaf. AA

Ketubbah for [...] b. Eleazar (bride). Dated 28th Elul 15[.. Sel.], in the time of R. Abraham (possibly Maimonides?). Might be by the hand of Yeḥiʾel b. Elyaqim (1213-1233). Heading in large square script. 2 lines on verso run transversely, probably a draft of an opening of a letter. Below the text a drawing of a circle with few Arabic words. AA

Note on a deposition in court about a sending of oriental goods carried by two merchants killed in the East African port ʿAydhāb. Location: Fustat. Dating: ca. 1104 CE. Hastily written by Rabbi Avraham b. Shemaʿya. See Goitein's attached notes for a translation with extensive commentary. The goods include "a piece of Chinese jasper, a mann of Chinese (petrified) craw-fish, and 3 aprons of asbestos, which are not burnt by fire."

Legal document. Fragment from the bottom of it. Dated: Iyyar 14[..] Seleucid, which is 1089–1188 CE. Goitein concluded that the document on the other side dates to 1104 CE. Involves Abū l-Ḥasan Yūsuf ha-Zaqen and Abū Yaʿqūb al-Parnas al-Ne'eman. Signed by [Yiṣḥaq b. Shemu?]el ha-Sefaradi adn Menashshe ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov. Needs further examination.

Ketubba fragment (lower left corner). Groom: Yosef b. Yefet. Bride: Sitt al-Ahl. Mentions an apartment (ṭabaqa) that is over the cross-street bridge (sābāṭ). Signed by Ḥalfon b. Avraham, Merayot b. Meshullam, Ḥalfon b. Araḥ, and Elʿazar b. [...]. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Power of attorney. Location: Malīj. Dated: 1433 Seleucid, which is 1121/22 CE. ʿAzīza bt. Natan al-ʿIblānī (? אלעבלאני) appoints Avraham to sue people with whom she has deposits. Signed by Yeshuʿa b. Hillel, Yefet b. ʿEli, and Elʿazar b. Yehuda ha-Kohen. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Marriage contract (ketubba) concerning Badriyya,"who is single," the daughter of ʿAllūn. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 243-9) EMS

Legal document (deathbed will). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Last decade of Ṭevet, 1424 (or less likely 1427) Seleucid, which is 1113 CE. The testator Yaʾir/Zuhayr b. Avraham, after having made a will 2 days before his death, leaves detailed instructions to the cantor Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Ghālib for all arrangements for his burial. For this purpose he leaves 10 dinars with his wife to be spent by Ḥalfon b. Ghālib. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Netanʾel b. ʿAmram.

Left lower fragment of a settlement concerning a book, signed by Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq, Avraham b. Shelomo and Yosef b. Zakariyya.

Legal document. Location: Probably Minyat Zifta. Involves Abū l-Riḍā and his brother Ḥ[asan?] the sons of Khalaf ha-Levi. Signed by Sheʾerit b. Yakhin ha-Kohen; Yefet b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi; and Shabbetay b. [...]. See Goitein's index card for further information.

Power of attorney to Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1045-1096.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (lower left corner). Dating: Likely early 11th century, per Goitein. Groom: Moshe b. Yaʿaqov. Bride: Raḥma (רחמה), not a virgin. The dowry list includes a female slave named Saraf (סרף) valued at 40 dinars. One of the totals (of the dowry?) comes out to 58 dinars. Signed by Yaʿaqov b. Moshe ha-Kohen, Mevorakh b. Avraham, Ḥayyim b. Moshe and Shelomo b. Seʿadya. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) AA