Geniza Lab

Legal document in which the rabbinical court in Fustat, having to evaluate a workshop for purple making left to an orphan, invites non-Jewish experts to join the inspection. Dated Sivan 1410/ June 1099. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 172, 404)

List of daily collections in which almost all the benefactors give one or two dirhams. The lower parts of columns three and four contain accounts of expenditure on communal property in the Great Bazaar, written in Arabic characters. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 2:490)

See join for description and transcription.

Letter from Maʿtūq to his son David, his wife Marḥaba, Saʿādat, Qamr, and Hanā(?). The writer apologizes for not being able to make it to the circumcision. He has been detained on account of his flax—not for anything to do with Umm Esther. He has sent some money (ashrafīs) with Shihāb al-Dīn.

Letter from Mordekhay Ashkenazi to a family member. In Hebrew. Dating: Late. Needs examination.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document. Dated: 1452 Seleucid, which is 1140/41 CE. Involves 16 dinars and a partnership in a shop. Signed by [...] ha-Levi ha-Melammed.

Fragment of a letter from Natan b. Nahray. Regarding trades, especially of silk, and complains about the situation in Mahdiyya, that he has heard about from letters from his aunt and nephew. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #441) VMR

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, in Qalyūb, to a family member in Fustat. Fragment: bottom only. He asks for news about the wife of his paternal uncle and hopes that the matter will be resolved soon and mentions getting 'his khaṭṭ on the fatwās,' whatever that means.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter from Hilāl b. Avraham, in Alexandria(?), to his brother Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Fustat(?). The sender is worried about Abū l-Karam whose only desire is to 'sue for the 100 dinars' (or conceivably 'sue the dead man for a dinar,' but this seems less likely). Hilāl hardly finds the energy to keep on opening his shop any more. He passes on news of various people and then writes about an unspecified matter, "For the matter requested from you by me you must be desirous of toil, prepared to take heavy loads upon your back and prove that you are worthy of your renown; do not fancy that what can be obtained only by drudgery may be gotten with God's help while taking things easy" (trans. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, V, p. 194). Information in part from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 135, V, p. 194. ASE

Letter probably from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment (upper left corner of recto). The handwriting is better than usual. There are greetings for the high holidays. Refers to a woman who is 'forgiven' for something; the arrival of Makhlūf; someone apparently having a bone set (injibār) who is unable to walk.

Legal document. In which Moshe b. Yehuda ha-Ḥazzan acknowledges receipt of a number of goods from [...] b. Salmān the broker. These include 13 dinars' worth of indigo, 35 1/2 dinars' worth of something else, and cinnamon. On verso there is very faded Hebrew text, likely literary.

Recto: Long query addressed in 1058 to the Gaon of Jerusalem by Eli b. Amram, the head of the Palestinians in Fustat. (Or rather, this may be the partnership contract that is the subject of the legal queries/responsa edited in Gil, Palestine #395, #396. Another copy of the same contract is T-S 20.79.) The note describes a legal matter concerning a Jewish Egyptian merchant who entrusted a business friend returning to his native Sicily with a large shipment of goods, including spices and drugs. The agent died while at sea, and the shipment ended up in Tripoli (Libya?) instead of Sicily. The Jewish authorities in Tripoli seized the goods in order to protect the rights of the deceased agent’s widow and daughter. The Egyptian merchant wanted his goods returned to his possession, but the authorities in Tripoli refused unless he pursued a full-fledged lawsuit against the representatives of the heirs in Sicily. The case went to the rabbinical court in Cairo and then the high court in Jerusalem. Verso: Dirge. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:236, 395-5, 574, 613; CUDL; EMS; and Moshe Yagur, who also identified the join.

Legal record. Scribed and signed by the judge Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. Certifying that Abū l-Faḍā'il b. Salāma b. Saʿīd has received 10 dinars from Abū ʿAlī al-Jubaylī, 7 1/8 in gold coins (ʿayn) and 3 in silver coins (wariq). Dated: Sunday, 11 Heshvan 1437 Seleucid, which is October 1125 CE. In another hand, there is a request to find appropriate Bible verses (bawāsīq) for the ceremony of thanksgiving after safe arrival (birkat ha-gomel). (Information from Goitein's index card.) On verso, in the same hand as the second part of recto, there are Judaeo-Arabic translations of selected verses.

Legal document in which an old woman, appointed by the court as guardian of her grandchildren, receives cash and items left by her son for his children and, as collateral, mortgages her home. Another son of hers agrees to be her guarantor. Dated Elul 1512/August-September 1201. List of the items on recto includes books, cups, and cash. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 297, 493)

Permission from David Maimonides Nagid for recitation of holy texts in the synagogue.

Lower part of a legal document, in which members of a local community object to a muqaddam imposed on them. (Information from Goitein's typed text)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Listing various items and sums of money that have been sent. Mentions Bū l-Faraj and Yūsuf.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Bifolium. See PGP 20645