Geniza Lab

Bottom of a legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Ḥeshvan 1435 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE. Mentions the rent of a house.

ENA 4011.19a (upper fragment): Marriage contract (ketubba). Dated: 1445 Seleucid, which is 1133/34 CE. Only the beginning is preserved. Bride: Turfa, a divorcee from a betrothal (מתרכתא מן הא[רוסין). Goitein's index card notes that the Turfa in T-S 16.52, who was already divorced from a marriage in 1124 CE, has nothing to do with the woman in this document. NB: Goitein cites this document as ENA 4011.18.

ENA 4011.19b (lower fragment): Mercantile letter addressed to Ḥananel b. Nissim ha-Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender details the garments and/or textiles which he has sent with Abū Yaḥyā. Also mentions Abū Saʿīd and the addressee's brother. Mentions sums of 12 and 15 dirhams, and also the price of the lapis lazuli (lazuward).

Legal deed. Only the date is preserved: Kislev 1454 Seleucid, which is 1133 CE.

Letter of thanks. In Judaeo-Arabic. Praising a scholar who had spent a certain amount of time, it seems during the High Holidays, in a provincial town. His presence highly enhanced the prestige of the Jewish community and both Jews and Muslims were happy with him. He prayed from the prayerbook of Saadya Gaon. The document mentions al-Shaykh al-Thiqa Abū Ghālib, but it is not clear if he is the man so beloved. The letter has at least 10 signatures. The first is that of David b. ʿAmram ha-Kohen, in the same hand as the document itself. Other signatures: Berakhot b. [...]; Seʿadya b. Avraham ha-Levi; Yefet b. Yesh[uʿa?]; Elʿazar b. Ṣedaqa; Ṣedaqa b. Yiṣḥaq(?) ha-Kohen; Yoshiyya b. Araḥ; Sheʾerit b. Maṣliaḥ ha-Levi ha-Ḥazzan. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and Med Soc II, 299.) NB: Goitein called this document ENA 4011.19.

Legal document. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: 1474 Seleucid, which is 1162/63 CE, under the authority of Netanel ha-Levi. Quittance or agreement regarding 18 dinars. The parties: Abū l-Khayr al-Ṣabbāgh b. Abū l-[...]; Ṣedaqa b. Shelomo b. Yosef ha-Dayyan; Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ al-Tājir and his brother Abū l-[...]. (Information from Goitein’s index card.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.22 as ENA 4011.21.

Note addressed to Yaʿaqov Abū l-Munā. The sender, a scribe, already sent with Abū Manṣūr the cantor what he needed to send, and asks the addressee to send him paper and 10.5 dirhams for expenses. (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.24 as ENA 4011.23.

Memorial list? Dating: Mid-13th century. Names Hodaya b. Shelomo the Nasi (from Mosul). Also Abū Saʿīd b. Netanel. (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.25 as ENA 4011.24.

Note addressed to Ṣedaqa b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen Rosh ha-Seder. In Hebrew, in a crude hand. Asking him to send something, and not too late.

Court record in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Location: Minyat al-Sharīf. Dated: Monday, 5 Adar 4920 AM, which is 1160 CE, under the authority of Netanel Gaon (with all his titles listed). The parties are Avraham b. Tamīm and Shelomo b. [...]. No details of the case are preserved. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.27 as ENA 4011.26.

Communal/legal record. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Ṭevet 1493 Seleucid, which is December 1181, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Abū l-Munajjā al-Kohen, surnamed al-Zariz, collector for the charitable foundations in New Cairo, turns in 100 dirhams that were used for the distribution of clothing, and an additional 50 that were spent on another approved charity. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 423)

Legal document, probably written by Shemuʾel b. Saadya, dated 1184. A few words from the reshut formula can be read, probably mentioning Sar Shalom Halevi (although his name is not preserved).

Account: record of payments of the qodesh in Cairo, ca. December 1181. The collector of the qodesh in Cairo, Kohen Abu al-Munajja, surnamed al-Zariz, submits his account to the court. The account refers to expenditures made out of the rent of three months, Elul 1492, and Tishri and Marheshwan 1493 Sel. The money was spent for clothes, for the children of the Nasi, for nightwatch and maintenance. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 366 #95 and Mediterranean Society, II, 423). Written under the authority of Sar Shalom Halevi. A note written by R. Isacc the dayyan is mentioned. Alternate description: Record of payments of the Qodesh in Cairo ca. 1181-82 (Gil). Request from a notable to remit immediately the sum he had pledged for the capitation tax of the poor. These notes and similar ones no doubt emanated from the office of Elhanan b. Shemarya (see S. D. Goitein, "Elhanan b. Shemarya as a Communal Leader," Yehoshuaʿ Finkel Jubilee Volume [New York, 1970]). Information from Goitein, Med. Soc., 2:455. The transcription here is for ENA 4011.29.

Colophon or ownership note on a book cover. 'This booklet belongs to Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib ha-Ḥazzan (the cantor).' Dating: first half of the 12th century, assuming this is the same Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib who signed documents by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (e.g., Bodl. MS heb. b 11/31). On the other side, a dirge in Judaeo-Arabic.

Bill of divorce (get). Location: Alexandria. Dated: 1171 CE. Husband: Netanel b. Avraham. Signed by: [Meir b. Hillel b.] Zadoq and Yosef b. ʿAmram.

Legal document. Signed by Avraham ha-Kohen b. Aharon; Shelomo b. Yefet.

Letter fragment from Peraḥya b. Yosef to Seʿadya b. Avraham. In Judaeo-Arabic. Only the address and the upper right corner of recto are preserved. An earlier description contained the sentence 'Avraham b. Yiju son nephew.'

Letter from Abū Naṣr b. Barakāt b. Ziz al-Tujjār and Abū l-Faraj b. Moshe ha-Kohen addressed to R. Avraham (possibly Avraham Maimonides). Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. The senders are asking for help on behalf of somebody else. Regards to a woman in the addressee's family (al-sitt al-ʿazīza).

Verso: Legal document in which a debtor Khalaf must pay to Faḍā'il only one half of the sum stipulated in the Muslim documents. Signed by Shelomo b. Seʿadya and Avraham b. Natan. Dated: Nisan 1471 Seleucid, which is March-April 1160 CE. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.34 as ENA 4011.33.

Recto: Legal deed in Arabic script. (Abū l-)Faḍāʾil b. Khalaf al-Yahūdī al-Ḥarīrī, the tax farmer of the silk, has to receive 474 dirhams from Khalaf, a sum composed of the price of a certain kind of silk worth 425 dirhams, plus other dues from Khalaf, to be pain on 10 Dhū l-Ḥijja 544 AH, which is 10 April 1150 CE. The document was written on the last day of Dhū l-Qaʿda 544 AH, which is 30 March 1150 CE. On verso (see separate record) there is an acknowledgement made by the Jewish court concerning the content of the Arabic deed, signed by Shelomo b. Seʿadya and Avraham b. Natan ha-Kohen. (Information from Goitein's index card and Med Soc II, 614n30.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.34 as ENA 4011.33.