Geniza Lab

Deathbed declaration in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, right upper corner. An old widow who had given her maidservant half of a house and the rest of her belongings asks her to renounce one eight of the share in the house, which she wishes to give to her sister's daughter, Najiya. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 134, 442)

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Consists entirely of blessings and praises addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge. Essentially none of the body remains. Regards to Shelomo in the margin. Good candidate for a join

Legal agreement (FGP). Or letter. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Opens with a string of titles very similar to those given to the Nagid Moshe b. Mevorakh in T-S 24.55. Then goes into the case of the youth Abū l-Ḥasan and 35 dinars.

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Release, probably. Mentions a woman [...] bt. ʿEli ha-Zaqen; someone declaring that he has received the full sum from her; then the royal something in al-Qāhira al-Muʿizziya; then a house and the man's brother Abū Isḥāq.

.Marriage document. Minute fragment, damaged and creased from a ketubah. Only a few words from the dowry list are preserved. Judeo-Arabic. AA. Needs preservation.

Legal document: quittance in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. A certain Avraham b. Shelomo Tiilmisani, acting as a custodian (apotropos), releases a certain Joseph b. Amram known as al-Fituri (?) in some commercial transaction. Aharon and Na'aman are also mentioned. Maybe Alexandria. The three fragments do not actually join but they are clearly related to the same case, and perhaps part from the same document. Join by Amir Ashur and Oded Zinger.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Various requests and transactions are mentioned on verso, but they are too vague to understand without some joins. Regards to Abū Sahl al-Kohen.

Legal document. Release. Location: Fustat. Regarding partners, a sum of 400 dinars, and every party receiving his due in full. Names mentioned include Avraham b. Sh[...]; Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Yaʿqūb and Abū l-F[...].

Legal testimony. Probably in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Conveying a blow-by-blow narrative of a dispute over a house and a sum of money. Needs examination.

Letter fragment from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī(?) addressed to a certain Amir. Only the first few lines are preserved. ASE.

Business letter sent from Tripoli, Lebanon. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th century. Mentions terrible economic depression in the Levant and asks the addressee to send his letters to Tyre. The address is in Arabic script but it looks like it is just the blessings for the addressee, not his name (baqāhu wa-adāma ʿizzahu). Needs preservation; some of the text is hidden underneath folds.

Letter addressed to a 'Sar ha-Leviim,' asking him to help his son, who is imprisoned in Cairo for a debt. Fifteen dirhams had been pledged, but his son owes 25 more. (Information from Goitein's index cards). The letter is written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who served as the muqqadam of Bilbays from 1180's-1220.

Deed of lease of an apartment in Sicily for forty years for Yosef Yiju, Probably Mazara, after 1136. Yosef Yiju pays the rent for forty years in advance (!) to the owner Umm al-Aziz.

Rental contract for a Jewish woman, Umm al-'Az to Yosef Yiju. The contract is for an apartment in Sicily, for 40 years, paid in advance. Mazar, Sicily, after 1136 (Goitein and Friedman estimation). VMR

Letter. fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Reporting on the writer's dealings with the amir Nāṣir al-Dawla and handing over a letter (or petition?) to him. This letter is quite damaged but merits further examination. The addressee is asked to 'show favor on the amir' by entering the synagogue(?).

Letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer reports on attending synagogue on Shabbat and hearing the end of the Torah reading, and then the congregation began reading Lamentations. When they reached the second chapter (איכה יעיב באפו), the writer tried to pull up a chair to see better, which caused a scuffle involving Ibn al-Maghribī and Ḥayyūn and Makārim b. al-[...]. Two more people are mentioned later on: [...] al-Qāhirī and Ibn al-ʿAnbarī. Someone said, "You don't know how to recite! Give me the muṣḥaf." The fragment becomes damaged and difficult to read around here, but it seems everyone made peace (wa-baʿd iṣṭalaḥū wa-ṣallaynā). On verso, there are many greetings: to the venerable father, to the mother Sitt R[ayḥān?], al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Abū Zikrī and the ṣaghīra. The writer may be Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, or at least someone of the family. ASE.

Legal document. Minute fragment. Opening line of a legal deed, probably written by Hillel b. Eli. Aramaic. AA

Letter to a local dayyan (judge) concerning marital problems of the writer's daughter.

Legal document dealing with the allocation of an estate.

Letter dealing with a legal matter that was discussed before a Muslim judge (qadi), concerning the consequences of having had Jewish witnesses. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) SEE PGP 5266