Geniza Lab

Ketubba in the Palestinian style. Only the recto was photographed. Dated: Heshvan 1440 Seleucid, which is 1128 CE, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Ga'on. Location: Probably Damascus or nearby. Groom: Sasson b. Yefet ha-Zaqen. Bride: Kulla, a virgin and a "divorcee from a betrothal." The bride appoints her brother Ghālib b. Berakhot ha-Zaqen as her representative (lit. "guardian"). Likely the same scribe as Moss. VII,67.2, which is a document from Damascus written prior to 1138 CE. First identified by Ronny Vollandt. Information from Amir Ashur, “A Ketubah in the Palestinian Style with the Permission of Maẓliaḥ Gaon, from the Damascus Geniza” [in Hebrew], Peʿamim 135 (2013), 163–170.

Deed of sale of a house. Only the recto was photographed. Dating: Likely c.1170 CE, based on the reference to “our [mast]er Sar Shalom, the av beit din of the whole of Israel." Location: Damascus ("which dwells on the rivers Parpar and Amana," as in 2 Kings 5:12). The document records the sale of a house owned by Elʿazar ha-Zaqen (the elder), the member of the yeshiva, to the "heqdesh (pious foundation) of our master Ezekiel the prophet (and) priest, peace be upon him”. The sum mentioned is sixteen dinars, and the money is to be paid in Ḥadrakh, not far from Damascus. (Information from Gideon Bohak, "The Jewish Texts from the Qubbat al-Khazna," in The Damascus Fragments, ed. d'Ottone Rambach et al.)

Deed of sale of real estate. Only the recto was photographed. Location: Tyre. Dated: 4[.]60 AM, which could be 999/1000, 1099/1100, or 1199/1200 CE. Of these options, the most likely year is 1099/1100, based on the reference to the Great Sanhedrin (=yeshiva), as the Palestinian yeshiva moved from Jerusalem to Tyre in the early 1070s, and left Tyre around the time of the First Crusade. The seller is Efrayim b. Menashshe (ZL), the member of the Great Sanhedrin known as Ibn al-Bunduqī. The buyer is Binyamin ha-Levi b. Shemarya ha-Zaqen ha-Levi b. Yosef ha-Levi (ZL). The property itself, which consists of half a house, is described at great length, but the price paid for it, “in the coinage of the kingdom”, is lost in a lacuna. (Information from Gideon Bohak, "The Jewish Texts from the Qubbat al-Khazna," in The Damascus Fragments, ed. d'Ottone Rambach et al.)