Geniza Lab

Legal record (#16). Inheritance settlement. Dated: Thursday, 25 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. It is a complicated settlement with multiple sections. (1) Sitt al-Ahl bt. Barakāt b. Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Dayyān, the widow of Abū l-Faḍl al-Ṣayrafī declares that she has received from Abū l-ʿAlā al-Tājir (her late husband's brother) all the payments that are owed her on account of her husband's death (the delayed marriage payment and the belayot, i.e., the items from her trousseau that had been worn out from use), and she releases him from all claims. (2) Abū l-ʿAlā al-Tājir declares that he has received from Sitt al-Ahl all that she owes him of her dowry (qumāsh) and household furnishings (athāth), and he releases her from all claims. (3) Sitt al-Ahl purchases from Abū l-ʿAlā half of her late husband's house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ for 160 dinars. There is a clause granting her the choice of whether to have this transaction registered as a sale in the Muslim courts, in which case she will be liable for fees, or as a gift. (4) Sitt al-Ahl releases Abū l-ʿAlā from all claims before a Muslim court, where she, as a widow, inherits—unlike in Jewish law. (5–6) Abū l-Faraj and Sitt al-Kull, evidently relatives of another recently deceased person, Abū l-Makārim the son of the brother (or possibly father?) of Abū l-ʿAlā, renounce their respective rights worth 30 and 50 dinars in exchange for Abū l-ʿAlā gifting them his share in the marble of the house (see Med Soc IV, p. 103). Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam; Mevorakh b. Natan. NB: Goitein referred to this document as folios 8–9 (e.g., the citation in Med Soc IV is Firk. II NS 1700.8b, with the b indicating verso) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folios are 9–10, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8). (Information in part from Goitein's notes.) ASE.