Geniza Lab

Folio from a court ledger. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 4 Shevaṭ 1496 Seleucid, which is January 1185 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Abū Naṣr b. Abū l-Khayr claims to have given to the female broker Sitt al-Dalāl bt. Abū ʿUmar two books belonging to his father, one of the Torah and one of Ketuvim, in order to offer them for sale. She claimed to him that they would fetch only 7.5 dinars and obtained permission to sell them to her own son Abū l-Maḥāsin b. Yefet for this price, taking 1/3 dinar as brokerage. Six years later, he learned the Torah alone was worth 20 dinars. Abū l-Maḥāsin is questioned about this. The story continues at length on verso (mentioning at one point the two witnesses Abū l-Bayān Ibn al-Ahuv (ZL) and Saʿīd al-Mawṣilī). This portion still needs examination. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)