Geniza Lab

Recto: Fragment in Arabic script, in a chancery hand. The ends of four lines are preserved. Mentions a sum of 20 dinars (min al-ʿayn al-wāzin ʿashrīn dīnār) and repeats twice that someone testified something (shahida ʿalā nafsih). Verso: Legal testimony in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Reporting on the fulfillment of the orders of the Gaon. The witnesses went to the house of Abū l-Maʿālī Avraham b. Ḥalfon known as Ibn Abū Salāma (probably the same mentioned in T-S 8J5.4, dated 1127 CE) and questioned him regarding the drug store of the late Abū Sahl Menashshe ha-Levi b. Elʿazar who died in Cairo. Abū l-Maʿālī relates that Abū Sahl had asked him from his deathbed to go fetch some money from the shop, so he went and retrieved approximately 40 dirhams. By the time he returned, Abū Sahl was dead. When Abū l-Maʿālī returned to the shop, there was already a group gathered round, and Ṣemaḥ al-Parnas summoned a carpenter to close the shop and put a metal lock on the door. Evidently they are now sorting out who will take over the business. ASE