Geniza Lab

Deathbed will. in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. Location: Fustat. Dated: First third of Av 1448 Seleucid, which is July/August 1137 CE, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. (The signing was deferred to the middle third of Av.) Testator: Abū l-Ḥasan Yehoshuaʿ b. Abū l-Riḍā Shemuel ha-Meshorer. The dying man appoints his mother-in-law Mubāraka bt. Ḥifāẓ (and not his wife Sitt al-Dār bt. Yefet) as the executor of his will and guardian of his three children. He leaves his silver cup and other items to his son Hiba and the jewelry to be divided amongst his daughters Sitt al-Fakhr and Sitt al-Banāt. He makes arrangements for his business partnerships in rose water and safflower with Mufaḍḍal b. Hiba al-Ḥarīrī and with Abū l-Ḥasan the Qaraite. His wife Sitt al-Dār will live with her children for as long as she remains unmarried. He gives 6 dinars to his father and 4 dinars to his mother. Along with jewelry and household items, the ornate head garment used on the celebratory occasion of the first cutting of a boy’s hair is also mentioned. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 5:152, 565; 4:148-9, 210-11, 394, 423-4) EMS. ASE.