Geniza Lab

Draft or notes of court proceedings (legal document) regarding a sale of half a house for 300 dinars. Abu Sahl, Menashshe b. Yehuda, sold half of a house that he inherited from his mother to Abu al-Faraj, Amram b. Yosef. Apparently the second half was sold by Menashshe to Yosef Lebdi in a transaction which was probably a cover for a loan with interest. In order to remedy this situation, it was decided that Amram would buy Lebdi's share while permitting Menashshe to continue to dwell in the house and even to rent it to others. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated to January 22, 1102. At the end of the document there are the remains of a legal opinion, in another hand. Apparently the draft of the agreement was shown to a rabbinic authority who gave his opinion regarding how it should be formulated to remedy the appearance of taking interest from a fellow Jew. The document is full of interesting corrections and additions.

Draft of letter of condolences from Efrayim b. Shemarya on the death of Toviyya b. Daniel, February 1043 (Gil's dating).

Draft of a court record from the court in Fustat. 1042. In the handwriting of Yefet b. David Shekhanya. Regarding the claim by Ya’aqov b. Avraham b. Alan against Yahya b. Moshe al-majani. Two years after Yahya described his disagreement with Ya’aqov, his opponent’s claims come before the court. The complainant is in Fustat and the claimant is in Qayrawan, therefor the court needs to send its conclusion to Hananel b. Hushiel and the Nagid Ya’aqov b. Amram from the court in Qayrawan. The record contains details about the goods and their prices. Yahya’s father ordered these goods before he passed away around June 1039. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #632) VMR

Account of the Qodesh: computation of total yearly revenue from rent, ca. 1041. A draft, written in Arabic characters apparently by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya on the verso, probably after the recto had been display in the synagogue for several months. The parnas records the total yearly revenues, in gold and wariq (cash/silver). The revenue in gold was smaller than expected, and that in wariq bigger. Several additional revenue items and debts are listed. The account ended on 30 August 1041. (Gil, Documents, 179 #13) VMR

Draft(?) of a court record. Dated: 29 Nisan 1543 Seleucid, which is April 1232 CE. The widow (Sitt al-)Tujjār bt. Manṣūr claims that 10 shares in a house in Bilbays belong to her children as heirs of her husband. Tujjār's sister-in-law's husband, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Yosef ha-Kohen, produces Arabic deeds, not confirmed by a Jewish court, showing that the children's grandmother had sold him those shares. He asserted that in Bilbays such confirmations are not customary. Tujjār produces a Hebrew document witnessed, but not validated by a court. At the advice of experts, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ agrees to pay his nephews 300 dirhams. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc, vol. 4, p. 276, and Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Draft of letter from Natan ha-Kohen ha-Mumhe b. Mevorakh, Ashkelon, to Eli ha-Kohen ha-Parnas b. Hayyim, Fustat.

India Book I, 13: Draft of a letter from Yosef Lebdi, the India trader, to Ḥasan b. Bundar, 'the representative of merchants' in Aden, dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. This letter, as Lebdi makes clear, was composed under the instructions of the court of Fustat. Lebdi informs the recipient that the court has instructed him to write to Aden and request an official account, approved in court, of the dealings made with Yequtiʾel's share of the property. The letter can be dated to 1098 and was written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. The letter begins in the verso of Bodl. MS Heb d 66/66 and then continues to Bodl. MS Heb d 66/67 (recto and then verso).

Draft of a letter from Avraham b. Natan, in Fustat, to Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl, in Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. Yeshuʿa is in Alexandria probably to welcome a relative. He ordered mats through Avraham, and Avraham sends him a folded string in the letter, to show the mats’ length. A mats maker is willing to send him a mat as an example. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #699) VMR

Draft of private account of Yosef b. Eli Kohen al-Fasi. Around 1057. Contains details about partnership between the writer and Barhun b. Salah regarding purchase of flax in Busir, and details about silk business. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #397) VMR

Petition to the caliph, draft in the Arabic handwriting of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: January 1039. Concerns the closing of a synagogue in Fustat, following the requests of Natan b. Avraham and his family members.

Legal document, draft of the opening, giving only the (difficult-to-read) date. At the top is named Abdallāh the son of the brother of the Nagid (עֿ אללה אֿ אכו אלנגיד). Probably 14th century or later.

Draft of a deathbed declaration in which Abu al-Husayn Moshe b. Shelomo, the perfume vendor, grants his wife her delayed marriage gift and stipulates conditions in case she remarries. Dated ca. 1120. The document begins on verso, which also contains its main part, and continues on recto in the form of a draft written in a different hand. See also ENA 1822a.17, which contains the same document. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 411, 168, 251, 463, 481)

Engagement contract, draft. The scribe repeated a number of lines of the document as well as the names of the bride and groom several times. Two different groom's names are mentioned, suggesting either that the document was intended for scribal practice, or that the scribe confused the Hebrew and Arabic names for the same individual.

Testimony (shahada) written in Jerusalem during the gaonate of Daniel b. Azarya (1051–62), October 1057. Draft.

Letters of thanks, drafts, mostly in rhymed prose, to Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq and his cousin Yosef b. Avraham, Aden, for their gifts and loyalty to the Palestinian Academy (Yeshiva), then located in Cairo, Egypt. The letters are issued in the name of the Gaon. VMR

Letter addressed to Menaḥem Mir. Features honorific titles for the addressee in Hebrew (היקר נבון ונעלה), followed by the first few lines of the body of the letter in Ladino. The letter draft opens by reporting that "we are well, peaceful, and of good health / estamos buenos de pas y de salud" (l. 3r) and goes on to mention "mazal tov" and the name Yiṣḥaq Mir de Avraham (l. 4-5r). Possibly also the beginning of the winter and sending a shipment (l. 6r). MCD. ASE.

Partnership agreement. Dated: 11 Sivan 1347 Seleucid, which is May/June 1036 CE. Gil identifies the handwriting as that of Sahlān b. Avraham. The contents are as follows: Shemuel b. Sahlan al-Barki brought a shipment of pearls from Farah b. Sahlun, from Qayrawān. Three experts are splitting the pearls between both partners. Shemuel (one of them) asks that his part would be used for traveling and selling the pearls in the Arabian Peninsula. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #799) VMR

Legal agreement, crudely written in the hand of Natan ha-kohen b. Shelomo. Musa b. Bishr (who also appears in ENA 4011.55), about a partnership in a bread shop with Hiba. They shared the investment, work and profit equally. They owe 4 dinar to Abu al-Rida, the guard (shomer). But they have spent the money. Each demands that the other take the partners' oath in half the debt. In the end, those present mediated a compromise saying that Hiba would pay one dinar and Musa 3 dinars. Written in 1125.

Quittance, draft in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya in which a mother obliges herself to release her son from any lawsuit filed by herself or her daughter from a previous marriage. Dating: ca. 1038 CE. (Information from Bareket)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 1248-1249. Location: Fustat. This document describes a partnership in a sugar-factory. It's likely the document is a draft because it lacks the signatures of witnesses, and because it uses “So-and-So” ("Pl[oni] ben Pl[oni]") in place of the partners’ names throughout. However, the level of detail which is included suggests that this was not simply the page out of a formulary work. The partnership may have been an apprenticeship since only one of the partners is described as bringing assets to the partnership, the distribution of profits is not even between the partners but rather grants one partner two-thirds of the profit despite the fact that both partners are active in trading, and the partnership itself is to last “a number of years”. Lines 14-15 read “And if So-and-So requests [this] of us, we will affix our signature”, suggesting that perhaps sometimes partnership agreements were formed without witnesse. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 85)