Geniza Lab

4 pages from a ledger of copies of 17 different legal documents (witness names appear in the hand of the scribe). All are from the end of 1714 or the beginning of 1715 CE. The descriptions below follow the order as they appear in the FGP scans.Page 1, Document #1: Neḥemias b. Shemuel and Mordekhai Ortas b. Yaʿaqov acknowledge that they have received an investment of 13 Seville (? שביליאנוס) reales and 12 muayyadis from Ḥanũnah the wife of Shemuel Masʿūd. From Fustat/Cairo, dated January 1715 (beginning of Shevat 5475). Page 1, Document #2: Yiṣḥaq Asad (?) acknowledges an investment from a woman named מריית (?), the widow of Yaʿaqov Alarcon. Witnessed by Yaʿaqov b. Ḥabīb. Dated January 1715 (beginning of Shevat 5475). Page 1, Document #3: Partnership agreement between Gavriel Afinah (?) and Yehudah known as [...] b. Ḥabīb and Yaʿaqov Fayrūz, dated January 1715 (beginning of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Raḥamim Ḥotev (?). Page 2, Document #1: Appointment of Yaʿaqov ha-Levi as guardian of the boy Shalom b. Avraham Ashkenazi. Dated December 1714 (end of Kislev 5475). Page 2, Document #2: Some sort of business agreeement between Shemuel ha-Levi known as Baqbash (?) and Barukh Kampanton known as Maṣliaḥ. Dated January 1715 (middle of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shelomo Zeraḥyah. Page 2, Document #3: Some sort of agreement between Khalīfah ʿAfīfī and Shelomo the son (?) of the late Yaʿaqov Alarcon, perhaps involving a partnership and inheritance. Yaʿaqov b. Ḥabīb is also appointed the guardian of a young Eliyyahu. Page 3, Document #1: Possibly a rental contract? It has to do with the two apartments owned by Simḥah the widow of Raḥamim Rasa, across from the apartment of Barzilai (?) Tio (?) the Shohet, and someone named Moshe Yeshurun. Dated January 1715 (beginning of Shevat 5475). Page 3, Document #2: ʿAmram Ibn Hini (?) b. Moshe acknowledges an investment from the judge Yeshuʿah Shusṭari (?). Dated January 1715 (beginning of Shevat 5475). Page 3, Document #3: Yosef Porto Nāyis (?) acknowledges an investment from Astit (?) the widow of Avraham. Dated January 1715 (middle of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shelomo Zeraḥyah.Page 3, Document #4: Nissim Hefeẓ (?) b. Avraham appoints Aharon Af[...] of Rashid as his agent. Dated January 1715 (middle of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shelomo Zeraḥyah.Page 3, Document #5: Aharon Reuven acknowledges an investment from Masʿūdah the widow of Moshe ʿAddāl (?). Dated January 1715 (middle of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shelomo Zeraḥyah.Page 3, Document #6: Betrothal document for Aharon Kozimat (? קוזימט) b. Yosef and Ḥanūnah bt. Shelomo Dhabbāḥ. Dated January 1715 (middle of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shimʿon ha-Kohen.Page 4, Document #1: Betrothal document for Moshe Kozimat (?) b. Yosef and Ḥanūnah bt. Yaʿaqov Rasa. Dated January 1715 (middle of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shimʿon ha-Kohen.Page 4, Document #2: Needs further examination. Involves Marḥabah the wife of Yehudah Karo. Dated January 1715 (end of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Eliyyahu Tābūn. Page 4, Document #3: Needs further examination. May be a record of a debt owed by Saʿīd Zarmāg (?) of Damietta (Kapotakia) to Yehudah Karmona. Dated January 1715 (end of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Eliyyahu [...] ha-Shohet. Page 4, Document #4: Needs further examination. Marriage-related document. Dated January 1715 (end of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shimʿon ha-Kohen.Page 4, Document #5: Needs further examination. Involves a husband and his wife Esther. Dated January 1715 (end of Shevat 5475). Witnessed by Shimʿon ha-Kohen.

Legal document from Fustat/Cairo, dated January 1821 (5581). It seems to be a partnership agreement between various traders active in the early 19th century, including Yaʿaqov ʿAdda, Yosef Shtiwi, Shimʿon Frances, Moshe Yagi (?), Avraham Ḥafīs (?), Moshe Ḥanan, and Moshe Mizraḥī. Signed by many of these same people along with Saʿd Pinto.

Recto: Legal document involving a business arrangement between Avraham Yuʿbaṣ and Shabbetay Skandarī and at least one other person. The bottom is missing, along with the date. Verso: On the left are two signatures of Nissim b. Yosef. On the right is a list of many men, some known from other documents ca. 1800 CE (including Shelomo Cesana), along with the names of certain synagogues or schools (? one is "Talmud Torah").

Legal document involving a partnership between a large number of the Jewish merchants active in Egypt ca. 1800 CE: Shelomo Cesana, Ḥayyim Cesana, Avraham Cesana in Alexandria; and Merkado Karo and Avraham ha-Levi and Hayyim Nuṣayri (?) and Shimʿon Frances and Khalifa Pinto and Yaʿaqov Bibas and Meʾir ben Naʿim. This appears to be a draft of JRL SERIES L 18. MCD. ASE.

List of charity received, probably, by dozens of people, arranged in a curiously alphabetical way, with sections devoted to orphans and wives and daughters and divorcees. If ״אל״ stands for "almanat," a large number of widows are listed.

34 pages of donations collected on various Shabbats, including for the year 1814/15 (5575). Moshe Bibas appears throughout.

List of donations (?) for the end of Adar of the year of "ezreinu" (perhaps 70+7+200+50+6 = [5]333 = 1573 CE. But everything else in the folder is much later, so this is likely incorrect). Names listed include Shelomo b. Ḥabīb, Avraham Mador (?), Moshe Kātib, Moshe Perdonil (?) and his brother, Seʿadyah, Yosef b. [...], Yehudah b. Yosef al-Ashqar, Yaʿaqov b. Hīnī, Ḥayyim b. Hīnī, Yehudah Bahlūl (?), Yosef Muḥibb, the brother of Moshe, Shelomo Faranji, Ḥabīb Naftali, Ḥayyim Mador, Shemuel Ghazzāwī, Yiṣḥaq Ahumado (?), Yiṣḥaq al-Ashqar, Yiṣḥaq al-Ashqar Junior, Yaʿaqov Levi, Avraham Darʿī, Avraham al-Ashqar, Yiṣḥaq Talmid, Abū Yaʿqūb, Manṣūr (?) Kohen, ʿAlī b. Hīnī, Emanuel, Shabbetay, the flax worker, and Yehudah al-Ashqar.

List of donations or communal payments in Judeo-Arabic. The heading may be dated as [5]565 (1804-1805CE) but this estimate is inconclusive given that lack of clarity in the alphanumerical figures קסה. This dating is plausible, however, because of the handwriting and the confluence of surnames and individuals who appear commonly in other late-18th to early-19th-century fragments. For each payment in silver coinage "פצה", the contributor's name appears: Baruch Shalom, Yaʿacov Zardil, Avraham ha-Levi, Ḥayyīm ha-Levi, Israel Dayyan, Nissim Molẖo, and many others. MCD.

List of donations collected in Shevat and Adar, perhaps of [5]600 = 1840. Family names include Bibas and Mosseri and Ḥaqīm.

List of donations collected for the year 5580 = 1819/20. Family names include Romano, Skandari, Palombo, Yuʿbaṣ, ʿAfīf, Pinto, Yagi, Mizraḥī, Mosseri. At 90 degrees there are also data about sums disbursed. Verso contains another list of donations.

List of donations received from various members of a community, organized alphabetically and with a neat accounting system with triangles and dashes.

List of honors purchased for the services on various Shabbatot along with how much money paid or to be paid. Probably early 19th century, since Yāqūtī Yuʿbaṣ does not seem a very common name, and he is mentioned here and in AIU VII.D.85 dated 1817 CE.

List of donations received from dozens of men and families and some calculations. Arranged by months and parshiyot, and many names are repeated in different months. May be 18th century. A large percentage of all family names attested in the late Genizah period are listed somewhere in this document. Among others: Sultan, Sarfati, Levi, Aripol, Konan, Mas'ud, Sarawi, Zamiro, Trinqi, Rason, Mugnanah (?), Qaninah, Harrar, Najjar, Aghion, Muhibb, 'Afif, Ben Sahal, Kahlatan (?), Chizanah, Abudarham, Skandari, Abzaradel, Alarcon, Bialobos, Fawwaz (?), Frances, 'Uziel, Kasis, Solas, Yesha'yah, Atroti (?), Kachichi (?), Nosri (?), Barukh, Hayyun, Ben Naʿim, Dafakhni (?), Tawil, Jarbu'a (?), Medinah, Ashkenazi, Krispin, Kondiote (?), Pinto.

List of donations (?) collected dated 1820/21 (5581). Surnames include Pinto, Yagi.

Late accounts, or at least long lists of names with numbers.

List of donations collected probably for the year 5590 = 1829/30.

List of donations collected on various Shabbatot.

List of donations collected on the week of Hayei Sarah (recto) and Toldot (verso), November 1803 CE (Heshvan 5564). Legible surnames of donors include Frances and Yuʿbaṣ. Needs further examination.

28 pages of communal and financial and legal records. Pages 1 and 14 are registers of deaths, one on page 14 dated 1662 CE (5422). Pages 2–9 contain alternating entries in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic about who received how much, from whom, for what. Pages 10–13 are accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Page 15 is a fragmentary account of Ottoman rulers active in Egypt from 1659–72 CE (1070–72 Hijri), naming Gazi Basha, Usman al-Wali, Ḥasan Bey Mustafa, and others. There is also a small piece of a printed text peeping through a tear in the paper. Page 16 returns to accounts. Pages 17-19 have to do with the rents of the houses of the qodesh, listing their locations and tenants. Page 20 then moves onto the houses of the qodesh of the Musta'ribim Synagogue. Pages 22–23 are registers of births ca.1680 CE (e.g. 5436 and 5442). Pages 24–28 are mostly in Arabic script. Some of the birth and death registers are in the first person and in different hands. ASE.

Recto: At least two different drafts of late Arabic letters. Bottom of recto and verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic--lists of money received from various individua