Geniza Lab

Legal query in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to "sayyidnā al-shelishi" regarding a man who died and left his entire estate to one of his two cousins, but did not explicitly exclude the other one, to whom he gave the equivalent of a peruṭa (penny). A more complete version of T-S G1.2 (PGPID 1307). (AA)

Will of Yaʿaqov b. Dunash b. Yehuda Resh Sidra, dealing mainly with expenses for his burial in Jerusalem. He appoints his brother-in-law Natan b. Shelomo the executor, and leaves 5 dinars to Shalom b. Natan, the son of his sister and brother-in-law. Dated 9 Adar II 1064 CE (4824), Fustat. See Med Soc III, IX A 2, n. 64.

Legal. The will of Shela b. Yefet known as Ibn al-Sukkari. No date is preserved, but it mentions the Rayyis Mevorakh. It mentions an orphan daughter and 300 dinars. The Alexandrians Abū Hārūn and Abū Saʿīd Khulayf b. Qays (?) and 'Ezra b. Hillel will be the executors.

Will of a silk-weaver named Abū l-Faḍl b. Barakāt Ibn al-Maqdisī, dividing his house, workshop, and other belongings to his four sons. In the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 15 Kislev 1500 Seleucid, which is December 1188 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Signed by: Shelomo b. Nissim and Levi b. Avraham ha-Levi (may be identical with Abū Sahl Levi the cantor, father of Yedutun and Moshe b. Levi; may also be the same Levi b. Avraham who appears in T-S NS J273 in connection to a silk workshop). There is a full translation and commentary in Goitein's attached notes. ENA NS 76.435.6 + ENA NS 76.435.7 is an earlier, messier version of the same document (same scribe, same date, signed by the same witnesses).

Deathbed will of a notable, dividing his landed property, his flocks of sheep and all the orchards possessed or leased by him between his brother and his children, and making stipulations for his widow. In the hand of and witnessed by Hillel b. ʿEli. The dying man appoints his brother as the will’s executor explicitly stating that no court may interfere with his actions. A copy of this will is found in T-S 20.99. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Mediterranean Society, Vol. 1, pp. 117, 425 and Vol. 3, p. 259, 299, 493n97.)

Fragment of a will in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (dated to between 1127 and 1139) in which a man on his deathbed, after having distributed his possessions, orders the sale of his riding beast and his wasif (servant) in order to pay the burial expenses. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 132; III, p. 432)

Will, in which the testator grants a lot of valuable property to various people in his family, including a kānūn sharābiyya (a syrup-maker's brazier?) and a female slave named עב[...] to one of the women in his family.

Fragment of a will, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, in which the donor, an old man being in good health, specifies the legacies made by him, especially in favor of his wife, emphasizing that they were irrevocable. Also he gives a bible codex, bible commentaries, and other books to synagogue in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 133)

Legal document. Probably a bill of release connected to a will. The deceased is Moshe b. Yefet, and he left behind a minor son Hibatallāh. Someone had intended or intends to travel with a sum of money. Mentions: involving the parnasim before the death; the executor (waṣiyy) Moshe b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen and Abū l-Makārim b. Ṭayyib. Moshe b. Seʿadya is released from the 'risk' of the money. On verso there is a dirge in Hebrew. AA

Left lower corner of a will from Fustat. The elder daughter is in charge of the partitioning of the house. The dying man says that his Sabbath robe and Sabbath mantle are good enough and there is no need to buy new 'shrouds'. Dated Adar 1361/ February 1050.

Will of Moshe b. Adiyya who declares that his wife did not owe him anything, but that not all she was owed in her marriage contract had been delivered to her. In addition he gives her a present of some wheat. He gives his sister two dinars and his niece one dinar and donates a Torah codex to the synagogue of the Palestinians in Fustat. His son is the only and exclusive heir who cannot be sued by anyone. Dated Tammuz 1351/ June 1040. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 139, 544)

Guardianship document from the court of Daniel b. Azarya, Jerusalem. An unknown person b. Ezra appoints Ishaq b. Abraham to be the guardian and get what his brother left him in his will. (Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, #216) VMR The second document, ENA NS 44.31 forms the second portion of lines 7 - 18. For the exact location of the tear please see the original text.

Fragment of a will. Mentions 20 silvers. Last two lines mention that the testator is in sound health "la ʿilla wa-lā suqm wa-lā ḥāl yalzimuhu fīhi". The text in the right margin declares the responsibility and accountability of the testator and that he is on the right path "wahuwa dhimmatī wa l-ḥaq awwalan mā attabiʿu".

Letter from an unidentified person connected to Ibn ʿAwkal, ca. 1030. The letter is illegible in many places. Discusses the will of one of the partners. The people involved may have been from Syracuse. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 601.)

Perhaps a will ("this is my waṣiyya that my own hand wrote. . ."). Mentions the date: Tevet 1472 Seleucid, which is (if this this has been read correctly) 1160/61 CE.

Will, fragment. Preserves the middle part of the last 5 lines. In Judaeo-Arabic with some Hebrew and Aramaic. Dating: The hand looks late, probably no earlier than 13th century. Mentions various items of real estate and also mentions something that will go to 'the orphans.'

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat, probably to Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tahirtī in Būsīr, ca. 1053. Nahray sends details of various sales in Fustat and of related payments. A man arrived in Fustat, who fell ill and died within 15 days. During his illness he prepared a will, leaving 10 dinars for charity in Fustat. Some of this money was given to the son of raʾs al-galut instead, whom Gil identifies as David b. Ḥezekiya. The receiver of the letter was appointed as one of the executors of the will. On verso there are illegible accounts in the hand of Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tahirtī. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 744.)

Deathbed will. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 29 Kislev 1448 Seleucid, which is 1136/37 CE. The testator mentions his niece (brother's daughter) Sitt al-Fakhr.

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.

Will of a pregnant woman. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tishrei 1449 Seleucid, which is 1137 CE. Testator: Sitt al-Ahl bt. Ṣadoq b. Mevorakh Rosh ha-Qehillot. Sitt al-Ahl is the wife of Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Yehuda. Sitt al-Ahl's mother is Ḥasana bt. Shelomo ha-Kohen, the sister of the well-known judge Natan b. Shelomo. She is close to giving birth and contemplating dying during childbirth and seeks to provide for the child “male or female” who would survive the mother. The woman bequeaths generously to relatives and charities, including “forty dinars to the "mastūrīn" poor in Cairo and Fustat. "The woman's husband had children from a previous marriage, and she was, therefore particularly eager to safeguard the future of the child she was expecting. This had already been done to a large extent in her marriage contract, where it was stipulated that the dowry which she brought in, as well as payments due to her, would go to her children, to the exclusion of other heirs of her husband. In addition, she now wants half of a house, given by her to her mother prior to her marriage, to revert to her future child. The other half belonged to her, and both she and her husband were eager that the whole should become the property of the expected newborn. The old lady, however, had earmarked 60% of her share for her brother and nieces and 40% for charitable purposes. In view of this, our document stipulates that the gifts intended by the old woman will be made by her son-in-law in case after her death, while the half of the house referred to will be registered as property of the newborn. The expecting mother belonged to one of the leading families of the community, as her grandfather was Mevorakh Rosh ha-Qehillot, a man prominent in the politics of the community in the middle of the 11th century. On the other hand, her maternal uncle, the judge Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo, signatory of many documents in Fustat during the years 1122–48, was a refugee from Palestine, which was occupied at that time by the crusaders. It stands to reason that her mother, too, had come from Palestine and had, therefore, no possessions of her own in Cairo. This explains why she was given in her old age, one-half of a house by her daughter, who had inherited or received it as a gift from her father's family, or perhaps left to her by a former husband." (Information from Goitein's attached notes and from Mark Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, 196; S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 3: 232, 475) EMS. ASE.