Geniza Lab

Segment of a court testimony. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (Date: 1100-1138). Regarding dowry arrangements after the renewal of a lost ketubba. The ketubba of Abu l-Fadl Ṣadoq b. Ḥalfon b. Moshe and his wife […] bt. Berakhot b. Yehuda ha-Levi was lost when the Franks (‘May God ruin them’) captured Tripoli (Lebanon, in 1109 CE) and Abū l-Faḍl and his wife were taken prisoner. On verso there is Genesis 1:1-3. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated October 1116 (Thursday, 11 Marḥershvan, 142...). The marriage gift consists of 16 dinars. The bride is a divorcee on whose earning the husband will have no right, but who will provide her clothing by herself. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 380.)

Recto: Legal declaration in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe involving a bridegroom and his fiancee, Sitt al-Ahl. After a temporary dissolution of the engagement, the prospective groom agrees that all future income from his fiancee, Sitt al-Ahl, would be considered her property. Verso: Short document in Arabic script. Needs further examination. (Information from Goitein's note card and CUDL)

Legal document concerning the breaking off of an engagement agreement in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe ha-Levi to his brother the court clerk Ḥalfon (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:422, 626; EMS). Join by Oded Zinger.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe, in Alexandria, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment (upper left corner of recto). The writer asks what happened to Khiyār, who seems to be a son of Ḥalfon who was involved in a crime. Related to ENA 3612.4? (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) EMS

Court notebook. Location: Fustat. Ff. 1r–2r: Betrothal contract between Sitt al-Kull bt. ʿEli from Fusṭāṭ and Moshe b. Yisrael from al-Maḥalla, in which the bride agrees to follow her husband to his domicile. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and signed by Ḥalfon and Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Dated Ḥeshvan 1443 Seleucid, which is 1131 CE. F. 2v: Betrothal (erusin) contract. Fiancé: Yosef b. ʿEli Ibn Qashqūsh. Fiancée: [Sitt al-]Jamīʿ bt. Shelomo, a virgin. Dated: middle decade of Ṭevet 1443 Seleucid, which is 1132 CE, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Marriage payments: 1 + 10 = 11. This means that Sitt al-Jamīʿ was extremely poor. Written and signed by Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Also signed by Ḥiyya b. Meshullam. The postscript states that he divorced her and she received the geṭ (before the consummation of the wedding?). T-S AS 148.16 is their bill of divorce. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Recto: End of a court record written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Monday, 25 Av 1423 Seleucid, which is 1112 CE. The case involves Abū l-Munā and Abū ʿImrān and the sale and purchase of various "ruqʿas" (promissory notes?) for different amounts of money (some are for 3 dinars and some for 5). One of the transactions was witnessed by 'Rabbenu.' Witnesses: Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, Avraham b. Shemaʿya, and Maʿrūf b. Yehuda. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: Tuesday, 7 Elul 1425 Seleucid, which is August 1114 CE. Inventory of the estate of a wealthy goldsmith, the late Abū Yaʿqūb. The list consists of dinars in bankers’ notes, gold cash, and in bars of precious metals; various vessels, two female slaves, and promissory notes are also referenced. The document was written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and sealed by the rabbinic court on the day of Abū Yaʿqūb’s death. Before any shares were distributed to the heirs, the widow received the “deferred installment” due to her according to her marriage contract, in this case 75 dinars. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 5:168-70, 549, 533; and Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Two judges inspect together with two government muhandizīn two houses in the Laban (?) lane (near the synagogues) and find that the house of Hibāt & Co. tilts and inclines on the opposite house of Abu 'l-Ḥasan b. Ḥātim (Eli b. Ḥotam). In the hrnd of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, 4 February 1136. Verso: trials of the pen; in one, Eli b. Ḥotam ha-Levi sells half of a house. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Power of attorney given by a woman to a representative of hers by a third person, confirmed by her husband. She was introduced to the court by ‘Umm Abu al-Faraj, a woman from Jerusalem. July, 1127. Witnessed by Abu al-Faraj Yeshu‘a ha-Levi b. Sedaqa ha-Zaqen al-Musta‘mil al-Ramli. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 3:497; Moshe Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations from the Cairo Geniza, Brill, 1976, 258; and from Goitein’s index cards) EMS Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi. AA

A torn fragment from the end of a legal deed. One of the parties is Yosef. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Perhaps T-S NS J 185b is a fragment from the top part of this document, but no direct join. AA

Legal fragment. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1100-1138 CE. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves a man named Namir known as al-Ḥakham(?) al-Ṣabbāgh.

Legal document or documents in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 1432 Seleucid, which is 1120/21 CE. See join for further information. Join by Amir Ashur.

Multifragment. (a) Several legal documents, all the in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In one, Ṣadaqa b. Avraham known as Ibn al-Warda and his wife Sitt al-[...] give to their daughter Sitt al-Khawāt bt. Yefet the wife of Hillel b. Naḥman 1/2 of a new house. There are also entries about dowry evaluations (taqwīm). Dated Sivan 1435 Seleucid, which is 1124 CE. And there is an entry about a divorce. See Goitein's note card and Med Soc III, A, 3, n. 24 and B, 4, n. 41. Partially ed. Weiss, Ḥalfon, p. 272. (b) Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Needs examination.

Recto: Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic, which partly consists of a deathbed will. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 24 Iyyar, 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. The testator appoints someone as his agent in all his affairs, but if he should recover (ואן חב אללה תעאלי ונקהת מן מרצי ותצרפת וכרגת אלטריק ודכלת אלחמאם), this provision is void. The continuation of the document describes what happened on Sunday the 28th of the same month and mentions Rabbenu ha-Meʿulle (but it is torn away here). AA. ASE.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (There is also an incomplete address to their other brother Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya, but this may have been an error that Yefet corrected with the more complete address beneath.) In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper left corner of recto). He confirms that the rubāʿī arrived, 9 and a half [...]. He also mentions the arrival of a bag (kharīṭa) of something.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. NB: Goitein's index card and the corresponding citation in Med Soc I, p. 440 no. 9 seem to belong with T-S Ar.7.3(2).

Small fragment from a prenuptial agreement written by Halfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: 1442 Seleucid, which is 1130/31 CE. There is an even smaller fragment from another document on verso. AA