Geniza Lab

Legal document from Baghdad. In Hebrew. Probably 17th century. The date appears to read Iyyar of חתכ, which would be 1668 CE, but this seems an unusual way to write the year. The content has to do with ʿĀṣī b. Maṭīra's commitment to pay a certain total each year to the community. Needs further examination.

Recto: Late account in Hebrew characters. Verso: Jottings in Arabic script.

Late letter in Hebrew (and perhaps another language as well). Fragment. Needs examination.

Late letter in Hebrew. Fragment. Needs examination.

Letter fragment. In Hebrew. Late.

Letter in Hebrew. Late. Needs examination.

A long letter from a Yequtiel b. Siman Tov to his mother. He intended to go from Alexandria to Constantinople, but was tempted by his brother to go to Petraz (today in Serbia) and took advantage on him. He was managed to leave this town and marry a good woman in a another town who was considered to be a virgin. Unfortunately he was discovered that she was a widow and he was fooled by the match maker. The match maker told him that he didn't fooled him, but used the Arabic term, which he understood it mistakenly. He is trying to solve this situation and cancel the marriage.

Letter from an unknown writer, in Alexandria, to the judge Yiṣḥaq Aripol, in Fustat/Cairo. The writer's name and signature appear, but are very faded. Written in Hebrew. Dated: 5457 AM (שנת תבנה), which is 1696/97 CE. The purpose of the letter is to forward a legal query that the writer received from Livorno, which is presumably identical with the Hebrew text in a different hand written on the inner side of the fold.

Letter draft from one Jewish community (A) to another Jewish community (B) in a different land. In Hebrew. Locations unknown. Dating: Late. Catalogued as 18th century, which seems a good guess. The letter is a justification of why community A acted a certain way when a man arrived and presented a letter of recommendation from community B. The letter of recommendation bore the signatures of many of the notable men of community B (which are listed again in this letter). For some reason, community A suspected that he was a fraud and his letter was forged, perhaps in part because he presented them with a legal query that any ignoramus would have been able to answer. So they refused to honor his letter of recommendation. It seems the purpose of the present letter is to explain what has happened so that the leaders of community B do not think that they are not respected in community A. If they do not believe this story, community A is sending this letter with Mordekhai ha-Ḥakham who can answer all their questions to their satisfaction.

Letter of condolence from Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo ha-Maskil to the brothers Binyamin and Yeshuʿa b. Shelomo. In Hebrew. Dated: Monday, 14 Heshvan 5571 AM, which is 1810 CE. Locations unclear, though possibly named on the page containing the address. This document may not be from the Cairo Geniza.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Tammuz 1837 Seleucid = 932 Hijri, which is 1526 CE. It lays out the settlement of at least one marital dispute in great detail. The protagonists include Sulaymān b. Dā'ūd b. Hārūn al-Maghribī and his daughter [...] the wife of Isḥāq b. Sulaymān b. Yūsuf known as al-Ḥaqqān ("the enema giver"), and a host of further characters. Needs further examination.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Dated: 13 Shevat 5501 AM, which is 1741 CE. Scribed and signed by Eliyyahu Rofe Ḥazan known as Ẓaʿir. The document has to do with the inheritance of the late Moshe Rofe Ẓaʿir and how it will be divided between his sons Eliyyahu Rofe and Yeshuʿa Rofe.