Geniza Lab

Letter from Jerusalem addressed to Efrayim b. Shemarya (Maḥfūẓ), concerning the revenue from the Compound of the Jerusalemites in Fustat, ca. 1040. This letter is written in Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script, whereas the great majority of letters written from Jerusalem to Efrayim b. Shemarya, the leader of the Palestinian congregation in Fustat, are in Hebrew. The writer of the letter is not the gaon himself, but somebody in his retinue. Only the left part of the letter is preserved. Apparently, the writer complains that the revenue from "the compound" (by which the compound in Fustat dedicated for the Jerusalemites is obviously meant) did not arrive; nor did they receive an additional sum which used to be sent from Fustat for "the holiday." Since a holiday just past and one in the near future are mentioned, the period is probably between Pesach and Shavu'ot. The situation in Jerusalem is described in gloomy terms. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 149 #6)

Legal document in which the rabbinical court in Fustat, having to evaluate a workshop for purple making left to an orphan, invites non-Jewish experts to join the inspection. Dated Sivan 1410/ June 1099. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 172, 404)

Recto: Long query addressed in 1058 to the Gaon of Jerusalem by Eli b. Amram, the head of the Palestinians in Fustat. (Or rather, this may be the partnership contract that is the subject of the legal queries/responsa edited in Gil, Palestine #395, #396. Another copy of the same contract is T-S 20.79.) The note describes a legal matter concerning a Jewish Egyptian merchant who entrusted a business friend returning to his native Sicily with a large shipment of goods, including spices and drugs. The agent died while at sea, and the shipment ended up in Tripoli (Libya?) instead of Sicily. The Jewish authorities in Tripoli seized the goods in order to protect the rights of the deceased agent’s widow and daughter. The Egyptian merchant wanted his goods returned to his possession, but the authorities in Tripoli refused unless he pursued a full-fledged lawsuit against the representatives of the heirs in Sicily. The case went to the rabbinical court in Cairo and then the high court in Jerusalem. Verso: Dirge. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:236, 395-5, 574, 613; CUDL; EMS; and Moshe Yagur, who also identified the join.

Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment, left side only. Drawn up in Fustat, dated 1049/50 CE (1361 Seleucid). Signed [...] ha-Levi b. Yiẓhaq and Shelomo ha-Levi b. Yaʿaqov. ASE.

Account of the Qodesh: building expenditures, ca. 1040. A badly damaged fragment of an account written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. Work done at Dar al-Barqi is mentioned, and various payments for water, bricks, clay, lime, pillars, gypsum; also, repairs of doors and windows. Water carriers, masons, diggers, and helpers are paid for different periods of work, in the course of several weeks. The names of the months are preserved, Shevat and Adar. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 191 #21)

Legal document. Court record. Dating: Iyyar 1410 (May 1099). Signed by Nissim b. Nahray, the judge Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and Hillel b. ʿEli. The recto and the beginning of the first column of the verso concern a partnership between Yaḥyā ha-Levi and Abū ʿAli Yefet b. Avraham involving trading goods and supplying metal to the mint. Profits between the partners are to be divided evenly. Column 2 of the recto describes a dispute between the two partners, the testimony of which is notarized by the judges in Verso, column 1. Verso, column 2, concerns a separate lawsuit, in which Yefet b. Avraham is a litigant and the matter is minting. Here, ʿAmram b. ʿEzra, identified elsewhere as “a banker”, sues Yefet for ten dinars. The two had a number of business ventures in common, including some which were defined as partnerships (mu‘āmalāt). ʿAmram disagrees with the reckoning performed by Yefet. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 268)

Account of the Qodesh: revenue from rent, ca. 1040. A very damaged leaf, in the handwriting of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. The revenue from several apartments and shops is listed, as collected monthly, during Rabi' al-awwal, Rabi' al-akhir, and Jumada'l-awwal. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 182 #15)

Agreement between a nephew and his uncle in which the nephew acknowledges having received 500 dinars from his uncle on Hanukkah and that the remaining 500 would be paid next Hanukkah. Dated December 29, 1066. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 254)

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1080. Natan asks Nahray to help the widow and orphans of b. Sason because they still did not receive the money that belongs to them, probably from the inheritance. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #433) VMR

Recto: Court record concerning Yaʿaqov b. ʿAyyāsh, a minor reaching maturity who wishes to marry his widowed sister-in-law (in a levirate marriage), but she refuses to do so. Mentions Elḥanan b. Shemarya (now deceased), who was previously involved in the case in Ṣahrajt. Verso: Two court records in the hand of and witnessed by Yefet b. David. The first, probably a continuation of the record on recto, is witnessed by Menashshe b. Avraham ha-Kohen. The second is a court record in which Yosef b. Yaʿaqov, called al-Zamin (‘the ailing’) obliges himself before the court of al-Sahrajt to pay his divorced wife Ra’isa bt. Moshe one-half dirham per day for their son. Signed by Yefet ha-hazzan b. David ha-hazzan, Shelomo b. Yefet. Confirmed by the court and signed by Menashshe ha-Kohen b. Avraham, Yefet ha-hazzan b. David ha-hazzan. Dated: Thursday, 26 Elul 1338 Seleucid, which is 1027 CE. ENA NS 7.24 contains a record concerning the same case from several months later (Kislev 1339 Seleucid). (Information from Goitein; EMS; CUDL; Eliyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS, Vol. 18 (1967), 15.)

Letter fragment from Shelomo b. Yehuda to a personality in Fustat, approximately 1050. He quotes 1 Samuel 2:30 and signs his name with his motto at the bottom. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of an opening of a letter from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to the communities.

Legal testimony. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1070 CE. Regarding the collection of a debt owed by Hillel b. Menashshe to the judge Avraham b. Natan. After a number of court sessions an agreement was reached, but Avraham was unable to collect the balance of the debt due to travel. He sent his uncle Ṣedaqa b. Mevorakh to collect the remainder of the debt, part of which has already been collected. The parties may have disagreed about the remaining amount of the debt because some of it was equity in one or more joint enterprise (kull mu‘āmala), initiated by Natan (Avraham’s father). It fell to Hillel to repay this debt, and a penalty clause is included should he fail to repay, indicating that Ṣedaqa didn't actually collect the total, but a portion plus an assurance of the remainder. Once Ṣedaqa collected payment from Hillel, the latter was cleared of further obligations. The missing portion of the document likely specified the amount of this payment, as well as containing the closing formulae and the witnesses’ signatures. The cause of the dispute may have been a disagreement over valuation of partnership assets, or over the terms of the partnership itself. Lieberman notes that if Avraham’s business relationships with Hillel had spanned a number of partnerships, then the disagreement could have been about the division of partnership profits (rather than the value of these profits). Abraham held a debt document (kitāb dayn), suggesting that the terms of an initial loan to Hillel and perhaps the terms of the mu‘āmala itself were laid out, in which case the dispute could be over the valuation of partnership assets. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 1-2)