Geniza Lab

Letter from Mūsā b. Yiṣḥaq b. Nissim, in al-Mahdiyya, to Ismāʿīl b. Barhūn al-Tāhirti. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1030. The writer is looking forward to the addressee's intended visit to al-Mahdiyya. He describes the situation in the Maghreb, and he mentions silk business and a large transfer of money to a yeshiva. "In a letter sent from Fustat to Qayrawan, Tunisia, we read this: 'A wakham like this I have not seen since I have come to Fustat. I was ill for a full four months with fever and fits of cold, which attacked me day and night. But God, for the sake of his name, not because of my merits, decreed that the illness leave me; I am now restored to complete health. The wakham has ceased, and all our friends [meaning the compatriots from Tunisia] are well." (Goitein, Med Soc V, 113.) ASE.

Account of the Qodesh: personal account of a parnas, ca. 1040. Small fragment, the right part of a leaf, in which Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya listed his current pecuniary operations, on the 24th day of Tammuz. Revenues and expenditures were listed together as they developed. (Informtion from Gil, Documents, pp. 189 #19)

Letter from Yosef ha-Kohen b. Ḥalfon, al-Maḥalla, to Binyamin b. Yaʿaqov (who has a son named Yaʿaqov as well), Cairo. The writer reports that he spent only a couple days in al-Muʿizziyya (Cairo) and regrets not being able to pay his respects in person before he had to travel. The letter mainly consists of blessings, with a request at the end to forward the writer's question (legal query?) to Abū l-Maʿālī.

Sheet folded so as to form a booklet of 4 pages. But only one page, headed by the superscription 'In your name' (which indicates the list started there), contains writing. List of 20 notables, solicited for a special drive, eight already having made their pledges, ranging from five dinars, contributed by a jahbadh (money-changer, tax cashier, or possibly a banker), to one dinar each from two glassmakers and a convert to Judaism named Abū l-Khayr (Goitein: "Mr. Good the Proselyte"). Among the others: Tiban; Shemuel b. Nahum, the father-in-law of Yequtiel b. Moshe, known as al-Hakim. Ca. 1090. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 124)

Letter from Eli ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel to Abu al-Surur Farah, Fustat, ca. 1060.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1048.

Letter from Shelomo ha-Kohen Gaon to Efrayim b. Shemarya, Fustat, 1025.

Account of the Qodesh: building expenditures, ca. 1040. List of expenses, beautifully written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. Materials for the construction of a ceiling are being prepared. Work on a "wind catcher," plastering, supplies of clay, and sewage work are also among the items listed. Clay is paid for after having been weighed by "the Christian," obviously a Copt, the Copts being much involved in building work. Mentions a wind catcher (bādhanj). (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 187 #18)

Legal document. Partnership release. Dated: 7 Shevat 1390. Location: Fustat. An olive-oil partnership is dissolved. This fragment contains two documents related to the same partnership agreement, filed in the court one after the other over a two-day period in January 1079. The first document, unsigned and seemingly copied in lines 1-12, represents the termination of a partnership and a corresponding mutual release of three partners, Ghālib b. Ḥalfōn, Moses b. Ghālib, and Meshullam b. Furqān. Ghālib releases Moses and Meshullam; Moses and Meshullam release Ghālib. That Moses and Meshullam did not release one another in this document suggests either that the document was Ghālib’s copy of a mutual release and that other copies were written for Moses and Meshullam, or that Ghālib was the active partner and Moses and Meshullam were his investors. If the latter, Moses and Meshullam would have had no mutual obligations and therefore no need to release one another. This explanation is consistent with lines 13-28, which describe Ghālib and Moses' partnership. As a settlement, Ghālib agrees to pay Moses and Meshullam each month in order to settle the balance (seven dinars). Meshullam's role in the partnership is unclear; only Ghālib and Moses are mentioned as partners in the olive-oil concern. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 127)

Recto: Letter from the Qaraite Mahbub b. Nissim, Ramla, to Abu al-Faraj in Fustat, middle of the 11th century (12 Iyar). Mahbub has traveled from Fustat via Alexandria by ship, but he suffers a loss worth 13 dinars en route and arrives in Alexandria with only a few things. He then boards a ship to Laodikea (Syria), but he persuades the ship's captain (bribing him with a package of parchment) to deviate from the route and let him disembark instead in Jaffa. He arrives in Ramla on Erev Rosh Hodesh Marheshvan, and then arrives in Jerusalem on Erev Rosh Hodesh Kislev.

Letter, anonymous, saying that a certain Sefaradi gave a sermon in synagogue and failed to mention the gaon. Gil speculatively dates it to 1038, at the beginning of the dispute between Natan b. Avraham and Shelomo b. Yehuda.

Letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, Fustat, approximately 1030. The writer cites his illness as an excuse for something (recto, 18–19).

Legal document. Record of a deposition in court, Mahdar, dated Sunday, 21st Av, Rabīʿ al-Awwal 442H (12.8.1050). Unsigned draft of a deposition, written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. A fine of 10 dinars will be paid to the qodesh if an accusation is proven to be false. The fine itself is styled "qodesh," and will be dedicated to the poor of Jerusalem. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 211 #31). Parties are Musāfir b. ʿAmram and Saʿīd b. ʿAllūn al-Qudsī.

Recto: Partnership record. Dating: 1096. Written in the hand of Hillel ben Eli. Describes a settlement between Yaḥyā and Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh. Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh loans 210 dinars to and places some agricultural commodities with Yaḥyā. Yaḥyā agrees to take upon himself the maintenance of the poor of Fusṭāṭ for a year in the event of nonrepayment. The repayments do not appear here because this would have been recorded only on the debtor’s copy of the loan agreement. Yaḥyā’s testimony that he paid his debt wouldn't be accepted without these records, but testimony by Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh (the creditor) is to be accepted without such condition. Verso: Court record. Dating: 1116. Part of a court record detailing a different partnership. Abū al-Surūr Simḥa ha-Kohen brings a power of attorney to pursue the claims of the brothers Abū al-Ma‘ālī and Abū al-Wafā Tamīm b. Yeshu‘a regarding a partnership held by their dead brother Mevorakh, with Yaḥyā (the same Yaḥyā from the recto) and Abū al-Ḥusayn the money-changer. The structure of the partnership is unclear, but it seems likely that Mevorakh was an investor and Abū al-Barakāt had always been the active partner. Upon Mevorakh’s death, Yaḥyā and Abū Ḥusayn claim 2/3 of the partnership assets, leaving Simḥa to collect the remaining 1/3 for Mevorakh’s heirs. The verso is written in a different hand from the recto, likely that of Nissim b. Naḥray. Signed by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq, the chief judge of Aleppo. The connection between the two documents is Abū al-Barakāt and Yaḥyā. Per Goitein, this Abū al-Barakāt is not the Mevorakh mentioned on the recto but rather Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh b. Shelomo al-Ḥalabī, and Yaḥyā is Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 56-60)

Letter from Natan b. Avraham to Berakha b. Ravah, Fustat, February 1039.

Legal document. Court record. Dated: 1084. Location: Fustat. This document contains a partial court record of a partnership between Yefet b. Wad‘a and Abū Zikrī. While Abū Zikrī was away travelling, Yefet invited Sa‘āda to join the partnership, for which Sa‘āda was to be paid 1.5 dirhams each day. Sa‘āda purchased henna for the partnership, and he called the court to validate his testimony that the value of the henna had dropped. As Yefet both invited Sa‘āda to the partnership in the absence of Abū Zikrī and agreed to pay him a daily wage, he appears to have been either the senior partner or a passive investor, while Abū Zikrī and Sa‘āda are active partners. Given that Yefet has invited Sa‘āda to join the extant partnership (instead of contracting a new partnership with Sa‘āda) Yefet and Abū Zikrī likely both had capital investments in the intial partnership, and Yefet had the task of investing the joint capital while Abū Zikrī pursued other trading opportunities. Unusually, the agreement between Sa‘āda and the other two partners required him to take an oath attesting to partnership accounts should the partnership assets lose value. The remainder of the document (lines 8-28) is a draft of a marriage agreement of a couple who were divorced in Tyre and subsequently reconciled in al-Mahalla. It provides specifics as to the dowry (including money, textiles and clothing, a drinking cup, and a mirror) but lacks the names of the relevant parties. This fragment may have been a page from a notary’s register. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 75-76)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1007-1055 (speculative). This document records a partnership agreement between Manṣūr b. Israel ha-Levi and Mas‘ūd b. Mevorakh, who placed 200 gold pieces and 10 gold pieces, respectively, in a common purse. It is unclear whether both parties, or just Mas‘ūd, engaged in active trading, though line 19 and the fact that they were both active in trading suggests an unlimited partnership between them. Profits are to be split equally despite the fact that one of the partners has provided over 95% of the partnership capital, a division which violates the Ḥanafī mufāwaḍa model (see Udovitch 1970, p.48). The full date is not preserved, only the month and the first two digits of the year remain. The signatures suggest that the document may date from the period of Efrayim b. Shemarya, 1007-1055. Signatories: Avraham b. Ghālib, Moshe b. David ha-Levi, ‘Ezrōn b. [?] ha-Kohen, and Hussein Efrayim b. Shemarya. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 78)

Record and validation of a deposition regarding a compound partly dedicated to the synagogues, ca. 1047. A deposition given by four witnesses, prominent persons, confrims the fact that one sixth of a compound has been dedicated to the two synagogues of the Rabbanite Jews in Fustat, those of the Palestinians and of the Babylonians. The validation of the document and the authentication of the signatures take place before the two courts of the two congregations. The two heads of the courts, Sahlan b. Abraham and Efrayim b. Shemarya, sign the validation. The document bears two dates, 4 Iyyar and 2 Kislev; apparently the validation took place seven months after the deposition was first recorded. (Infromation from Gil, Documents, pp. 151 #7)

Two merchants setting out from Alexandria on a voyage to the Muslim West appoint their wives as executors and guardians of their children: (1) Yosef b. Isḥāq al-Fasi gives his daughter Sitt al-Ḥusn 200 dinars and appoints his wife Sitt al-ʿAshīr bt. Barhūn as guardian of his daughter. He asserts that the amount of the principal and profit of a partnership included in the estate has to be accepted according to the word of his partner, because the partner was known for his trustworthiness and religiosity. Dated: Tammuz 4857 AM, which is 1097 CE. (2) Abū l-Faraḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef entrusts Sitt al-Kull bt. Avraham b. Ṭībān, his wife and mother of his boy, with all his affairs and possessions and makes her his heir, as well as guardian of their boy. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 252; V, 133, 205, 333; and from Goitein's index cards; and from Goitein's hand list.) See also detailed description on CUDL.

Draft of a legal document, notably made in a mixed Qaraite-Rabbanite court. Agreement by two parties in a complicated inheritance case stipulating obligations should one of the parties bring the case before a Muslim court. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tammuz 1366 Seleucid, which is July 1055 CE. Two women, Rayyisa bt. Tammam and Raḥma bt. Tammām, leave estates to their two brothers' sons, Mevorakh b. Yisrael and Shemuel b. Yehuda. A court of three (Avraham b. Shelomo, Nahray, and ʿEli ha-Kohen) will decide what will be sold and what divided between the two nephews. The new house of Raḥma bt. Tammām will be offered for sale. The verso contains Hebrew verses, rhymed piyyuṭ, headed ז׳ לשמעו. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger. Probably an indirect join with ENA 2727.13a.