Geniza Lab

Legal document in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Dated Shevat 1450 Seleucid, which is approximately January 1139 CE, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon. (This is the latest known document to invoke the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon before his death.) Dalāl bt. Maḥbūb sells to Munā bt. Yiṣḥaq a quarter of a house with two shops in the Great Bazaar for 14½ dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 280, 352.)

Fragment of deed of sale in Hebrew in which Esther bat Yosef b. Shalom, her husband Yosef, David b. Shalan and Dosa sell to each other parts of two buildings in Fustat. The buildings are described in detail. Dated ca. 1000. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document in which a woman sells, with the consent of her husband and father, one quarter of her father's house, to another woman named Shamsiyya. The property had been given to her as part of her dowry and it bordered the residence of the Nagid. Dated ca. 1235. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 281)

Document concerning the sale of a female slave named Saʿāda. Dated: 27 Nisan 1509 Seleucid, which is 5 April 1198 CE. (The main bill of sale was drawn up on the same day.) The buyer, Sitt Qaḍīb Sāda bt. Abū l-Bayān, promises to pay after two months the remaining 5 mithqāls (out of the original price of 12 mithqāls) which she still owes to the seller Abū l-Barakāt Berakhot (or Yefet?) b. Moshe. She also pays the market fee and the broker. (Incidentally, the buyer's name means “the mistress of the scepter of lords,” or, if an abbreviation for Sitt Qaḍīb (Sitt al-)Sāda, "the mistress of the scepter, (the mistress of) lords.") Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Sason “Head of the Judges” and Yehuda b. Shelomo. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, 2:514.) EMS

Document concerning the sale of a female slave named Ḍiyāʾ. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 1 Nisan 1537 Seleucid, which is 31 March 1226 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. CUL Or.1080 J273 is an unsigned copy of the same document. Witnesses include: [...] b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen; Yefet b. Adonim; Shemuel b. Simḥa.

Sale of a female slave. Seller: David Ha-Levi. 25 dinars. Probably 12/13 century. (Ashur estimation). VMR

Deed of sale for a male Abyssinian slave (ghulām ḥabashī) named Muqbil, a minor (dūn al-bulūgh), who was tattooed on a covered part of his body (malʿūṭ laʿṭ khafiyy). Location: Probably Alexandria (or potentially Damietta; a city on the Mediterranean). Dated: Wednesday, 9 Tammuz 4912 AM, which is 13 June 1152 CE. Seller: Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Mevasser Ibn al-ʿAnī. Buyer: Moshe b. ʿIwāḍ b. Moshe Ibn al-Riqāʿī. Price: 10.25 dinars. All additional fees and taxes (samsara, maks, wājib, juʿl) will be paid by the buyer, according to a clause inserted between lines 17 and 18. (Information from Goitein's index card; for potential identification of Yeshuʿa b. Mevasser, see Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, p. 457.) EMS

Bill of sale in which a seller of potions sells to a perfumer 1/8 of a house in the great Bazaar in the Surayya Lane, a blind alley, for 7.5 dinars. Half the house belonged to Christians and 1/6 to a seller of oil. Dated July 1179. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 281)

Simha, daughter of Moshe b. Job, wife of Yosef al-Bali, sells a Pentateuch with gilded ornaments to Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham. Dated Iyyar 5159/April-May 1399. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from a note on the typed text)

An early legal document, in Hebrew rather than Arabic, in which a woman in al-Bana near Faqus, Nile Delta, sells a quarter of a third of a house owned by her to her son in law for 3.5 dinars. The latter lived in the house and had already received another twelfth as the dowry of his wife. Dated Tishri 4759/1309 Sel./998 C.E.. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 39, 435; IV, p. 277)

The widow of Abu al-Barakat, the son of Yosef Lebdi, buys a sixth of two adjacent stores for 53 and three/fourths dinars. The widow was Sitt al-Sada, daughter of Abu Nasr al-Tinnisi. This same share of the two stores was bought at an earlier date by Abu al-Fadil, a physician, from his two nephews. These nephews retained the right to buy.

Bill of sale for a female slave. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tuesday, 15 Ṭevet 1416 Seleucid = January 1105 CE. Abū Saʿd Ḥalfon (lines 18, 20, 26 but spelled Khalaf in line 4) and Abū l-Faḍl Yosef, sons of Moshe ha-Kohen, a high government official (titled Saniyy al-Dawla), sell a Nubian female slave named Ḥidhq ("Dexterity") to their sister Zayn Sitt al-Dār for 20 dinars. Signed by Ṣedaqa b. Shelomo ha-Levi and Aharon b. Namir ha-Kohen. Validated by Avraham b. Natan Av Bet Din, who was also the scribe for the document. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 137.)

Elazar b. Yefet sells to Shelomo b. Sadaqa his female slave named Ṭā'ūs ('Peacock') and her 10 year old son, named Mubārak ('The Blessed') for 40 dinars. Dated Elul 1552/ August-September 1241. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 138, 434) On verso is a draft halakhic text on the laws of levirate marriage, in the same hand as the document on recto. (Information from CUDL)

Two deeds of sale of houses, Fustat 1261. Written by Emanuel b. Yehiel. AA

Bill of sale in which a Nubian female slave named 'Salt' is sold for 15 dinars. Dated 24 Tammuz 1395/ July 1084. (Information from Mediterranean society, I, p. 137)

Deed of sale of a female slave named Shaʿal (or Shuʿl or Shuʿal). Written in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Dated: Last third of Kislev 1420 Seleucid, which is 1108 CE. Seller: Abū l-Ḥasan Menashshe b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen known as Ibn al-Maṣmūda(?). Buyer: Ṣedaqa b . Yehuda. Price: 21 dinars. Signed by: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi, Yosef b. Yaʿaqov, Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver. (Information from Goitein's attached notes.)

Recto: Deed of sale written by Natan b. Avraham Av. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tuesday, 5 Kislev 1420 Seleucid, which is 10 November 1108 CE. Sitt al-Aqrān bt. Yosef ha-Kohen, the wife of Yehuda b. ʿAllān, sells her Nubian female slave Naʿīm to Sitt al-Munā bt. Natan/Hibatallāh, the widow of Nahray b. Nissim, for 20 dinars. There is a clause stating that Yehuda b. ʿAllān permitted (? amḍā li-zawjatih) this sale. Witnessed by Menaḥem b. Shemuel, Yaʾir b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen, and Ṣemaḥ b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. Verso: Subsequent deed of sale in Arabic script. Sitt al-Munā sold Naʿīm to the Christian physician ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. Maqāra(?) b. Hārūn for 20 dinars. Dated: First third of Dhū l-Qiʿda 508 AH, which is March/April 1115 CE. Witnessed by Hibatallāh b. Ḥasan (=Netanʾel b. Yefet?). (Information from Goitein's index card, Aodeh, and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, 918.)

Deed of sale of a female slave, signed by Avraham b. Shemaya and Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Menashshe. Dated Av 1430/ August 1119.

Deed of sale of a female slave named Sa'ada. Dated Av 1501/ July 1190. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 139, 140, 434, and from Goitein's index cards)

Deed of sale given in Jerusalem and executed in Fustat, March 1066. Sittuna bat Yefet sells of a quarter of two shops (probably in Ramla) to Avraham b. Natan. (Information from CUDL)