Geniza Lab

Deathbed will by Yefet ha-Levi. Location: Probably Damascus. Dating: Unknown, but see verso. In which he dedicates one-third of an orchard and a house located in the village of Hammuriyya near Damascus and stipulates the income of the estate is to be used to purchase food for students of the law. Two trustees are appointed, Yequti’el and Petahya. (Moshe Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations from the Cairo Geniza, Brill, 1976, 482-4) EMS

Legal document: deathbed declaration, made by a woman whose name is not preserved. The upper part of the document is missing, but the reconstruction, as proposed by Assaf, would be approximately as follows: "This is what happened before us, the undersigned witnesses, on the date of ... We entered the house of ... and found her sick in her bed, etc." The woman bequeaths one third of a compound owned by her in Qasr al-Sham' to the two synagogues, of the Palestinians and the Babylonians, in equal parts. One sixth of the compound is handed over to a certain Fa'iza, on the condition that she marries; if she dies unmarried, this sixth also would pass to the two synagogues, and not to any of Fa'iza's heirs. Another third of the compound is willed, in equal parts, to the testator's brother Sahlan and to Rayyisa, the daughter of her other brother, Efrayim. One twelfth of the compound has previously been sold to another niece of the testator's, Sutayt, the daughter of her sister Sayyida, for 14 Mu'izzi dinars. This sum was spent for timber, to be used for repairs in the compound. Another twelfth is to be sold, and the revenue (14 dinars) used to cover the expenditures for the transportation of the woman's body to Jerusalem and her burial there. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 119 #1)

Deathbed declaration of an old man, bringing his two sons before four witnesses and explaining that all he possesses in cash is 33 gold pieces. In view of such a small estate, he was afraid they would quarrel, wherefore he decided to arrange the distribution while still capable. Dated November 1103/ Heshvan 1416. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 409; V, pp. 133, 134, 542)

Fragment of the beginning of a deathbed declaration, issued by a court whose judges were appointed by Moshe b. Mevorakh (1112-ca.1126) and Mevorakh b. Saadya (1099-1111) in Fustat.

Verso: Draft of a deathbed will in which a man gives two houses to two distant relatives, forestalls the possible claims of two other female relatives by assigning them 5 dinars each, and donates to the synagogue of Cairo a codex of the Five Books of Moshe and 3 dinars for the purchase of copper case for a Torah scroll. Dated ca. 1150. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 436.)

Deathbed declaration of an 'attar (perfumer) entrusting his employee with the running of his store, fixing daily wages for him, and protecting him from future claims even by the declarant's own heirs. Dated Tammuz 1555/June 1244. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 136, 543)

Court record referring to a sick person whose will is invalid, written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138).

Torn fragment. On recto deathbed declaration of a man tilted 'Rosh ha-Qehilot'. On verso written in a different hand an agreement to sell part of a house by the wife of a person. The connection with recto is unclear. AA

Beginning of a deathbed will, in the hand of Eliyyahu ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon, between approximately 1065 and 1083.

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Tevet 1438 Seleucid, which is 1126/27 CE. ʿEli ha-Ḥaver and Ada(?) ha-Zaqen b. Kawkab ha-Zaqen give a testimony regarding what they previously witnessed of the deathbed will of Abū l-Maʿālī Shelomo al-Dhahabī.