Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragmentary (horizontal strip cut from the middle section). Concerning the sender's efforts to 'liberate' an estate/inheritance from the diwan.

Complaint related to inheritance – undated – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 145) – in Hebrew. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 57). MCD.

Ruling in absentia obligating Maʿtūq Dāūd al-Jamāl to pay the amount of 985 pounds toward the rent of a store in the inheritance of the deceased Muḥammad ʾAẖī Qāsim – January 11 1938CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 229) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 67). MCD.

Letter from a woman requesting help in receiving her share from her late husband’s inheritance, with various signatures of support. Mentions government interference as well as her husband's other (simultaneous) wife, the daughter of Abū l-Ṭāhir. Long, well-preserved, and full of interesting details. Should be edited. (Information in part from CUDL)

Legal notes in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (Date: 1100-1138). Partnership record. Seʿadya b. Menashshe ha-Kohen has inherited funds from his father, and places 26 dinars with his maternal uncle Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Efrayim, who will travel with the funds and remit 11/24 of the profit to Seʿadya’s mother. Avraham’s report of partnership profits is not notarized. The only condition is that Avraham may not invest or lend out the funds to anyone except someone called “Barhun”. Losses are to be split evenly; as the active partner, Avraham is entitled to a larger share of the profits than that for which he would be liable in terms of losses, per Maimonidean criteria (even though the difference between Avraham’s share in the profit and his share in the loss is only 1/24 of the total profit). Per Maimonides, the partners have the flexibility to create such a profit and loss sharing agreement only if they have multiple concurrent business relationships; otherwise the percentage of profits allocated to the active partner must exceed the percentage of losses by at least 1/6 of the total profit, in which case Avraham would have been allocated no less than 2/3 of the profit (since he is to share losses equally with Seʿadya). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 102)

Torn fragments from a court record regarding claim of inheritance of 31 dinars, between Ḥasūna and Manṣūr b. Efrayim her uncle. It seems that one of the parties went to Gentile court regarding this claim. The letters are quite strange looking. Join: Oded Zinger. AA

Court testimony. Dating: 13th century. Abū l-Faḍāʾil b. ʿAbdallāh b. Shemuel attests that the estate, consisting of cloths, textiles and other things, of the late husband of Sitt al-Ahl bt. Elʿazar has been deposited with the widow Sitt al-Milāḥ bt. Seʿadya al-Muʿallim. Signed by: Aharon b. Peraḥya. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 200, 563, and Goitein's index cards)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Recto is extremely damaged/faded, while verso is mostly legible. The hand may be known. Recto mentions ʿImrān; a woman; legal proceedings; corrupt judgments (al-dīn al-fāsid); a favor requested of the addressee; and Sayyidnā Sar ha-Sarim (generally the title of Sar Shalom ha-Levi, Head of the Jews for part of the period 1171–95 CE); and relief that the sender already received from Sar ha-Sarim. He might also mention his physical tribulations (from dust? a broken rib?): אני מקאץ אלגבאר מכסור אלגנב (last line). On verso he says that he lives peaceably with his neighbors; he plans to go to the woman (the wife or widow of Nissim?) and bring her and her children to make a legal declaration that they will repay the addressee the dinars that they owe him; everyone is in agreement with this plan. The original letter ends here with greetings and a yeshaʿ yiqrav. He adds a postscript to the effect that he has sent another letter to Sayyidnā, summarizing its contents or urging the addressee to intervene with Sayyidnā to make sure it gets acted upon. He complains about a certain "madman" (majnūn) to whose name he appends curses. The madman sowed discord between the sender and his sister and her children. He quotes Proverbs 6:19 (וּמְשַׁלֵּחַ מְדָנִים בֵּין אַחִים). He says that the addressee is already aware of 'what they did' with the widow, the daughter of Ḥasan(?) and with Dā'ūd and Yūsuf with an inheritance. He concludes by complaining once again about the madman. (Information in part from Amir Ashur via http://www5.kb.dk/manus/judsam/2009/sep/dsh/object44694/en/#kbOSD-0=page:4). ASE

Letter in the hand of Shemu’el he-Ḥaver ha-Meʿulle b. Moshe he-Ḥaver, in Tyre, to Efrayim he-Ḥaver b. Shemarya he-Ḥasid, in Fusṭāṭ, concerning two sisters, Sittān, wife of Ṣedaqa b. Ezra, and Sarah, wife of Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Yefet, of the Tyre Jewish community, who are trying to claim their inheritance after their father, Ḥalfon, died in Fusṭāṭ, as well as other financial affairs involving members of each community. Dated to c. 1045 CE. Samuel writes his name surrounded by a motto at the foot of the page. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yahya b. Musa al-Majjani, al-Mahdiyya, to Barhun b. Salih al-Tahirti, Cairo, asking him to intervene on his behalf against Ibn Farah al-Fasi and Abu l-Husayn al-Mubarak b. Ishaq regarding the estate of al-Shiraji. Dated 1045. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal deed, draft, regarding the estate of Avraham ha-Levi the teacher b. Yosef b. ʿAnan, which had been deposited by the Beit Din with ʿEli b. Efrayim b. ʿEli al-Tinnīsī. Mentions Yehuda b. Meshullam b. Zekharya the scribe b. ʿAnan and Jāliyya bt. Zekharya the scribe b. ʿAnan. The traces of writing between the lines and in the margins appear to be additions to the text and, perhaps, traces of an earlier text. On Yosef b. ʿAnan, a scribe whose copy of a codex of ketuvim still survives in Cairo, see Meital in JQR 2020. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Verso contains rhymed Hebrew verses.

Court testimony. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Concerning fifty new Egyptian dinars which were recorded in the will of Yosef b. Banan and are now acknowledged to be owed to the son of his paternal uncle known as Ibn Banan. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter, in Judaeo-Arabic with an opening in Hebrew, from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to Shelomo b. Sa'adya and the community of Rafah, concerning a dispute over an inheritance that drove the losing party to appeal to the Muslim court, approximately 1020. (Information from CUDL)

Letter of the Berekhya brothers to Ibn 'Awkal concerning loss of friendship between them and concerning the inheritance of an emancipated slave.

An individual's notarized bequest of his property to charity should he die without heirs. Information from Goitein's personal notations.

Legal document concerning an inheritance(?) dispute. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The case is complicated. Hillel conducts a family partnership with his two minor stepsisters & consent of his stepmother. Before his death his father had arranged that he should be 'trustworthy' (neʾeman), which is confirmed by the widow. They now conclude the partnership (sharika). The sisters receive 8 dirhams per week, he 14 dirhams. The partnership must pay to the mother of the two sisters, a widow (ll. 10 and 2) all that (her husband?) had left her (and what probably was invested in the partnership). The widow was introduced by her son Zayn. See Med Soc I, p. 183. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Question to Muslim jurisconsults. In Arabic script. Concerning a case of inheritance: ما يقولوا سادتي الشيوخ اطال الله . . . . وتاييدهم في رجل مات . . . .The last two lines contain the names of two apparently deceased people: Isḥāq [...] and Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-Surrī the teacher ("raḍiya l-lāhu ʿanhumā"). On verso there is a Hebrew dirge. Needs further examination.

Testimony concerning a tarika (inheritance) of two women recorded at the court of Avraham b. Ishaq, Ab 1389/July 1078, Fustat.

Letter to Abu al-Ḥasan 'Allun the parnas (Eli b. Yahya, dated documents 1057-1107) about a case of inheritance, with a recommendation for a bashful young Jewish man as a flax worker. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 199, and from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt Umm Daʾūd, asking for her daughter Sitt al-Yumn in marriage and enquiring about the dowry. Dated Tammuz 1530 of the Seleucid Era (= 1219 CE). In the margins of verso and recto are drafts of a release form in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, concerning the claims between two sisters and Thanāʾ, the mother the late Manṣūr concerning the inheritance of the late Ibn Abū l-Majd the dyer Ibn al-Nāʾila. Abū l-Maḥāsin guarantees his mother ʿIbād’s release for her sister Ḥasab and Thanāʾ bt. Sayyid al-Ahl. (Information from CUDL)