Geniza Lab

List of names with sums in two columns written on the reverse side of a deed connected with the sale of a house written in 1378, time of Amram Nagid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 497, App. C 73)

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)

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)

Recto: Lease of a compound in Ascalon, ca. 1120(?)-1147. A compound in Ascalon is leased by the representatives of the qodesh to to Shelomo ha-Zariz b. Ḥalfon. Verso: Record of the yearly rent paid to the elders of the Heqdesh, kept by the tenant. The yearly rent was one quarter of a dinar or 8.5 wariq dirhams, which covered the rent from Tishri to Elul. The payments were generally made several months after the end of the year. Records of ten such parments are preserved, from a period extending from 1131 through 1147. The lease itself bears four signatures, whereas the yearly payments are confirmed by two members of the court. The document includes writing in three different languges: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Confirmations of the payments are listed in chronological order. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 277 #57)

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.

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

Verso: A man who possessed five-eighths of a house gives one-eighth to his wife and her son as lodgings 'belonging to them forever.' Dated Shevat 1443/January 1132. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 259) Recto: Legal document recording that Sitt al-Husn, daughter of Saadya, sought a gold tiara ('isaba) that she had pawned to the recently-deceased physician Abu al-Murajja b. Daniel against a loan of 24 dinars, from his heirs. A witness testifies that the deceased had forgiven the loan. Dated Tammuz 1440/ July 1129. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 487)

Sale of 1/2 house to the wife of a brother of Rabbenu Ḥayyim for 250 (dirhams or dinars, probably the former). A lane known by the name of Rabbenu Ḥananel is named. Almost certainly in the hand of Imanuel b. Yeḥiel. Information from Goitein's note card.

Recto: Deed of sale of a house bought by Mufaddal. The house had been split into two apartments by the buyer. The description of the boundaries of the house is inserted in Judaeo-Arabic (it appears the writer left space for it). (Goitein estimation: handwriting by Imanuel b. Yehiel, around 1250) VMR Verso: Jottings in Arabic and Hebrew script. (Information from CUDL)

Letter describing the claims of the writer's brother-in-law on the half of a house that was sold by the mother to her daughter, the writer's wife. Join by Oded Zinger. For a detailed edition and analysis, see Zinger (2018), "'One Hour He Is a Christian and the Next He Is a Muslim!' A Family Dispute from the Cairo Geniza." Note that Goitein in at least one place mistakenly cites T-S 8J20.26 as T-S 8J20.16 (Med Soc 2:393, 612). He may also discuss this document (Med Soc 3:179, 464; EMS).

Yosef the cantor, son of Michael, sells a little house in Fustat, one half of which belonged to him and the other to his daughter, the wife of the beadle Hiba b. Ibrahim the water carrier, for 6 dinars. Dated 1153.

Sale contract in which Sitt al-Ikhwa d. Futuh sells to her brother one eighth of a house belonging to her in Alexandria for nine dinars. Her husband confirms the sale. Fustat, 1241. For additional edition and translation, see Zinger, "Women, Gender, and Law" pp. 352-354. See also, T-S 8J6 14A.

Deed of sale of a house. Dated 1483/1171-72. The 'Ha-rav ha-gadol be-yisrael' in line 2 is doubtless Moses Maimonides, who was at that time head of the Jews. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

One party to this legal document sells to another party 9.5 qirat of a house and renounces right of preemption. The house was situated in the Bir Jabr quarter of Alexandria, which harbored the synagogue of the Iraqi Jews of that city, but was contiguous with the house of a Christian clergyman. Dated to the early 13th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 46, 360, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document: deed of sale in Arabic for the purchase of part of a house. Abū l-Faraj Ṣemaḥ b. Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ the money-changer buys part of a house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat from his uncle Dāwūd b. Ṣemaḥ the indigo dealer. The house abuts the former church of St Michael, the oven of al-Jalāl, and the house of Maymūn b. Dāwūd. Dated 10–20 Shaʿbān 448 (October-November 1056 CE). On verso there is a liturgical text in Hebrew. (Information from Khan.) It is unusual that the document is written on a bifolio; it may be a court copy, which would also explain what seems to be an archival annotation on verso summarizing the document (which Khan deciphers in part but doesn't discuss). MR

Legal document: bill of sale in which Makhlūf b. Jābir b. Nāṣir buys a house in al-Muʿizziyya (Cairo) from […] b. ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. Ibrahim b. ʿAlī, one of two trustees of Cairene legacies, under the supervision of Abū l-Ḥasan Masarra b. ʿAbdallāh. Makhlūf’s father, Jābir b. Nāṣir the miller, acts as his agent in the transaction. The house previously belonged to the wife of the amir, Sitt al-Dawla, and is apparently now intestate, hence the involvement of the trustees. 11th-12th century. On verso (recto as conserved) is a Hebrew liturgical text. (Information from Khan, ALAD)

Bill of sale for the purchase of a house by Maḥrūz. Constructed from three fragments: T-S NS 184 52, T-S NS 184 55 and T-S NS 184 56. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1131–32 CE.