Geniza Lab

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves a Nubian female slave named ʿAlam, but it is not a deed of sale (or at least not a straightforward one). Involves: David b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Natan b. Yosef; Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ al-Arjawānī; [...] b. Efrayim; a woman and her husband; and confirmation of receipt of a sum of money. (Information in part from Goitein's attached notes.)

Regarding selling of a slave girl. Image not available.

Legal document between Maḵlūf b. Jacob and Sitt al-Riḍā bat Mufarraj b. Ḵalaf. Record of testimony concerning the sale of a female slave for the price of 17 dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 138, 433, 434 and CUDL)

Letter from a man of high standing to the Nagid Shemuel (in office 1140-1159), dealing with a case of clothing, and a man who had been forced to sell his female slave. She was now living with the man's sister, and he continued to spend most of his time with her. Verso: Account fragment in Arabic script with Coptic numerals.

Deed of manumission written by Mevorakh b. Natan in which Sitt al-Hasab, daughter of Shela ha-Levi 'the sar', manumits a female slave, named Salaf, who was probably given to another lady as a marriage gift. Dated Kislev 1469/ November 1157. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 138, 433; IV, pp. 325, 456)

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

Letter from Marduk b. Musa in Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat asking him to find a Jewish maidservant for the writer, ca. 1045-1096

Poem in Hebrew. 17 lines in praise of a dignitary, then 2 lines of blessing in Judaeo-Arabic, then it ends. "From your grateful slave, Shemuel." ASE.

Recto: Letter (upper part). Line 7: "As for the matter of the [..]ar, I asked Abu l-Ḥasan about it, and he said that he talked to Yusuf who went to the mistress of the nursing (or wet nurse) slave," who apparently demanded an exorbitant price for her ("she is worth half of these figures"). As for Tawfiq, he had a terrible quarrel with his maternal aunt. She arrived on the same Shabbat as the son of the judge. After the unpleasant events, she went to stay with Abu l-Ḥasan, but she cannot stay there "because of what you know about the women [of the household]." "As for Ḥujrah [another female slave?], it is not possible to [...] to her while her masters are absent." He encourages the addressee or Abu l-Barakat to come soon. The letter cuts off around here. Verso: writing exercises. ASE.

Instructions for manumission of a female slave written by Avraham Ibn Yiju. III 40a is the top of the page. III, 40b is the bottom of the page. III, 40c is the verso, a draft of a letter written by Avraham b. Yiju for another man and having nothing to do with the India trade, and therefore not edited in Goitein-Friedman. It is, however, edited in Assaf, Texts, 149-51.

Acknowledgement made in front of the rabbinical court of Denia, Spain, by Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham. Yiṣḥaq states that a certain Ḥasan b. Ḥasan had received nothing from a consignment of cinnamon carried by Qasim's slave, Mufarrij, a business agent from al-Mahdiyya, Ifrīqiya. Dated Tuesday 10 January, 1083. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document detailing how Ṣāfī, the slave (ghulām) and agent of the Jewish Academy in Fustat, insulted a notable in ʿAydhāb, Ibn Jamāhīr, in the presence of Jewish merchants. Ṣāfī accused the man of having a child with a female slave and then disposing of her, in Berbera, on the African coast. Ibn Jamāhīr filed a complaint of slander against the ghulām, although the governor tried to convince him otherwise because of Ṣāfī's special status. Ṣāfī was ordered to be flogged and jailed, although after intervention by a Jewish merchant from the Maghreb, he was set free, although “not without loss of money.” Goitein dates the document to 1141 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:133, 432) EMS

Recto: Legal document. On parchment. In the handwriting of Mevorakh b. Natan. In which Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet the head Parnas leaves to his wife Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya, their two daughters, and their female slave 25 dinars and 5 irdabbs of wheat for the duration of his absence in Yemen, in addition to the rent of a new house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat (which he has already sold to her, as certified in a separate document in her possession). Verso: Draft of a legal document. In which Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya testifies that she has received from her husband Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet all that was due to her from her ketubba (dated Av 1468 Seleucid = 1157 CE), including all but 5 dinars from the delayed marriage payment (muʾakhkhar) of 60 dinars and her dowry worth 400 dinars (except for the female slave who "was lost"—ran away?—from the house even before Moshe b. Yefet traveled). Moshe b. Yefet is also known from other documents; he signed PER H 161 in Yemen in 1156 CE. And T-S 8J5.23 (dated 1169 CE) is a conditional bill of divorce which he granted to Sitt al-Fakhr before departing for Yemen (perhaps T-S 8J5.23 and T-S 12.585r were drawn up at the same time, and T-S 12.585v is evidence that the conditional divorce was fulfilled?). There is additional text in the upper margin and beneath the main text block at 90 degrees. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and Ashur and Outhwaite, "Between Egypt and Yemen in the Cairo Genizah" (2014).)

Bill of sale for a female slave. Not completed. In the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Dated: Friday, 2 Tammuz 1409 Seleucid, which is 4 June 1098 CE. The slave is named Naʿīm, of Nubian origin. The seller is Shemarya b. Ḥalfon. The buyer is a woman named Khāliṣa. There is the heading שהדותא in the top margin. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Legal document. Deathbed will of the wife of a scholar, ca. probably 1151. A personal record of an anonymous writer, apparently a member of the court. Together with four other people he was called to attend the deathbed declaration of Sitt al-Husn, the wife of Judge Natan b. Shemuʾel ha-Ḥaver, "the Diadem of the Scholars." Since it was a Saturday, the official report could not be written, and the writer noted the main parts of the declaration immediately after Saturday was over, in order not to forget it. He was probably a court clerk, since his record contains the main formal elements of a regular deed. The woman frees her two female slaves and bequeaths them a quarter of a compound belonging to her, and dedicates half the compound in which the declaration is given to the qodesh. The two female slaves can live in the room in which the declaration is given, provided they keep the Jewish faith. An eighth of another compound partly owned by her is to be sold to cover the expenses ofher burial. She also states which of her belongings should be given to her husband. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 270 #55)

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

Unsigned deed from Fustat, dated May 1217, concerning the potential marriage of a female slave, Akramiyya. She had been purchased by As'ad, the physician when she was an infant, raised under him, and then freed. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:82, 443; Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 283) EMS One of two copies; the other is ENA 2559.13 (PGPID 6594). Alternative description: this is a second draft of an unsigned testimony from late Iyyar 1528 sel., regarding the origins (and implicitly, eligibilty for marriage) of Akramiyya. It is not stated specifically that she was a slave, or that she was freed. ENA 2559.13 is not another copy but an earlier version, from mid-Iyyar 1528, which includes erasures of text which indeed is not to be found in the later version.

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.

Court record of sale of a slave who had already lived in the house of the buyer and was therefore known to her.

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