Geniza Lab

List of expenditures of the Qodesh ca. 1169-70. An accounting written in the hand of Judge Shemuel b. Saadya ha-Levi, on both parts of a leaf from a notebook, mentioning several houses of the qodesh. Most items refer to building operations, but there are also sums spent on nightwatch and gifts to Muslim officials. The Synagogue of the Babylonians is one of the main beneficiaries in this accounting. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 309 #72)

Fragment of a legal document. The terms sāiʾba (endowment/waqf property more generally ) and mūwāqafa (safeguarding waqf/endowment properties) are suggestive that the document could be related to a matter pertaining to waqf. The last lines reveal the beginning of a name "al-Fāḍil al-Ajal al-Asʿad". Recto contains a Hebrew script with one line of not very legible Arabic script in a chancery hand at the bottom.

Accounting of the Qodesh. Ca. 1222-23.

Account (draft) of the Qodesh ca. 1222-23. Record of an accounting in which mainly expenditures are preserved. Listed are expenditures made by the beadle Abu'l-Tahir, both on building operations and on oil for the synagogue. There are a few revenues from rent listed as well. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.429 #128)

Account: record of payments of the qodesh in Cairo, ca. December 1181. The collector of the qodesh in Cairo, Kohen Abu al-Munajja, surnamed al-Zariz, submits his account to the court. The account refers to expenditures made out of the rent of three months, Elul 1492, and Tishri and Marheshwan 1493 Sel. The money was spent for clothes, for the children of the Nasi, for nightwatch and maintenance. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 366 #95 and Mediterranean Society, II, 423). Written under the authority of Sar Shalom Halevi. A note written by R. Isacc the dayyan is mentioned. Alternate description: Record of payments of the Qodesh in Cairo ca. 1181-82 (Gil). Request from a notable to remit immediately the sum he had pledged for the capitation tax of the poor. These notes and similar ones no doubt emanated from the office of Elhanan b. Shemarya (see S. D. Goitein, "Elhanan b. Shemarya as a Communal Leader," Yehoshuaʿ Finkel Jubilee Volume [New York, 1970]). Information from Goitein, Med. Soc., 2:455. The transcription here is for ENA 4011.29.

Money order of the Qodesh. Ca. 1162-63. The judge Shemuel b. Saadya ha-Levi wrote and signed an order to pay 9.5 dirhams to the children of a certain Hiba, the brother of Abu Ishaq al-Mukari, said to be thier share in the revenue of the "Estate of the Jerusalemites." (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 308 #70)

Account of the qodesh, ca. probably 1158. Fragment of an accounting between the qodesh and, apparently, its partner in the ownership of a compound, known as Hiba al-Abzari, one eighth of which belongs to the qodesh. This can be inferred from the fact that the qodesh returns sums previously paid by that man for the ground rent (ḥikr). A former agreement seems to have imposed monthly payments of 10 dinars upon the co-proprietor, to settle his debt. The new computation stretches over a period of nine years, 1149-1158 - years 1461, 1465, 1466 sel. (1149-50, 1154, 1155), and years (5)50, (5)51, (5)52, (5)53 AH (1155-1158 CE). It shows that 50 dinars are still owing to the qodesh. This sum is to be paid on the spot, and the account has the tone of a deed of release, indicating that money was about to be paid. Coptic numerals are used. Written in the hand of Judge Hiyya b. Yitzhak, and signed by him. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 274-276 #56)

Verso: Account of the qodesh. Dating: ca. 1215 CE, according to Gil. This document records sums deposited by several collectors of the qodesh with its central administration. Details about 1,010 dirhams and other sums received from rents and delivered by the writer to various communal officials. The writer is apparently one of the judges of the court in Fustat. The account is written on the verso of a bill of sale for an Indian female slave, which was concluded in 1155 CE (see PGPID 11413). (Information from Gil, Documents, p. 409f, doc. #111, and Goitein, Mediterranean Society II, p. 428, App. A, sec. 138.)

List, an account of expenditures, by Abū al-Munajjā al-Zariz, including clothing the poor (140 dirhams), money for the children of the nasi, for payment to the acquaintance of the dayyan. | List or account in which the Kohen Abū al-Munajjā, surnamed al-Zariz, collector for the charitable foundations in New Cairo, turns in 100 dirhams that were used for the distribution of clothing, and an additional 50 that were spent on another approved charity. Dated Tevet 1493/ December 1181. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 423) Written under the authority of the Nagid Sar Shalom ha-Levi. A note written by R. Isacc the dayyan is mentioned. The transcription here is for ENA NS 28.15.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Expenses for construction and repairs; mentioning a carpenter several times.

Legal document. In Hebrew and some Aramaic. In the hand of Yefet b. David. Attests that Fā'iza bt. Yaʿaqov received as a gift a portion of a house (dira) that is close to Qaṣr al-Shamʿ.

This is the verso continuation of an account of payments and debts connected with a qodesh (pious foundation).

This document, which continues onto the verso, lists in detail payments to individuals, some for commodities (including bread, flour, and meat), as well as amounts owed (possibly for rent) connected to a qodesh ('holy trust', that is a pious foundation; see Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations, 3-4 et passim). The payments are made on behalf of a haver ('member (of the yeshiva),' apparently associated with the administration of the qodesh). A man named Wahish appears in three other documents related to the revenues of a qodesh in the 1040s (see Gil, ibid., 194, 201-2, 206-7). All quantities are in dirhams.

Receipt for the rent of a residence valued at 88 qirsh in the waqf of Deir el Moukhalles in Cairo – 1 March 1947CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 225) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 68). MCD.

Legal document (written by Yosef b. Shemuel. AA) . Lease of an apartment of the Qodesh ca. 1194 and 1199. A deed of lease is concluded between the qodesh and a certain Abu'l-Surur. The deed is written in the name of the court, by a scribe whose handwriting we know from other documents of the qodesh of this period. It is validated by Shemuel b. Saadya. Abu'l-Surur was apparently in the perfume business, and the representatives of the qodesh wished to prevent the qa'a rented by him from being used for anything connected with his occupation. He is therefore absolutely forbidden to arrange for any reservoir of rose water, or to make any breach in the wall, or to use arsenic or any other drugs whose production entails the use of fire. The verso of the document, written five years later by Shemuel b. Saadya, lists a series of payments collected by him from the same Abu'l-Surur, on account of another period of lease during which he occupied the same qa'a. Some of the payments are made indirectly through a third party. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 372 #98)

Recto: Statute for tenants of the Qodesh. Dating: ca. 1215 (according to Gil, but his handwriting comparison may not be sound, and this document could be as late as ca. 1300). The document preserves a number of conditions imposed upon the lessees of the qodesh. It proclaims 1) a ban (herem) against anyone who defaults on the monthly payment, for any reason whatsoever. Therefore, exactly as one would beg money for food, one should do so, if necessary, in order to pay rent. 2) The ban will also operate also on anyone who does not accept the amount of the rent as established by three Jews, the muqawwimin. 3) The lessee is obliged to present his deeds of lease whenever asked to do so in the name of the waqf. 4) The ban will also be applied to anybody making use of a Muslim's intervention in order to obtain a lodging in the houses of the qodesh or a reduction of rent imposed on him. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 411 #112.) On verso there is a Hebrew poem in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī (d. after 1298).

Letter from ʿEli b. Yehezqel ha-Kohen, Jerusalem, to Eli b. Hayyim ha-Kohen, Fustat, concerning Eli b. Yehezqel's travels to Acre and Tyre, return to Ramla, and his serious illness there. "I was attacked by vomiting; I exploded from above and below, over 300 times (lit. "sittings"); everybody in the house gave me up. The doctors came on Saturday night and saw that I was finished and that there was nothing to be done any more. I made my will... [then improved]... but I still have terrible weakness." Also mentions the rent from the heqdesh (pious foundation) to the poor people in Jerusalem and other private and public affairs. 1060 (Gil's estimation). (Information from Gil, Palestine; and Goitein's index cards, including index card #27100.) VMR; ASE.

Account (draft) of the Qodesh ca. 1213. This account is written on the verso and also on the remaining space of the recto of a document concerning the sale of a female slave to a certain Elazar ha-Kohen. Different kidns of revenue and expenditures are recorded together. There are items of charity, for the local poor and for foreigners, and repairs to buildings of the qodesh, and also to the synagogues of Fustat and Dammuh. Several sums that were emoluments for scholars are included as well. Some revenue from rent is listed, as it is also income from collections for charity, among them one "light" dinar paid by Rayyis, i.e. the Nagid, Avraham Maimuni, the son of Maimonides. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 403 #109)

Lease of a plantation owned by the Qodesh, ca. 1150 CE. A deed of lease is drawn up by the court, by which a plantation of date palms is taken over for cultivation by a certain Hiba. The plantation belongs to the qodesh, and is probably located near the synagogue of Dammuh. The tenant will pay the qodesh 88 dinars, in annual payments of 11 dinars each, for eight years, i.e. the period of the lease. Out of the 11 dinars, 1.33 dinar will be paid in eleven monthly installments, whereas 9.67 dinars will be paid in the month of Tishri (when the harvest is over). The tenant will also have to carry 1000 palm branches to the Nile (apparently also in the month of Tishri, intended for the feast of Sukkot). The tenant agrees to run the ox-driven irrigation water wheel continuously, and will not cut down any plants aside from necessary pruning. The deed is written in the hand of Judge Natan b. Shemuel. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 262 #50)

Account for Nisan and Iyyar 1494 sel. ca. 1183. The revenue from only eleven apartments and compounds of the qodesh for two months is listed in the first part of this document. The total is 352.5 dirhams. For some reason, Abu'l-Bayan collected the rent from only half of the usual number of houses. There follows a list of expenditures, including the usual items, which total 125.75 dirhams. There is also a list of payments received by the qodesh from Abu'l-Bayan (some of them through the beadle, Makhfuz). (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 337-338 #84). The scribe is Shmuel b. Sa'adya Halevi (Date: 1163-1204)