Geniza Lab

Deathbed will. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Minyat Ashna. Dated: Monday, last decade of Shevaṭ 1461 Seleucid, which is January 1150 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The testator is Ghazāl al-Ṭawwāf ("the nightwatchman") who never married and had no children. He leaves all of his possessions to his closest known relatives, his cousins (banāt ʿamm) Sitt al-Nās and Sitt al-Diyār. Peraḥya b. Yaʿaqov of Minyat Zifta, the son-in-law of Sitt al-Nās, stands as security for paying this money to any other heir with a greater claim who should make themselves known in the future. Signed by: Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe; Shelomo b. Zurʿa; and Shela b. Yefet.

Copy of the will of Khulla bt. Shabbat in which she lists her assets (three different dārs held in partnership with her two sisters and one of their sons) and her intention to sell her ghulām (enslaved man) and split the proceeds as charity for Dammūh and burial expenses for the poor. The court tries to convince her that her charitable funds should be used to restore a bible codex (muṣḥaf) worth the same amount of money, but Khulla declines. The document also mentions: Yehuda Ibn al-Sofer (as the scribe of the original will), the daughter of Khulla’s brother Abū ʿAlī al-Kohen (as being owed 6 dinārs) and Yeshuʿa b. ʿEli ha-Kohen (as a witness). RR This is folio 1v in a bifolio of a court register in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashse consisting of four pages and containing four court cases. Another folio is dated 1135 CE. For transcription see attached edition by Goitein, or see Rivlin, Inheritance and Wills, #47, pp. 371-373

Verso: Fragment of a detailed report about the colors and development of crops, as part of a will. Relevant to Karaite law for intercalculating a thirteenth month. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, IV, 418)

Legal document: will, fragmentary, of the Qaraite mother of two girls, before delivering another child. Concerns in particular her valuable jewelry. Goitein surmised that the document was Qaraite based on the style, the script and the text in the same hand on verso, which refers to the intercalation of the calendar according to Qaraite law. He dates it to the first half of the eleventh century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 418, and from Goitein's index cards)

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)

Deathbed will of a rich woman, made during the absence of her husband. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 26 Iyyar 1454 Seleucid, which is 13 April 1143 CE, under the reshut of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Testator: Sitt al-Ahl bt. Abū l-Munā al-ʿAṭṭār al-Iskandarānī, the wife of Abū Naṣr al-Ḥalabī al-Tājir. Witnesses: Yosef b. Thābit ha-Levi; Shelomo b. Natan ha-Haver. "This remarkable deathbed declaration, on the one hand, shows the cosmopolitan character of Fustat: the daughter of a druggist called 'the Alexandrian' was married there to a merchant 'from Aleppo.' On the other hand, it betrays an extraordinary attachment of the testator to her paternal family and to local customs and concepts. The dying woman's husband was a tājir, or great merchant, who traveled far and was expected to be away from home for several years. He probably was on a business trip to India. She had a little boy (Mūsā) from a former marriage, who lived with her parents. As his guardian and her own executor she appointed a brother of her former husband (Abū Mūsā Hārūn/Aharon b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen). The main purport of the will was the legal protection of her parents, brother (Abū l-Surūr), and boy against her present husband and providing a sumptuous burial for herself. She wanted to have Muslim wailing women, presumably because the cries and shrieks of Jewish women exercising the same profession were not shrill enough for her taste. The most impressive detail is her wish to be buried together with 'one of her family' meaning her father, mother, or brother. To these she was attached by 'natural ties'; with her husband she was connected solely by a 'contract.'" There is also a clause about Sitt al-Ahl's female slave named Fūq and Fūq's daughter, who belongs to Sitt al-Ahl's mother. Sitt al-Ahl also intends for the daughter of her brother Abū l-Surūr to marry her son Mūsā. (Information in part from CUDL and mainly from Goitein's attached notes, where there is a full translation.)

Recto: Legal document. Abū Manṣūr Ḥayyim b. Sahlawayh appoints Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Shaʿyā, known as Ibn Tawwazī, to investigate accounts relating to the estate of Abū Kathīr Ibrahīm b. Salmān b. ʿEzra. Abū Kathīr had died while some assets of his were still with two brothers of Abū Manṣūr, Daniel and Eli, and the brothers had also meanwhile died, leaving Abū Manṣūr as their heir. Abū Yūsuf is appointed to examine the accounts of all three dead men, so that Abū Kathīr’s heirs can receive what is due to them. Abū Yūsuf’s investigation will be supervised by Abū Naṣr Shelomo/Salāma b. Saʿīd Ibn Ṣaghīr. Location: Fusṭāṭ. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Iyyar 1368 Seleucid, which is April 1057 CE, under the authority of Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen ("the Great Rav"). (Information from Goitein's index card and from CUDL)

Copy of a will of Mahara bat Avraham ha-Kohen that had been made and dated in Alexandria in January 1143, issued at the request of her nephew, to whom his dying aunt had willed 10 dinars and also money to other family members. She stipulated that any money remaining after the payment of the burial expenses and of the sums bequeathed by her to relatives (with the exclusion of her son) should be given to the poor, but charged her executor with this task, not the officials of the community chest, while the court was to choose the charities worthy of consideration. Dated in November 1153. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 111, 545)

Magnificent Hebrew will in which a rich man gives his second wife and the mother of three of his children 200 dinars if she does not marry again, but only 50 dinars if she does get married. He also empowers the elder son to give his younger brother his share in the estate only when he, the executor--not the courts-- is satisfied that the boy is ready for the responsibility. Dated 18 Heshvan 1318/ October 1006. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 251, 283, 411, 481)

Will of a notable, dividing his landed property, his flocks of sheep and all the orchards possessed or leased by him between his brother and his children. Dated ca. 1090. This is a copy of the original will found in Bodl. MS heb. b 13/46. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 117, 425)

Abu al-Munajja Shelomo b. Saadya leaves to each of his three minor daughters 100 dinars for their bridal outfits. He arranges to have his two sons be the heirs of the balance of his property, and he orders that his wife, whose father was still alive, function as executor for all his children. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 253, 482)

Text of a will, Fustat, 1250, as well as a draft of a letter to Abu l-Ḥasan, a judge in Bilbays. At the top of the page some books of Hayy Gaʾon are mentioned, which are in the possession of the Nasi. (Information from CUDL)

Middle fragment of the will of a physician, mentioning 1/8 share of a house held by him in partnership with a Muslim named Ahmad, as well as something worth 180 dinars which should not be taken away from him after his death. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 292; IV, pp. 63, 371)

Margins of recto and verso: Will, presumably a draft, concerning gold for a man's daughter Karīma. Mentions various other family members, such as her maternal aunt, her sister, Khalaf, Yūsuf b. Yiṣḥaq, and her maternal uncle Manṣūr. A sum of 6 dinars is mentioned in line 9. Several names appear at the bottom of the document, but these appear to be the scribe's notes rather than actual signatures: Sulaymān b. Saʿīd; Avraham b. ʿAlī; Munā bt. Ismāʿīl; the maternal uncle Avraham b. Zudaybilāt(?); the paternal uncle Mūsā b. ʿUqayb al-Mastī(?).

Recto contains the top part of a testament made about two weeks earlier (on 8 May 1241), written in the same hand. Abū al-Fakhr al-Jabbān (the cheese seller) b. Saʿadya gave his mature virgin daughter, Karam, two thirds of a house as well as 130 black dirhams. His mature virgin granddaughter, Rashīda, received two dinars and his mature wife, Ḥasab bt. Abū Naṣr ha-Kohen, received one dinar in addition to the two dinars of her delayed marriage gift. He also released her from any oath. The rest of his property was given to Abū al-Fakhrʼs son, Ibrahim. For the verso, see separate record. (Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 385) EMS

Will of Na’ima bt. Yaʿaqov stating that one-half of a house with a store in Malij that she bought from her son for six dinars, with the money she received from her second husband at divorce, was to be divided as gifts: one-quarter to a grandson and the other quarter to a granddaughter. Twelfth century. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:275) EMS

Will of Wuhsha, the broker, detailing various items and sums of money willed to relatives and charitable and religious purposes; appointment and provisions for a son born out of wedlock as heir and what to do if he dies before reaching maturity; funeral expenses; and references to previously-made declarations. The total amount of sums referred to in the will is 689 dinars, a large fortune, and the denoted funeral expenses were lavish for the time. Regarding the father of her only child, Wuhsha notes, “He shall not get a penny.” (S. D. Goitein, “A Jewish Business Woman of the Eleventh Century,” Jewish Quarterly Review, 1967, 229-41) EMS

Recto: Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic, which partly consists of a deathbed will. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 24 Iyyar, 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. The testator appoints someone as his agent in all his affairs, but if he should recover (ואן חב אללה תעאלי ונקהת מן מרצי ותצרפת וכרגת אלטריק ודכלת אלחמאם), this provision is void. The continuation of the document describes what happened on Sunday the 28th of the same month and mentions Rabbenu ha-Meʿulle (but it is torn away here). AA. ASE.

Fragment of a will of the teacher Sittuna bat Avraham the parnas. She leaves a property to the son of her sister's daughter, who will pay her funeral expenses out of the income of this property, and her personal belongings to her sister's daughter. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Beginning of a court record (last will and testament?) for Shelah b. Yefet the silk tax-farmer in Sammanud.