Geniza Lab

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; English to come)

Letter from Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Aden, probably to Ibn Yijū, in India. Fragment, preserving the margins only. Mentions the customs tax (maks), various items that are being sent, and the news of Aden (peaceful now, but there was recent military activity). Information from Goitein's transcription and notes, see attachments.

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Betrothal contract between Sitt al-Ahl bt. Yosef Lebdī and Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya ha-Levi b. Binyamin/Binyām. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 10 June 1124 CE.

Awaiting description

Probably Qalyūb; Iyar; May 1140 Yeḥezqel wrote this letter to his brother Ḥalfon who is staying in Alexandria. The letter is complete, but it has no address. The writer probably knew that the messenger would personally bring the letter to the recipient. The names of the writer and the addressee, whom he addresses as his brother, are therefore missing. Nevertheless, Goitein's assertion that it was Yeḥezqel who wrote this letter to Ḥalfon is certain based on the writing and the content. Some of the things that Yeḥezqel wrote about here are clearly related to the content of his other letters, especially Certificate ח64, ח68, ח69. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Awaiting description

Alexandria; Probably about 1143-1145 ʿAmram b. Yiṣḥaq sends Ḥalfon a short greeting for Purim. Abu Al-Ma'ali wanted to help Abu Al-Fakhr, the son of Ḥalfon’s brother, Abu Ali Yeḥezqel, to do what he had not succeeded in doing. As it appears from his words, the intention is probably to get married, and it is possible that Abu al-Ma'ali wanted to offer him a match. Amram asked for Ḥalfon’s help in the matter and expressed his sorrow that Ḥalfon also failed to reach the implied goal, which was to marry a wife. According to Amram, Abu Al-Fakhr was like one of his sons, an expression that alludes to the familial closeness between them. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from the trader Salmān, in Spain, to Abū Saʿīd (likely Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi). Dating: Perhaps Fall 1138 CE. Sent from Spain. Some of the names mentioned are known from the circle of Yehuda ha-Levi. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV.) NB: this fragment was previously known as Antonin 1105 (similar to all the other Yevr. III B shelfmarks).

Legal record (#46). Discharge of debt. The court ordered Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān al-Kohen to purchase 1/8 of a house for 50 dinars for the unmarried orphan Sitt al-Ḥasab, because this was a "binding debt" owed to her by him him and by their late father (Abū Zikrī Kohen), meaning that this sum had been formally set aside for her dowry (Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 157). The house is in Fustat, Suwayqat al-Wazīr, Darb al-Nabbādhīn (Winesellers' Street). Bū Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm acted as agent for this purchase. In case Sitt al-Ḥasab dies unmarried, this property will return (ʿā'id) to her mother, after Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān takes whatever value has appreciated (al-perot) from the time of purchase to her death. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#60). Deposition in court. Dated: Av 1467 Seleucid. Concerning repairs of a dilapidated wall belonging to two houses. Sitt al-Khāṣṣa and Sitt al-Riḍā, her daughter with al-Rayyis Abū l-Faḍl, agree to bear 1/4 of the costs of the repair to the wall, which Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān al-Kohen will carry out, up to 100 dinars. Sitt al-Khāṣṣa will pay approximately 2/3 (a maximum of 16 dinars) and Sitt al-Riḍā will pay approximately 1/3 (a maximum of 9 dinars). The repayment will be 0.5 dinar per month. Witnesses: Mevorakh b. Natan; Seʿadya b. Avraham; Shelomo ha-Levi b. Shemuel. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#64). Trousseau list (taqwīm). Groom: Peraḥya b. Yosef Yiju. Bride: Sitt al-Dār ('Mistress of the House'), the daughter of Peraḥya's paternal uncle, Avraham Yiju. NB: Goitein referred to this document as folio 27 (Firk. II NS 1700.27) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 28, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8).

Legal record (#65). Inheritance settlement. Dated: Middle of Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. "One of a series of documents from 1156 about an inheritance dispute between Abū l-Rabī‘ Sulaymān b. and his two half-sisters (see Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.3), notes that Abū l-Rabī‘ will pay the two girls two and a half dinars a month as maintenance, 'in line with what their father willed them at the time of his death'" (Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 169).

Legal record (#4). Inheritance settlement. Dated: Thursday, 11 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. "In one of a series of documents resolving an argument over the inheritance of the India merchant Yehuda Abū Zikrī b. Yosef ha-kohen (d. 1156), Yehuda’s son Abū l-Rabī‘ Shelomo agreed to pay 400 dinars from his father’s estate to his two young half-sisters, Sitt al-Ḥasab and Sitt al-Naṣr, on the condition that their mother (Sitt al-Khāṣṣa bt. Abū l-Makārim b. Baqā) stopped prosecuting him in Islamic court on her daughters’ behalf.The deed had originally said that Abū l-Rabī‘ would grant each of them 200 dinars when they married. To resolve the case, however, this clause was then crossed out and replaced with a marginal note indicating that he would give each girl this amount 'at the time of her maturity, according to the time that Islamic law permits her to release her brother from this (obligation) and receive it from him,' apparently so that she might absolve him before a Muslim qādī as well as in Jewish court" (Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 158). See also Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.5 (recto) and Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.29 (verso). No signatures.

Legal record (#7). Alimony received. Dated: End of Iyyar 1456 Seleucid (or shortly thereafter). Concerning the maintenance/alimony (mezonot) that the late Abū Zikrī al-Kohen willed to his two daughters (whom he had with Sitt al-Khāṣṣa bt. Abū l-Makārim b. Baqā), Sitt al-Ḥasab and Sitt al-Naṣr. Also involves a monthly payment of 1/2 dinar by his son Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān al-Kohen. Sitt al-Khāṣṣa testifies that she has received all the money that was due from the date of Abū Zikrī's death through Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. Witnesses: Yaʿaqov b. Avraham; Seʿadya b. Avraham. See also Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.3.

Legal record (#9). Deposition in court. Bū Naṣr al-Kohen Ibn Mukhtār, Yūsuf al-ʿAṭṭār ('the perfumer in the alley of the candles'), Abū l-Riḍā al-ʿAṭṭār Ibn al-Lebdī, and Sālim al-Munādī (the crier of the perfume market) all testify that they witnessed a brawl between Abū l-Bayān al-Levi b. Abū Naṣr al-Ḥalabī and the sons or slaves (ghilmān) of someone titled al-ʿAlam ('the eminent'), regarding a house that the two held in partnership. Al-ʿAlam accused Abū l-Bayān of pilfering the marble and the wood from the qāʿa, and he had a bill/promissory note (ḥujja) drawn up stating that Abū l-Bayān has to reimburse the value of what he took; al-ʿAlam also threatened to drag Abū l-Bayān before the chief of police (wālī) of Fustat. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam. See India Book I for the identification of Abū l-Riḍā al-ʿAṭṭār Ibn al-Lebdi. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.) Summarized in Goitein and Friedman, India Book 1, א37.