Geniza Lab

Legal deed: Karaite deed of betrothal for Khalaf b. Maḥfūẓ (groom-to-be) and Ama al-Qādar bt. Efrayim b. Manṣūr b. Furāt (bride-to-be). Dated Thursday, 17 Sivan 1357 (= 1045 CE; note interlinear reference to Tammuz), probably in Fusṭāṭ, in the lifetime of the Nasi David b. Ṣemaḥ. There are quotes from Psalms 69:13, Nehemiah 2:18, Psalms 64:11, Hosea 2:21, Deuteronomy 1:11, 7:14, and with testimony from Barakāt b. Menaḥem ha-Kohen, and Yefet b. Abraham ha-Levi. Witnessed by Ṣedaqa b. Maṣliaḥ b. Sahl ha-Levi, David b. Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe ha-Levi, ʿAlān b. Nahum, Yosef b. [...] b. Efrayim, David b. [...], and [...] b. Naḥum. (Information from CUDL)

Legal deed: Qaraite deed of betrothal for Khalaf b. Maḥfūẓ (groom-to-be) and Ama al-Qādar b. Efrayim b. Manṣūr b. Furāt (bride-to-be). Dated Thursday, 17 Sivan 1357 (= 1045 CE; note interlinear reference to Tammuz), probably in Fusṭāṭ, in the lifetime of the Nasi David b. Ṣemaḥ. There are quotes from Psalms 69:13, Nehemiah 2:18, Psalms 64:11, Hosea 2:21, Deuteronomy 1:11, 7:14, and with testimony from Barakāt b. Menaḥem ha-Kohen, and Yefet b. Abraham ha-Levi. Witnessed by Ṣedaqa b. Maṣliaḥ b. Sahl ha-Levi, David b. Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe ha-Levi, ʿAlān b. Nahum, Joseph b. [...] b. Efrayim, David b. [...], and [...] b. Nahum. (Information from CUDL)

Badly rubbed legal document or decree, which mentions ‘his son’ Manṣūr b. Bashāra, followed by a long list of signatures from men including Yefet ha-Kohen b. Joseph, Mevorakh b. Meshullam and Yefet b. Judah. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: part of a poorly preserved letter, apparently from the first decade of the 11th century, to Joseph b. Berekhya, representative of the Jerusalem yeshiva in the Maghreb, sending greetings to Nathan ‘Head of the Congregations’, and also to his son Abraham (who would later become the first Nagid in the Maghreb), and also Ṣaliḥ b. Barhūn Tahertī, brother-in-law of the recipient, as well as Furayj. It urges action to be taken by the Jewish communities in the Maghreb regarding a collection for the Jerusalem yeshiva and Joseph Ibn ʿAwkal’s stewardship of the funds. There is also mention of a legal claim involving Abraham b. Shaul Abī Nathan Av Bet Din. Verso: fragment from an unrelated Arabic text. (Information from CUDL)

Business letter, from Jacob to Nathan ha-Kohen. (Information from CUDL)

Some kind of proclamation, apparently in connection with a ketubba. (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba from the late 13th–14th century, with no names preserved other than a signatory, Joseph ha-Levi. Information from CUDL.

Part of a legal document witnessed by ʿEli ha-Kohen b. [...], Yehoshuaʿ, and Avraham, and attested by the Bet Din: Ṭoviyya ‘the Third’ b. [Daniel?], Shelomo [b. Yehuda] (later Gaʾon). Most of the ink has rubbed off. (Information in part from CUDL)

Ketubba for Muʿazaza bat Mevorakh, a divorcee, and Meʾir. Written under the jurisdiction of Sar Shalom ha-Levi (1171–1195 CE) and witnessed by Levi ha-Levi b. Abraham. Dated the 4th of the month, in Fusṭāṭ. (Information from CUDL)

Power of attorney from Sason b. Nathan to ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā (Parnas), in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli (1066-1108 CE). Signed by Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Solomon and Joseph b. Elʿazar. Information from CUDL.

Description from T-S 20.145: Letter/petition from ʿAmram b. Aharon ha-Kohen "the seventh" (the son-in-law of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva, Evyatar b. Shelomo ha-Kohen) to dignitaries in Fustat, including the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya. Dating: 1108–09 CE. The sender wants the addressee to exercise his influence to have the Fatimid navy rescue Evyatar and his family from Tripoli in the period between the summer of 1108 CE (when the populace of Tripoli overthrew Ibn ʿAmmār) and 12 July 1109 CE, when the Franks sacked Tripoli. (Information from Brendan Goldman's edition.) Description from T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177 (old PGPID 17817): Letter. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1108 CE, as it refers to the flight of Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār from Tripoli and how he left it in the hands of his cousin Abū l-Manāqib. The layout is like a formal report, with a narrow width and wide space between the lines. The sender says that he has previously sent a letter concerning "the same matter" to "our cousin," a great dignitary and a kohen. "They took it and traveled with it... toward the beginning of Shabbat Vayoshaʿ (=Beshalaḥ?), the day that Ibn ʿAmmār traveled for Beirut—let him return no more to his house, and let not his place know him any more (Job 7:10)—and then traveled for Tiberias (? טברי) to fortify himself there, and the city is now in the hand of his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Abū l-Manāqib." (Information in part from CUDL.) Joins by CUDL (for T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177) and Alan Elbaum (for T-S 20.145 + {T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177}). For an example of the Fatimid state document format which this is emulating, see another report concerning this period in Tripoli (unpublished): T-S AS 129.149 + T-S AS 116.11 + T-S NS 137.20 + T-S NS 207.44 + AIU I.C.73 + T-S NS 238.99 + T-S NS 244.84 (+ T-S NS 125.135). ASE

Long letter from Yaʿaqov b. Salīm, in al-Juwwa (near Aden, Yemen), to the judge and parnas Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo, in Fustat. Quoting Deuteronomy 32:43 and Isaiah 33:24. Dated: Tishrei 1445 of the Seleucid Era (= 1133 CE). Natan had previously written asking the Aden community for money on behalf of the Palestinian Gaonate but Yaʿaqov reports that because of disagreements with the community in Yemen he is not on good terms with them and has moved away. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Bill of release. Dated: First decade of Ḥeshvan 1459 Seleucid, which is 1148 CE. in which Yeshuʿa ha-Levi releases Netanʾel and Menashshe b. Ḥalfon. Signed by Shelomo b. Araḥ and Shelomo b. Ḥalfon. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Bill of release. Dating: 1094–1111 CE, as it was written during the period in which Mevorakh b. Seʿadya was known as Sar ha-Sarim (this is found in the margin, and in the related document T-S 12.94). (CUDL dates the document to 1066 CE, but this cannot be correct, since Meshullam b. Hiba Ibn al-Shuwaykiyya was still alive in 1091 CE per ENA 4020.47.) In which Shemuel b. Aharon reaches a settlement (ṣulḥ) and releases Nissim b. Meshullam and his brother Ṣedaqa b. Meshullam, along with their mother Bahiyya bt. Ḥalfon, from any debts incurred by their deceased father Abū l-ʿAlā Meshullam b. Hiba known as Ibn Shuwaykiyya ("the little artichoke"). Shemuel b. Aharon’s agent is Yosef b. Ṣedaqa. The document and its drafts are possibly in the hand of the parnas ʿEli b. Hayyim/Yaʿīsh ha-Kohen. There are at least three related fragments: T-S 12.94, T-S 10J5.13, and T-S 13J37.9, which may be a draft of the same document or of (an)other document(s) related to the same case. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Verso: Unidentified text in Arabic script. May be literary. Might be a prayer with an apostrophe to Muḥammad (yā Mūḥammad...). Probably not a state document as catalogued on CUDL. Underneath there is a qaṣīda of praise for God that begins تبارك من انشا من الطين وركب فيه الروح والهوا

Ketubba for Mikhal bat Sason b. Yefet and Saʿadya b. Nathan, in the hand of Nathan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Verso: part of another document relating to the same couple, dated 1451 of the Seleucid Era (= 1140 CE) in Fusṭāṭ, witnessed by Nathan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Joseph b. Ayyūb ha-Levi. The bride’s father, Sason b. Yefet, is known from T-S 13J2.17 (dated 1116 CE), T-S 13J6.21, and T-S 8J4.23 (dated 1110 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Recto: autograph responsa by Shemarya b. Elḥanan (active 966–1011 CE) with his signature. Verso: an abridgement of BT Yevamot 65b-72a. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: letter by Elḥanan b. Shemarya, referring to Abū Saʿd and Abū Ibrahim al-Andalusī, with three lines of a piyyuṭ composed by Sahlān b. Abraham. Verso: piyyuṭ composed by Sahlān b. Abraham. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a Karaite betrothal deed from the time of the Nasi Ḥezekiah b. Shelomo b. David, dated 9th Shevaṭ 1373 of the Seleucid Era (= 1062-1063 CE) in Fusṭāṭ. It is identified as a betrothal deed and not a ketubba because the quotation from Hosea 2:21-22 is typically found in betrothal deeds. The names of the couple are not preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Lists of debts and payments. (Information from CUDL)