Geniza Lab

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Small fragment (lower right corner), and possibly a draft. The name בן שמארי is preserved.

Deathbed declaration in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (Date: 1100-1138). Concerning Abū l-Ḥusayn Moshe b. Shelomo al-ʿAṭṭār (ZL), who had given his wife of second marriage, in addition to her deferred marriage gift of 50 dinars, an additional gift of ten dinars. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:251, 411, 481; 5:140, 544) EMS

Legal document(s)
s s
the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (Date: 1100–38 CE). The main text (not in the margins) on both sides may just be formulary. No names seem to be mentioned, and there are many elaborate formulae of release. The marginal text was written with a different pen, one with a smaller tip. Recto: refers to the Gaon (Maṣliaḥ), Naḥman, someone suing his late paternal uncle, and another paternal uncle Yosef ha-Kohen. Verso: Refers to the Gaon Maṣliaḥ (1127–39 CE); a woman making someone take an oath; "the court has no connection to this case, and your paternal uncle until now has been responding to..."; more about an oath and repaying something; it being discovered that someone had no right to anything belonging to his or her paternal uncle's; and then a brief narrative of someone abasing(?) themselves by putting their head between someone's arms and/or legs and begging for forgiveness; but the paternal uncle was ashamed to ask those present to do something. Very cryptic—needs further examination.

Recto: Fragment in Arabic script, in a chancery hand. The ends of four lines are preserved. Mentions a sum of 20 dinars (min al-ʿayn al-wāzin ʿashrīn dīnār) and repeats twice that someone testified something (shahida ʿalā nafsih). Verso: Legal testimony in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Reporting on the fulfillment of the orders of the Gaon. The witnesses went to the house of Abū l-Maʿālī Avraham b. Ḥalfon known as Ibn Abū Salāma (probably the same mentioned in T-S 8J5.4, dated 1127 CE) and questioned him regarding the drug store of the late Abū Sahl Menashshe ha-Levi b. Elʿazar who died in Cairo. Abū l-Maʿālī relates that Abū Sahl had asked him from his deathbed to go fetch some money from the shop, so he went and retrieved approximately 40 dirhams. By the time he returned, Abū Sahl was dead. When Abū l-Maʿālī returned to the shop, there was already a group gathered round, and Ṣemaḥ al-Parnas summoned a carpenter to close the shop and put a metal lock on the door. Evidently they are now sorting out who will take over the business. ASE

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (ca. 1000–38 CE). Fragment (upper right corner). Damaged bill of settlement. Involves a man named [...] b. Shelaḥya (שלחיה, a rare name) who is possibly a ḍā[min]; a Levi; and a lawsuit against another Levi for over 2000 of something. The one bringing the lawsuit may be Eliyya and the defendant may be Abū l-Surūr, but this is not definite without the join. The dispute has to do with coral. (A previous description said that there is also a Zekharya ha-Levi mentioned in this document.) AA. ASE.

Verso: Legal agreement. Probably in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Avigayil bt. Eliyya ha-Kohen gives her husband David b. Eliyya the right to remarry his divorcee Ḥasana bt. Yehuda. The bottom of the document is not preserved, so we do not know if there are signatures or not. This document may be the notes of the scribe or the court rather than the legal agreement itself. On recto (see separate record) there is a fragment from a letter by an untrained hand.

List of the honorary titles of the Bundar family of Aden, ca. 1120. Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi.

Left side of inquiry with regard to an inheritance of a quarter of a house. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138)

Letter fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. The language is very legalistic and it could also be a legal document. It seems to be describing the terms of a reconciliation agreement. It ends with the typical ending of a letter, "ושלומך יגדל ואל ידל." In a different hand in the margin: "This letter is for Shela b. Nissim." The document was subsequently torn up and reused for piyyutim.

Betrothal deed written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The bride's name is Sitt al-Sāda.

Left fragment: Court record. Very faded and damaged. In the handwriting of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Settlement of a martial dispute after the intervention of 'righteous elder' between a husband Shelomo ha-Kohen known as Ibn Abī Raghīf (cf. T-S 13J33.5 for this family name) and his wife [... bt.] Berakhot.

A very damaged legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (ca 1100–38 CE). Some details might be extracted with effort. In the margins of recto and on verso, in a different hand, there are accounts or possibly lists of names with numbers, written in a different hand. Probably unrelated to the legal document on recto, but this is not certain. AA. ASE.

Marriage document. Draft of a prenuptial agreement, by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Damaged. Aramaic. AA

Bottom of a legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Ḥeshvan 1435 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE. Mentions the rent of a house.

ENA 4011.19a (upper fragment): Marriage contract (ketubba). Dated: 1445 Seleucid, which is 1133/34 CE. Only the beginning is preserved. Bride: Turfa, a divorcee from a betrothal (מתרכתא מן הא[רוסין). Goitein's index card notes that the Turfa in T-S 16.52, who was already divorced from a marriage in 1124 CE, has nothing to do with the woman in this document. NB: Goitein cites this document as ENA 4011.18.

Quittance for Saadya ha-Levi b. Avraham on 4 dinars he had owed. Dated Iyyar 1489/ May 1178. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dating: refers to a period of time beginning in Nisan 1424 Seleucid, which is 1113 CE. Involves Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa [...] al-Ramlī and Abū Yaʿaqov [...] Avraham. The acknowledgment has to do with a portion of a house in Fustat that is located on the alley of Michael (זקאק מכיל); maybe a lease or a temporary sale. Signed: ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen. On the back two names are listed: Yefet b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi and Ḥasana bt. [Manṣūr?]. It looks like this was a meant to be a summary of marriage arrangement.

Letter by the scribe Ḥalfon b. Menashshe to his brother in law, with a long narrative about the difficulties he encountered procuring a tax receipt (bara'a) and the connections he used in order to procure it, some more useful than others. Also congratulates his brother in law on his sister having delivered a boy and a girl. (Information from Marina Rustow and from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 22, from Goitein's index cards; Goitein also has an English translation of this, to be uploaded soon.)

Legal dispute between Abu Nasr b. Efrayim 'known as Kathir the Gazaite' and his brother Abu Ishaq. The object of litigation: some household goods and dirhams inherited from the brothers' mother. Dated Tammuz 1443/ July 1132. Verso: deed of sale of half of a house. Dated 1132/1133. Lines 2&3 of verso are continuation of recto. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 436). On verso another court record titled 'Wuhsha's daughter' concerning the sale of a house in Qasr al-Sham' to Sitt Ghazal b. Siba' b. Yehuda al-Damashqi the wife od Avraham Hakohen b.al-Tuwan. (Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Haelvi. AA)

This shelfmark includes 3 unrelated fragments. Upper left fragment: Legal record in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 1440 Seleucid, which is 1128/29 CE. Inventory of certain objects deposited by Nājiya bt. Abū l-Khayr with the parnas Abū ʿAlī against the promise to bury her in specified clothing. (A previous description on PGP referred to this as a trousseau list.) (Information from Goitein's index card.)