Geniza Lab

Letter draft from the Qaraite community of Cairo to the Qaraite community of Damascus. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown. Regarding a marriage-related legal case that reached the Muslim courts and resulted in someone spending two months in prison. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter from an unknown man to a communal authority. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer is seeking help in a convoluted case involving marital trouble and serial evictions by his landlord. There is a lot of information about the dwelling and its location. At one point the writer closed the main door and opened a new door onto an entrance hall (or alley? dihlīz) where a group of Qaraites live, including ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baṣīr, and Wahba al-Zayyāt and his son ʿAbdallāh. The writer repeats several times that he vows that all he says is true. He also vowed to live in that house and already paid (or contracted to pay?) its rent for an entire year--possibly this vow was part of a settlement of a marital dispute. Verso: Another note in Judaeo-Arabic on the same case, but appears to be written from another person's perspective. The whole document merits further examination.

Legal document related to a divorce. Dated: Thursday 12 Tammuz 5537 AM, which is 1777 CE. Husband: Raḥamim Levi Ḥazzan b. Naḥum Levi Qayyim. Wife: Qamr bt. Seʿadya Levi Qayyim. The grounds for divorce: She is wicked and vulgar (לאנהא רשעה קלילת אלאדב). He claims, and his neighbors attest, that she does not speak to him or respect him but only insults him and curses his ancestors. This is not the way of respectable Jewish women, but rather the way of the women who are fājirāt, al-khārijāt ʿan ṭarīq al-ḥaqq. Because the court accepts this testimony, she will not receive the delayed marriage payment. On verso there are piyyutim.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Tammuz 1837 Seleucid = 932 Hijri, which is 1526 CE. It lays out the settlement of at least one marital dispute in great detail. The protagonists include Sulaymān b. Dā'ūd b. Hārūn al-Maghribī and his daughter [...] the wife of Isḥāq b. Sulaymān b. Yūsuf known as al-Ḥaqqān ("the enema giver"), and a host of further characters. Needs further examination.