Geniza Lab

Power of attorney from Yisrael b. Yosef Januni to Nahray b. Nissim to collect the debt owed by Menashshe b. David, Qayrawan, ca. 1055 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Mostly destroyed fragment of power of attorney given to Yaʿaqov ha-Sar b. Moshe to represent the daughters of the late Avraham b. Shelomo in connection with the deceased's estate. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

An appointment deed (power of attorney) from Alexandria from the Year 1074/5: A woman appoints a representative who would help her collect her property from her mother and sister. The woman had moved from Alexandria to the Maghreb and left some of her property with her mother and sister. Among those who signed the deed: Shela b. Mevasser, (Information from Frenkel). Written on a single rotulus containing several legal documents in the handwriting of a single scribe, including a trousseau document (1079 CE) and documents in settlement of a business partnership.

Levirate case in which a widow appoints an attorney to sue her brother-in-law with the demand either to marry or to free her. Dated: 20 Sivan 164. The dating clause is written clearly, but there's a key to interpreting it. Ashtor interpreted it incorrectly as (5)164 (AM) = 1404 (History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the Mamluks, vol. 3, p. 100 n. 2). Goitein corrected Ashtor's reading to 1204 because, as with many other 13th c documents in the geniza, you have to add 4800 to the stated date, so 4964 AM = 1204. To write 4964 in Hebrew, you would have to use a lot of characters, since the alef-bet only covers up until 400. So 4964 would be דתתקסד (that is, 4(000) + 400 + 400 + 100 + 60 + 4). But since in 1204, everyone knew the 4000 + 400 + 400 part, they just omitted it and wrote 164. So the document dates to 1204.

Power of attorney given by a woman to a representative of hers by a third person, confirmed by her husband. She was introduced to the court by ‘Umm Abu al-Faraj, a woman from Jerusalem. July, 1127. Witnessed by Abu al-Faraj Yeshu‘a ha-Levi b. Sedaqa ha-Zaqen al-Musta‘mil al-Ramli. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 3:497; Moshe Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations from the Cairo Geniza, Brill, 1976, 258; and from Goitein’s index cards) EMS Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi. AA

Power of attorney. Location: Fustat. Dated: 4976 AM, which is 1215/16 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. In which the daughter of Menaḥem ha-Talmid b. Menashshe appoints her husband Sulaymān/Shelomo b. ʿAmram ha-Levi for some purpose (not preserved). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Power of attorney. Sāliḥ b. Yūsuf, a Sicilian Jew, gives power of attorney to another Jew in a qadi court. Dating: ca. 1102 CE, as the same Ṣāliḥ also appears in T-S NS J95a. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and Khan.)

Fragment of a legal document in which Saadya b. Shelomo is appointed as a power of attorney by Abu Sa'd. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. Agency agreement. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. T-S 10J4.16: agreement granting Abū l-Riḍā Shelomo b. Mevorakh power of attorney to collect from the assets of a partnership between three parties – Abū Sa‘īd Ḥalfōn b. Nissim Abū Ḥusayn al-Tinnīsī (the senior partner), Abū l-Faḍl Amram b. Abū Kathīr Efrayim, and Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Menashshe ha-Levi al-Jubaylī – once the partnership has ended. The partnership lasted three years, from January 1115 to January 1118, and its purpose was to export valuable items from Upper Egypt for resale in Yemen. The principal who retained Shelomo is eligible to collect from the entire partnership, which includes funds which Shelomo himself had placed with the partnership, acting as both principal and agent. Most of the legal form of the power of attorney is missing. The verso contains a copy of a release, in which Shelomo absolves his erstwhile partners from any further obligations, except for part of the profits which they owe him. Shelomo releases Ḥalfon and ʿAmram separately from Yeshu‘a. Here, the word ṣuḥba (T-S 10J4.16, line 4) refers to a joint investment or partnership, not a deposit. The unrelated(?) document (T-S 10J4.17) is a release document from Sitt al-Sāda, daughter of the last Palestinian Gaon Evyatar ha-Kohen to Menashshe b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen. The nature of their relationship is unclear. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 196, 261-263)