Geniza Lab

Court record. Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 18 Adar 1409 Seleucid, which is February 1098 CE. Dealing with a lawsuit of Mevasser/Bishāra b. Ḥalfon against Shelomo b. Hillel, involving the proceeds of a partnership in oil sold in al-Mahdiyya, with addenda concerning the same matter in smaller script and in a cruder hand on verso. The top margin on recto mentions Bishāra and Abū l-ʿAlā, both from Aleppo, and Ibn Majjān Abū l-Surūr b. ʿAṭiyya. T-S 8J4.15 is a court record from Av of the same year, concerned with the dealings of the Aleppan trader Solomon b. Hillel. (Information from Goitein's hand list and CUDL.)

Inventory of books. Dating: Likely 13th century. Mentions a book in the handwriting of al-Shaykh Abū l-ʿIzz, whom Frenkel identifies as possibly identical with Abū l-ʿIzz the brother of Sitt Ghazāl, the wife of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu; possibly identical with the Abu l-ʿIzz who inherited books from Avraham ha-Ḥasid (T-S 20.44); and possibly identical with the physician Abū l-ʿIzz whose books were sold after his death (ENA 1290.16). (Information from CUDL and Allony et al.)

Two legal records in a court register. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Thursday, 14 Kislev 143[9] Seleucid, which is 1127/28 CE, under the reshut of [Maṣliaḥ] ha-Kohen Rosh Yeshivat [Gaon Yaʿaqov]. Both records are each signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya and Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo; one of them is also signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. One record contains an interesting testimony from Nissim b. Shemuel (ZL) who went out to the countryside as part of a group in order to supervise the production of water buffalo cheese. He gives a fairly detailed description of the cheese-making process (rennets and all). A Copt apprehended them and confiscated the shipment in the name of the state until the 'Rayyis' pulled some strings (faḍḍala ʿalaynā) and sent Abū l-Majd the brother of Abū Yūsuf(?) to liberate it. The purpose of the testimony may be to account for the number of moulds of cheese (650) and their whereabouts; it seems that 1 is in Bīr [...] and 8 are in Minya. Every mould has a seal on it. The second legal record does not appear to be related, but it still needs examination. The man giving the testimony about the cheese, Nissim b. Shemuel, also signed T-S 12.561 (dated 143[.] Seleucid) together with Ḥalfon b. Menashshe; at that time, his father was still alive. ASE

Court record in the hand of Ghalib ha-Kohen b. Moshe, August 1, 1038. In the court of the Jerusalem community in Fustat. Community members spread rumors about Elazar ha-Melamed b. Shemuʾel b. al-Maghribi, that he cursed Shelomo b. Yehuda ha-Gaon. But these members did not say it in public, in front of the court. Elazar ha-Melamed delayed the Torah reading in the synagogue to dispel the rumor. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 607-610, #331). VMR

Betrothal (erusin) document. Location: Cairo. Dated: 19 Sivan 1418 Seleucid, which is 1107 CE. Fiance: Yosef ha-Levi b. Berakhot. Fiancee: Sitt al-Kull bt. Yefet. Wedding to take place two years later. Early marriage payment: 10 dinars. Delayed marriage payment: 30 dinars. One half of the early marriage payment is given at the time of betrothal. Witnesses: Seʿadya b. Shelomo; Avraham b. Shabbetay; Ḥalfon b. Dā'ūd. (Information from Goitein's note card.)

Court record dealing with a disagreement about a delayed dowry payment to the divorced wife of al-Qaysarani. Ten dinars were supposed to be paid in monthly installments of 2/3 dinar, but only 3.5 dinars had been paid over the last 25 months. Names mentioned in the document: Natan b. Phineas; Sedaqa ha-Levi b. Shelomo; Moshe b. Saadya. Dated 1107 (Iyyar 1419-Adar 1420). (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Court record of acknowledgment of debt to be paid back in weekly installments. Drawn up in Fustat Tishri 1526/September-October 1214. (Information Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 388, 492)

Court record. Dated: 1408 Seleucid, which is 1096/97 CE. Of a dispute between Abū ʿImrān Moshe b. Moshe Ibn Majjān and Abū l-Faḍl Yosef b. Yoshiyya al-Dhahabi, which arose when the former claimed from the latter a complete bible codex he had bought from him some time before. The resolution is that Abū l-Faḍl gives the codex to Abū Sahl Menashshe to give to Abū ʿImrān (because he had taken a vow that he would never give it himself). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards). Join: Oded Zinger

Court record of a case in which a man appoints an agent to deliver a bill of divorce to his ex-wife, releasing her from any claims he might have against her. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Court record of the settlement of accounts and debts after the death of Moshe b. Ishaq, written by Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dated spring 1041. (Information from Bareket)

Court record of a case in which Yeshua b. Shemuel claims the sum of ten and a half dinars which his wife Mubaraka bat Shemuel al-Qabisi had given her brother Farah. Probably dated to the 11th century. This is one of two manuscripts given the same mark by error. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 183, 465)

Court record describing an inheritance dispute concerning two brothers and two sisters. One sister was married to the paternal uncle of the claimant, and after she and her husband died, each of their two daughters retained one thousand dinars from the estate and gave the rest to their maternal aunt. She then married a man with sons from a previous marriage to whom he allegedly owed money. He passed away before his wife, resulting in a long and complicated legal process. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:286-287) EMS 

Court record from 1015 concerning a woman in Ramla appointing a representative to sue her Damascene husband who had disappeared two years earlier without leaving her anything. She was prepared to renew their common life, or else demand a divorce, with all the payments involved, including the cost of maintenance for two years. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:198-9, 314, 375, 468) EMS

Court record dealing with a loan of one dinar that, according to Ya'ish ha-Kohen b. Avraham, was given by him to Yosef b. Avraham. Yosef denied this, whereupon Ya'ish was asked by the judge Yaʿaqov b. Yosef to provide evidence for his claim. Dated 1018. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 602). On bottom a partial dating according to the Hijri calendar, in Arabic script

Court record. Written by Hillel b. ʿEli. Dated: Thursday, 23 Kislev 1401 of the Seleucid Era (= December 1089 CE). On the day when Elʿazar b. Hillel ha-Kohen married Ḥusān b. Aharon the widow of the cantor Avraham b. Buṣayla, he was approached by the court to let his father's wife be sued. When her minor son Khalaf would come of age and inquire about his father's estate, Elʿazar declares that he had taken care of the boy, whose father and mother (i.e., Elʿazar's bride) were his relatives and accepted the demands of the court. Signed by ʿEli b. Yaḥyā ha-Kohen. (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Court record. Dated: Middle decade of Ṭevet 1417 Seleucid, which is December 1105 CE. Describing a married woman—Mudallala aka Sitt Baghdād—depositing part of her jewelry as collateral for a debt incurred by her brother, written on the reverse of the woman’s ketubba (marriage contract), as clearly stated: “The court entered the deposition of these objects on the back of her ketubba.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:113, 449; 4:430.) T-S 13J2.14 and T-S 10J28.14 appear to be two copies of the same document (Goitein). EMS

Court record concerning the posthumous settlement of the affairs of a merchant who had sold partnership goods from Tripoli, Lebanon, in the various 'houses of the wukala' in Fustat, and had died leaving behind him two sons, Tammuz 1405/July 1094.

Court record bearing the signature of judge Shelomo b. Yosef, late Head of the court of the Academy,' Fustat, Kislev 1405/December 1093 (date and day of the week do not seem to match).

Court record regulating the inheritance of the estate left behind by a Jewish merchant who drowned at sea near Alexandria. His estate was transferred to the Jewish court of Alexandria by the Sahib al-Mawarith (the Muslim judge in charge of estates). The handwriting is that of Amram b. Yiṣḥaq, the relative of Ḥalfon b. Nethanel, who was from Alexandria. (Information from Frenkel; Goitein sets the date as Tevet 4903/January 1143).

Court record concerning a gift made by a woman to her daughter of a house near the 'Street of the Chest Makers,' issued under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya (1142-1159) in Fustat, Elul 1462/August-September 1151.