Geniza Lab

Testimony in the hand of Shelomo, dated 1229, about the dissolution of a partnership.

Testimony about a certain Elhanan and a Muslim slave, and the refusal to accept a si'aya (work imposed on a slave for obtaining his freedom), witnessed in Aleppo, in the month of Tishri '[1]326'/1014-15.

Testimony concerning a tarika (inheritance) of two women recorded at the court of Avraham b. Ishaq, Ab 1389/July 1078, Fustat.

Legal document with testimony from Sitt bt. Yosef b. ‘Amram and her mother Jamila bt. Yaqub describing that Yosef (the former’s father and latter’s husband) left 50 dinars with Abu al-Bishr Azhar, whose heirs claim that he gave 157 silver dirhams to Yosef. The remaining amount of 12 and one-dinars is then paid out. The document is signed by Hayya al-Kohen b. Yeshua ha-Kohen and Avraham b. Aharon he-haver; dated Tammuz 1415 of the Seleucid era. EMS

Testimony in which a wife, a widow with three sons, releases her husband from from all obligations other than paying the delayed marriage gift and dowry and letting her live in his house for five years after his death as promised, and declares that her three sons would have no claims whatsoever against him and that her husband would not sue her sons, in Sanbutya/Sunbat, Adar 1427/February 1116.

Memorandum of testimony concerning the legacy of a certain Isma'il al-'Azazi al-Halabi, who died in Acre, written in Fustat, Kislev 1411/November 1099.

Legal deed, bill of sale of a female slave - the seller is Moshe b. Shemuel Nagid, Fustat, Nisan 1459/March-April 1148.

Deposition in which denunciation is alleged. Dated: Thursday, first decade of Tishrei 1581 Seleucid, which is September 1269 CE. Testimony of ʿAmram b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen that he had unwillingly written an acknowledgement of debt to Moshe ha-Kohen (known as Ibn Bashāra). Signed by Yehuda b. Sar Shalom ha-Kohen and Yoel b. Shela ha-Levi. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Legal document. Location: Alexandria. Dated: Last decade of Kislev 5004 AM, which is December 1243 CE. Certificate of the purity of 180 moulds of cheese shipped from Messina for Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ṣedaqa. Signed by Yehuda ha-Melammed b. Aharon ha-Rofe and Yosef b. Simḥa ha-Kohen. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Record of testimony of three witnesses on a quarrel in which Abu Ishaq b. Yahya al-Najib, a communal official, was involved, Tammuz 1461/June-July 1150.

Confirmation by witness of the divorce of Raisa b. Kathir, who wanted to marry Yosef. Written by Yefet ha-Hazan b. David. (information from Goitein's index cards) VMR

Fragmentary record of testimony, 1340/1028.

Yaḥyā b. Zekharya ha-Shofeṭ and Zura ha-Levi b. Avraham testify in a case of inheritance that Baqi al-Hamati received from Sulayman al-Qutaita certain sums which were first deposited in the court of Damascus. Written and signed by Avraham ha-Levi. Signed also by Gamliel b. Joshia. Dated 995. (Information from Mediterranean Society, p. 600 and from Goitein's index cards)

Testimony that Abu al-Rida known as al-Subki had gifted all his property in Alexandria to his wife, Sitt al-Zaman bat Yiṣḥaq. Dated May 1185 in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 359)

Statements by two Yemenite merchants about consignments shipped by Ibn Yiju. The first statement is by Madmun b. Salim and the second is by Avraham b. Fayyumi. The content of these statements should be compared with III, 12. The statements were written in India, probably around 1145.

Statements by two Yemenite merchants about consignments sent by Ibn Yiju from India and mostly lost. [India] Almost certainly 1145. (India Book III, 22)

Two repeated testimonies regarding a commercial dispute which took place in Alexandria. The dispute was first brought before the local court of Shela b. Mevasser. After he was unable to reach a decision, the case was forwarded to Fustat. The court record is written in the hand of Avraham b. Natan, the President of the Court of All Israel (Heb. Av beit Din shel kol Israel) and is dated around the year 1100. (Information from Frenkel)

Court record in the hand of David b. Daniʾel and Hillel b. Eli (draft). This is the testimony of Yefet b. Menashshe, acting as power of attorney for his wife Banat, daughter of Abu al-Rida. Abu al-Rida died in a shipwreck on his way from Mahdiyya to Spain, and has left two daughters. Banat claims her father’s share of what remains (700 dinars) from his partnership with Musfir b. Shemuel, but Musfir insists the two were not in partnership when Abu el-Rida died. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, pp. 667-669, #824, and CUDL). VMR. ENA 4010.31 and T-S 20.162 are from the same case.

Legal testimony. Location: Aden. Dating: Ca. summer 1131 CE. Concerns the controversy caused by a Persian Jew, the nephew of the exilarch in Baghdad, who came to Aden and opposed the invocation of the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon in the qaddish prayer. Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq supported Maṣliaḥ and was the only one willing to set the controversy down in writing; the other Jews of Aden were too afraid to do so. This document may be written in the hand of the North African trader Yosef Ibn ʿEzra, a partner of Ḥalfon. The Egyptian members of the congregation, by contrast, saw Maṣliaḥ as their authority. (Information from Goitein, The Yemenites, pp. 57–61, and Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter containing the testimony of Makhlūf, a respectable merchant, who had to flee from Alexandria before an oppressive government official, 'the plundering monk,' Abu Najah, and to hide in the western desert for years. He had arrived in Alexandria in the spring following Abu Najah's death, traveled to Ifrīqiya in the summer of the year 1130, and wrote the letter the following summer, that is, 1131. The writer was appointed as an overseer of the Sultan's ships. It is also an extraordinary document of estrangement between father and son. The son loved music, Italian wine and bad company, and, of course, was always in debt. All attempts of the father to correct him: presenting him to the qadi of Alexandria, taking him on a trip to Ifrīqiya, sending him to the countryside on administrative work, suggesting to him travels to Yemen and to Syria were of no avail. The young man of twenty-two was not a mere good-for-nothing. He was allergic to his father: 'as long as you are alive, I have bad luck. As soon as you are dead, I shall be successful.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 46, 119, 268, 277, 280, 316, 320, 482; II, 588, 359; III, 246, 243, 249.) There is also the beginning of a draft of a letter in Arabic script on verso.