Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter fragment to a distinguished person named Abū l-Barakāt b. [...], titled Sar Menuḥa and Sar Shalom. Contains profuse well-wishes for the addressee's recovery from his illness (r5–12), and concerns a question about a bill of divorce (between lines 13 and 14). The letter mentions the town of Ṣahrajt (at the top) and Yosef b. Azhar (at the bottom). Verso: Letter fragment. In Hebrew, with two lines in Arabic script at the bottom. The handwriting is slightly different from that on recto. Probably 11th or 12th century. (Information from CUDL.) EMS. VMR. ASE.

Letter addressed to Abu al-Faraj, son of Daniel the teacher, in the “habs Bunan” neighborhood. The writer describes that the wife of his son is asking for a divorce, framed as the result of her husband’s mistreatment; also mentions Abu ‘Ali. (Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 140) EMS

Letter from a file of Avraham Maimonides' court. NH Recto: Letter from a divorcee, the wife of Manṣūr, to the Nagid, asking him to intervene because her ex-husband has taken their child, and to forbid her ex-husband to remarry before he has paid the dues owed to her from her marriage contract. Verso: Postscript or possibly an addendum written while forwarding the letter, in a different hand, mainly in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)

Letter with a legal purpose. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. From an unidentified sender to a certain parnas, trustee of the court. The sender urgently asks the addressee to send for the merchants Yaʿaqov known as Ibn al-Suṭūḥ from Tripoli (Libya) and his traveling companion Yaʿaqov b. Zikrī al-Nafūsī who are soon to depart for Yemen. One of them has a bill of divorce with him that must be delivered before he travels. (Information from Goitein's notes and Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Conditional bill of divorce. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: Av 1480 Seleucid, which is 1169 CE. The trader Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet gives this conditional divorce to his wife before setting out on a journey to Yemen. Signed by: Mevorakh b. Natan and Shemuel b. Seʿadya. See also T-S 12.585 recto and verso. (Information in part from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:192, 467; Amir Ashur and Ben Outhwaite, “Between Egypt and Yemen in the Cairo Genizah,” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, Vol. 5 (2014), 213.) EMS.

Legal document. Dated: Tuesday, 13 Tishrei 1564 Seleucid, which is 1252 CE. Signed by Efrayim b. Shemuel the teacher. Stating that Nissim b. Sar Shalom ha-Levi, from Damascus but living in Egypt, had been found guilty of insulting, cursing and beating his wife Sutayt bat Ṭoviyya and was put under pressure to divorce her, but following his promise to reform (after the initial lines of the geṭ had already been written on verso) the divorce was not completed. However, should the testimony of one man, Muḥriz b. Ṭahor ha-Levi the cantor, be recanted, it would on its own be sufficient to prove him guilty, and he will have to divorce her and pay her the 70 dinars due from the marriage contract. One specified person is appointed to be an efficient witness against him in case of his misbehaviour. (Information from Goitein's notes and CUDL.)

Verso: Bill of divorce. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1564 Seleucid, which is 1252/53 CE. Husband: Nissim b. Sar Shalom ha-Levi of Damascus, the same husband from recto. This document was not completed.

Letter addressed to Sitt Ghazāl, in Fustat. In Arabic script. The writer reports on his bad fortune since parting from the addressee(s) ("we went out naked and hungry. . . and I had no resort. . . and I saw no alternative to traveling"). He visited Sālim, who had divorced his wife who had borne him a daughter, and who did not give her even a little bit of support. The rest of the letter should be legible with effort. Complete; 20 lines on recto, 12 lines on verso, plus address. Information from Goitein's note card.

Settlement made before the divorce between Abu al-Faraj b. Abu Ishaq and 'Alam bint Abu Ishaq al-Hazzan. Abu al-Faraj renounces his rights to 3/5 of a mill in his possession and all his furniture, clothing and books in favor of his wife, 'Alam bint Abu Ishaq al-Hazzan, in order to be permitted to divorce her. Dated Sivan 1514/ May 1203. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 485)

Segment of a letter from a woman in the process of divorcing her husband to her 'lawyer'.

Court order forcing a husband, by threat of excommunication, to write a bill of divorce for his wife and not run away, leaving her 'a widow in his lifetime.' Written in Fustat ca. 1240. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 195, 468)

Shelomo b. Avraham divorces Yuman (?) the daughter of Avraham. Signed by Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq and Hillel b. Eli. Dated Kislev,1391/October 1079. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Divorce document of Sitt al-Fakhr bat Berakhot (husband's name not preserved). Signed by Moshe b. Sadoq and Moshe b. Yehuda. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal query in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi regarding a man who married a widow, then found in her a "hidden defect" from which he contracted an illness. He is a poor man without even enough money for food and has no source of livelihood except public charity. He is in bad straits because whenever he demands a divorce, she insists on receiving her ketubba payment in full. Does the law permit him to pay it in installments? He insists that he is unable to pay one lump sum because of his illness and poverty. On verso there is a fragment of a page of piyyutim in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. ASE.

Bill of divorce (geṭ). Location: Fustat. Dated: 144[.] Seleucid, which is 1128–38 CE. Husband: Yosef [b. ʿEli]. Wife: [Sitt] al-Jamīʿ bt. Shelomo. (They may actually only be betrothed and not married; T-S 8J17.9 fol. 2v, from 1132 CE, is their betrothal contract.) Signed by: Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. On verso the documentation that she received the geṭ. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) ASE

Divorce contract of Zechariah b. X and the daughter of al-Ma'ali. Signed by Natan b. Shemuel and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated Sivan 1443/ June 1132. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Divorce contract between Shabbetay b. Mamal (Mu'ammal?) from Ascalon, Palestine and Sittut b. Yefet from Alexandria, Egypt. Fustat. Dated 1535/ 1223-24. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 262, 485)

Probably a fragment of a get (bill of divorce) for a certain Yaḥyā.

Legal document. Testifies that a certain woman "has never received a bill of divorce." Mentions Munajjā b. Masʿūd and Abū Saʿīd the khādim, both of whom may have died. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fragment of a divorce contract.