Geniza Lab

Most of a legal query about Reuven who sold to Shimʿon a copy of the Halakhot of a certain Rav Yiṣḥaq but the book was later found to be defective, but Reuven hadn't known that it was defective.

Recto: Long query addressed in 1058 to the Gaon of Jerusalem by Eli b. Amram, the head of the Palestinians in Fustat. (Or rather, this may be the partnership contract that is the subject of the legal queries/responsa edited in Gil, Palestine #395, #396. Another copy of the same contract is T-S 20.79.) The note describes a legal matter concerning a Jewish Egyptian merchant who entrusted a business friend returning to his native Sicily with a large shipment of goods, including spices and drugs. The agent died while at sea, and the shipment ended up in Tripoli (Libya?) instead of Sicily. The Jewish authorities in Tripoli seized the goods in order to protect the rights of the deceased agent’s widow and daughter. The Egyptian merchant wanted his goods returned to his possession, but the authorities in Tripoli refused unless he pursued a full-fledged lawsuit against the representatives of the heirs in Sicily. The case went to the rabbinical court in Cairo and then the high court in Jerusalem. Verso: Dirge. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:236, 395-5, 574, 613; CUDL; EMS; and Moshe Yagur, who also identified the join.

Rough draft of a question probably sent to a Gaon in Palestine.

Draft of a letter that was not sent. A question that was addressed to Maimonides about remission of debts. (Information from Goitein, Tarbiz, 28, 1959: 195-196). VMR

Legal query (in a different hand than recto) concerning the case of a widow holding a statement of trustworthiness, who had declared that she possessed none of her husband's possessions. She refused to let the elders into her house as she had been advised, but later opened the door after all. However, the inventory was not taken away. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 255, and from Goitein's index cards.) NB: This used to be called T-S 10J21.16 on PGP.

Legal query, draft, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Regarding the money left by a dead husband. In the margin: "As for the 70 dinars that my brother mentioned, it is the last of the sale that we made (or: from the last sale that we made). . . and my husband collected it and went out and died." See PGP 2959

Letter from an unknown writer, in Alexandria, to the judge Yiṣḥaq Aripol, in Fustat/Cairo. The writer's name and signature appear, but are very faded. Written in Hebrew. Dated: 5457 AM (שנת תבנה), which is 1696/97 CE. The purpose of the letter is to forward a legal query that the writer received from Livorno, which is presumably identical with the Hebrew text in a different hand written on the inner side of the fold.

Entry in court notebook (#58). Legal query. Regarding a partnership in which one party has contributed all the capital and in which the ṣāḥib al-māl does not render an account to the other. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal queries regarding inheritance rendered in Hebrew verse.