Geniza Lab

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.)

(I) Document concerning claims on trousseau items between Tahir b. Abu Sa'd and his wife Fard bat Abu Isaac. (II) Payment of a debt of five dinars less twelve dirhems in monthly installments. Khalaf al-Mutasawwiq b. Abu al-Surur owes Abu al-Muna b. Barakat; October 3, 1160. (III) Legal document concerning the partnership of a house. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Account register of Yiṣḥaq b. Yeḥiel, a dealer in carpets (tappeti = טפיטי, טאפיטי) as well as numerous other luxury commodities (nuts, drugs/perfumes, sugar from Crete, books, and more). In Hebrew, with many words in Judaeo-Italian and several phrases in Yiddish. Notably, there does not appear to be any Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Probably Fustat/Cairo (Miṣrayim). 3 bifolia. Dated: spring of 5310 AM, which is 1550 CE. Currencies: peraḥim, muayyadi (medin). The merchant makes purchases from various craftsmen (חרשים) in places like Venice, קאפרה, and אכיין. Very rich with details on 16th-century trans-Mediterranean trade, networks of merchants, demand for specific books, and more. The identification of the merchant's name is based on a letter that he sent earlier in the year 5310 AM (fall of 1549 CE): Moss. IIIa,9 + T-S AS 212.54–55 + T-S AS 214.40. Information in part from Avraham David's publications.

Court record, or deposition of witnesses. Written on cloth by Avraham ben Yiju. Location: India, perhaps Mangalore. Dating: 1132–39 or 1145–49 CE, based on ben Yiju's years in India. The record itself is almost completely effaced. It notes that a trader presented a court record/ruling (maʿase) which had been drawn up in Bharuch (Broach), the well-known port city in northwest India. On verso there are two medical prescriptions in Arabic script. (Information from Goitein and Friedman.)

One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 6 Nisan 4693 AM, which is 933 CE. The first betrothal recorded is between Shemuel b. Avraham the Persian and Khayriyya bt. ʿEzra; the mohar was fixed at 50 gold pieces. At the time of betrothal Samuel gave her 3 good gold pieces, and he will add 17 gold pieces at the time of marriage, and a further 30 in future. This offer was accepted by Manṣūr b. Isaac, the guardian of Khayriyya. Witnessed by Muʿammar b. Yaʿaqov, Benyamin […], Aharon b. R. […], […] b. Shaʾul, Yaʿaqov b. Maymūn, and Avraham ha-Shofet. The second record regards the betrothal of […] b. Yosef with Thanā bt. Furayj ha-Kohen, witnessed by Yaʿaqov b. Natan and Aharon b. ʿEli. (Information from CUDL.)

Court record of a case in which an orphan girl wishing to dispose of a piece of property that was held in trust by the court had to have her action confirmed by the man to whom she was betrothEd. Drawn up in Fustat, Tammuz 1393/June 1082. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 89, 445)

Record of a marriage contract mentioning a marriage gift of 5 dinars and payment of 10 dinars at termination of the marriage. The words of the first and third lines are written in very large letters. Drafted in Fustat ca. 1100-1138. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 397)

Court record fragment of the transfer of part of a house as a gift from a mother to her daughter. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 331, and from Goitein's index cards)

Court record fragment of the sale of a European slave by a mother to her son. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 331, and Goitein's index cards)

Accounts, mentioning houses, sums of money in dirhams and names such as [...] b. Sulaymān and Ibn Bashāra. According to Bareket it is a register of received rent for houses owned by the Heqdesh. (Information from CUDL)

The Case of the Great/Fat Eunuch: five-part join of a court record from Fustat in the hand of Yefet b. David dealing with a case of inheritance totaling 12,000 dinars and the state's attempt to acquire part of it (via the great/fat eunuch). Names: David b. Aharon ha-Levi, Yiṣḥaq b. Muʾammal, Yaʿaqov b. Avraham (among others). (Information from Oded Zinger and E. Bareket, Shafrir Misrayim, p. 240.)

Accounts in Hebrew and Ladino on dated alphanumerically on 1v and 7v as 5600AM (התר) which is 1839/1840CE. There is a large title on 1r possibly indicating that all 14 folios of this fragment, or at least this page, served as a "פנקס הכנסה והוצאה" (a register of income and expenses). In certain places the lists are organized by the weekly parsha readings of the liturgical calendar and then in other contexts the full calendar months are noted instead. On 1v there is a note in Judaeo-Spanish mentioning payment to a communal gabbay "me debe mi senyor padre 155 grushes a el anyo ke me izo de akhnasa [collection?] a el gabbay." The parsha reading system of recordkeeping is common across communal registers from earlier in the nineteenth century and in the eighteenth century. The register fragment is a rich source for tracing surnames, such as Beniste (1r), Cesana (1r, 2r), Franko (2r), Kaballero (2v), and others. A list of calculations on 7v has a peculiar entry "baqshīsh del kalsado de Kandia" ("a payment from the drunkard from Candia"). See Kohen and Kohen-Gordon's dictionary entry of Ladino for "kalsado". In the later folios, the content shifts away from entries about people's payments to inventory lists of goods such as: "asucar/sugar", "limon/lemon," portuqal/orange," "miliḥ/salt" (10v).Taken together, this register fragment represents one of the largest from the nineteenth century and holds a vast array data for further examination. MCD.

Verso: draft of a register of shipments of goods by Barhun b. Musa al-Tahirti. Around 1050. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #353) VMR

Three court records dealing with the same conflict over bay windows of two confronting houses which were touching. Dated: Tuesday, last decade of Shevaṭ, 1419 Sel. (February 1108). When both houses fell into disrepair and, after many years, one of them was rebuilt, witnesses testify that the alcove of the original house had protruded from the wall by about one cubit. Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya. Written by Hillel b. Eli. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 61-62, where he mistakenly cites this as T-S Misc.24.5, for which see PGPID 35229 and Med. Soc. I p. 110. We have retained all index cards and both transcriptions under both PGPIDs.)

Court record of three sessions concerning the same case dealing with two merchants, Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Saadya and Saadya b. Ishaq. Shelomo had sued Saadya for eight dinars, but when Saadya failed to appear for the final hearing, he was informed that if he did not attend the court session the following week, he would have to pay a fine of five dinars. According to the third record he did appear and paid the eight dinars. Written in Fustat. Dated Adar-Iyar 1410/ March-May 1099. The second record is in the hand of Avraham b. Shemaʿya. The first and third were written by Hillel b. Eli. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 110 at n. 31, where he mistakenly cites this as T-S Misc.24.137.1, for which see PGPID 4209; this shelfmark is cited in Med. Soc. II, p. 573 n. 17, but Goitein's summary must refer to a different, still-unidentified shelfmark. We have retained all index cards and both transcriptions under both PGPIDs.)

Court record from the court of Shemarya b. Elhanan. Around 1000. A claim by Avraham b. Sa’da against his brother Tabian, regarding trades of small pearls. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #229) VMR

Court record wherein it is stipulated that a husband who travels to the Rif is required to stay home for two weeks and is not permitted to absent himself for more than a month, during which he has to pay his wife her expenses every week. If he fails to do so, he has to deliver to her the final marriage gift immediately and in full (that is, divorce her). She promises to fulfill her duties in order to avoid divorce. The right side of the document is broken off and it is impossible to determine the extent of the document lost. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 190)

Court register, fragment. Upper left corner of a legal record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: 1127–39, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Naḥman ha-Kohen sues his paternal uncle Yosef b. Moshe ha-Kohen concerning the estate of Yosef's brother Avraham b. Moshe ha-Kohen, who died in Yemen and had assets in both Yemen and Egypt. Information from Goitein notes linked below.

Legal document. Court record. Dating: Iyyar 1410 (May 1099). Signed by Nissim b. Nahray, the judge Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and Hillel b. ʿEli. The recto and the beginning of the first column of the verso concern a partnership between Yaḥyā ha-Levi and Abū ʿAli Yefet b. Avraham involving trading goods and supplying metal to the mint. Profits between the partners are to be divided evenly. Column 2 of the recto describes a dispute between the two partners, the testimony of which is notarized by the judges in Verso, column 1. Verso, column 2, concerns a separate lawsuit, in which Yefet b. Avraham is a litigant and the matter is minting. Here, ʿAmram b. ʿEzra, identified elsewhere as “a banker”, sues Yefet for ten dinars. The two had a number of business ventures in common, including some which were defined as partnerships (mu‘āmalāt). ʿAmram disagrees with the reckoning performed by Yefet. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 268)

Court record mentioning Yehuda ha-zaqen, Ḥalfon ha-zaqen, Avraham ha-zaqen, Meshullam, and Abu Yaqub. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 602) EMS