Geniza Lab

Responsa in Avraham Ibn Yiju's hand: legitimacy of a manumitted female slave's marriage and status of her children, Yemen, ca. 1140. See also PGPID 1347.

Deed of manumission of a slave. Only the bottom left corner of the document is preserved (or perhaps the entire left half of a very short document).The owner is named Mevasser b. Yefet. There are no details about the freedperson. Signed: Tamīm b. Shemuel ha-Kohen; Seʿadya b. Khalfān.

Court record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: Ṭevet 1438 Seleucid, which is 1126/27 CE. A woman (Ḥasana bt. Menashshe ha-Kohen the wife of Elʿazar b. Mevorakh ha-Kohen) had sued her brother (the banker Abū l-Ḥasan Shelomo b. Menashshe ha-Kohen) in the Muslim courts after she learned that the female slave (Iftikhār) she had purchased from him (for 17 dinars) had "defects" (ʿuyūb) which made her want to return her. They settled the matter when her brother agreed to reimburse 1.25 dinars of the purchase price. She has now received the settlement money, and she releases her brother from all subsequent claims against him in this matter. (Information in part from Craig Perry via FGP.)

Legal document. Scribe: Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid (based on handwriting). Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 2[7] Kislev 1405 Seleucid, which is 1093 CE. ʿEli b. Yefet Ibn al-Wāsiṭī was summoned to the court of David b. Daniel b. ʿAzarya ha-Nasi (served 1082–94) to clarify the legal status of his daughter Milāḥ. ʿEli, who traveled between Fustat and Ashqelon, affirms that he bought a Nubian female slave named אכתרי (Aktharī? Ukthurī? Akthirī? Ikhtarī?) along with her daughter, in Ashqelon, for domestic service. After the daughter died, ʿEli freed the Nubian woman and married her, under the supervision of the Gaon Eliyya ha-Kohen (who served 1062–83). She subsequently gave birth to Milāḥ, who has now reached puberty. There was concern in Fustat that Milāḥ was actually identical with the original daughter whom ʿEli purchased and who died. ʿEli presents two witnesses from Ashqelon who confirm that the woman had no child when she married ʿEli. They were then asked about the interval of time between the marriage and the birth of Milāḥ, but they did not know. In any case, because Milāḥ was clearly born after the manumission of her mother, the court here acknowledges her as a legitimate Jew and grants her permission to marry whomever she pleases. This is one of the later documents known from David b. Daniel's tenure, and it is one of the handful of documents in which he is titled "Exilarch" (Rosh ha-Gola), none of which are earlier than 1092 CE. NB: T-S Misc.27.4.29 + T-S Misc.27.4.23 consists of two legal documents, both in the hand of Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid, which have been glued together at 180 degrees to each other. (Information from Friedman, Jewish Polygyny, 314–19.) It seems that T-S AS 158.365 was originally connected to the main part of T-S Misc.27.4.29, or at least it relates to the same case; see separate record (PGPID 8366).

Small fragment of a legal deed concerning sale of a slave girl. Another fragment with piyyut is attached to it

Document that tells the story of Aharon ha-Levi and Ḥalfon, who collected money on behalf of the Rambam (Maimonides) for ransom of captives. They sent the Rambam a list of names and amounts of money which people agreed to pay, from the Jewish community in al-Mahalla. One of the community members sold his female slave and gave nine dinars of the payment to the Rambam's messenger. On the other side Moses Maimonides declares that he received the money. Av-Elul 1170. (Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, 316-318) VMR

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100–38). Nafisa, the daughter of Kathir, the widow of Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen, sells the female slave Tawfiq, a minor, to the merchant Abu al-Barakat b. Sha'ya for the considerable sum of 18 and three/fourths dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 331, 501)

Acknowledgment that Moshe b. Mevasser bought a slave girl

Legal document in the form of a letter addressed to the Gaon (Maṣliaḥ?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Signed by Yefet b. Shelomo and Elʿazar b. [...]. The bearer of the letter is Yosef b. Berakhot ha-Levi. He and his brother Hillel ha-Levi had shown up to the local court escorted by a messenger of the qāḍī, since Yosef had sued his brother Hillel in the Muslim courts, and Hillel was under house arrest (tarsīm). The dispute is over a female slave. Hillel claims that he purchased her from Yosef for 21.5 dinars 'without mushāwara.' However, Yosef claims that he sold her only 'with mushāwara,' and moreover, he only received 14 dinars. Yosef was asked why he sued his brother in the Muslim courts, and he said that he demanded from Hillel multiple times that he return the female slave and take his 14 dinars back. But Hillel refused, and Yosef became angry and took an oath to sue him in the Muslim courts. What happened next is harder to understand, and the document needs further examination. It seems they put the female slave and the 14 dinars in escrow for the time being. Hillel brought two witnesses 'who live with them in אלב[..."—"al-balad" would be the most common word, but the next letter doesn't look like a ל; maybe al-Bahnasā. The brothers, equipped with a letter each, are now coming to the capital for their suit to be resolved. Joins: Oded Zinger and Craig Perry. Description: ASE.

Legal document in which Abu al-Baqa gives to his married son Mukaram the rights to one half of the black female slave named Musk he had inherited from his deceased wife.

Bill of sale for a Nubian female slave. Dating: 1204–38 CE. THe seller and the buyer are named Hiba and Mevasser. On verso there is another legal document that mentions 'the house of Eliyyahu the Judge.

Deed of manumission of a female slave. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Monday, 5 Kislev 14[0]8 Seleucid, which is 1096 CE (if indeed there is no decade digit in the missing lefthand margin). The owner's name is Menashshe b. Yaʿaqov. The slave's name starts with תוכ or תומ. Witnesses: Avraham b. ʿAmram and Aharon b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. On verso there is an attestation that she received it before witnesses (but this attestation is not itself signed). There are also several more lines of unidentified Hebrew script on verso. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 547 and from Goitein's index cards).