Geniza Lab

Account for Nisan and Iyyar 1494 sel. ca. 1183. The revenue from only eleven apartments and compounds of the qodesh for two months is listed in the first part of this document. The total is 352.5 dirhams. For some reason, Abu'l-Bayan collected the rent from only half of the usual number of houses. There follows a list of expenditures, including the usual items, which total 125.75 dirhams. There is also a list of payments received by the qodesh from Abu'l-Bayan (some of them through the beadle, Makhfuz). (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 337-338 #84). The scribe is Shmuel b. Sa'adya Halevi (Date: 1163-1204)

Account for Elul 1494 and Tishri 1495 sel. ca. 1183. This document contains the last part of the expenditures for Elul. Then additional revenue from rent for the month of Tishri is listed. Here we have 24 items, totaling 174.5 dirhams. Afterwards, we find the usual additional expenditures for the same month, among them some sums paid in advance for the following one, Marheshwan. The accounting contains relatively high sums spent for making travel arrangements for the widow of the Nasi. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 347 #88). (Written by Shmuel b. Sa'adya Halevi. AA)

Account for Nisan and Iyyar 1493 sel. ca. 1182. This account deals with another part of the qodesh estates and the names of the 12 apartments and compounds in it differ from the ones in the previous accounts. The total revenue from these apartments, for two months, is 372.25 dirhams. There are two different categories of expenditures; a) the usual items whose purpose is specified, and b) major sums deposited with the parnas himself, and a certain Abu'l-Makhasin, apparently the beadle of the Synagogue of the Babylonians. Whereas the revenue total accords with the sum of the items listed, there is no way to check the total of the expenditures; apparently only some of the operations are noted on this sheet. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 332 #82). Written by Shmuel b. Sa'adya Halevi (Date: 1163-1204). AA

Statement about money due of a Parnas, ca. 1151. The parnas Abu Sa'd b. Hatim was in charge of the collection of rent from the "Estate of the Jerusalemites." The monthly sum was 118 dir. He also was in charge of the collection from another place, whose name is lost, the monthly sum there being 110 dir. The document seems to be a hawala from this parnas to Abu'l-Khayr al-parnas, (known as al-Sayrafi, the banker); three members of the court signed it, apparently after the sum was cashed in. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 264 #51)

Statement about the debt of a Parnas, ca. 1151. Written on the verso of the previous statement, apparently as part of a current recording of the pecuniary rights and obligations of the same parnas as regards the qodesh, this statement confirms a debt owed to him by the latter. The upper part is a confirmation of 209.75 dir. due him for repairs in the Estate of the Jerusalemites, and 230 dir. for a banker's note which he presented. The other part is a declaraion by another elder, Yosef, testifying that the sum mentioned as having been spent for repairs is correct, except for 13 dir. that were spent on removal of garbage. Both parts are duly signed by members of the court. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 265 #52)

Deed of emancipation. Avraham b. Aharon frees his slave Nasiyya ('Youth') on Friday, October 8, 1176, Cairo. VMR Written by Mevotakh b. Natan. AA

Deed of manumission in which three daughters emancipate a female slave, Wafa, from Jan. 20, 1181. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:436; 2:449) EMS. Written by Mevorakh b. Natan. AA

Letter fragment in the hand of Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi Nisaburi about his cost in an affair concerning Abu Sa‘id Makhlūf al-Nafusi. (Information from Goitein's index cards; and Mediterranean Society, 4:413.) EMS. The writer also wants more bibles sent and warns him of any more business with Makhlūf. He mentions further matters regarding Abu l-Faraj and Abū Tahir, and sends greeting to a number of people, including Abu Sahl, Abu l-Rida and Abū l-ʿAla who are admonished for not writing for a long time. (Information from CUDL.) He also describes a prolonged illness (60 days) this winter and asks Abū l-Munā to try to obtain a drug called Abū Zīdān for him; the physicians tell him there is no alternative. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter from Yusuf b. al-Lukhtūsh, probably from Granada, to Ḥalfon, after leaving Granada. After October 1138. The writer writes about his willingness to see Ḥalfon again and to receive a letter from him and mentions some business matters with Yehuda b. Ghiyat. (Information from Goitein and Friedman "Ḥalfon the Traveling Merchant Scholar (India Book 4), pp: 210-213) VMR Probably Granada; After October 1138

Letter segment from Avraham b. Saadya the Hebronite, Bilbays, to Shelomo b. Shelah, probably in Fustat, beginning of the twelfth century.

Letter from Avraham b. Seʿadya he-Ḥaver the Hebronite to (his son-in-law?) Moshe b. Ghulayb in Cairo. Dating: beginning of the twelfth century. Avraham orders the addressee to look after the children so that they don't hurt themselves on the staircases. Mentions Abū l-Surūr and Moshe ha-Kohen, his son Bayān, his sister Sitt al-[...] and Umm Abū l-Bayān. (Information from CUDL and Goitein, Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 74.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Letter from Yehuda ha-Levi to Ḥalfon b. Netanel concerning the ransom of a captive woman in Toledo, Spain. The amount of money that is needed is 32 2/3 dinars, after Yehuda ha-Levi gave 2/3 dinars (and the total amount that was common for captives is 33 1/3). Yehuda ha-Levi asks Ḥalfon to welcome the woman's father, that came to Lucena, in order to collect the money with Ḥalfon. The writer mentions an evil woman that refuses to send the woman free. The woman is probably the queen Dunya Urraca, queen of Toledo between 1109-1126. (Information from Goitein, "Autographs of Yehuda ha-Levi," Tarbiz 25 (1956), pp. 393-412). VMR

Prenuptial agreement in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. (Ashur, "Engagement and Betrothal documents", 42, no.144). VMR

Letter addressed to Abu al-Fakhr al-Saadya from Zechariah b. Hayyim in Palermo (‘al-madina’) concerning commercial matters; dated September 1172. (S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Friedman, India Book, 97, 99) EMS

Letter from Mevorakh b. Natan ha-haver containing congratulations to Passover for Shelomo ha-Rofe and "the sons of the generous Yeshua" (Hebrew: "Benei Yeshua Ha-Nadiv"). Verso: The sons contributed to the Holy City, and are congratulated at their father’s life span (“old age”). (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR and EMS

Letter written by Perahya b. Yosef, the learned nephew of the India trader Avraham Ibn Yiju, which begins with bible verses, including Job 23:28. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:194, 562) EMS

Letter in which relatives of the writer invited him to stay with them in a Christian land but he appears to have declined. Written from Benha, Lower Egypt, on the writer's way to Alexandria. The writer describes how his clothing was stolen on his travels. Dated ca. twelfth century. (Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:154, 396). EMS

Letter, beautifully written, by a woman married for 15 years addressed to Masliah, the head of the Jewish community in Egypt (1127-1138), complaining about neglect and asking him to intervene with her husband to grant her divorce and payment of her dues. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 186 and CUDL)

Request from Masliah b. Gaon to let R. Abu al-Rasa b. Rabana Yehuda ha-Ḥaver, to sing in the synagogue of the Palestinians (אלשאמיין), because of: a.) his noble descent by his father; b.) he's blind; and c.) he's poor. (Information from Goitein's index card). EMS and VMR

Legal document. Court record. Location: Fustat. Dated: 17 July 1162. This document is an incomplete record of proceedings of the court of Nathaniel ha-Levi (Gaon b. Moses the sixth) concerning a silk trading partnership between Samuel b. Solomon and (Abū) Manṣūr Eleazar b. Isaac al-Dimashqī. Samuel attests to the existence of a partnership agreement, which stipulated that profits were to be split 1/3 to 2/3, the bulk going to Eleazar. This roughly corresponded with their investment in the partnership capital, Samuel bringing 55 dinars and Eleazar bringing 95. Each of the partners has the right of disposal of partnership assets. The funds are invested with local workers in various towns in the Nile Delta (Sammanūd and al-Maḥalla) as well as in longer-distance investments (such as in Tyre). The record does not discuss any dispute between the partners, but is instead largely concerned with the details of sales, investments, and profits of the partnership. Each attests to transactions and deposits; apparently, the partners did not trust one another "as two proper witnesses", and they required direct testimony of the partnership accounting. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 190)