Geniza Lab

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Legal fragment. Mentions Mevasser; Ibn al-ʿAni; Shemarya ha-Kohen.

Ketubba fragment (right lower corner). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Groom: Yefet ha-Zaqen b. [...] ba-Ḥavura. Witnesses: Peraḥya b. Araḥ; Yefet b. Ṣadaqa. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Legal deed. On parchment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In which Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Tinnīsī (aka Yefet b. Shemarya) appoints Makārim b. Shelomo b. Yeshuʿa ha-Ḥaver known as Ibn al-Sulamī as his agent to claim what the late Ṣāfī b. Yakhin (see T-S NS 224.40 + T-S NS 184.67) had willed him and which was deposited with [...]. The name of this person was vigorously erased, and the lower part of the document was crossed out with diagonal strokes. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Menashshe to the Gaon Maṣliaḥ b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Small fragment. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter of condolence from Ḥalfon b. Menashshe to his brother-in-law Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Hilāl (=ʿEli b. Hillel) al-Ḥazzan al-Baghdādī. Headed by 'בשמ' רחמ and four lines of biblical quotations. Halfon reports that Sitt al-Gharb was very sick for 13 days and died on Wednesday, the 17th of [...] and was buried on Thursday. (Information in part from CUDL.) Join: Oded Zinger. NB: Goitein's index card does not seem to belong here.

Long vertical strip from the top of a ketuba written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi, from 1130, under the jurisdiction of Masliah Gaon. The groom is Yehuda ha-rofe and the bride Sitt al-Nas. AA

A letter to Halfon (Khalaf) b. Menasse from his brother, Yefet. Image not available (data by Oded Zinger FGP)

Legal document, שטר פצוי (indemnity), in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The principals are Shemuʾel and Elʿazar. (Information from CUDL)

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Involves Abū l-Faḍl b. Abū Kathīr b. ʿImrān. There is a dead man, a will, and details of court procedure (examining prior documents, comparing them, and checking the witnesses—one of whom is Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver). Several phrases are crossed out or corrected.

Recto: Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (Date: 1100-1138). Fragment (upper left corner). Probably an acknowledgment of a debt. Abū l-Khayr b. Siman Ṭov owes 19.5 dinars to Abū l-Ḥasan b. Yeshuʿa. Verso: Legal note in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Concerning a guarantee (ḍamān darak) by a father for his divorced daughter, for payments of 12 (probably dirhams) each month until her infant boy is weaned. Two names, Yosi b. Musallam and Ṣedaqa b. Manṣūr al-Malījī, are mentioned, but it is not clear which of them is the father. Underneath there are two or three more names, maybe unrelated. (Information from Goitein's index cards; Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 270, 487)

Legal notes in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (Date: 1100-1138). Partnership record. Seʿadya b. Menashshe ha-Kohen has inherited funds from his father, and places 26 dinars with his maternal uncle Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Efrayim, who will travel with the funds and remit 11/24 of the profit to Seʿadya’s mother. Avraham’s report of partnership profits is not notarized. The only condition is that Avraham may not invest or lend out the funds to anyone except someone called “Barhun”. Losses are to be split evenly; as the active partner, Avraham is entitled to a larger share of the profits than that for which he would be liable in terms of losses, per Maimonidean criteria (even though the difference between Avraham’s share in the profit and his share in the loss is only 1/24 of the total profit). Per Maimonides, the partners have the flexibility to create such a profit and loss sharing agreement only if they have multiple concurrent business relationships; otherwise the percentage of profits allocated to the active partner must exceed the percentage of losses by at least 1/6 of the total profit, in which case Avraham would have been allocated no less than 2/3 of the profit (since he is to share losses equally with Seʿadya). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 102)

Letter in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (Date: 1100-1138). In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender has sent the two documents (kitābayn) concerning the consignment of musk as well as the document attesting that Abū l-Barakāt owes 250 dinars, all with the orphan (al-yetom) who is with him. The sender asks for money relating to a business arrangement, referring to a promise made by the addressee earlier. The letter concludes with the motto ישע רב, ‘a great salvation’. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter fragment from Ḥalfon b. Menashshe's wife, in Fustat, to her brother Abū l-Ḥasan ʿEli b. Hillel, probably in Bahnasa (based on T-S 13J21.18). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1100–38. The writer thanks the addressee for a gift of 12 dirhams (r9). She urges him to come together with his son Yisrael to her, in a hurry, it seems to escape from the smallpox (judarī) about which everyone is anxious (r10–24). Without the join, the part about the smallpox remains ambiguous: someone in the writer's location is "in a difficult state from it" (r14), but this could either mean that they have smallpox or that they are worried about the outbreak in the addressee's location. Turfa and her husband send their regards (r28–29). (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, III, p. 22, and Goitein's note card.) ASE.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother or brothers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner of recto). He complains about separation and neglect. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fragment of a general prenuptial agreement in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The agreement contains remarkable conditions that favor the woman: the bride demanded to live separately from her husband's sisters. In addition, the husband vows to behave well toward his wife and not to beat her. The husband also vows not to forbid the wife from leaving the home. The wife received as a gift a part of her mother's house and the husband vows that her mother will be allowed to live with them. The husband must transfer the rent paid for his wife's share of her mother's house to his mother-in-law for five years. The wife may do as she pleases with her wealth and the husband has no right to it. There is also a special condition that specifies that the groom must provide any medical and burial expenses for his mother-in-law.

Letter in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Fragment (upper left corner of recto). He confirms receipt of the previous letter which mentioned that Ḥakam had a dabīqī item and its cushions (mikhāddhā) and that he wished to have them cut (? qaṣārathum) — cf. Moss. II,123.1.2. Ḥakam said that he would send something to Dimyāṭ (Damietta). Regards to Abū Manṣūr Ibn Qasāsa. There is a needle piercing at the center of the top of the page. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dealing with the affairs of a woman following a divorce. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves an Abū l-Faraj. Otherwise consists entirely of elaborate release formulae.