Geniza Lab

Copy of a court record from Aden. Dating: Summer 1131 CE. Concerning a controversy over Jewish communal leadership in Yemen. Goitein thought that this copy was made in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, but Friedman doubts this. It is not a direct continuation of T-S 20.37, but it concerns the same controversy. Namely, a Persian Nasi who was a cousin of the Exilarch in Baghdad had come to Aden, and the Yemeni public received him with respect and handed over to him the synagogue and religious affairs. He annulled the practice of mentioning the authority of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva (at that time Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon, based in the Egyptian capital) in prayer and legal documents. The foreign merchants, such as Ḥalfon b. Netanel, opposed this. (Information from Goitein, The Yemenites, pp. 67–68 and Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.) VMR

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 1151. Location: Minyat Ashna (near Fustat). Following appeals by his deceased brother Binyam's widow to the court, Kathīr b. Avraham takes over the maintenance (1 dinar a month, an aboslute requirement) of his sister-in-law's orphaned children as a sort of partnership. The sources of this funding are a) rent revenue from shops in Malij left to the children by Binyam and b), the profit earned by Kathīr from 20 dinars’ worth of silk from estate of Binyam. Unusually, the "partnership" profits are not split according to a fixed percentage, but rather the children, as the "silent partner", receive a fixed amount each month. This is effectively a long-term loan or trust created under the structure of a partnership agreement. Per Goitein, Shemuel b. Yehuda ibn Asad, previous caretaker of the orphans, was apparently a regular caretaker and trustee for orphans; see PGPID 2658. Shemuel is the same Abū al-Ma‘ālī in PGPID 6581. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 7-10)

Legal document. Court record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1134. Abū Sa‘d and Abū Sahl form a partnership lasting 6.5 months to manufacture and sell glass. Half the capital (20 dinars in total) invested by Abū Sa‘d is considered a loan to Abū Sahl, who pledges title to his home as a security. This may suggest diversion from the commenda model, where the active partner is not liable for loss. But the partnership also diverges from the ‘eseq model, wherein only the active partner transacts. Both the profit/loss characteristics and the working arrangement between the partners suggests a craft partnership. Abū Sa‘d is likely the senior partner: he is identified as al-Zajjāj, “the glazier” (i.e., a known personage in the field), while Abū Sahl is given no professional designation; as well, Abū Sa‘d invests all of the capital, suggesting that he may be short of liquid assets). Finally, the partnership stipulates that Abū Sa‘d need only work two shifts a week (suggesting he may have other business elsewhere), while Abū Sahl will work the rest of the week. Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, mentioned in line 54, functioned as leader of the Jewish community of Fusṭāṭ from 1127 to 1139. The signatories to the document, Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Natan b. Avraham ha-Levi, signed 5 months after the agreement was initiated, for unknown reasons. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", pp. 17-21)

Legal document. Commenda. Dated: November 1132. Abū Zikrī Yehudah b. Yosef ha-Kohen and Ḥananel b. Nissim partner in a shop. The active partner performs a regular reckoning, the details of which are trusted without witness testimony. Profits are split evenly after expenses. The active partner is specifically prohibited from lending funds on to another partner; if he does so, those funds will be taken directly out of his share of the partnership. The laws of unlimited investment partnership (mufāwaḍa) permit a loan to be granted with both partners' permission, and the even split of partnership profits or losses is also reminiscent of the mufāwaḍa agreement. However, while the qinyan provisions here are mutual, the provisions concerning the work itself suggest that one of the partners is significantly senior. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 32-34)

Account and agreement between the Qodesh and a partner, ca. 1156. A certain al-Nadiv, otherwise known as the perfume maker, tenant of a compound partly owned by the qodesh known as al-Burj, carried out repairs (probably in that compound) for which the qodesh owes him 19.5 dinars. He had previously received 9.75 dinars from the qodesh and owes 3 dinars representing his rent for four months. Thus, the qodesh still owes him 6.75 dinars. His expenditure of an additional sum of 10.5 dinars is approved, for repairs to be made in his brewery. As the qodesh will pay half of this, its total debt will come to 12 dinars. Also, some minor improvements in the compound will be made jointly. The debt of 12 dinars will be returned to him by counting it as his rent for 16 months. For this purpose, a deed of lease will be written in a Muslim court also. This arrangement is made toward the end of January 1156, one month before the former lease expires on the 24th of February. The new lease will start on the 25th. Coptic numerals are used. Mentions a wind catcher (bādhanj). (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 287 #59)

Record of a deposition regarding donation of parts of a compound, ca. 1160. Sitt al-Riyad, al-Na'iha, who owns seven qirats of a compound, donates a third of her part to the Karaites and a little less than that (7.5 qirats) to the Rabbanites. This is recorded on the left part of a leaf detached from a notebook, apparently belonging to a 'adl, a "righteous witness," or notary. Three witnesses, inclusive of the writer, are mentioned at the beginning, but their signatures are not preserved. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 294 #63.) See also Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix A, #164.

Legal document. Deposition on cession of rights in the "Estate of the Jerusalemites," ca. 1160. The uncle of Abu Sa‘īd renounces his right in the "Estate of the Jerusalemites" in favour of his nephew. One additional witness was present. From same notebook as Bodl. MS heb. f 22/43b. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 295 #64.) See also Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix A, #165.

Report on a compound dedicated to the Qodesh ca. after 1127. A fragment of a report, or memorandum, about the compound known as Dar Naqa that figures in several documents of the qodesh. The history of the dedication of one quarter of this compound to the qodesh is briefly reviewed. It appears that it had been dedicated in the 11th century, for the purpose of charity for both the Rabbanite and Karaite needy. During a period of persecution and confiscation that occurred in the year 1127, a sum of money was kept by an official of the qodesh; in order to prevent its confiscation, the money was registered as having already been spent on the purchase of the half of that compound. The purpose of the memorandum is to justify that fictitious record, and probably also to make clear what part of Dar Naqa actually belonged to the qodesh. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 246 #45)

Accounts of the qodesh. Gil edited 12 lists of revenue and expenditure pertaining to Abū l-Bayān al-Jābī b. Abu Naṣr Elʿazar ha-Levi al-Ḥalabī spanning the years 1181–84 CE. All except for #81 are written in the hand of the judge Shemuel b. Seʿadya. Account for Elul and Tishri 1492-1493 sel. ca. 1181. The accounting lists 21 apartments and compounds of the qodesh. The total revenue is 632.25 dirhams, including a 26 dirham balance from a previous account. The expenditures include khikr, nightwatch, oil for the synagogues, payments to scholars and to the poor, maintenance and repairs. The total expenditure is 472 dirhams, so there is a surplus of 134.25 dirhams, after the deduction of a collection fee of 60 dirhams. The former balance of 26 dirhams was not included in the final calculation; otherwise the surplus would have been 160.25 dirhams. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 327 #80.)

Record of payment of rent, ca. 1186. A payment of 100 wariq dirhams (for a period of one year's rent) is received from Abu Ishaq al-Adani. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 361 #92)

Account of the expenditures, recorded by Judge Shemuel b. Saadya, made on one day in Dar al-Zayt, ca. 1182. The note is for building materials, utensils and labor. More than three years later, he started to list sums collected for clothes for the poor on the same leaf, but left the list incomplete after only two lines. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 362 #93)

(c) Trousseau list. Dated: Sivan 1185 CE. Bride: Nasab bt. Abū l-Khayr al-Zayyāt. Groom: Munajjā Abū Saʿd al-Labbān. 10 + 25. Total value: 90 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter of congratulation after recovery from an illness, written in rhymed Hebrew prose by the court clerk Mevorakh b. Natan and addressed to ʿAzaryahu b. Efrayim the head physician. Dated: Nisan 1483 Seleucid (March/April 1172 CE). (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 110, 111)

Document regarding claims concerning, among other things, a Siddur that was purchased. Persons named as concerned (line 1) are Abu Fadl b. al-Assal and Ibn al-Lawwaz Sar Shalom b. Yakhin the cantor. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel, Avraham b Shema'ya, and Nissim b. Nahray, who were active, signing documents, at the beginning of the 12th century in Fustat. Part of a notary's notebook. CUL Add.3422 a-b CUL Add.3422 c-k (Information from Goitein's index cards).

Deposition from Minyat Zifta, signed by five witnesses, in which two persons testify to the poverty of a man named Sulayman b. Ḥasan, who had been condemned to imprisonment for insolvency when his Jewish debtor had brought him before a Muslim court. Dated Sivan 1486/ June 1175. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 204)

Book list and a quotation from a halakhic source or a responsum. Probably in the hand of Joseph Rosh ha-Seder (late 12th and early 13th century). (Information from CUDL)

An appeal of a man from Alexandria to the Nagid in Fustat requesting the Nagid's help in arresting a man who a legal court determined that he owes the writer money. The twelfth century. (Information from Frenkel)

Legal document written and signed by Natan ha-Kohen, in which Abu al-Faraj the physician permits his debtor Abu al-Ḥasan b. Mu'ammar b. al-Batt to pay him a debt of 22 dinars and 70 dirhams in rates of one/fourth dinar each month, beginning with Tevet 1441/ December 1129. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 252, and from Goitein's index cards)

Remarriage contract of a bride who had been both widowed and divorced in which she receives a house, but no trousseau. Dated 1180-1191. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 101, 409)

Legal document. Partnership. Dating: 1100-1138. Location: Fustat. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. This undated fragment concerns a partnership in money-changing; the active partner was Abū al-Surūr Peraḥya b. Menashshe, brother of Ḥalfōn b. Menashshe. The woman Nasab, mentioned on lines 10 and 13, is Peraḥya’s (and Ḥalfōn’s) mother. Peraḥya handed over some amount to his mother, which she acknowledged and recorded as a debt. These funds seem to have been a loan out of partnership capital, indicated by the mention of “the funds in his hands”. On the other hand, no description of the partnership itself is preserved here. The name of Peraḥya’s partner is also not preserved, though it may have been Ḥasan Eli b. Maṣliaḥ (mentioned in line13). It is unclear what role Eli played in the transaction. The signatories are not preserved. But the title "Mordecai of his time" (see line 1) is applied to Moshe b. Mevorakh alone; thus, although his name is not preserved, this document may refer to Mevorakh b. Saadiah and his son Moshe. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 277-278)