Geniza Lab

Letter from a certain Dāʾūd to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning alimonies (15 dirhams and 3 waybas per month) which the wife of Faraḥ was being paid during the period she was nursing a boy. After she weaned the boy, the family of Faraḥ said they would pay only the money, not the wheat. The sender is fighting with them about this. The brother of Faraḥ, Sālim, left and went to the army camp (al-ʿaskar). The sender asks Eliyyahu to bring up this matter with 'sayydinā' (probably Avraham Maimonides).(Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 5 Av 1443, which is July 1132 CE. Connected with the same case as T-S 8.131, namely the divorce arrangements of Ṣedaqa b. Semaḥ (called ha-Meshorer, the poet or singer) and Sitt al-Kull bt. Berakhot ha-Levi. The separation took place three months earlier (8 Iyyar 1443/1132). By the decree ("marsūm") of Maṣliaḥ Gaon (probably after the request of the woman's father: see T-S 8.131), a committee of eight elders (all undersigned) was appointed in order to confirm and fix the alimony for Ṣedaqa's wife and child. The committee gathered in the synagogue of the Palestinians. It was suggested that one and a half dirhams per day would suffice to provide for their living expenses (ll.7-8), but after the recommendations of some people attending (l.4), it was decided to decrease the payment, and fix the alimony at one dinar per month (l.14), arguing that the aforementioned sum was overrated (ll.12–13). This sum was intended to cover all her expenses for food, lighting, public bath and rent. Witnesses: Avraham b. Shemaʿya; Natan b. Shelomo; Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver; Peraḥya b. Ḥalfon ha-Ḥaver; Menashshe b. Yaʿaqov; Avraham b. Shelomo; Meshullam b. Menashshe; and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from Weiss's edition and Goitein's index cards)

Note addressed to al-Talmid al-Jalīl. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer reports that exactly what a certain ḥaḍra knew would happen with Abū Saʿd and his divorcee has happened. Namely, Abū Saʿd had committed to paying his divorcee a certain sum of dirhams every week as maintenance payments. But now two weeks have passed, and he has not paid a penny. The addressee is to obtain the amount that Abū Saʿd owes for the last two weeks and to bring it with him. ASE.

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. It appears that Meshullam takes over the responsibility for the six years of alimony payments (farḍ) to a certain female relative of his, which a Muslim court had previously imposed on her ex-husband Ṭoviya. But it is not entirely clear. See Goitein's note card.

Document describing a Damascene husband who had settled in Jerusalem and went bankrupt in Ramla, and who was being sued by his Egyptian wife. Her attorney, appointed in Fustat, was to extract alimony from him for the year of desertion, twenty dinars as delayed marriage gift, and a bill of divorce. Summer, 1024. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:199, 468) EMS

Court record concerning a grain dealer who promises to pay his former wife 4 dirhams every week for his five-year-old son, who was staying with her. The document further stipulates the boy visit the father on a Sabbath or a weekday, whenever he (the father) wished. In return, the divorcée acknowledges having received from her husband all that is due to her and agrees not to give him a bad name, nor sue him before a Muslim court or state authority. In case of default, she would be banned or excommunicated. Payments were to be made to a third person in Cairo, specified in the document. September, 1052. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:152, 438; 3:334-5, 502) EMS

Legal document recording Surūra bt. Shelomo’s suit for maintenance from her husband Surur b. Yaʿaqov Ibn al-Jāsūs. For the expenses, Surūra was ceded one-half of a bill of debt given in Qayrawān to her husband’s father by a merchant in Alexandria in summer 1029 CE (the date on the bill quoted is Tammuz [4]789 [A.M.]), amounting to 280 silver pieces, worth 23.33 dinars. Surūra presented the bill to a court in Fustat with the request to have it collected in Alexandria, and further stated that her husband had left her an ʿaguna and thus owed her and the children this maintenance. T-S 13J8.2, part of CUL Or.1080 J7, and T-S NS J149 all include versions of the same document, or at least concerning the same case. (Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law; S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 3:203, 319.) EMS

Note to Abu l-Makarim Moshe b. Yehezqel ha-Levi, urging him to come to court because of alimony claims from his wife, threatening him with a heavy fine should he not oblige. Signed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. (Information from CUDL)

Legal documents. Summaries of court records kept in the court registry. One of the entries details the maintenance payments (10 dirhams per month) that Ṣadaqa b. ʿEli must pay to his divorcee Miryam the freedwoman starting in Tishrei 1412 Seleucid, which is September 1100 CE. Another is a quittance between Ḥananel b. Yaʿaqov known as Khiyār and Ḥananel b. Ṣadaqa concerning a quantity of coral that had been deposited. In another entry what left from the a dowry of Maliha d. Yehezkel Hakohen in her husband's hand Yosef b. Ya'aqov. The couple's marriage document is found in TS 10 J 7.13 from 1090. (Information from Moshe Yagur [via FGP] and Goitein's note card. Additions by AA.)

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Halfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The case involves a husband named Yosef ha-Kohen and his wife; the husband has traveled and failed to pay maintenance for his wife and daughter. They are "hungry and without anyone" and have asked the court to investigate. This document is related to the documents found on T-S NS 320.142 (which is the current shelfmark for the manuscript cited as T-S NS 320.54 by Goitein and Weiss). Goitein writes (index card #11899) that Sitt al-Ahl, the wife of Yosef ha-Kohen, is granted 20 dirhams per month for her little daughters since her husband traveled and left her no money. (The join—ENA 2386.4—clarifies that Sitt al-Ahl is actually the daughter of Yosef ha-Kohen.) "The wife, as usual, had applied directly to the Nagid, who then ordered the court and the elders to propose an equitable solution." Apparently dated Tammuz 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. This document is discussed in Med Soc III, 192–93, 467 n.152, and also in the cluster of documents edited by Gershon Weiss, Ḥalfon, #200–02. Join: Alan Elbaum. The wording of the document is nearly identical to T-S 6J1.20, another document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, describing a similar case. AA. ASE.

Letter addressed to ʿEli the Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender petitions on behalf of a divorcee who came to him "complaining and crying" that her ex-husband, Avraham b. Khalaf, had not paid her and her nursing infant alimony for eight consecutive months. The woman had previously gone to the Parnas for help ("threw herself down in the house of the Parnas"), evidently to no avail. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger. ASE