Geniza Lab

Draft or notes of court proceedings (legal document) regarding a sale of half a house for 300 dinars. Abu Sahl, Menashshe b. Yehuda, sold half of a house that he inherited from his mother to Abu al-Faraj, Amram b. Yosef. Apparently the second half was sold by Menashshe to Yosef Lebdi in a transaction which was probably a cover for a loan with interest. In order to remedy this situation, it was decided that Amram would buy Lebdi's share while permitting Menashshe to continue to dwell in the house and even to rent it to others. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated to January 22, 1102. At the end of the document there are the remains of a legal opinion, in another hand. Apparently the draft of the agreement was shown to a rabbinic authority who gave his opinion regarding how it should be formulated to remedy the appearance of taking interest from a fellow Jew. The document is full of interesting corrections and additions.

Beautiful calligraphic fragment of deed of sale of a bathhouse in Zawilat al-Mahdiyya, Ifrīqiya, by one Jew to another. The seller describes the bath and mentions that the bathhouse had been acquired by his brother, as proved by the document of purchase produced in court. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 98, 99)

Deed of sale of one half of a house in the al-Musasa quarter in Fustat, in which one owner sells his half to the other owner for 300 dinars to be paid in three installments. Dated Tishri 1451 Seleucid, which is September 1139 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 288)

Deed of sale in which a father sells to his son a quarter of the apartment belonging to him in a house in the al- Mu'tamid passage of the Tujib quarter for seventeen dinars. Dated 1233. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 281)

Legal fragment (right half). Deed of sale of a house, probably from Qayrawān. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Deed of sale for the sale of a female slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 1 Nisan 1537 Seleucid, which is 31 March 1226 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. This is a copy of T-S 13J4.2. Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda Ibn al-Mashshāṭ, agent (wakīl) of Yeshuʿa b. Hillel Ibn Zikr, sells to Hillel b. Barakāt the female slave Ḍiyāʾ, who was born into slavery (muwallad) and was brought (musayyara) to Fustat. Price: 25 dinars. Not signed. Seems to be a (good) copy made by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 433, 458, and from Goitein's index cards)

Sale of a house, 1254.

Recto: Bill of sale for a female slave. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Av 1466 Seleucid, which is 1155 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Seller: the trader (tājir) Abū ʿAlī b. Natan he-Ḥaver. Buyer: the trader (tājir) Abū l-Faḍl b. Elʿazar. Slave: An Indian woman named Ghazāl. The price is missing. On verso there is a communal account which Gil dates to ca. 1215 CE (see PGPID 775).

Bill of sale, faded, of a house from Damascus, 1113–14. There is a rashut statement for Hisdai ha-Nasi. Some of the names are quite interesting: Safiya the wife of Karam b. Avraham known as Siraj al-Hanukka (i.e. Hannuka lamp). Also mentioned is Meshullam b. Yishaq ha-qosem al-Ma'ari.

Deed, commercial, attesting to Alexandria's importance in international trade. The document mentions traders from Venice and Constantinople, as well as Sicilian coins. Apparently the deed is from the beginning of the twelfth century, to judge by the names, which appear in documents from the circle of Nahray b. Nissim. The document also contains an important report on a dispute between people from the Maghrib and local Alexandrians, headed by the Alexandrian Ben Nahum family. (Information from Frenkel. See also Goitein, Med. Soc. 3:159)

Bill of sale for a slave. Abū al-[Man]ṣūr al-Kohen purchases a female slave named Ṭ[...] for the price of 25 dinars.

Legal document. Small fragment from a bill of sale. On parchment. In the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Drawn up under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi (dates: 1170–95). Abū l-Surūr is mentioned. AA

Fragmentary record of sale; the script suggests that this was written in the Ottoman period.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves a Nubian female slave named ʿAlam, but it is not a deed of sale (or at least not a straightforward one). Involves: David b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Natan b. Yosef; Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ al-Arjawānī; [...] b. Efrayim; a woman and her husband; and confirmation of receipt of a sum of money. (Information in part from Goitein's attached notes.)

Fragment of a document of sale in which Nahray b. Nissim, the well-known banker and communal lender (d. 1096), buys from his brother-in-law and the sons of the latter's late brother one-third of a house worth 150 dinars. The total value of the house was 450 dinars. (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, III, p. 37; IV, pp. 19, 287)

Document that is a continuation of Sassoon 1055A. Aharon al-Araki, who received a part of a house in Sana'a, sells his part to his brother Salam and his niece Badra for 150 Rial (75 for each); 1667. (Goitein, The Yemenites, 157-158) VMR

Sale by two ladies, presumably cousins, in al-Mahdiyya, of a Bible codex worth 20 dinars. The ladies confirm their readiness to sell, accept receipt of the payment and acknowledge their and their heirs' responsibility to indemnify the buyer should his proprietorship of the book ever be contested. In conclusion, the husbands confirm the action taken by their wives.

Draft of sale contract for 12 out of 20 shares (the whole house constituted 24 shares) in the Qadi Badr alley of the al-Mamsusa quarter, at a price of 1000 wariq (silver) dirhams (exchange rate of 1:40). Dated ca. 1230. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 278)

Document concerning the sale of the part of a house owned by a young woman named ‘Shams.’ The names of her father, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather are also recorded, along with a designation of their profession as doctors. The list consists of names with sums in two columns written on the reverse side of the deed connected with the sale of a house, written in 1378 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:245, 497) EMS

List of names with sums in two columns written on the reverse side of a deed connected with the sale of a house written in 1378, time of Amram Nagid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 497, App. C 73)