Geniza Lab

Formulary for a legal document for the appointment of a ritual slaughterer (shoḥeṭ). Location: Cairo. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Formularies for legal documents. Late.

Lined piece of paper filled with Judaeo-Arabic letters or language from letters or formularies for letters (one contains "fulan" instead of names). The honorific khawaja is used. Needs further examination.

Formularies for letters in Hebrew.

Formularies for three legal documents. The document on recto is for appointing an agent to receive a get. Although the names in the document itself are generic (peloni b. peloni), the date of the model document has been preserved—1726 CE (15 Elul 5486)—along with names at the bottom of the original protagonists: the woman is Sol (?) known as Senyoro (?) the daughter of Yehiel Evron; the agent is Elazar b. Michael Momilian; the name of David Paysano (?) is also written. One of the two formularies on verso is for the declaration of "mukat etz" (a woman whose hymen has been broken through means other than sexual intercourse).

Fragment from a book of legal formularies. One is for a contract to appoint an agent to marry (leqadesh) a woman on one's behalf. Elegant, vowelized script

Formularies for divorce-related documents. The one on recto is clearly based on a real document and a real case, but gives "peloni" for the month and for some of the names. Location: Fustat. Dated: 5514 AM, which is 1753/54 CE. The husband is Barukh b. Yosef Ḥayyūn. The wife and her family are from Alexandria. Sums of money are given in silver dīwānī muayyadis and gold maḥbūbs. Somehow involved is a pin (in Ladino: אלפיניטי=alfinete) embedded with a precious gem (שקבוע בו אבן טובה). Two witnesses are named in the document but their signatures do not appear at the bottom. See also Bodl. MS heb. d 66/101

Formulary for a שטר מכירת חזקה. Late, probably belongs with Bodl. MS heb. d 66/100 and is therefore c.1750s.

Kitāb al-Sheṭarot (the book of legal formularies) of Hayya Ga'on b. Sherira Ga'on. Per the Bodleian catalog, the copyist or owner is Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver.

The first six leaves of a copy of the Ghurar al-Balāgha of Hilāl al-Ṣābi' — a book of formularies for letter-writing — copied in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Edited by Gottheil and discussed by Cohen in "Correspondence and Social Control in the Jewish Communities of the Islamic World," Jewish History 1, no. 2 (1986): 39-48.

Miscellany containing formularies for excommunication (invoking the Shem ha-Meforash) on 74/70v, flowery rhymes for letter openings, etc. On 74/72r a copy of letter of interest to scholars of pilgirmage routes: a letter of recommendation for a pilgrim who came to Salonica from "Russia" (רוסיאה) and does not know neither Hebrew nor Arabic or Greek, but only "the language of Canaan", the local language of his homeland. On 74/71r a formula to be written on the last page of a daftar of the Torah when the copying is finished.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1122-1153. A one-year partnership in an apothecary between Sayyid al-Ahl and his partner Faraḥ b. Abū al-‘Alā. The relationship may have been an apprenticeship; both parties are entitled to 1.5 dirhams a day, but profits from the sale of some commodities within the shop will accrue only to Sayyid al-Ahl, who seems to be the primary partner. However, Faraḥ’s investment is significant; the pharmacy inventory was only 7 dinars, but Faraḥ brings a total of 20 dinars, 16 of which are invested immediately. This document lacks most of the formulae seen in partnership agreements (including stock qinyan phrases, which effect the contract) – it may have been simply the personal outline of a scribe who would later add in the framework from a formulary, as it also lacks signatures. Goitein identifies the handwriting as that of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver (active 1122-1153). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 38-39)

Ketubba (marriage contract), formulary, found inside of a Palestinian prayerbook. The booklet also contains formularies for a bill of divorce and the husband's instructions to the scribe and witnesses for issuing that deed. For the location, the bill of divorce gives "City X, adjacent to Ẓoʿan Miẓrayim (=Fustat), which is situated on the river Nile." There is also a poem dedicated to "our lord Evyatar (b. Eliyyahu)," who was the Gaon during the last two decades of the elevent century. There are eleven additional leaves from the same booklet in MS. Dropsie 211. Information from Mordechai Akiva Friedman.

Piyyutim, as well as divorce and marriage contract formulae from a Palestinian siddur with Judaeo-Arabic instructions (probably not the siddur of R. Nathan).The marriage formulae follow the Palestinian tradition but the divorce formulae follow the Babylonian tradition, and the place given is Ṣoʿan Miṣrayim (Fusṭāṭ). One piyyuṭ, a rahiṭ, is dedicated to ‘our lord Evyatar’ (Evyatar b. Elijah Gaʾon, died prior to 1112 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Formulary for a Karaite marriage document, edited by Judith Olszowy-Schlanger.

Eleven calligraphic pages from Hayya Gaon's Book of Formularies (not used in S. Assaf's edition, Jerusalem 1930). Information from Goitein's note card.

Formulary for a legal document of ḥaliẓa (rejection of levirate marriage). On vellum.

Formulary for a letter to an important person, probably late.

Formulary for a power of attorney (wakāla).

Letter-writing formulary. In Judaeo-Arabic. Bifolium, containing many letter samples. There are also two lines in Arabic script.