Geniza Lab

Legal document, in which Sitt al-Rūm, a former slave who had been freed by her master Abū ʿ[...] before his death, appears in person before the rabbinical court of Alexandria to appoint an attorney to collect a loan. Mentions Salmān and Haffāẓ b. Ibrāhīm the cook, and signed by witnesses including Shelomo b. Yaʿaqov, Aharon b. Ṣedaqa, ʿAmmār b. Yeshuʿa and Sahl b. Mevasser. Location: Alexandria. Dated: Nisan 4830 AM, which is 1070 CE. (Information from CUDL.) NB: The transcription below is only partial; full document awaiting transcription.

Deed of manumission (geṭ shiḥrur) for a female slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tishrei 1510 Seleucid, which is 1198 CE. Theoretically the date could be 1520 Seleucid, but that is probably too late, given the signature of Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi on verso. Abū l-Maʿālī al-Levi al-Tājir b. Khalaf al-Dajjānī frees his female slave named Saʿāda. Written in the hand of the court scribe Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c.1181–1209). Signed: Menashshe b. Yosef. The attestation on verso that the deed was delivered into her hand ('in the Iraqi synagogue') is scribed and signed by Yosef's father, Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c.1165–1203). Also signed by Menashshe b. Yosef. (Information in part from Moshe Yagur via FGP.) ASE

Ketubba, beautifully written. Location: Fustat. Dated: Friday, 13 Nisan 129[7] Seleucid = March 986 CE. Bride: Muʿtazz, the freedwoman of Moshe b. Palṭiel. Groom: Bushayr/Bashīr b. Khalaf. Witnessed by Avraham b. Isḥāq b. Bahlūl, Yeshuʿa b. [...], Daniel [...], Saʿīd [...], [...] b. Shuʾal (שואל). Goitein notes that the dowry (45 dinars) is very high for a freedwoman. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Tiny fragment. Apparently dealing with the marriage of a freedwoman (meshuḥrarta kalta).

Very damaged, small fragment from a legal deed regrading marriage of a freed slave girl. Few words from her dowry list are preserved.

Minute fragment from a legal deed written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138) involving a freed slave woman

Pages (a) through (c): Distribution list for clothing (al-kiswa). Dated: Ṭevet 1488 Seleucid, which began on 5 December 1176 CE. The last but one numeral of the date is not fully visible, but its reading is ascertained by the many names in common with the lists A 25–36 (1181–84 CE). Distribution of about 110 pieces of clothing (40 muqaddar, 49 ordinary, and 15 small jūkhāniyyas, the rest illegible) to community officials and/or their dependents and to needy persons. At the head of the list at least five cantors and three shomers. One beadle of Dammūh is listed at the beginning of the list (p a, l. 5), another at the end (c, l. 6). Almost all the males receive a muqaddar, all but one of the females (p. b, l. 2) a jūkhāniyya. Males receiving a muqaddar: p. a, l. 8 (written above the line), p. b, ll. 1, 6, 18. Various members of the same household each get a piece of clothing: Sālim, the porter, a jūkhāniyya (p. a, l. 8) his wife, a jūkhāniyya (p. a, l.13); Abū l-Majd, the milkman, a muqaddar (p. a, l. 16), his son, a small jūkhāniyya (p. c, l. 3); Maḥfūẓ, the beadle and his son, each a muqaddar. Still, such occurrences are far rarer than one would expect. The conclusion to be derived from this and related documents: normally, only one member of a household received a new piece of cloth at each distribution. Page (d): "Dirhems expended." After the first item, "the judges," is left a blank space. Al-Najīb (the parnas) follows with the number 20 after it and l. 12, Abū ʿAlī the parnas, with 12. The remainder: 6 receive 3 dirhems; 4 receive 4 dirhems; 7 receive 5 dirhems (including "the widow of the man from Tyre; a foreigner"); 2 receive 6 dirhems; 2 receive 8 dirhems (including "the widow of the man from Haifa"). As other lists show, the cash was given as a partial compensation for clothing. Thus the two parts of the manuscript actually form one record. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix B, #71 (p.459).) The recipients also include one female slave and three women who are freed slaves (per Goitein's index card).

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "A litigation concerning an inheritance. Two partners were operating a store and upon the death of one of them the heir, a certain Naḥman, who was the nephew of the deceased sued the other party for whatever was due to him of this inheritance. He had not protested earlier because he was still a minor then. Abū l-Faḍl b. ʿUmayr was one of the customers. Naḥman, whose share in assets in the partnership was half, demanded his legitimate rights, and in the litigation pursued he asked for half of everything, i.e., capital (aṣl), income (nāqī), and goods such as a lamp made of copper. The sums of money preserved in the document are 600 dinars, 2015 dinars, 5 qirats and half a ḥabba, 20 dinars, and 32 dinars. A freed female slave is also mentioned, whom he manumitted after "he received her price from her." What may be understood from the end of the document preserved is that a settlement was reached according to which the defendant was freed from the oath due to him. No signatures are extant." (Information from Weiss)