Geniza Lab

Fragment of a deed of gift, given in Ramla, approximately 1030.

Legal document and a marriage document. Damaged fragment containing 3 different legal deeds in 3 different hands, most likely refers to the same parties. On recto what looks like a part from a bill of gift or a will, in Hebrew and Aramaic. Two names mentioned: מובחר and Ya'aqov. On verso two legal documents. On the right side from a legal document of unknown nature, probably between husband and wife. Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. On the left side a damaged fragment from a ketubah de'irkasa כתובה דארכסא, that is a ketubah written as a replacement for a lost ketubah. Aramaic. AA

Letter requesting correspondence with knowledge of prices for lost packages and also it is asking for the purchase of clothing and a personal gift – 29 September 1929CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 39) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 68). MCD.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu (Barakāt al-Muʿallim) to al-Shaykh al-Rashīd ('the father'—evidently an elder relative). The note accompanies a gift of wine for a banquet in honor of finishing the study of Talmudic tractate (seliq). Shelomo asks him five times not to put him to shame by paying or by sending him a return present. In any case, he did not drink wine in this hot time, and the time of the grape pressing was near. Information from Goitein's note card.

Court record concerning a gift made by a woman to her daughter of a house near the 'Street of the Chest Makers,' issued under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya (1142-1159) in Fustat, Elul 1462/August-September 1151.

Legal document concerning a wife agreement to the reduction of her delayed marriage gift from 70 to 20 dinars and renounces the title of trustworthiness granted her in the marriage contract. Dated Nisan 1437/April 1126. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 256, 412, 483)

Testimony that Abu al-Rida known as al-Subki had gifted all his property in Alexandria to his wife, Sitt al-Zaman bat Yiṣḥaq. Dated May 1185 in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 359)

Legal document: a deed of gift, ca. 1117. A woman, whose name is not preserved, bequeaths a house partly owned by her, to another woman, Sitt al-Dar, probably her daughter. This is a will made "by a healthy person," and therefore irrevocable. As appears from the deed, another part of the duwayra (small compound) was owned by al-'aniyim, i.e. by the qodesh. To prevent any loss to the qodesh, the recipient of the estate was forbidden to sell it to non-Jews or to build an additional floor over it. In case she sold it (to a Jew, of course) the same restrictions would have to be applied to the purchaser. The deed is written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe; its upper part is missing. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 232 #41) Alternative description: Two legal documents: The first is a deed, dated 1117 CE, in which an unnamed woman gifts part of a house to her housekeeper Sitt al-Dār bt. Shaʾul, and the second is a bill of release. The rest of the compound was owned by the Heqdesh, and to keep the property in Jewish hands, Sitt al-Dār is forbidden to sell her inheritance to non-Jews, and future buyers of the property are instructed to continue this policy. It is also stated that Sitt al-Dār will serve and care for the her benefactor, until her benefactor's death. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Avraham b. Nissim gives part of a house to the wife of Shelomo, and she will bear his burial expenses and will provide him with fine clothing. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document draft in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu about a gift from his father of almost all his books and copper vessels; brother Abu Zikri gets only a few small books.

Legal deed. Location: Qūṣ. Dated: Shevaṭ 1527 Seleucid, which is 1216 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. In which the physician Abū l-Manṣūr Elʿazar b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi gifts the entire contents of his late wife’s dowry, “consisting of gold, silver, copper, and other items worth 200 Egyptian dinars,” to his two minor daughters, Nasab and Kufūʾ (or Kufāʾ?). The declaration was made in the house of Abū Saʿd Seʿadya, in the presence of his son Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Yehuda ha-Talmid ("the scholar"). (Information from Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 34; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:278–79, 489) EMS

Model of a legal document in which a mother gives her daughter the upper story of a building as a gift. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Deed of sale for the purchase by Abū ʿAlī Ḥassān b. Ibrahim b. Azhar (the Jewish moneychanger) of two houses in Fusṭāṭ from Abū l-Munajjā Bahūr b. Shanute b. Baḥāsh (the Christian clerk). Witnessed by Yaḥyā b. al-[…], al-Ḥusaynī, and Ḥasan b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Abū ʿUbaydallāh. Verso: Document relating to the purchase on the recto, and dated 480 AH (= 1087 CE). In this supplementary document, Yūsuf Ibn al-Baraka ‘the Jew’ gifts something (possibly the houses on recto) to ʿIzza and ʿAzīza, the daughters of his nephew. Also mentions al-Thābit b. Ḥasan.

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe? Deed of gift, or possibly a power of attorney appointing Abu l-Faḍl to collect the money and/or goods mentioned. Mentions 17 dinars which is the balance of the value of the rubʿ (house or compound), a box (ṣundūq), implements for silk weaving, and six combs (Amshāṭī, 'comb-maker', was a common Jewish family name of well-to-do people). (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, IV, 225; also Goitein index cards.)

Legal draft. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. No signatures. Dating: The document itself does not appear to be dated but mentions another document from the year 5514 AM, which is 1753/54 CE. The document records a gift of property made by the brothers Eliyyahu Rofe and Yeshuʿa Rofe b. Elishaʿ Rofe to Aharon Kohen Ḥazzan b. Yosef Kohen.