Geniza Lab

Upper end of a large deed in Arabic letters in which a Christian sells 1 and 2/3 out of 24 shares of a house in the Rāya quarter of Fustat to a foreign Jew who already owned 4 shares in it. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Deed in which Abū Isḥāq Abzārī gives the Nagid Avraham Maimonides the right to buy back the burj, a tower in the ancient Byzantine fortress of Fustat, for sixty dinars for a period of five years. The rent was waived. The deed is dated Tevet 4974 (1213/4) with the day of the month and week left blank, and no space is left for signatures. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein MedSoc, Vol. 4, p. 87.)

An incomplete deed of a sale of one quarter of a house by a public leader, Ibn al-ʿAjamī, to the wife of a money assayer for 1,000 dirhams. The sale took place with the permission and in the presence of the woman’s husband. The purchase may have been an investment. Fustat, 29 Marḥeshvan, 1541 Seleucid (18 October 1229). Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 1, p. 462n123, Vol. 3, p. 328, Vol. 4. p. 283.)

Legal document. Probably from an agreement between husband and wife regarding their domicile in Cairo. Torn and damaged, only few words have survived. Aramaic. AA

Letter from Ismaʿīl b. Barhūn al-Tāhirtī (Mahdiya) to his nephew Barhūn b. Ṣāliḥ. Describes a dispute between the sender and another merchant, Abū Yaʿqūb. Mentions that the family house of the Tāhirtis in Qayrawān(?) requires repairs. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 336.)

Letter from Yehuda b. Sahl, probably in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat, ca. 1050. Mentions the sale of a house that may have belonged to Nahray. Also mentions flax and the copper trade. Yehuda b. Sahl’s wife (a relative of Nahray?) sends him regards for the holidays and prays all the time for his health. She was sick (tawajjaʿat), then Yehuda became sick, then he got better, then he relapsed, and also their daughter was sick (r14–18). His wife asks Nahray b. Nissim to send them an order of payment (suftaja) for 10 dinars (r22–23). The letter mentions Abū l-Surūr and Abū Iṣḥāq Barhūn. (Information from Gil.) ASE.

An individual claims that his house was destroyed and that he rebuilt and renewed its interior and exterior.

(I) Document concerning claims on trousseau items between Tahir b. Abu Sa'd and his wife Fard bat Abu Isaac. (II) Payment of a debt of five dinars less twelve dirhems in monthly installments. Khalaf al-Mutasawwiq b. Abu al-Surur owes Abu al-Muna b. Barakat; October 3, 1160. (III) Legal document concerning the partnership of a house. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Legal document: deed of sale in Arabic for the purchase of part of a house. Abū l-Faraj Ṣemaḥ b. Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ the money-changer buys part of a house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat from his uncle Dāwūd b. Ṣemaḥ the indigo dealer. The house abuts the former church of St Michael, the oven of al-Jalāl, and the house of Maymūn b. Dāwūd. Dated 10–20 Shaʿbān 448 (October-November 1056 CE). On verso there is a liturgical text in Hebrew. (Information from Khan.) It is unusual that the document is written on a bifolio; it may be a court copy, which would also explain what seems to be an archival annotation on verso summarizing the document (which Khan deciphers in part but doesn't discuss). MR

Parchment fragment with pen trials and drawings. Recto: monumental Hebrew characters with full masoretic vocalization and decorative flourishes; a sun or other concentric shape with rays; and a pair of small houses, which Goitein (see index card) interprets as a Nile boat. Verso: basmala in Arabic script, Hebrew aleph-bet in order; ink blots that have been spread out with a pen. (MR, with thanks to RSK for rediscovering the fragment)

Legal document: bill of sale in which Makhlūf b. Jābir b. Nāṣir buys a house in al-Muʿizziyya (Cairo) from […] b. ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. Ibrahim b. ʿAlī, one of two trustees of Cairene legacies, under the supervision of Abū l-Ḥasan Masarra b. ʿAbdallāh. Makhlūf’s father, Jābir b. Nāṣir the miller, acts as his agent in the transaction. The house previously belonged to the wife of the amir, Sitt al-Dawla, and is apparently now intestate, hence the involvement of the trustees. 11th-12th century. On verso (recto as conserved) is a Hebrew liturgical text. (Information from Khan, ALAD)

Very torn legal deed written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138), regarding a house, probably as part of inheritance of the widow of Abu al-Tahir (?). Names mentioned: Nethanel, Abu al-Wafa. AA