Geniza Lab

Will of a silk-weaver named Abū l-Faḍl b. Barakāt Ibn al-Maqdisī, dividing his house, workshop, and other belongings to his four sons. In the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 15 Kislev 1500 Seleucid, which is December 1188 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Signed by: Shelomo b. Nissim and Levi b. Avraham ha-Levi (may be identical with Abū Sahl Levi the cantor, father of Yedutun and Moshe b. Levi; may also be the same Levi b. Avraham who appears in T-S NS J273 in connection to a silk workshop). There is a full translation and commentary in Goitein's attached notes. ENA NS 76.435.6 + ENA NS 76.435.7 is an earlier, messier version of the same document (same scribe, same date, signed by the same witnesses).

Legal document. In the hand of Shemeul b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Iyyar 1480 Seleucid, which is April/May 1169 CE, under the authority of an unidentified Seʿadya, during the lifetime of the Gaʾon Netanʾel b. Moshe ha-Levi (see line 16; he may have even signed this document, but this needs to be checked against his handwriting elsewhere). Statement about an oath to be given by the executor of a will, Abū l-Maʿālī (aka Shemuel b. Asad). He had had to spend 220 dinars in order to get back a property belonging to the orphans under his responsibility from the hands of some state officials. He was then able to sell the property for 300 dinars. The uncle of the orphans bore the title Raḍiyy al-Dawla ("Pleasing the Government"), and the father of their guardian was a kātib, or government official. Signed by Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi; Netanʾel b. Moshe; Moshe b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen; and Shemuel b. ʿOvadya. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 299, 493.)

Court record. A settlement between a brother and his two sisters concerning their late father’s inheritance, dated 1128/9. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The late father’s property consisted of a perfumery, a storehouse, goods, capital and profit. The brother, Hillel, and the father were running the business as partners. According to the settlement, the older sister received a certain sum of money plus a monthly payment of 1 dinar. Her minor sister granted her share to her brother Hillel, as a gift, except for a certain amount of money, which was legally recorded in a bill of indebtness granted to her by Hillel, who continued to manage the business. The widow, Sitt al-Bayt, confirmed her daughter’s actions and guaranteed to be responsible to Hillel for any claims against him which the younger daughter might once make as heir of her father. No signatures are preserved. Verso is blank. (Information form Weiss, Legal Documents Written by Ḥalfon ben Manasse, Vol. 1, pp. 79-80 and Goitein index card and notes linked below.)

Draft(?) of a court record. Dated: 29 Nisan 1543 Seleucid, which is April 1232 CE. The widow (Sitt al-)Tujjār bt. Manṣūr claims that 10 shares in a house in Bilbays belong to her children as heirs of her husband. Tujjār's sister-in-law's husband, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Yosef ha-Kohen, produces Arabic deeds, not confirmed by a Jewish court, showing that the children's grandmother had sold him those shares. He asserted that in Bilbays such confirmations are not customary. Tujjār produces a Hebrew document witnessed, but not validated by a court. At the advice of experts, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ agrees to pay his nephews 300 dirhams. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc, vol. 4, p. 276, and Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Letter from Tiberias, containing a legal document recording their estate in the Muslim registration of Tiberias, dated 940. Ca. 1020

Legal document. Location: Alexandria. Dated: 30 Nisan 5241 AM, which is 1481 CE. The leaders of the Alexandria community convene to deal with the inheritance of the late Yaʿaqov Sahlān. The will of the dead man was recorded by the Jerusalem scribe R. Yom Ṭov b. ʿImmanuel (cf. T-S NS 99.66 and T-S 16.260) and sent to Alexandria. This document lists 'the 7 notable men of the city.'

Testimony in the Jerusalemite synagogue regarding an estate of a Maghribi pilgrim to the Holy Land. Dated: Av 1652 Seleucid, which is July 1341. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Deposition in court by Abū al-Baqā ha-Kohen, son of Abū al-Ḥasan, that his step daughter owed him nothing with regard to the heritage of his wife, while he and his brother were in possession of certain ornaments belonging to the former. Dated 24 Sivan, 1541 Seleucid (1230). One of the witnesses if Shelomo, son of the judge Eliahu b. Zakhariya ha-dayyan. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Court testimony from Bilbays in which Sulayman ha-Levi b. Shelomo states that his brother Barakat made his will at the beginning of Shevat and died on the 26th of Tevet, and that his widow had agreed to a reduction of the late marriage gift to thirty dinars, probably because two minor daughters had to be provided for. Dated Kislev 1530/ December 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 390, and from Goitein's index cards)

Fragment of a court testimony in which Bishr b. Ibrahim sues Zayn concerning items in the estate of his deceased paternal uncle, Sadaqa b. Khalaf. Dated Tevet 1453/ December 1141. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Report of the death of a Jewish woman. In Arabic script. The deceased is Saʿdiyya bt. Yūsuf al-Yahūdi. Her father, Yūsuf, is the heir. Dated: Tuesday, 8 Rajab 657 AH, which is 1 July 1259 CE. Witnesses: Hibatallāh b. Faḍāʾil; Bū Saʿd b. Yūsuf b. Sālim. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Register, legal: biofolio of a notebook with legal and communal entries. In the first entry Abu al-Faraj al-Saigh b. Abu Ishaq Ibrahaim al-Maghrebi allows his wife to give thier son 10 shares of a house that belonged to her father. Signed are Ḥalfon ha-kohen b. Elazar and Shemuʾel b. Mevasser ha-Melammed. The year 27 is written and going by the script I assume 1527 is meant, i.e. 1216. In the next entry Barakat b. Munajja testifies that she owes Abu al-rida ha-levi 160 dirhams on top of a previous debt of 134 and a half dirhems. The third entry is a sale of a slave by Abu al-Faraj to Banat b. Yaaqov. On the back are accounts of communal collections.

Legal query regarding an inheritance, draft. The brother of the deceased had apparently not paid anything to the widow. The bulk of the query is in Judaeo-Arabic, with four lines of Arabic script at the bottom. At least the first three lines of the Arabic appear to be related (they twice mention Sayyidnā). On verso there is piyyuṭ.

Letter from Avraham ha-Reviʿi b. Shemuel ha-Shelishi, probably in Ramla, to Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Jerusalem. In Hebrew. Dating: Ca. 1040 CE. The letter is also signed by the physician ʿAmram b. Aharon ha-Kohen. (There was a liturgical poet by the name of Shemuel ha-Shelishi ("the Third") whose works survived in the Geniza and who lived around 1000, so this could well be his son.) The bearer of the letter is Moshe b. Mevasser. The senders ask the addressee to ensure that he receives the full third of his father's inheritance that is due to him; there are 3 brothers (including a Natan b. Mevasser), and none is the firstborn. Shelomo b. Yehuda writes about the same case in T-S 20.178. There is also a request "to obtain a little kohl for me to remove the whiteness from the eye of my little daughter," and a request for emblic (amlaj). There may be a reference to the controversy with Natan b. Avraham. (Information in part from Gil.) MR. ASE.

Legal document from 1145 in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Sitt al-Tujjar comes to court to collect her ketubba. the cort examines her ketubba and finds that she is trustworthy. The rest of the document deals with the sums she is owed and what she receives from the court and the orphans - since a third of the deed is still missing it is hard to understand the exact details. Join by Oded Zinger.

Legal deed. Testimony of Abu al-Khayr Khiyar the banker concerning a certain Ishaq who died 3-4 days after he had made a declaration in his favor. Signed by Elazar b. Yosef, Yeshua b. Yoshiyyahu nin Shemaya Gaon and Natan b. Shemuel. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

The part written with a wider pen resembles business accounts, while the part written with a thinner pen looks like a portion of a legal document. Dated: Monday, 25 Jumādā I 423 AH, which is May 1032 CE. The two text blocks might be unrelated, but it is tempting to read the upper portion as the inventory of an estate (the تركة repeatedly referred to underneath), while the lower portion includes witnesses' statements about the sale/auctioning of the estate. Mentions Aḥmad b. Hibatallāh al-Wakīl. The last sentence states that ʿAlī b. Musāfir will return to his wife after something to do with this inheritance. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) Two names visible are ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Yaḥyā.

Recto: Fragment of a large ketubba in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "The primary purpose of providing a woman with real estate was the creation for her of enduring economic security, which would make her financially independent. This is self-evident in the numerous cases in which a woman possessed more than one piece of property. For example, when a widow (or, less likely, divorcee, l. 10) brings into the marriage, besides a valuable bridal outfit, 'an entire large house in the Fortress of the Candles' (l. 7), another 'large house in the Grand Bazaar opposite the Funduq' (l. 9), and quarter of a house somewhere else (where, not preserved)." Med Soc, III, 326. Verso: Small fragment of a legal document, also in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, written on the back of the ketubba, dealing with money which was not included in an inheritance.

Legal document, fragment, in Arabic script, mentioning the property of the deceased in Fustat and Giza. This inheritance was attested in the presence of the chief justice, [al-A]jal Qāḍī l-Quḍat, testimony.

Legal document. Power of attorney. Dated: November 1050. Location: Fustat. An unsigned assignment of power of attorney from Eleazar Manṣūr ("Head of the Congregations") b. Menaḥem of Aleppo to Hillel b. Avraham. Eleazar waives all right to the claim that Hillel subverted his agency, suggesting this is an unlimited power of attorney. Although documents granting unlimited power of attorney are typically granted to agents effecting marriage, this document reveals Eleazar to have been appointed to collect on an inheritance claim advanced by one Mulūk bt. Neḥuma b. Wahab, a claim described in T-S 18J2.12 (PGPID 3527) wherein Mulūk explains that her inheritance was left by her father’s wife with Tamīm; in this document, Eleazar appoints Hillel to collect Mulūk’s inheritance from "…any person at all, among them… Tamīm…" (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 86-87)