Geniza Lab

Fragment of an Arabic debt acknowledgment (iqrār) by Mūsā b. Yehuda.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār) by a certain Futūḥ b. Aḥmad. Mentions the judge in whose presence the iqrār took place, another person by the name of Yūsuf, who could possibly be the second beneficiary and the city of Fusṭāṭ. Dated: Possibly 623 AH. Concerns dealings in a drug shop. Some of the legal formulary refers to "and no drugs, nor saffron, nor any kind of drug..." Needs further examination

Legal deed: iqrār (deed of acknowledgment) in Arabic script for Sulaymān b. ?, right half only, sewing holes in the right margin.

Legal document (iqrār). Acknowledgment made by al-muʿallim Yaʿqūb b. Ismāʿīl. In Arabic script. Needs examination for content and dating.

ENA 3960.6–10 are five distinct but related Mamlūk-era legal documents in Arabic script, all dated 909 H (1503/04 CE), and involving the same people (e.g., Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Khwājā Yūsuf b. al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Tājir al-Saffār(?) al-Ḥalabī) and the same witnesses (Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. [...] and Ismāʿīl [...]). This document is a deed of sale pertaining to 66 medins (nuṣf) for 20 red and yellow sufras. The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgment which is also a sub-genre of Islamic legal manuals (shurūṭ al-fiqh). It is an iqrār (acknowledgment) of ghubn (defect) and barāʾa, meaning that the buyer acknowledges and accepts any (possible) defects in the object of sale (ghubn) and the seller is ‘innocent’ (hence barāʾa) of any allegation of defect, or effective defect, in the object. (For reference, see Asyuṭī, Jawāhir al-Ūqūd). The style of mentioning the price of the object of sale and its half is a typical fashion of indicating prices in a sale deed to avoid any errors. The document is dated 14th Rabīʿ al-Awwal 909 H/23rd September 1503 CE.

ENA 3960.6–10 are five distinct but related Mamlūk-era legal documents in Arabic script, all dated 909 H (1503/04 CE), and involving the same people (e.g., Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Khwājā Yūsuf b. al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Tājir al-Saffār(?) al-Ḥalabī) and the same witnesses (Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. [...] and Ismāʿīl [...]). This document is a deed of sale pertaining to 6 dinars and 8 medins for 10 Aleppan shaylas. The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgment which is also a sub-genre of Islamic legal manuals (shurūṭ al-fiqh). It is an iqrār (acknowledgment) of ghubn (defect) and barāʾa, meaning that the buyer acknowledges and accepts any (possible) defects in the object of sale (ghubn) and the seller is ‘innocent’ (hence barāʾa) of any allegation of defect, or effective defect, in the object. (For reference, see Asyuṭī, Jawāhir al-Ūqūd). The style of mentioning the price of the object of sale and its half is a typical fashion of indicating prices in a sale deed to avoid any errors. The document is dated Rabīʿ al-Ākhar 909 H/September 1503 CE.

ENA 3960.6–10 are five distinct but related Mamlūk-era legal documents in Arabic script, all dated 909 H (1503/04 CE), and involving the same people (e.g., Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. al-Khwājā Yūsuf b. al-Ḥājj ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Tājir al-Saffār(?) al-Ḥalabī) and the same witnesses (Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. [...] and Ismāʿīl [...]). The document is a deed of sale pertaining to 15 black mayzars and 30 sufras for 14 dinars. The genre of the sale document is an iqrār, i.e., an acknowledgement which is also a sub-genre of with Islamic legal manuals (shurūṭ al-fiqh). It is an iqrār (acknowledgement) of ghubn (defect) and barāʾa, meaning that the buyer acknowledges and accepts any (possible) defects in the object of sale (ghubn) and the seller is ‘innocent’ (hence barāʾa) of any allegation of defect, or effective defect, in the object. (For reference, see Asyuṭī, Jawāhir al-Ūqūd). The style of mentioning the price of the object of sale and its half is a typical fashion of indicating prices in a sale deed to avoid any errors. The document is dated 20th Rabīʿ al-Awwal 909 H/21st September 1503 CE.

Legal document. Acknowledgement of loan. Dating: February 1135, in (new) Cairo. Document recognizing a loan of 10 dinars from Yosef ha-Levi to Yefet b. Yaḥyā for the term of one year, to coincide exactly with the term of a partnership between them ("the beginning of Adar II", 1446). Per Maimonides, whenever one gives funds to another person to transact, half of the funds comprise a loan for which the active partner is fully responsible, even in the case of an unavoidable circumstance. The concurrent nature of the loan and the partnership to which the loan agreement alludes suggests the application of this principle, as does the fact that Yefet is responsible for the debt. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 211)

Acknowledgment by Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham ha-Maʿaravi of debt amounting to 600 niqar which he owes to David Kohen b. Shelomo, written in Fustat, 967.

Iqrar ('acknowledgment') document stipulating a term of three months for the repayment of a sum of 10 dinars and noting that repayment is to entered on the reverse side, Iyyar 1418/April 1107.

Acknowledgment of debt, unfinished. Debtor: Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen b. Yehuda ha-Kohen. Creditor: Abu Naṣr Yehuda ha-Levi b. Yeshuʿa the minister (ha-sar). Town of al-Banhā,, Sunday, 3rd of Tishri 1556 sel., (1244, the day of the week does not match the date. MY) (Information from Goitein's index card) Followed by post-classical rhymed seliḥot for the ten days of repentance on recto and verso, with an alphabetic acrostic. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Acknowledgment of debt of seventy dinars Abu l-Tana al-Sukkari (the sugar seller) b. Abu l-Barakat the perfumer by Aharon Ha-Kohen the perfumer. Verso: Rhymed funerary poem.

Acknowledgement of receipt of money by Abu al-Faraj b. Shanuda the Christian seaman, leader of the sailors of "the weavers," from Abu Sa’d Daniyal b. Mina in the town of Akhmim. Dated: Jumada II 534 (January–February 1140). (Information from Khan) EMS Reused by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo (see PGPID 34347).

Legal document: deed of acknowledgment (iqrar) for Mahasin b. Said b. Hilal al-Yahudi al-Attar, first five lines only. Probably 11th century.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Dating: Probably late Mamluk or Ottoman-era, based on hand and overall appearance. There is the remnant of an ʿalāma at the top (katabahū Aḥmad?). The first line mentions al-madrasa al-Ṣāliḥiyya al-Najmiyya (i.e., the madrasa founded by al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb in 1242 and still standing today). The next line gives the name of [...] al-Dīn (or [...]d b.?) Abū l-Faraj (or Abū l-Fatḥ?) Muḥammad b. al-Muḥibb(?) al-khaṭīb al-mālikī khalīfat al-ḥukm al-ʿazīz bi-l-diyār al-miṣriyya. On verso there is related text, perhaps an addendum.

Legal document dealing with a loan granted by Abū Naṣr Elʿazar b. Karmī Ibn Shabīb to Abū Manṣūr Elʿazar Ibn Zabqala. Dated: Tammuz 1543 Seleucid, which is 1232 CE. Same case as T-S Misc.25.2. Goitein originally described the borrower as a communal official and described the occasion of the loan as public expenses such as dues on the import of myrtles into Fustat. He later wrote, "The 62 Kāmilī fulūs were dirhems and not copper coins and were regarded as an equivalent of 9 Nāṣirī dirhems plus customs dues paid to the makkāsīn Miṣr, the customs officials of Fusṭāṭ. (I had read instead of mksyn - mrsyn, and translated consequently "myrtles"!). Thus, 62 Kāmilī fulūs do not correspond exactly to 9 Nāṣirī dirhems, but to a somewhat higher amount. The customs dues were paid for... anbāq ḥashīsha. Should we assume that in those days not only the leaves and stalks of the hemp, but also its berries were used as drugs?" (Information from Goitein's index cards, Mediterranean Society, I, p. 385, and S. D. Goitein, “Erratum to JESHO 8 [1965] on The Exchange Rate of Gold and Silver Money in Fatimid and Ayyubid Times,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 12, no. 1 (January 1969), 112.) VMR. ASE. Join: Alan Elbaum.