Geniza Lab

Leaf from a court ledger. Recto: Records in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Dated: Sivan 1456 Seleucid, which is June 1145 CE. Dealing with the sale of a house in the al-Mamṣūṣa quarter in Fustat for 123 dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 90, 283, 289)

Leaf from a court ledger. Verso: ʿAzīza bt. Abū Naṣr al-Marsā[nī] receives from ("al-Pe'er") Abū Saʿīd b. Thābit 24.5 dinars. Signed: Seʿadya b. Mevorakh (ZL). See PGPID 2533 for transcription.

Guarantee for a debt. Yūsuf b. Saʿīd agrees to cede 3/4 of a house and half of a ruin situated opposite it, to the orphan Hibat Allāh if he does not manage to pay him six dinars by Sivan 1461 Seleucid, which is April-May 1150 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 275.) On verso there is a list of copper vessels of a total value of 3 dinars in the possession of an orphan. (Information from Goitein's index card.) The bifolium bearing the shelfmarks Bodl. MS heb. d 66/110 and Bodl. MS heb. d 66/111 looks like it came from a court ledger. It is not immediately clear whether all the text pertains to the same case. ASE

Leaf from a court ledger. Probably belongs together with Bodl. MS heb. d 66/77 (and perhaps 66/78 as well). On recto, document (a) may be the end of a trousseau list. Document (b) is a record about a financial dispute between Faḍā'il and his mother-in-law. Among other matters, he accuses her of breaking a jar (zīr) that was worth 1 dinar by carrying it around from place to place.

Ledger of accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Very similar to ENA NS 33.12, perhaps even a join (but there are some differences in the handwriting). Currencies: gold cedid (f.1r), קרונה, several more. There are also some narrative notes ('memorandum against forgetting. . .'). Merits further examination.

Bifolio from a court ledger. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. Three records at least: 1) Settlement of a complex marriage dispute involving Abū Yaʿqūb b. Yosef Ibn al-Dhahabī, his daughter, and her husband Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Avraham b. ʿOvadya. The father-in-law and wife must fulfill some condition involving property rights, and if they do not, she will be divorced without a right to her ketubba. If they do, the ketubba stays as is. On the other side, the husband Abū l-Mufaḍḍal undertakes not to beat her or insult her or demand "the fruits" of the property. Dated: Tammuz 1453 Seleucid = 1142 CE. 2) Long inventory of valuable goods. Dowry list? Spans front and back of a single folio. 3) Details of the sale of a female slave. Her name: Jinān. Buyer: Mufaḍḍal b. Abū Saʿd b. Ṣibyān. Seller: Netanʾel b. Yiṣḥaq. Price: 34 dinars. 2 dinars will be paid in Tishrei 1454 Seleucid = 1142 CE, and the remaining 32 dinars in monthly installments of 1 dinar. The guarantor is al-Labbān b. ʿAbdallāh. Jinān has a 2-year-old daughter named Wafāʾ, who will remain with the seller (separated from her mother).

Account book. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Early 18th century. See Penn catalog for further information; merits further examination.

Ledger fragment in Judeo-Arabic in three folios from across the year 1239AH which is 1823/24CE. The ledger's heading on the first scan begins with the blessing "דפטר מובארך אן שא אללה / may this register be blessed God willing" and goes on to depict the first series of entries as being related to sales "מוביע ". This first series of sales is in dirāhim and related to four individuals: Sayyid Aḥmed al-Sāde[?], Manṣūr al-Jihāmi, Nasla[?] Yūsuf, and Aḥmed Sa'ūdi. These individuals are mentioned on subsequent folios long with others such as Daūd Sulaymān, though it is unclear if the later document content is related to the same purchases or other business dealings. MCD.

Account ledger. 34 bifolia. Dating: 18th or 19th c.

Account ledger. 46 bifolia. Dating: 18th or 19th c.

Accounts in an orderly scribal hand on a bifolium whose folding and size is suggestive of the existence of a broader ledger (from which there is at least one other join: JRL SERIES C 6). Based on the paleography, the dating is likely 19th- or late-18th century.

Accounts in an orderly scribal hand on a bifolium whose folding and size is suggestive of the existence of a broader ledger (from which there is at least one other join: JRL SERIES C 6). Based on the paleography, the dating is likely 19th- or late-18th century. With the exception of a single, possibly related, note in Judeo-Arabic on the recto the entirety of the document is in Arabic and the numerals are eastern Arabic. Many of the headings are organized by days of the week which encompass additional isolated entries that are designated by individuals' names. MCD.

Four court records from Fustat, August - September, 1132. Record A: Complaint, followed by retraction thereof, about a load of caraway, which was deposited with the representative of the merchants Record B: Conclusion of a partnership of perfume sellers and doctors. Record C: An agreement by which Natan b. Shemuel promises to take care of an old woman and to arrange her burial as opposed to the gift she gave him. NB: The shelfmark is listed as NLI 4° 577, no. 83 in Goitein's publications (Med Soc V, 539, n. 410, and the Kirjath Sepher article).

Left side: See Friedman, Teuda, 3, 72 and SDG index card

Two fragments of a legal document. The right fragment is a summons written by Yefet b. David the cantor, summoning Nehemiah b. Avraham to court. In the left fragment the court gives Shelomo b. Moshe 2 dinars for buying flour for orphans. (Information from E. Bareket, Shafrir Misrayim, pp.138, 167, 169, 252)

Legal record. Only the very end is preserved. Dated: 1429 Seleucid, which is 1126/27 CE. Signed: Avraham b. Shemaʿya; Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib; ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen. NB: T-S NS 226.9–11b are all bifolios in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, probably from the same court ledger. The righthand page of T-S NS 226.9 in fact has the mirror-image imprint of T-S NS 226.11a.

Ledger of accounts in Arabic script and eastern Arabic numerals. Late. 30 pages.

List of accounts on a bifolium that may have once comprised a broader financial ledger. The method of bookkeeping is terse but relies on a predictable structure in which each entry is designated on a daily basis. On the verso, two forms of Ottoman coinage are referenced along the right margin of the fragment: "sherifi" and "kurush", which are accompanied by notes in both Hebrew alphanumerical figures and eastern Arabic numerals. The presence of silver kuruş is useful in estimating the dating of the document as 18th or 19th-century (given that these coins were not widely minted until 1703CE: Pamuk, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, 160). MCD.

Late accounts in Judaeo-Arabic on a bifolium that is suggestive of the existence of a broader ledger (which is also attested to by this fragment's joins). The owner of the ledger mentions being in Alexandria in the year 1583 CE (Iyyar 5343) in the middle portion of the verso and in the same entry mentions "Ibrāhīm Basha" which may constitute a reference to a state official. At the top of the verso, the scribe also mentions a transaction with one Yiṣḥaq b. Rozel in which silver medin coinage is in use "מיידי". One half of the recto is severely discolored and the other includes a wide array of daily financial entries where "jadid" (or "cedid" in Ott. Turkish) coinage may be in use (l. 3r). MCD.

Bifolium from a notebook. One and a half pages are filled with a poem in Ladino involving a husband and wife and a knight, with refrains which are different from each other but which all end with "yo." The remaining two and a half pages are filled with accounts in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning the year 1581 (Elul 5341) and 1582 CE (Elul 5342). Merits further examination.