Geniza Lab

Recto: Legal document. On parchment. In the handwriting of Mevorakh b. Natan. In which Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet the head Parnas leaves to his wife Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya, their two daughters, and their female slave 25 dinars and 5 irdabbs of wheat for the duration of his absence in Yemen, in addition to the rent of a new house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat (which he has already sold to her, as certified in a separate document in her possession). Verso: Draft of a legal document. In which Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya testifies that she has received from her husband Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet all that was due to her from her ketubba (dated Av 1468 Seleucid = 1157 CE), including all but 5 dinars from the delayed marriage payment (muʾakhkhar) of 60 dinars and her dowry worth 400 dinars (except for the female slave who "was lost"—ran away?—from the house even before Moshe b. Yefet traveled). Moshe b. Yefet is also known from other documents; he signed PER H 161 in Yemen in 1156 CE. And T-S 8J5.23 (dated 1169 CE) is a conditional bill of divorce which he granted to Sitt al-Fakhr before departing for Yemen (perhaps T-S 8J5.23 and T-S 12.585r were drawn up at the same time, and T-S 12.585v is evidence that the conditional divorce was fulfilled?). There is additional text in the upper margin and beneath the main text block at 90 degrees. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and Ashur and Outhwaite, "Between Egypt and Yemen in the Cairo Genizah" (2014).)

Recto: Letter in Hebrew. Dating: early 13th century, based on the mention of the Judge Anaṭoli in the penultimate line. The sender is apparently a Byzantine Jewish man. He married either a Christian woman or a Jewish woman who converted to Christianity (along with him? והלכ[ה] אחרי אלי נכר). Then he tried to persuade her to return to Judaism. She said, How can I leave here (Byzantium) and eat and live? He arranges to support her with four pounds (ליטרין) of bread and one pound (רטל) of meat each week. With this, she was supposed "to sit and to make Rūmī garments" (on such garments see Goitein, Med Soc IV, 191–92). The letter becomes more fragmentary around here; mentions a Jewish woman; a Christian man; someone quarreling a lot with the sender (probably his wife); Muslims; giving some people a bribe; and perhaps accusing a man of sleeping with his wife (וחטאת עמה). Then he went to the Judge Anaṭoli and confessed. (Information in part from Goitein's index card, Goitein, Med Soc IV, 236, note 82, and de Lange, Byzantium in the Cairo Genizah, 40.) This document has also been edited by Ze'ev Falk in Sinai 85 (1979), 147–48.