Geniza Lab

Legal document: an agreement concerning a levirate marriage, second half of the 15th century.

Bottom right corner of a 14th C legal contract, probably a contract, dated 27th Muḥarram 723 AH.

List of payments, 16th century.

Legal document, Mamlūk era, deed of sale, in a very faint and worn-off Arabic script. The document is dated to the last ten days (ʿushr al-ākhir) of Rabīʿ II 660 H and the word "اباع" indicates that the document is a deed of sale. Reused for Aramaic liturgical text on verso with some traces also on recto.

Fragment of a court record. Location: Cairo. Dating: Second half of the 13th century.

Chancery or fiscal document, presumably Mamluk period. There are two lines preserved, consisting of a date (the month Rajab is visible) and the ḥamdala. The text was folded down the middle to form a bifolio and reused for notes on the Jewish calendar, a roster for the years starting with 1275/6 until the mid-fourteenth century. But the roster contains errors, such as parts of the sequence that are repeated. There are also jottings, including a biblical quotation. (Marina Rustow, with information on the calendar roster from Sacha Stern)

Legal document, 12 lines, in Arabic script, dated 4th Muḥarram al-Ḥarām of an undecipherable year [8..?]. Concerning [...] b. al-Muʿallim Ṣadaqa the Samaritan Jew, a receipt of something (waṣala...), and a period of time. The occurrence of few sums of money indicates a fiscal account or commercial transaction - 'min al-fiḍḍat al-anṣāf al-judūd', which points to the Mamlūkī silver 'half' coin of al-Muʾayyad Shaykh and suggests that this letter is dated no earlier than 1415 CE, as this was the year when the ruler imposed the 'half' as the basic silver coin. Other measures mentioned are 'Khamsīn naṣṣan mā-huwa ḥāmiluhu', 'khamsat wa-thalāthīn fiḍḍa'.

Legal document(s) in Arabic script. Dating: Probably late Mamluk or Ottoman. Narration of commercial trade accounts. The word 'qabaḍ' appears in prolific numbers associated usually with commodities and sometimes with their price. Measures of some commodities in terms of their monetary value and sizes are also mentioned. Needs examination.

Top of a decree(?) fragment with a basmala and few honorifics: al-amr al-karīm al-ʿālī al-mawlawī. Probably Mamlūkī.

Petition or formal letter from ʿAbdallāh b. Bū Bakr to ʿIzz al-Dīn the amīr shikār (master of the hunt). In Arabic script. Dating: Mamluk-era. Only the first few lines are preserved (tarjama, basmala, and first two lines of the actual document, beginning with a taqbīl), and there is an address on verso. ASE

Recto: Petition in Arabic script. Draft. Dating: Probably Mamluk-era. The sender asks to be excused from having to go up to the dike. Reused for Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī (d. after 1298).

Letter from a certain Yūsuf, en route from Damascus to Cairo, to the amīr Sanbāy, in Cairo (Ṣalība street). In Arabic script. Dating: Mamluk-era. The letter opens with greetings to Burhān, [...], al-Ḥājj Badr, the people of the Ṭashtkhāna (طشتخانة, apparently the place where the royal textiles were kept, washed, and prepared), the Mahtār al-Khayl (also a Mamluk title, taken from a Persian word, meaning something like groom/keeper of the horses), al-muʿallim Aḥmad, [...], al-Ḥājj ʿAlī, Muḥammad al-ʿIfrīt, Badr al-Dīn al-Mukārī, and the people (=women?) of the house. The sender's party has been delayed on account of the mules and the 'house,' but they hope to arrive soon. The amir ʿAlī Bey greets the addressee. Burhān is asked to get the house ready, for the women are going to arrive soon. The sender conveyed a memorandum/document (mutālaʿa) with orders for Abū Bakr al-Maghzī, but Abū Bakr disobeyed him. Also, no one extended hospitality to him in Damascus, even though he conveyed the muṭālaʿāt for Muḥammad (the addressee's brother-in-law?). "He did not attend to me or even break a loaf of bread in my face." ASE

Official letter of the Mamlūk period. [Described on the paper wrapper as: "une lettre de l'epoque des mamelucks caucasiens (?)" ; on a separate small piece of paper : "A letter from the mamlouk Circasian period"].

Petition, possibly Mamluk.

Receipt for tax dated 701 (1302)

Receipt for tax, possibly Mamluk

Petition (formula: al-mamlūk yuqabbil al-yad al-ʿāliya), 1106H (?)

Receipt for payment of a tax farmer (dāmin, lines 2) in Fustat. The month of Ramadan al-Muʿaẓẓam of the year 701. Alama: al-ḥamdu lillāh sallama taslīman (?). Verso has a note about the shop (dukkān) of someone. 9 x 7 approximately

Legal query draft regarding a man who willed his executor to buy landed property worth 500 dinars, the proceeds of which were to be divided equally between the poor of his town and the family of his paternal uncle. Question: have the great-grandchildren of that paternal uncle rights on the will? It is unclear if this was written before or after the letter from 1208 on recto. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 436, and Goitein's note card.)

Letter from David Kohen to the Nagid R. Natan Sholal, the penultimate Nagid of Egypt. Dating: end of the 15th century.