Geniza Lab

Letter from the head of the court of Palermo (perhaps Maṣliaḥ b. Eliyya) to his counterpart in Qayrawan, ca. 1050 CE. The letter details a legal suit between Shemu'el/Ismaʿīl, who is overseas, and his brother Abū Zikrī, who has been in Palermo and managing Ismaʿīl's store, and it seems that Abu Zikri or his mother sold Ismaʿīl's courtyard. Ismaʿīl appointed Shemuel b. Ḥayyim to represent him (?) in the case against Abū Zikrī. Part of the issue was whether Abū Zikrī had been conducted business as a partnership with his brother or with his own money. One witness, Ṣāliḥ b. Yūsuf al-Ṣabbāgh, witnessed and took an oath that it was a partnership. Abū Zikrī's brother-in-law is attempting to mediate a settlement involving a transfer of 20 gold coins and 800 qelafim (sheets of parchment?), which have already been sent with Nissim b. Menaḥem. Ismaʿīl is now to draw up a document in Arabic ("let it be witnessed by Gentile witnesses in Mahdiyyah and Qayrawan") and in Hebrew ("in the beit midrash of rabbenu," i.e., the recipient) releasing Abū Zikrī from all claims relating to the store and the courtyard. However, if Ismaʿīl does not accept this settlement, he should write as much, and the court in Palermo will proceed with the implementation of justice. Information from Menahem Ben Sasson's edition. ASE.

Court record in which Abū Sulaymān Dāʾūd b. Abū al-Khaṣīb Zurʿa confirms to owe to Abū al-Maʿālī al-Tājir b. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Tājir, aka Shemuʾel b. Judah Ben Asad, 100 dinars which he will return in two yearly installments. If he were to be late in doing so, he owes a fine of 10 dinars to the poor of Egypt to be collected for them by the Court. This debt was originally made before a Muslim court. Here it is prolonged. Fustat, Marḥeshvan 1153, written but not signed by Natan b. Shemuʿel. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 9, Vol. 2, p. 110.)

Legal document. Fragment from a Hebrew bill of release, 10-11th century. Contains reference to A Muslim legal document and which is invalid and can not be accepted. Shlomo Halevi, Ya'aqov b. […] and Yosef are mentioned. No signatures survived. Hebrew. AA

Fragment of a legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Includes the phrases "her husband," "from the house," and "the scribes of the gentiles."

Legal document involving a dispute between Abu Saʿd Kohen, Abū l-Makārim, payments in installments, and the sale of cheese. One of the parties resorted to the Muslim courts ("al-goyim"). The sum at stake is a matter of 12 dinars. Join: Oded Zinger.

Letter in Hebrew giving a detailed account of a dispute, apparently in the Muslim courts, regarding the flax trade, a legal document, and the validity of its witnesses. Protagonists include Naḥman, his son-in-law Sulaymān b. Ḥasan b. Rabīʿ, someone's son (perhaps Sulaymān's), and Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Qāsim known as al-Kāmilī. The writer's group received a power of attorney (ketav ha-harsha'ah), and the authorized person went to the official (ha-paqid) who gave an order to do something with the flax. There follows a lengthy description of arguments over whom to give what money to and which documents can be trusted and whose signatures. After all this talk and trouble, "they could not save even a penny from his hand. Now you should come, and there is nothing to it except that he should come and take his money, or . . . he should draw up a sheṭar for the Ishamelites... all of the Ishmaelite elders..." The location of the events and protagonists is uncertain but may be named somewhere in the letter. The writer may refer to an official who is in Sinai (?! הפקיד שבסיני). There is also a question of long distance flax shipping, as highway robbers are mentioned. ASE.

Draft of deed of attorney written in Tyre, which includes an accounting between partners after the death of one of them, Menashshe b. Yiṣḥaq, and indicates the use of documents drawn in a Muslim court. Dating: Ca. 1041 or slightly later. According to Bareket, this is in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya, it was drawn up in Fustat, and it is related to T-S 10J6.6 and T-S 8J11.1.

Letter from the year 1103 (established according to Shela's biography, see Frenkel, Compassionate, p. 76). The letter is written in the hand of Shela b. Mevasser to Mevorakh, the Nagid. Shela asks the Nagid to intervene in a legal dispute because he was unable to resolve it with his authority. (Information from Frenkel; Cohen adds: Shela reported about someone from Barqa who has caused much trouble. He induced an orphan boy to allow him to act as his representative against his mother, who then complained about this. The troublemaker was brought before the community and the wrong was redressed, but afterwards this maker of mischief continued his plotting against the widow. Eventually a relative of hers took her case before the Muslim authorities, a move which caused difficulties for the community. The elders of the community have now sent a report (mahdar) to 'our lord' via someone traveling (to the capital), and the addressee will learn all about what the evildoers have done. The Barqi Jews refuse to have anything to do with the person because of his stupidity (jahl)).

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: August 9, 1077. Location: Alexandra. This release document, written in the Alexandria rabbinical court, concerns a partnership between Yosef b. Yoshiyya Ibn al-Dhahabī and Khalaf b. ʿIzrūn, which seems to have been canonized in an "Arabic document" in the hand of the latter. The document seems to have been the product of an Islamic court, as it "bear[s] testimony of non-Jews". The partners release each other from a number of possible partnership forms: the khulṭa, the shirka, and the muʿāmala. The partners also release each other from any qirāḍ later in the release clauses; this is certainly because of the linguistic relationship between qirāḍ and qarḍa (though qarḍa refers to a loan, not a partnership agreement). The partners also absolve each other from all oaths, including the ḥerem setam or "anonymous ban" (imposed by the Geonim as the "oath of partners" to prevent malfeasance). These partners likely worked together as partners for a number of years. In T-S 13J1.16, dated to 1066, Yosef appoints Khalaf his agent. It's possible that T-S 16.138 is a release from that agency relationship, but lines 18-19 suggest that the two parties later restructured their relationship and contracted as partners, from which the present document grants release. The signatories, Mawhūb the Ḥazzan b. Aharon the Ḥazzan and Shela b. Mevasser, are well-known members of the rabbinical court of Alexandria at the end of the eleventh century. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 131.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning [...] b. Kuḥla, a ghulām, and Muslim courts. There are jottings in the margin and on verso, including of the name Yosef b. Avraham.