Geniza Lab

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: middle third of Iyyar 1414 Seleucid, which is 1103 CE. Unsigned but complete document on vellum, in which a court, as warden of the two minor orphans of Shemuel b. Yefet, permits to use 50 dinars out of the 74 dinars left to them, for urgent repairs of a house in in the alley of מכיל, Old Cairo, left to them also. The money is held by Abū l-Faḍl al-Sharābī Shela b. Elʿazar. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 1151. Location: Minyat Ashna (near Fustat). Following appeals by his deceased brother Binyam's widow to the court, Kathīr b. Avraham takes over the maintenance (1 dinar a month, an aboslute requirement) of his sister-in-law's orphaned children as a sort of partnership. The sources of this funding are a) rent revenue from shops in Malij left to the children by Binyam and b), the profit earned by Kathīr from 20 dinars’ worth of silk from estate of Binyam. Unusually, the "partnership" profits are not split according to a fixed percentage, but rather the children, as the "silent partner", receive a fixed amount each month. This is effectively a long-term loan or trust created under the structure of a partnership agreement. Per Goitein, Shemuel b. Yehuda ibn Asad, previous caretaker of the orphans, was apparently a regular caretaker and trustee for orphans; see PGPID 2658. Shemuel is the same Abū al-Ma‘ālī in PGPID 6581. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 7-10)

Letter from the Nagid Natan Sholal ha-Kohen, in Fustat/Cairo, to Moshe b. Yehuda, in Alexandria. In Hebrew. Dating: Before 1502 CE and perhaps after 1498 CE (since Shalom b. Zaytūn lived in Safed before then). Issuing instructions concerning provisions for the orphans of R. Avraham b. Ḥisān, who previously lived in Alexandria but moved to Jerusalem to live with their mother upon the death of their father. Other people mentioned: the bearer of the letter Ḥayyim; R. Yaʿaqov Fransi (of Jerusalem) and his brother R. Yiṣḥaq Fransi; R. Ṣedaqa Nes (of Alexandria); and R. Shalom b. Zaytūn. (Information from Avraham David via FGP.)

Legal document. Dated: Thursday, 17 Nisan 1483 Seleucid (1172 CE). Inventory of the estate of the physician Abū l-Riḍā al-Levi, which was designated for the benefit of the orphan daughter of ʿImrān by order of "the great Rav Moshe," that is, Maimonides, who had recently been appointed head of the Jews. Also mentions the dead man's female slave named Musk. Join by S. D. Goitein. Join awaiting transcription. Goitein's notes say that Westminster Frag. Cairens. 25+ is another copy of this document, but the shelfmark must have changed (this should correspond to L-G Misc. 25, and nothing in the L-G Misc. folder appears to be related to this document).

Legal record, late, written in small square letters, dealing the property of orphans.

Accounts related to the Must'arabi community of Cairo in the year 5556 which is 1795/1796CE. The bifolium is very damaged along the edges but the paper's extensive length is still apparent and suggests that this was possibly a part of a broader communal charity register. Many individuals are listed as orphans or widows "[נה]אלמ" with corresponding figures in eastern Arabic numerals, namely: the widow of Nissim Binyamin, the widow of Ḥayyim 'Esur, the orphan of Nissim Kohen, the orphan of Shemuel 'Eṣmi. It is crucial to note that the first names of the widows and orphans themselves do note appear. The verso is blank. MCD.

Legal document concerning the appointment by the court of an agent for orphans, who will collect what is due them from their mother when they reach maturity, and the postponement of their debts. Dated: Tammuz 1310 of the Seleucid era, which is 999 CE. (Information from CUDL and from Catalogue of the Jack Mosseri Collection, p. 193.)

Legal document with testimony concerning orphans and Isaac Horoshban (הורושבן), who died. Mentions various people including Isaac Shanji (שאנגו). Dated 1st Tammuz 1586 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Avraham Ibn Miṣbāḥ, in Alexandria to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. Written in the hand of Avraham ha-Melammed b. Yefet. "I arrived in Alexandria with Manṣūr b. Simḥa ha-Kohen and found all the {orphan} children sick (marḍā tālifīn). They had taken on my account one dinar (?), and Manṣūr paid me 5 dinars." For some reason the money for the orphans has come out of the writer's account. The writer himself is in difficult straits; a judge wept when he heard the tale. He brought with him a letter of recommendation to show to Abū Surūr al-Kohen and somebody else, but they did not give him a response to the letter. Avraham reports that the orphans are praying on behalf of Eliyyahu that he will be rewarded for his good deeds with them. He does not have anything left of the 5 dinars, because he bought two thawbs and a blanket and the rest went to syrups (probably for the sick orphans). Eliyyahu is his patron; he repeatedly praises his generosity and reports how he praised him to various people in Alexandria. The writer has been waiting around in Alexandria for various officials to help him, and in the interim receives bread from the public distribution. He wants Eliyyahu to read this very letter to somebody else who will hopefully come to his aid. Some parts of the letter are quite difficult; merits further examination. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter from a woman to the Head of the Jews, in Fustat. Dating: Early twelfth century (see explanation below). The writer asks the addressee to send her money for two orphan sisters whose care she was reluctantly supervising. The girls were ten and thirteen years old and had no relatives to take care of them, and nothing to live on. They had been allotted two dinars from communal charity funds, but for some reason (the letter is torn here, and parts are missing) the money had not actually been sent; without it, they had "only enough for a crust of bread." A childless widow who lived nearby had volunteered to teach them embroidery, and the letter's narrator was willing to check in on them once in a while. But she refused to take them into her household, even though the girls themselves wanted her to: "They constantly tell me, 'We want to come to you so that you can take care of us.' She asked the Head of the Jews instead to provide the two dinars that the girls had been promised, along with extra funds to rent them a living space and to hire a religious steacher who could "teach them prayer, so they will not grow up like animals, not knowing shemaʿ yisra'el." Eve Krakowski, Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt, p.1. Regarding the date: "The time of the document can be defined approximately by the mention of al-haver Ibn al-Kāmukhi, the member of the yeshiva bearing a family name derived from the profession of kāmukhī, preparer of preserves with vinegar sauce. Two such persons are known, onel iving at the time of the Nagid Mevorakh, around 1095, and another during the incumbency of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya around 1145. The script of the letter would fit either of the two dates, better perhaps the latter." Goitein, "Side Lights on Jewish Education," p. 88 (doc. 3).

Letter from Umm Makīn, the wife of al-Sadīd, in Bilbays, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. The writer inquires from Eliyyahu about her son who was left under the judge's supervision, and requests release of money left to her other children. She is also concerned about the son's capitation tax.

Letter from Yosef b. Mūsā al-Tāharti, from Mahdiyya, written on New Year's eve to Nahray b. Nissīm, Fustat. Probably September 6, 1062. Mercantile letter regarding the shipments of goods and amounts of money that are about to be sent to Egypt, mostly flax. Mentions “the orphans of Jerusalem” for whom Yosef sends his daughter’s used cloths and a shipment towards Sfax. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #369) VMR, YU.

Legal document written under the authority of Nathaniel ha-Levi concernning payment of fees for an orphan preparing himself for the profession of his late father, Manṣūr b. Khalaf (known as Ibn al-Muṭrī). His mother Mulūk, widow of Khalaf the cantor, wants Manṣūr to be taught Torah by Abū Saʿd Saʿadya the cantor (known as Ibn al-Muʿallima, ‘the son of the female teacher’) b. Avraham. Fustat, Adar 1471/February-March 1160.

Recto: A woman complaining to the Nagid Mevorakh about her inefficient brother-in-law who was unable to secure her children's estate from his partner, expresses the apprehension that the latter too might die, and getting something out of orphans for other orphans was next to impossible. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 296, 302) Verso: List in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Letter, probably from Damascus, in which fifteen elders admonish a community in another country to bring to court a merchant against whom a widow held no fewer then twenty documents of indebtedness. His claims against the orphans of Ibn Saba had to be dealt with separately. Dated 10th century.

Deed of guardianship in the hand of Avraham, son of the Gaon, April or May, 1026, in which Eli b. Yefet (known as Bar ʿAdi), is appointed guardian for the orphans of Moshe ha-Kohen b. Gulayb, who had recently died without making a will, two of whom, a son called Gulayb (a future son-in-law of Efrayim b. Shemarya) and a daughter called Mulk, are already of age, as was established by the late Elkhanan ‘Head of the Row’, while another son, called Mufarraj, is only four years old. Among the witnesses is Yeshuʿa b. Ṣedaqa, and ʿEli is to carry out his guardianship under the scrutiny of Shelomo b. Saʿadya (known as Ibn Ṣagir). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti from Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1058. Mentions several goods including silk, copper, and seashells. Mentions family matters. The writer is concerned about family members and especially about girls that became orphans. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 215-224, #367). VMR

Responsum concerning orphans, describing a loan from orphans that is taken orally without an oath, and a statement that orphans who are in debt because of a deceased parent should not have anything taken from them until they reach a mature age. (Information partly from Goitein's index cards) EMS and VMR. The scribe is familiar from Avraham Maimuni's period. AA

The document begins with four faint lines from the end of a text concerning a halakhic problem and ends with the expression ישע רב , characteristic of Shelomo ben Yehuda. The remaining seven lines of text, in a different hand, constitute a letter dealing with the status of orphans and contain a noteworthy interpretation of Babylonian Talmud Baba Metsia 70a and Arakhim 229. (Hebrew Bible Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, Vol. 1, ed. M.C Davis and H. Knopf, 259-60) EMS Verso: Leviticus 8:9-11, 8:4-6, with the name Yosef in a different hand in the margin. (Information from CUDL)

Recto and verso relate to the same case: the betrothal of a nine year old orphan girl. A court document recording the refusal of the grandmother of an orphaned bride to pay her granddaughter's dowry in full when the groom Abraham b. Yefet, fails to live up to the promises he made in the betrothal agreement. The elders arranged a compromise between the groom and bride's grandmother. Bilbays 1221. See also PGPID 2223.