Geniza Lab

Deed in which Abū Isḥāq Abzārī gives the Nagid Avraham Maimonides the right to buy back the burj, a tower in the ancient Byzantine fortress of Fustat, for sixty dinars for a period of five years. The rent was waived. The deed is dated Tevet 4974 (1213/4) with the day of the month and week left blank, and no space is left for signatures. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein MedSoc, Vol. 4, p. 87.)

Draft(?) of a court record. Dated: 29 Nisan 1543 Seleucid, which is April 1232 CE. The widow (Sitt al-)Tujjār bt. Manṣūr claims that 10 shares in a house in Bilbays belong to her children as heirs of her husband. Tujjār's sister-in-law's husband, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Yosef ha-Kohen, produces Arabic deeds, not confirmed by a Jewish court, showing that the children's grandmother had sold him those shares. He asserted that in Bilbays such confirmations are not customary. Tujjār produces a Hebrew document witnessed, but not validated by a court. At the advice of experts, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ agrees to pay his nephews 300 dirhams. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc, vol. 4, p. 276, and Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Copy of a deed relating to the settlement of the property of Khalaf b. Iṣḥaq, deceased, who left one daughter only. Dated Monday, 21 January 1028 CE, at Fustat. (Information from the Bodleian Genizah website.)

Donation of agricultural floodland from one sister to another – 30 December 1909CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 35) – in Arabic, and four lines in French. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 74). MCD.

Bill of exchange pledged for the rental of river floodland in which the amount paid is to the Jewish owner of the land – 18 October 1916CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 48) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 71). MCD.

Contract for the sale of a house in the center of Ṭanṭa in the amount of thirty thousand qirsh – 27 April 1921CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 5) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 73). MCD.

Document for the sale of real estate in river floodland – 1950CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 66) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 73). MCD.

Receipt for the payment of the rental of river floodland signed by the debtors Ayūb Ṣīyām and his son Ibrahīm to the creditor Kẖawaja Mūsā Abū Hārūn – 15 October 1915CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 87) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 72). For other documents involving Kẖawaja Mūsa Abū Hārūn see MIAC 15, 88, 211. MCD.

Receipt for the payment of the rental of river floodland signed by the debtors Maḥmūd Ḥasaneyn and Muḥammad ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān to the creditor Kẖawaja Mūsa Abū Hārūn – 15 October 1915CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 88) – in Arabic.(information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 72). For other documents connected to Kẖawaja Mūsa Abū Hārūn see MIAC 15, 87, 211. MCD.

Large legal document (drafts?) at least partially in the hand of Meʾir b. Hillel b. Ṣadoq. Dated: Thursday, 1 Tammuz 4940 AM = 26 June 1180 CE. A man named Moshe b. Shelomo who had inherited from his wife 8 out of 24 shares of a house in the neighborhood of Ḥammām al-Akhawayn, which had belonged to his father-in-law Hillel b. Avraham b. Elishaʿ, gives two shares to his mother-in-law Sitt al-Tujjār bt. Yaʿaqov b. Ḥananʾel as a gift and leases the remaining 6 shares to his two sisters-in-law (Sitt al-Kafāʾa and Sitt al-Turaf the wife of Elʿazar b. Nadiv) for a 5-year period ending Iyyar 4945 AM (= 1185 CE) for a total rent of 15 dinars, which sum he renounces to them. In the margin (in another hand), these shares are given to them as a gift. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) Oded Zinger identified that T-S NS J20 and T-S 12.477 are from the same document; Alan Elbaum identified that T-S AS 168.232 bridges the gap and joins the two larger pieces. Merits further examination.