Geniza Lab

Record of payment of rent, ca. 1186. A payment of 100 wariq dirhams (for a period of one year's rent) is received from Abu Ishaq al-Adani. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 361 #92)

Bill of release written in Tyre 11th century. Malīḥa bt. Shemarya (?) the widow of [...[ yedid ha-yeshiva b. Peraḥya declares that she had sent what was in the possesion of Abu al-Faḍā'il Ṣadaqa b. Yosef and releases him from any claims regarding any loss due to the dangers of travel.

Legal document from 1145 in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Sitt al-Tujjar comes to court to collect her ketubba. the cort examines her ketubba and finds that she is trustworthy. The rest of the document deals with the sums she is owed and what she receives from the court and the orphans - since a third of the deed is still missing it is hard to understand the exact details. Join by Oded Zinger.

Page of the record book of the rabbinical court of Fustat, in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Trimmed at top, bottom and one side. Recto: a bill of sale or a quittance. Verso: Top contains last lines of a record dated last day of Nissan, 1472 Sel. = 14 April 1116, signed by Nissim b. Nahray; Avraham b. Shemaya he-haver. Main entry is a legal document also dated 1116 (4427), citing a document written by the chief rabbi of Aleppo, Barukh b. Yishaq, a power of attorney for Abu Surur Simha ha-Kohen, representing the brothers Abu l-Ma'ali and Abu l-Wafa, and Abu l-Ḥasan al-Halabi al-Sayrafi. (Information from Goitein's 8.5x11 notes; see attached scan).

Court record book of 1116 from the rabbinical court of Fustat, in the hand of Hillel b. Eli (OZ thinks it is Ḥalfon b. Menashshe). Trimmed at top, bottom and one side. Recto: a bill of sale or a quittance. Verso: Top contains last lines of a record dated last day of Nissan, 1427 Sel. = 14 April 1116, signed by Nissim b. Nahray; Avraham b. Shemaya he-haver. Main entry is a legal document also dated 1116 (1427), citing a document written by the chief rabbi of Aleppo, Barukh b. Yishaq, a power of attorney for Abu Surur Simha ha-Kohen, representing the brothers Abu l-Ma'ali and Abu l-Wafa, and Abu l-Ḥasan al-Halabi al-Sayrafi. (Information from Goitein's 8.5x11 notes; see attached scan).

Legal document: quittance in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. A certain Avraham b. Shelomo Tiilmisani, acting as a custodian (apotropos), releases a certain Joseph b. Amram known as al-Fituri (?) in some commercial transaction. Aharon and Na'aman are also mentioned. Maybe Alexandria. The three fragments do not actually join but they are clearly related to the same case, and perhaps part from the same document. Join by Amir Ashur and Oded Zinger.

Quittance, draft in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya in which a mother obliges herself to release her son from any lawsuit filed by herself or her daughter from a previous marriage. Dating: ca. 1038 CE. (Information from Bareket)

Release after the remittance of a debt (piqadon), from mid-January/mid-May 1045, Jerusalem. The releasing parties: Mevasser b. Shela al-'Amtani and his wife Ghāliya bt. Ashlimon al-Dalātī. The released: Yiṣḥaq b. Yaʿaqov "the Sanhedrin member" and his mother Salma bt. Yefet ha-Kohen. VMR

Recto: Acknowledgment of debt. Lender: Abū l-ʿAlā al-Ṣabbāgh (the dyer) b. Abū Saʿd. Borrower: Abu ʿImrān ʿAmram ha-Levi ha-Talmid. Verso: Records of completed payments. (Information from CUDL.) VMR Should be dated to early 13th century.

Recto: A merchant in Fustat releases another merchant from a debt of 85 dinars. Dated 1286/ 974. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 253) Verso: aggressive magical recipes in Judaeo-Arabic in a different hand than that on recto. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a settlement with a widow. Dated: Nisan 1456 Seleucid, which is 1145 CE, under the authority of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. The widow acknowledges that she had already received the immediate installments from the marriage gift, as well as copper and other items. The total still due to her was one third, and she has now received it. Her brother releases the heirs in her name from any future claims. Witnesses: Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 387.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 20 Shevaṭ 1422 Seleucid, which is 1111 CE. Quittance of the debt of Shelomo b. Ḥayyim ha-Sheviʿi made in court. Also mentions Abū l-Munā b. Ḥayyim (possibly identical with Shelomo) and Maṣliaḥ b. Yosef, the one granting the release. Cf. JRL Gaster heb. ms 1760/5 (upper fragment).

Quittance granted by [...] bt. ʿAbdallāh al-[...] to Abū l-Faraj Sulaymān(?) b. Hārūn al-Khaybarī(?) known as Ibn al-Sulūkī(?) and who was somehow associated with the treasury (bayt al-māl al-maʿmūr). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) "In a few surviving quittance documents from the Fatimid period the early opening formula is attached to the beginning of the iqrār, e.g. T-S Ar. 41.99: hādhā kitāb barā'a li-fulān ibn fulān... katabathu lahu fulāna ibnat fulān wa-aqarrat lahu bi-mā fīhi wa-ashhadat lahu ʿalā dhālika shuhūd hādhā l-kitāb... annahu lā ḥaqq lahā qibal fulān ibn fulān...." This is a document of quittance for so-and-so son of so-and-so... which so-and-so daughter of so and-so wrote for him and she acknowledged to him what is contained herein and called the witnesses of this document to bear testimony to it for him... that she has no claim on so-and-so son of so-and-so...". The witnesses of the document attached autograph witnesses clauses with the formula: shahida fulān ibn fulān ʿalā iqrār al-mubri'a bi-mā fīhi fī tārīkhihi..." "So-and-so son of so-and-so bore witness to the acknowledged of what is contained herein by the woman granting the quittance on its date." Geoffrey Khan, "An Arabic Legal Document from the Umayyad Period," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 4, no. 3 (1994), p. 368. On verso there are Hebrew writing exercises.

Quittance by the rabbinical court of Fustat for money sent to Madmun II. Fustat, probably 1214.