Geniza Lab

Draft or notes of court proceedings (legal document) regarding a sale of half a house for 300 dinars. Abu Sahl, Menashshe b. Yehuda, sold half of a house that he inherited from his mother to Abu al-Faraj, Amram b. Yosef. Apparently the second half was sold by Menashshe to Yosef Lebdi in a transaction which was probably a cover for a loan with interest. In order to remedy this situation, it was decided that Amram would buy Lebdi's share while permitting Menashshe to continue to dwell in the house and even to rent it to others. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli and is dated to January 22, 1102. At the end of the document there are the remains of a legal opinion, in another hand. Apparently the draft of the agreement was shown to a rabbinic authority who gave his opinion regarding how it should be formulated to remedy the appearance of taking interest from a fellow Jew. The document is full of interesting corrections and additions.

Beautiful calligraphic fragment of deed of sale of a bathhouse in Zawilat al-Mahdiyya, Ifrīqiya, by one Jew to another. The seller describes the bath and mentions that the bathhouse had been acquired by his brother, as proved by the document of purchase produced in court. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 98, 99)

Yefet b. Shelomo b. Yefet b. Nājī, after having acquired 3 out of 24 shares in a house from Efrayim b. Moshe, also known as Nafīs al-Sharābī, grants him the right to purchase them back, under certain conditions, during three years. Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Deed of sale of one half of a house in the al-Musasa quarter in Fustat, in which one owner sells his half to the other owner for 300 dinars to be paid in three installments. Dated Tishri 1451 Seleucid, which is September 1139 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 288)

Legal document. Deed of sale for a house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ that Levi b. Namer sells to Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣayrafī Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Menashshe ha-Kohen for 20 dinars, first 10 days of Sivan 1438, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Witnesses: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuʾel ha-Safaradi, Netanʿel b. ʿAmram. Cod.Heid.Or.78–80 were purchased from a dealer in Cairo by Adalbert Merx, who published them in 1894 and donated them to the University of Heidelberg Library after his death. (Marina Rustow)

Deed of sale in which a father sells to his son a quarter of the apartment belonging to him in a house in the al- Mu'tamid passage of the Tujib quarter for seventeen dinars. Dated 1233. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 281)

Legal fragment (right half). Deed of sale of a house, probably from Qayrawān. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Letter from an unidentified distinguished man to a judge or communal leader. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender's hand might be known (resembles T-S Misc.28.88, another "mice ate my stuff" letter). Dated: Thursday, 29 Tishrei [4849] AM, which is 1088 CE. But there is a difficulty with this precise date, because 29 Tishrei was actually a Tuesday and because a note on verso states that the letter was received "in the first decade of Tishrei." Based in part on the information from verso, we can deduce that the letter concerns a dispute over a dilapidated wall between the sender's property and that of his neighbor Abū Saʿd. The sender is distressed because some of his key evidence "was in the document which was eaten by the mice." He asks the addressee to try to dig up any documentation that will support his case. His legal adversary has refused to accept testimony except from certified trustworthy witnesses (al-thiqāt). The sender complains about a long history of having to sink money into this house on account of his neighbor. He asks the addressee to treat the house just as he would treat his own house and not to neglect this matter. At the end, he briefly mentions other business matter, including an unpaid suftaja. Verso: The response from two judges, Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and [Sal?]mān b. Elʿazar. They have drawn a box around the response and signed their names at the top of the note. Outside of the box, there appears the date already mentioned: first decade of Tishrei 4349 AM, which is 1088 CE. They address the original sender with respectful terms and explain that the dilapidated wall must be fixed. Its benefit is shared between the two houses, while its base is located on the ground owned by Abū Saʿd. They do not explain the legal consequences of these facts; maybe they simply consulted the court's own records and are providing factual evidence to be used in the ongoing litigation. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Sale of a house, 1254.

Recto: Deed of sale. Rabbanite. In Hebrew. Dated: Tuesday, 14 Elul 5321 AM, which is 1561 CE. A woman named Qamr, the wife of Yosef al-Aḥdīb(?), sells to Doña Esther, the widow of Avraham Tortos (טורטוש), her small qāʿa, the ʿaliyya, and the quwayʿa that serves as a kitchen, all of them located in the Qaraite neighborhood, at the head of the alley facing the well where the saqāʾiyyīn draw their water. The price is 20 gold Venetian ducats. Qamr has received payment in full except for 4 medins. In the continuation, we learn that this is actually a sort of mortgage. Qamr will remain in the house for a period of 12 months for a monthly rent of 12 medins. If she can come up with 20 ducats during that year, Esther will sell her back the house. All this was decided with the consent of Qamr's husband Yosef. There is then a confusing clause which says that it was also decided with the consent of the "aforementioned" Yaʿaqov b. Yosef (no such person was aforementioned) and his wife Esther bt. Doña Qamr (the buyer? the daughter of the seller? both?). Written and signed by Eliyya b. David Ḥabariyya, who also signed T-S AS 145.85, BL OR 5544.11, BL OR 10590.1, and T-S 13J4.17. Probably also in his hand: T-S AS 146.25, BL OR 5561B.13, and T-S 8J8.13. This document was also signed by Natan b. Yiṣḥaq Damūkh(?). This document was edited by Avraham David, but his identification and transcription were mistakenly attached to ENA 2562.1 in FGP. Verso: Another legal document. In Hebrew. Perhaps a draft of a partnership agreement between Seʿadya Lubi(?) b. Ḥalfon and Yiṣḥaq b. Nissim. MCD. ASE.

Deed (draft?) regarding a family legal dispute involving real estate under lien and trustworthiness. The wife of Ishaq is mentioned.

Recto: Fragment of a large ketubba in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "The primary purpose of providing a woman with real estate was the creation for her of enduring economic security, which would make her financially independent. This is self-evident in the numerous cases in which a woman possessed more than one piece of property. For example, when a widow (or, less likely, divorcee, l. 10) brings into the marriage, besides a valuable bridal outfit, 'an entire large house in the Fortress of the Candles' (l. 7), another 'large house in the Grand Bazaar opposite the Funduq' (l. 9), and quarter of a house somewhere else (where, not preserved)." Med Soc, III, 326. Verso: Small fragment of a legal document, also in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, written on the back of the ketubba, dealing with money which was not included in an inheritance.

Fragment of a legal document having to do with a house, described in detail. Mentions Sitt al-Ḥasan.

List of payments in the name of S[eñor] Yeshuʿa related to ownership or a lease for a house that is dated in the years [55]97AM–[5]600AM which encompasses 1836-1840CE. In line 11r the fragment clearly switches hands to a less orderly style yet the same form/content of recordkeeping continues. The verso is blank except for staining. MCD.

Letter covering family matters – [dated June 29 1923] – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 170) – in Hebrew. (information translated from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 51). An original scan of the letter and Arabic translation of it appear in Al-Janiza wa-l-maʿābid al-Yahūdiyya fī Miṣr (pp. 190-194). The letter covers the inheritance of two brothers' shares in a piece of real estate (they are Sālim and Yaḥyā al-Sharfī. It refers frequently to a legal document (שטר) connected to the property that the two letter signers, David Barim[?] and Sālim b. Yosef Binyamin, are each confirming to have seen or currently maintain in their possession. Their statements at the end of the letter have a probative legal tone, for example: "אני הצעיר שכותב מכתב זה ראיתי השטר שהוא מאושר ומקויים שהקרקע כל[?] שני האכים". MCD.

Fragment of a document of sale in which Nahray b. Nissim, the well-known banker and communal lender (d. 1096), buys from his brother-in-law and the sons of the latter's late brother one-third of a house worth 150 dinars. The total value of the house was 450 dinars. (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, III, p. 37; IV, pp. 19, 287)

Document that is a continuation of Sassoon 1055A. Aharon al-Araki, who received a part of a house in Sana'a, sells his part to his brother Salam and his niece Badra for 150 Rial (75 for each); 1667. (Goitein, The Yemenites, 157-158) VMR

A testimony of a person who received 47.5 "Harf" (each of them equal to 40 "Vuksha" silver) for selling his part of the house in Sana'a. Around 1603-1628. (Goitein, The Yemenites, 150-152) VMR

Draft of sale contract for 12 out of 20 shares (the whole house constituted 24 shares) in the Qadi Badr alley of the al-Mamsusa quarter, at a price of 1000 wariq (silver) dirhams (exchange rate of 1:40). Dated ca. 1230. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 278)

Document concerning the sale of the part of a house owned by a young woman named ‘Shams.’ The names of her father, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather are also recorded, along with a designation of their profession as doctors. The list consists of names with sums in two columns written on the reverse side of the deed connected with the sale of a house, written in 1378 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:245, 497) EMS