Geniza Lab

Legal document concerning the financial claims of Yeshu'a Abu al-Khayr against Ovadya. Goitein describes the endeavor as "civil law" (אלחק פי מא בינהם) adjudicated by the court. Dated February 5, 1027, and executed a week later. (Information from Goitein's index card). VMR and EMS (join: SDG). See also Goitein's index card.

Agreement between Shelomo b. Kathīr and Barhūn b. Sahlān, the husband of his daughter Fāʾiza, in which Barhūn undertakes to redeem the silver vessels belonging to his wife and which he had obviously pawned. January 27, 1028 CE. This is the direct continuation of T-S 13J5.1C. (ENA NS 7.25 and T-S 8K20.1 are also somehow connected to at least one of the records on these fragments.) The son-in-law was not able to produce the receipt, as promised on 1/23. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Bifolio from a register containing multiple entries recording fiscal payments, including name of the taxpayer and amount paid. Registration marks visible. Could be identified as one of the various types of ledgers (makhzūma, ruznamaj, khatma, and tawālī) described by Fatimid fiscal manuals.

Legal document. Court record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1134. Abū Sa‘d and Abū Sahl form a partnership lasting 6.5 months to manufacture and sell glass. Half the capital (20 dinars in total) invested by Abū Sa‘d is considered a loan to Abū Sahl, who pledges title to his home as a security. This may suggest diversion from the commenda model, where the active partner is not liable for loss. But the partnership also diverges from the ‘eseq model, wherein only the active partner transacts. Both the profit/loss characteristics and the working arrangement between the partners suggests a craft partnership. Abū Sa‘d is likely the senior partner: he is identified as al-Zajjāj, “the glazier” (i.e., a known personage in the field), while Abū Sahl is given no professional designation; as well, Abū Sa‘d invests all of the capital, suggesting that he may be short of liquid assets). Finally, the partnership stipulates that Abū Sa‘d need only work two shifts a week (suggesting he may have other business elsewhere), while Abū Sahl will work the rest of the week. Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, mentioned in line 54, functioned as leader of the Jewish community of Fusṭāṭ from 1127 to 1139. The signatories to the document, Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Natan b. Avraham ha-Levi, signed 5 months after the agreement was initiated, for unknown reasons. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", pp. 17-21)

Leaf from a court ledger. Recto: Records in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Dated: Sivan 1456 Seleucid, which is June 1145 CE. Dealing with the sale of a house in the al-Mamṣūṣa quarter in Fustat for 123 dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 90, 283, 289)

Leaf from a court ledger. Verso: ʿAzīza bt. Abū Naṣr al-Marsā[nī] receives from ("al-Pe'er") Abū Saʿīd b. Thābit 24.5 dinars. Signed: Seʿadya b. Mevorakh (ZL). See PGPID 2533 for transcription.

Fragment of a court record. Location: Cairo. Dating: Second half of the 13th century.

Copy of a legal case that was inserted into a 'legal file' that was kept in the court, December 1027. Documents describing unique or interesting legal cases were occasionally copied in order to serve the clerks of the court as reference (Goitein also suggests that the document might have been copied to serve as an accompaniment to a legal discussion. However, Ashur disagrees as the copy was made eight years after the actual case and there is no evidence to support Goitein's claim; see Goitein, Med. Soc. 3:88 and 3:444, no. 69). We can tell that this is a copy of the original document as the names of the litigants are not mentioned and the document is not signed. On the other hand, the detailed description of the entire process, the dates, the exact monetary sums, the number of rings and their type, all testify that this was a real case. Goitein suggests that the document represent an agreement made by a poor couple. This is the only document known to Ashur in which the word 'betrothals' (Shiddukhim) means both 'marriage gift' and 'consecration money' ('matnat nissu'in' and 'kesef qiddushin'). The body of the document contains two dates. The first, in the beginning of the document, refers to the date in which the groom proclaimed, in front of witnesses, his desire to marry the bride and gave them the three rings. The second date, 17 days later, is probably the date in which the engagement contract was delivered to the bride's representative (Assaf presented a different view, “ the second date is the date in which the matter was put on paper while the first date signify the time of the engagement which took place on a single day. However, Ashur objects as it was customary to clearly mention the fact that a document was signed at a later date). The Muslim year is mentioned in the beginning of the document (year 428 is equivalent to 1036 C.E) eight years after the events described in the document. Assaf, who was the first to publish the document, claimed that the date and the title 'what took place' do not belong to the rest of the document. However, Ashur claims that this date is the date in which the document was copied to the legal documents file in court and in the same occasion the title was written, since the recto also has the year recorded at the header (Assaf missed the word 'year' in the header of the recto. The process of preparing the betrothal is described in great detail which is unmatched by other Geniza documents. The groom addresses the witnesses, who act as arrangers of the betrothal and were probably sent by the court, and declares his desire to 'engage and betroth' the bride. After this declaration, he hands over three betrothals (shiddukhim') “ rings that are supposed to later serve as betrothal objects. The witnesses ask him about the sum of the marriage gift (mahr/mohar). The groom responds that when he will have the means to do so, he will hand it over to the bride or to her representative personally. From checking dozens of engagement agreements, it is clear that the sum of the marriage gift was one of the first things agreed upon by the bride and groom. It appears that the witnesses wanted to know the sum of the Mohar so they can report it to the bride or her representative, and obtain her approval to the betrothal. In the next stage, the witnesses arrive to the bride and make s ure she appointed her representative. Then they handed over the rings to the bride's representative as an act of betrothal.

Fragments of the minute book (Pinkas) of the Jewish community of Cairo (testimonies), 1436. [Goitein (on photostat) reads different date: 1236 and recognises handwriting of Yehuda (Ha-Melammed b. Aharon al-Ammani)].

Court record dated Tevet 1357/ January 1046 in the handwriting of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Mansur b. Mukhtar sues Shelomo b. Natanel, accusing him of taking the money that the deceased wife of Mansur inherited from their father. (Information from E. Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, pp. 53, 225; Yehudei misrayim, p. 178)

Court record dated Nisan 1410 Seleucid, which is April 1099 CE. Dealing with a complicated lawsuit of a case in which Abū l-Faḍl had sold 91 jars of wine to Hillel b. Yosef for 9 dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 256, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1122-1153. A one-year partnership in an apothecary between Sayyid al-Ahl and his partner Faraḥ b. Abū al-‘Alā. The relationship may have been an apprenticeship; both parties are entitled to 1.5 dirhams a day, but profits from the sale of some commodities within the shop will accrue only to Sayyid al-Ahl, who seems to be the primary partner. However, Faraḥ’s investment is significant; the pharmacy inventory was only 7 dinars, but Faraḥ brings a total of 20 dinars, 16 of which are invested immediately. This document lacks most of the formulae seen in partnership agreements (including stock qinyan phrases, which effect the contract) – it may have been simply the personal outline of a scribe who would later add in the framework from a formulary, as it also lacks signatures. Goitein identifies the handwriting as that of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver (active 1122-1153). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 38-39)

Legal record in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. On 27 Kislev, the blind woman Sitt Ṣāfī receives from Abū l-Makārim Jābī l-Rubʿ 10 dirhams that are due to her for Elul and Tishrei of 1159 CE. Signed: Nissim b. Shelomo; Simḥa b. [???]. The money was handed over by Tiqva b. David. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Deathbed will. Dated: Wednesday, 18 Nisan 1493 Seleucid, which is 24 March 1182 CE. Testator: Abū l-Faraj b. Moshe known as Ibn al-Kallām. He leaves to his wife, the daughter of his maternal uncle, one third of a house, if she does not marry again. If she does, she will receive only what was still due to her from the delayed matrimonial gift. This man owed 2 1/2 dinars to Maimonides, 4 1/6 dinars to al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq (perhaps the physician Ibn Jumayʿ) for a capitation tax paid on his behalf, 1 dinar and 12 dirhams to the poet and judge Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk, 4 dinars to the faqīh Ibn Ṣawla, and 5 dirhams to Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥayfī. Scribed and signed by Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya. Also signed by Elʿazar b. Mikhael. (Information from Goitein's notes and from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 31.) Translated and discussed at length in S. D. Goitein, “The Moses Maimonides-Ibn Sana Al-Mulk Circle: A Deathbed Declaration from March 1182,” in Moshe Sharon, ed., Studies in Islamic History and Civilization in Honour of Professor David Ayalon (Leiden: Brill, 1986), 399-405.

Abū Manṣūr Elʿazar b. Elʿazar al-Dimashqī gives the female slave Rahaj ("Arsenic") as well as clothing and household goods which he had inherited from his wife Fakhr bt. Abū l-Surūr al-Jashshāsh as a gift to his two daughters, Ḥasab and Kafā'. (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: This portion of the document is on recto of Bodl. MS heb. f 56/46.

Continuation of previous document. The clothing and household goods are divided between the two girls. The value of each object is indicated. 11 1/8 dinars to each (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: This portion of the document is on verso of Bodl. MS heb. f 56/45.

A renewed betrothal contract from the month of Tamuz 1182. The date for marriage is set for the month of Av but the groom is given permission to 'delay' the marriage for another month, until the month of Elul. If he fails to marry her by the month of Elul the match will be cancelled and the bride will keep the money and the rings she was given in the early marriage gift.

Trousseau list (taqwīm). Groom: Tamīm b. Netanel. Bride: Sitt al-Khafar bt. Elʿazar. 42 + 83 + 55 + 30 = 210 dinars. Dating: ca. 1182 CE, as this folio seems to belong to the same legal register as the preceding sheflmarks. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Account of the expenditures, recorded by Judge Shemuel b. Saadya, made on one day in Dar al-Zayt, ca. 1182. The note is for building materials, utensils and labor. More than three years later, he started to list sums collected for clothes for the poor on the same leaf, but left the list incomplete after only two lines. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 362 #93)

3 entries in a court register. (a) Marriage portion of Munā the freedwoman of Ibn Futayḥ marrying Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham al-Tinnīsī. 10 + 30 dinars. Total value of dowry: 120 dinars. Cf. Bodl. MS heb. c 28/54. (Information from Goitein's index cards)