Geniza Lab

An incomplete deed of a sale of one quarter of a house by a public leader, Ibn al-ʿAjamī, to the wife of a money assayer for 1,000 dirhams. The sale took place with the permission and in the presence of the woman’s husband. The purchase may have been an investment. Fustat, 29 Marḥeshvan, 1541 Seleucid (18 October 1229). Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 1, p. 462n123, Vol. 3, p. 328, Vol. 4. p. 283.)

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.

Letter from a woman complaining of abuse by her co-wife

Letter from a widow in Safed regarding her property in Egypt

Letter from a woman to Sitt [Qa]ḍīb. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions items like the robes (shuqāq?) and the blankets (al-mulayḥifāt). Regards to Sutayt, the elder Abū Zikrī, "my brother who is like my father, my brother Abū Zikrī, and our entire family."

Letter in Hebrew, late and beautifully written, to a communal leader. The writer seems to be a woman (although the letter has מתנפל and not מתנפלת). She has a daughter for whom she cannot provide a dowry. She asks the recipent for help. The response should be sent to Shemuel Virgash (שמואל וירגאש ) who is "the father of widows and orphans and is like a brother to me." The writer is a widow named Simha, and her duaghter is Rahel. יוסף טורישאקס is also mentioned.

Two merchants setting out from Alexandria on a voyage to the Muslim West appoint their wives as executors and guardians of their children: (1) Yosef b. Isḥāq al-Fasi gives his daughter Sitt al-Ḥusn 200 dinars and appoints his wife Sitt al-ʿAshīr bt. Barhūn as guardian of his daughter. He asserts that the amount of the principal and profit of a partnership included in the estate has to be accepted according to the word of his partner, because the partner was known for his trustworthiness and religiosity. Dated: Tammuz 4857 AM, which is 1097 CE. (2) Abū l-Faraḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef entrusts Sitt al-Kull bt. Avraham b. Ṭībān, his wife and mother of his boy, with all his affairs and possessions and makes her his heir, as well as guardian of their boy. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 252; V, 133, 205, 333; and from Goitein's index cards; and from Goitein's hand list.) See also detailed description on CUDL.

Bifolio of a court register in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe consisting of four pages and containing four court cases. 1r: Legal document concerning a quittance of debt, dated 1440 Sel. (1129 CE), written under the authority of the gaon Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen. Mentions Abū l-Maʿālī b. Yūsuf (known as Ibn Tamar) and Yeshuʿa b. Ḥananya. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. 1v: Will of Kulla b. Shabbat, mentioning Yehuda Ibn al-Sofer, the daughter of Kulla’s brother Abū ʿAlī al-Kohen and Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen b. ʿEli. 2r: Legal document concerning a quittance of debt, dated 1446 Sel. (1135 CE). Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Elʿazar b. Yosef. Mentions Yaʿqūb Abū l-Maʿālī b. Yūsuf, known as Ibn Kujik (כוגך, Kushek, Persian 'Small') and Abū ʿAlī b. Shemuʾel b. Shelomo, known as Ibn al-Dustarī. 2v: Legal testimony declaring that Hassun of Ascalon was the father of Abū Saʿd, the illegitimate son of Wuhsha the Broker. Mentions Abū ʿAlī al-Parnas Yefet b. Maṣliaḥ, Ibn al-Sukkarī, Ḥalfon ha-Kohen b. Yosef and Abū Naṣr al-Kohen Ibn al-Kamūkhī. (Information in part from CUDL)

Copy of the will of Khulla bt. Shabbat in which she lists her assets (three different dārs held in partnership with her two sisters and one of their sons) and her intention to sell her ghulām (enslaved man) and split the proceeds as charity for Dammūh and burial expenses for the poor. The court tries to convince her that her charitable funds should be used to restore a bible codex (muṣḥaf) worth the same amount of money, but Khulla declines. The document also mentions: Yehuda Ibn al-Sofer (as the scribe of the original will), the daughter of Khulla’s brother Abū ʿAlī al-Kohen (as being owed 6 dinārs) and Yeshuʿa b. ʿEli ha-Kohen (as a witness). RR This is folio 1v in a bifolio of a court register in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashse consisting of four pages and containing four court cases. Another folio is dated 1135 CE. For transcription see attached edition by Goitein, or see Rivlin, Inheritance and Wills, #47, pp. 371-373

Bifolio of a court register in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe consisting of four pages and containing four court cases. 1r: Legal document concerning a quittance of debt, dated 1440 Sel. (1129 CE), written under the authority of the gaon Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen. Mentions Abū l-Maʿālī b. Yūsuf (known as Ibn Tamar) and Yeshuʿa b. Ḥananya. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. 1v: Will of Kulla b. Shabbat, mentioning Yehuda Ibn al-Sofer, the daughter of Kulla’s brother Abū ʿAlī al-Kohen and Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen b. ʿEli. 2r: Legal document concerning a quittance of debt, dated 1446 Sel. (1135 CE). Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Elʿazar b. Yosef. Mentions Yaʿqūb Abū l-Maʿālī b. Yūsuf, known as Ibn Kujik (כוגך, Kushek, Persian 'Small') and Abū ʿAlī b. Shemuʾel b. Shelomo, known as Ibn al-Dustarī. 2v: Legal testimony declaring that Hassun of Ascalon was the father of Abū Saʿd, the illegitimate son of Wuhsha the Broker. Mentions Abū ʿAlī al-Parnas Yefet b. Maṣliaḥ, Ibn al-Sukkarī, Ḥalfon ha-Kohen b. Yosef and Abū Naṣr al-Kohen Ibn al-Kamūkhī. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Umm Dawud to her nephew Abu Zikri describing the wedding of her daughter (c. first half of the 13th century).

Letter and notes (verso) about a young woman. Probably written by Shemuʾel b. Seadia ha-Levi, the judge (Ha-dayyan) who was a pharmacist before being a judge. (Information from Goitein index card). VMR

Letter from Umm Isma'll asking Eliyyahu ha-dayyan to send her any money left in the collection for the poor. On verso are notes in the hand of Eliyyahu's son Shelomo.

Fragment of a Hebrew deed in which witnesses testify that Ezra b. Shemuel b. Ezra, the representative of the merchants, came to them to complain about his sister, Mubāraka. He asked the witnesses to go and convince her to retract her claim to a share from her father’s inheritance. (Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 346, 349.) EMS. Join: Oded Zinger.

Recto: Distribution list in Judaeo-Arabic. In a Byzantine hand? Lists dozens upon dozens of people, including a large proportion of women and people such as 'the chronically ill women' and 'the chess player' (line 11), 'Kali the Byzantine woman and her daughter' (line 13), 'the woman from Ṣahrajt' (6 lines from the bottom). On verso there are accounts in Arabic script introduced by wa-ḥaṣala, so perhaps this part is a revenue/donation list. Needs further examination.

State accounts relating to the tax farm of the lands of Dayqūf, in the province of al-Bahnasā, administered by Basṭiyya b. Marqūra and the property of the office of the noble lady of al-Āmir in the "Muḥawwil chamber" (al-majlis al-muḥawwil was a chamber in the qaṣr al-baḥr, which in turn was a component of al-qaṣr al-kabīr, the great palace complex of the Fatimid caliphs). Dating: this account is for the kharājī year 550, which corresponds to 551/52 AH and 1156/57 CE. The produce of the land consists of 200 irdabbs: 133 irdabbs of wheat and 66 irdabbs of barley. The verso contains a summary of the document on recto. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Petition from a group of people to a chief vizier (Sayyid al-Wuzarāʾ) titled "al-Kāmilī." In Arabic script. Fragment (upper half only). The petitioners complain that there is a Jewish man named Sulaymān in Fustat, the son of an Indian female slave (ibn jāriya hindiyya) who spends all his days obstructing business and frightening people in the drug/perfume market (sūq al-ʿaṭṭārīn), just like Ibn al-ʿUṣfūr used to do. (Goitein wonders if there might be a connection to T-S K25.64 and BL OR 5566B.30, which feature a troublemaker nicknamed ʿUṣfūr al-Jinn.) This man Sulaymān apparently raves about nonsense or impossible things (qawl al-muḥāl). When the Jews were resting in their houses on Shabbat, he assaulted them with "raqqāṣīn" (couriers? dancers? journeymen?) and expelled (? akhraja) their women, and frightened "us" (the pronoun slips here from "them" to "us"—an indication that the petitioners are the persecuted Jews themselves?). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Petition from a woman to a high dignitary or perhaps to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil himself (one reigned 1200–18 and another reigned 1238–40). She seems to be appealing for redress against a Christian tax farmer named Abū l-Fakhr and an intricate network of his family members, including his son, his brother Abū Saʿīd, Abū Saʿīd's wife, and possibly also 2 women (slaves?) named Aqrān and ʿAlam. They are behaving in a high-handed way in the hoarding of money, saying things that shouldn't be said, and something involving timber. Concludes with a lengthy curse on anybody who comes into possession of this petition and fails to convey it to al-ʿĀdil and apprise him of its contents. Ed. Tamer el-Leithy, Marina Rustow and Naïm Vanthieghem (December 2016). (Information from TL, MR, NV, AA, and ASE.)

Small fragment from a legal deed written of parchment. Probably regarding a debt from an husband called Sahlan to his wife, but too little text is preserved. AA

Karaite bill of debt paid to a woman.