Geniza Lab

Bill of divorce. Husband: Riḍā b. [...]. Wife: Tarīfa/Turayfa(?) bt. Malik(?).

Legal document. In Arabic script. Location: Yemen. Dated: Shawwāl 1177 AH, which is 1764 CE. At least six witness clauses appear at the bottom.

Recto: Formulary for a bill of divorce (get). In Hebrew and Aramaic. Upper margin and verso: several lines of Arabic script. The verso reads, "Yashūʿā b. Yūsuf (=Yeshuʿa b. Yosef) wrote this in Kislev (?? كسلوف) on the day that the Amir Nāṣir al-Dawla besieged Alexandria after killing 1000 people there. This was in the year 454 [AH = 1062/63 CE]." This is very interesting since these events were supposed to have taken place two years later according to Ibn Taghrībirdī’s al-Nujūm al-zāhira fī mulūk Miṣr wa-al-Qāhira (5:74). ASE, YU.

Deed of appointment for a kosher slaughterer Shemuel [surname lost]. Location: Cairo. Dated: [5]288 AM, which is 1527/28 CE. The term of the appointment is two years with a monthly salary of 40 medins. (information from Dotan Arad's editions.) MCD.

Legal query addressed to Moses Maimonides with his autograph responsum, ca. 1170-1204.

Legal document. Dated: 13[..] Seleucid, which is 1088–1188 CE. Statement that the claims about the immoral behavior of Ḥisāna bt. Asmāʾ, the wife of Hilāl the Alexandrian, are untrue. Signed by: Avraham b. Yefet Khalfa. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

Ibra' (release) in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe concerning the repairs and rent of a house. Mentions al-Shaykh Abu l-Muna. Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Recto: Document in Arabic script recording the settling of a business account (wafāʾ), perhaps what al-Thiqa owed to Barakāt b. Salāma. Dated: 12 Muḥaram '47 AH, probably 447 AH, which would be 1055 CE. (There is also a Barakāt b. Salāma mentioned in Halper 468, an 11th-century document.) Mentions specific commodities (including al-kābulī = chebulic myrobalan) and many details about brokerage and agents' fees. Needs further examination. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script (different hand). Names (e.g. Abū Ṭāhir, Jawhar) listed alongside sums of money; also mentions 'simsār' or the trade agent/broker.

List of court cases in Judaeo-Arabic. One involves the payment of a capitation tax (jāliya), another involves a Jew who sued someone in Muslim courts. Information in part from FGP.

Recto: The end of a legal document dated Sunday, the 2nd of Tevet, 5323 (1562 CE), dealing with the obligations of a certain Daniel, signed by Eliyya b. David the ḥaver. Verso: The end of a different legal document signed Menaḥem ha-Kohen.

Fragment of a legal declaration drawn up in Fustat in the middle of Iyar, mentioning Avraham ha-Rav and Hibat Allāh.

Fragment of a query to Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) regarding the relationship between a single man and a female slave.

A query seeking a responsum, addressed to Avraham Maimonides regarding an unmarried man living with a female slave. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 486 and from Goitein's index cards)

Ketubba dated the 9th of Tammuz, 1880 CE (2191 Seleucid) for Yos[ef] b. Sulayman b. Avraham al-Sabari and Ghina bt. Y[.]ya b. Yahya [...] al-Sabari, a widow. Merits futher examination. The names and place names are likely fully decipherable. Possibly Yemeni? Bears at least a superficial resemblance to Mosseri VII.19 (an 1899 Yemeni ketubba), see edition by Amir Ashur and Ben Outhwaite, "A Jewish marriage deed from nineteenth-century Yemen." ASE.

Bill of divorce (get) dated the 15th of Sivan 1865 CE (2176 Seleucid). Place: al-Malhah. Parties: Da'ūd b. Da'ūd and Ḥabība bt. Yaḥyā. Signed: Yūsuf b. Mūsā, ʿIwāḍ b. Avraham.

Fragment of a ketubba (?). Mentions 10 dinars of gold.

Legal fragment. ʿAllūn b. Dā'ūd (?) and Mulūk (?) bt. Avraham are named.

Formulary for a marriage-related legal document.

Legal fragment, preserving the name of the father of one of the witnesses (Ḥārith?). There are wide spaces between the lines.

Legal fragment containing the dates 1408 and 1409 Seleucid (1096/7 and 1097/8 CE)..