Geniza Lab

Legal query in Judaeo-Arabic. Regarding a partnership in a house and the death and inheritance of one of the partners. This is the original JA version of Saadya Gaon's responsum published in Hebrew translation in Sha'arei Zedeq, part IV, V, no. 12, p. 164. It's a direct continuation of מרגליות, הלכות א"י מן הגניזה, עמ' צד. Fםr another fragment of this responsum, from another MS see TS NS J 516. (AA)

Legal query in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu addressed to Avraham Maimonides. Regarding a man who wishes to divorce his wife and pay her ketubba "in installments" (i.e. not at all). Information from Amir Ashur via FGP.

Bill of divorce (get). Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 25 Sivan 1459 Seleucid, which is 1148 CE. Husband: Yosef b. ʿAbdallāh. Wife: Kala bt. Abū Saʿīd. Witnesses: Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver; Nadiv b. Yeshuʿa. On verso there is an addendum attesting that she received the get, signed Nadiv b. Yeshuʿa and Seʿadya b. Mevorakh.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Three fragments from the lower part of the document. Dated: Ṭevet 1435 Seleucid, which is December 1123–January 1124 CE. Involves: A deceased Sar Shalom; Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Menashshe ha-Levi Rosh ha-Qahal known as al-Jubaylī; Natan/Hiba ha-Levi; and Abū l-Riḍā. Abū l-Faraj agrees to deposit with Abū l-Riḍā a debt contract worth 75(?) dinars which are owed to him by Natan; the debt contract is dated the first decade of Dhū l-Qiʿda 517 AH, corresponding to Ṭevet 1435 Seleucid; its witnesses are Ibn al-Fāʾiqī and Ibn al-Amadī. Abū l-Faraj relinquishes his right to sue Natan for the total unless the government appropriates (yaʿtariḍ) from Abū l-Faraj anything pertaining to the estate of Sar Shalom, specifically the money that he (Abū l-Faraj?) transferred to his (Abū l-Faraj's? or Sar Shalom's?) son Zikrī. If the government does interfere, Abū l-Faraj has the right to retrieve the document from Abū l-Riḍā with the authorization of the court (i.e., after they have validated the claim that the government took the money), and Natan will have to pay. The witnesses testify that the debt contract has been deposited with Abū l-Riḍā. Two copies of the present document were drawn up, one for Abū l-Faraj and one for Natan ha-Levi. The witness signatures are not preserved on these fragments, though the top of one signature might be barely visible on T-S 8.153. Joins: Alan Elbaum. ASE

Legal document. Location: Damietta (אי כפתור). Dated: Thursday, 4 [...]n 1442 Seleucid, which is 1130/31 CE. Under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Involves a woman named Sitt al-Milāḥ whose husband committed "obscenities" (fawāḥish) against her. She is represented by her brother in her suit against her husband. Information in part from Zinger, "Women, Gender, and Law," p. 58. This document has apparently been edited by Yeḥezqel David (הגירושין בקרב היהודים על פי תעודות הגניזה ומקורות אחרים, pp. 260–62). Transcription awaiting digitization.

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Needs examination. There are also a few words in monumental script.

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Late. Needs examination.

Legal (or state?) document in Arabic script. Probably late. Needs examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. Dated: 20 Shawwāl 864 AH, which is 1460 CE. Involves Yūsuf [...] and Samawʾal b. Yaʿqūb b. Mūsā (=Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov b. Moshe) the druggist, the Rabbanite Jew. A sum (perhaps a debt or loan) of 5 dinars is mentioned. A new section begins around line 7 or 8, which involves Nūr al-Dīn b. Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Ismāʿīl known as Ibn al-[...] and someone titled Sirāj al-Dīn Sharaf al-ʿUlamāʾ Muslim Abū Jaʿfar [...]. Needs further examination.

Legal fragment. In Aramaic. Mentions the brother(?) of the Rayyis and Abū l-Barakāt.

Draft of bills in the handwriting of Nahray b. Nissim.

Two statements in Arabic characters about small sums owed by Jaʿfar b. Rajāʾ al-Jawdarī to Mubārak b. Avraham (also the addressee of the letter at p. Heid. Hebr. 915). The statements are dated February and April 1086 CE, respectively. They are followed by eight entries in Hebrew characters about other sums owed by Jaʿfar, mostly for clothes he purchased, and some sums due to him.

Court record in the hand of Ghalib ha-Kohen b. Moshe, August 1, 1038. In the court of the Jerusalem community in Fustat. Community members spread rumors about Elazar ha-Melamed b. Shemuʾel b. al-Maghribi, that he cursed Shelomo b. Yehuda ha-Gaon. But these members did not say it in public, in front of the court. Elazar ha-Melamed delayed the Torah reading in the synagogue to dispel the rumor. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 607-610, #331). VMR