Geniza Lab

Legal document. Left lower corner. Dated: 4717 AM, which is 956/57 CE (this is Goitein's reading; the century word is extremely faded and difficult to confirm). Involves Baqā' b. Hillel. There are no other details (14 lines of legal phrases). There are many signatures, including ʿEli b. Moshe and Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba, Aleppo, 1026/1027/1028. The document omits the divorce clause, and the groom notably refers to himself and his bride as the "Jew" and the "Jewess." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 88-95) EMS

Marriage contract, fragment. Location: Cairo. Dating: 1310–55 CE, based on the reshut clause naming the Nagid Yehoshuaʿ (b. Avraham II Maimonides). See Goitein's note card for further details.

Dowry deed from Fustat, 1171 CE. It was customary to bring together all the objects of the dowry and to record them publicly in a trousseau list, as can be seen, for example, in document T-S Ar.54.78. Each object was recorded with its value in a special list and such lists were called taqwīm. The deed at hand is not a taqwīm, but rather a 'dowry deed'. Such deeds were composed at times of political unrest, when the two sides were cautious of making financial commitmants in public. This is why one often finds in such deeds the expression 'due to the time (ʿawāqib al-zamān)' seen here in lines 3 and 20. The deed, scribed by Mevorakh b. Natan (1150-1181), contains the trousseau list and the testimony of the groom that he accepts the dowry and its stated value. The manuscript is cut in the shape of a circle and is missing some of the text in the sides. There are a few lines in Arabic script on verso.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1120-1150 CE, based on the mention of Yakhin b. Netan'el Rosh ha-Qehillot. This range may be narrowed to 1120–38 if Ḥalfon b. Menashshe is the scribe. The document is a release for a certain India merchant [...] b. Rajā ha-Zaqen from any potential claim against him from the orphans of his deceased traveling companion, and from having to give any further testimony or make any vow. The document explains that the merchant acted with great valor hiding his companion's merchandise from the rulers of Dahlak who would have confiscated it—and would have killed the merchant himself if they had found out what he had done. This merchant also made haste to go to the court and declare all the goods belonging to his companion (and therefore his orphans) as soon as he returned to Fustat (l. 10), and even mentioned "several things that were not in the account ledger (daftar al-ḥisāb)." Information in part from Goitein's attached discussion, transcription, and translation. ASE.

Deathbed will. in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. Location: Fustat. Dated: First third of Av 1448 Seleucid, which is July/August 1137 CE, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. (The signing was deferred to the middle third of Av.) Testator: Abū l-Ḥasan Yehoshuaʿ b. Abū l-Riḍā Shemuel ha-Meshorer. The dying man appoints his mother-in-law Mubāraka bt. Ḥifāẓ (and not his wife Sitt al-Dār bt. Yefet) as the executor of his will and guardian of his three children. He leaves his silver cup and other items to his son Hiba and the jewelry to be divided amongst his daughters Sitt al-Fakhr and Sitt al-Banāt. He makes arrangements for his business partnerships in rose water and safflower with Mufaḍḍal b. Hiba al-Ḥarīrī and with Abū l-Ḥasan the Qaraite. His wife Sitt al-Dār will live with her children for as long as she remains unmarried. He gives 6 dinars to his father and 4 dinars to his mother. Along with jewelry and household items, the ornate head garment used on the celebratory occasion of the first cutting of a boy’s hair is also mentioned. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 5:152, 565; 4:148-9, 210-11, 394, 423-4) EMS. ASE.

Bill of sale for a female slave. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe as well as Elʿazar ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Rosh b. Yehosef Gaon. Location: Fustat. Dated: first third of Sivan 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. Contents: Shelomo ha-Shammash b. Natan sells to his wife Labwa a minor Nubian female slave (waṣīfa)

Marriage contract (ketubba) from Damsis, Egypt, 1083.

Legal document(s). This fragment contains the bottom two lines of one document and the entirety of a second document (though a vertical strip from the right side is missing). Location: Unidentified. Dated: [..]18 Seleucid. The first document is signed by Shelomo b. Fashshāṭ and Yiftaḥ ha-Kohen b. Ṭoviyya. The second document is signed by the same two men with the addition of Seʿadya b. Avraham. The second document concerns Yaḥyā b. Suwayd, his wife, and his father-in-law (perhaps [...] b. Moshe b. Ṭarsūn). It seems that the father-in-law has accused Yaḥyā of making off with the deed to the house. Yaḥyā declares that he has neither given nor appropriated the house whose deed disappeared. A ḥerem stam will be pronounced on anyone who possesses the deed and does not bring it to the court, after which the house will be registered in her name before a Jewish court. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Bill of release. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Karīma, known as al-Wuḥsha al-Dallāla (l. 18), releases Sitt al-Ḥusn (l. 21) from any responsibility for a gift (l. 26) that she has granted her, and from any obligation resulting from previous connections between them. Karīma's son Abū Saʿd and her other heirs likewise release Sitt al-Ḥusn and her heirs. It is also stated that Karima, the grantor, is entitled to repossess the gift, and 1s allowed to sell it, in time of need, and therefore the term māḍiya (1. 26), complete, is intentionally omitted. No details of the gift and the release have been preserved. Witnesses: Menashshe ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov; Moshe b. ʿUlla; Yeshuʿa ha-Levi b. Ṣedaqa (who appears in T-S 20.87 as a builder and as a scholar, ll. 16–21); and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The qiyyum (validation) is signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya; Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi; and Ḥalfon b. Ghālib ha-Ḥazzan. The name of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe appears in the body of the validation (as one of the witnesses of the original document), and his validation marks (| חלפון הלוי ביר מנשה נע |) on both sides of his name appear too (1. 37). Goitein commented that he had never seen a scribe's identification marks in a validation, when the name is recorded and not signed. Thus, this phenomenon should be regarded as an innovation by Ḥalfon and perhaps he was the only one to do it. (Information from Gershon Weiss's edition.)

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location: Pitom (=Fayyūm). Dated: Thursday, 20 Iyar 4758 or 4768 AM (4738 can be ruled out, as 20 Iyar was not a Thursday). This is an agreement outlining conditions under which a wife, Salma bt. Natan, is taken back by her husband, Ibrāhīm b. Salām, after a period of separation. The conditions reflect a downward change in social stratum. This document was published by Assaf in the Marx Jubilee Volume and translated nearly in full by Goitein in Med Soc III, p. 215. Witnesses: Moshe b. Yosef ha-Kohen; Sar Shalom ha-Levi b. Nissin; Salma b. Shaʿya, Yosef b. Seʿadel, Shubayyib b. Shekhanya, al-Giddem ("the amputee"), and Ṭayyib b. Avishay. The witness Yosef b. Seʿadel also signs T-S 12.496, T-S 12.198, and Bodl MS heb. b 12/7; the latter two were validated by Shemarya b. Elḥanan (ca. 980–1010). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Deed of compensation, Tyre, November 1019.

Legal deed: testimony dated 1195. For further information and edition, see D. Z. Baneth, "Te'udot min haggeniza lehayye haqqehillot bemizraim" (Geniza documents on Jewish communal affairs in Egypt), in Alexander Marx Jubilee Vol., 1950, pp. 72–93 (87–89). Also mentioned in Shaked.

Will of a pregnant woman. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tishrei 1449 Seleucid, which is 1137 CE. Testator: Sitt al-Ahl bt. Ṣadoq b. Mevorakh Rosh ha-Qehillot. Sitt al-Ahl is the wife of Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Yehuda. Sitt al-Ahl's mother is Ḥasana bt. Shelomo ha-Kohen, the sister of the well-known judge Natan b. Shelomo. She is close to giving birth and contemplating dying during childbirth and seeks to provide for the child “male or female” who would survive the mother. The woman bequeaths generously to relatives and charities, including “forty dinars to the "mastūrīn" poor in Cairo and Fustat. "The woman's husband had children from a previous marriage, and she was, therefore particularly eager to safeguard the future of the child she was expecting. This had already been done to a large extent in her marriage contract, where it was stipulated that the dowry which she brought in, as well as payments due to her, would go to her children, to the exclusion of other heirs of her husband. In addition, she now wants half of a house, given by her to her mother prior to her marriage, to revert to her future child. The other half belonged to her, and both she and her husband were eager that the whole should become the property of the expected newborn. The old lady, however, had earmarked 60% of her share for her brother and nieces and 40% for charitable purposes. In view of this, our document stipulates that the gifts intended by the old woman will be made by her son-in-law in case after her death, while the half of the house referred to will be registered as property of the newborn. The expecting mother belonged to one of the leading families of the community, as her grandfather was Mevorakh Rosh ha-Qehillot, a man prominent in the politics of the community in the middle of the 11th century. On the other hand, her maternal uncle, the judge Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo, signatory of many documents in Fustat during the years 1122–48, was a refugee from Palestine, which was occupied at that time by the crusaders. It stands to reason that her mother, too, had come from Palestine and had, therefore, no possessions of her own in Cairo. This explains why she was given in her old age, one-half of a house by her daughter, who had inherited or received it as a gift from her father's family, or perhaps left to her by a former husband." (Information from Goitein's attached notes and from Mark Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, 196; S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 3: 232, 475) EMS. ASE.

Legal record. Dated: 1 Elul 1449 Seleucid, which is 1138 CE. Abū l-Karam b. Ibrāhīm releases Amat al-Qādir Ibn al-Dustarī ("ibn" is unusual for a woman: perhaps it is an error, or Ibn al-Dustarī is the family name) and acknowledges that he owes her 3 dinars that he will repay in installments of 1/3 dinar per month. Note that all of Goitein's notes and Weiss's edition for PER H 89 refer only to the earlier document written on recto.

Deathbed will. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Minyat Ashna. Dated: Monday, last decade of Shevaṭ 1461 Seleucid, which is January 1150 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The testator is Ghazāl al-Ṭawwāf ("the nightwatchman") who never married and had no children. He leaves all of his possessions to his closest known relatives, his cousins (banāt ʿamm) Sitt al-Nās and Sitt al-Diyār. Peraḥya b. Yaʿaqov of Minyat Zifta, the son-in-law of Sitt al-Nās, stands as security for paying this money to any other heir with a greater claim who should make themselves known in the future. Signed by: Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe; Shelomo b. Zurʿa; and Shela b. Yefet.

Legal document. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Minyat Zifta. Dated: last decade of Tammuz 1467 Seleucid, which is July 1156 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. David b. Zurʿa will repay a large loan of 183 dinars to Shemuel b. Yehuda ("the Pride of the Enlightened") in 12 half-yearly installments of 15.25 dinars each, beginning in Av 1467 and ending in Tammuz 1473. The debt came from former dealings between the two, based on testimony before a Muslim court, i.e., there is already at least one debt contract against David b. Zurʿa drawn up in a Muslim court. Shemuel b. Yehuda the creditor also testifies that he will stand security for his partner Shemarya b. Sheʾerit ("Kelil ha-Yofi") in everything to do with this arrangement; this Shemarya is not previously mentioned (except perhaps in the missing beginning of the document), and his role in the debt is not clear. Signed by: Avraham b. Musāfir; Avraham b. Yakhin; ʿAmram b. Shemary ha-Kohen; and Yefet b. Yosef. The qiyyum (validation) is signed by: the judge and muqaddam Shabbetay b. Avraham ha-Ḥaver; Mevorakh b. Natan ha-Gevir; and Peraḥya b. Shemuel ha-Melammed. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Legal declaration in which the witnesses attest to the victory of Musa b. al-Ahuv (alias Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi) over Yizhaq al-Siqilli in retaining the position of muqaddam of Qalyub during Sar Shalom’s gaonate. Contains illuminating passages about the qualifications (lines 17-21) and the privileges (lines 21-24) of a muqaddam and the election process. Dated Sunday the 7th of Av, 1506/1195. In the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi himself. See also T-S 13J20.18 (in which Moshe b. Levi beseeches Sar Shalom not to believe an enemy's slander against him) and ENA 4020.4 (in which Sar Shalom confirms Moshe's position as cantor and slaughterer of Qalyub). ASE.

Legal document issued to the Majlis al-ʻĀlī concerning a female slave, witnessed by a judge Muḥammad Mūsá, dated Rabīʻ al-Awwal 810 H. [1407]. [Described on the paper wrapper as : "Acte de mariage entre Mahmoud ibn abdalla avec madame Galila Fatma la grande fille de son excellence el Gadi Fatima el Togan (gouverneur)" ; [next line] : "A.H. 810"]. Linked to item 37 (?).

Receipt of payment (iqrār) in monies minted in copper, owed to ʻAlāʾ al-Dīn, dated 24 Ramaḍān 815 H. [1412]. [Described on the paper wrapper as: "reconnaissance du debiteur al Maalim ibn Aly ibn Omar el Kassida de payer sa dette au prince Al el Dine ibn Mar[--]oum el Farsi Shahine ibn Abdalla el Shahani" ; [next line] : "A.H. 510"].