Geniza Lab

Legal document. Bill of divorce, Fusṭāṭ. Dated: 21 Tammuz 1437 (14 July 1126). This bill of divorce is one of forty under the T-S 10J2 shelfmark. The divorce is between Sasson b. Mevorakh and Sitt al-Ahl bt. Yaḥyā. The witnesses are Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The verso contains the acceptance of the bill of divorce by the wife, signed also by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Legal document. Bill of divorce, Fusṭāṭ. Dated: 20 Chesvan 1373 (5 November 1061). This bill of divorce is one of forty under the T-S 10J2 shelfmark. The divorce is between Yūsuf b. Elʿazar and Sitt al-Dār bt. Yiṣḥaq. The witnesses are Moshe b. Shela ha-Levi and Mevorakh b. Saʿadya. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Legal document. Bill of divorce, Fusṭāṭ. Dated: 4 Nisan 1377 (2 April 1066). This bill of divorce is one of forty under the T-S 10J2 shelfmark. The divorce is between ʿAlī b. Daʾūd and Milah bt. Avraham. The witnesses are ʿAlī ha-Ḥaver ha-Mumḥe b. Amram and ʿAlī ha-Kohen b. Yaḥya. This bill was drafted after the first one at T-S NS J247, written in 1062 also written and signed by ʿAlī ha-Ḥaver ha-Mumḥe b. Amram as well as Aharon ha-Kohen b. Yefet, was not delivered. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Bill of divorce (geṭ). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: Fusṭāṭ. Dated: 16 Sivan 1430 Seleucid, which is 28 May 1119 CE. Husband: Yefet b. Ḥalfon. Wife: Sitt al-Rūm bt. Saʿīd. The witnesses are Yefet b. Ṣedaqa and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The verso contains the acceptance of the bill of divorce by the wife, signed by Yefet b. Ṣedaqa and Maʿālī b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen. This bill of divorce is one of forty in the T-S 10J2 binder. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Bill of divorce, Cairo. Dated: 16 Tevet 1399 (31 December 1088). This bill of divorce is one of forty under the T-S 10J2 shelfmark. The divorce is between Shelomo b. Shimon and Sittuna bt. Shemarya. There are no witnesses, indicating the divorce was not completed. A second bill was drawn up later and can be found at T-S 10J2.11. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Bill of divorce. Husband: Yefet b. Menashshe. Wife: Sitt al-Kull bt. Sar Shalom. Location: Fustat. Dated: Friday, 7 Av 1395 Seleucid, which is 1084 CE. Witnessed by Hillel b. ʿEli (compare T-S 10J2.12), and ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yaḥya. (Information from CUDL and Goitein’s index card)

Legal document in which a man from a small town excuses himself for having accused a man, who was obliged to present proof of innocence. Abu al-Bayan and Abu al-Muna are mentioned. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) Join by Oded Zinger.

Yehoshuaʿ b. Natan ha-Sefaradi gives to his son, Shemuel, power of attorney to sue Aharon b. Yosef, known as Ibn al-Ghazzal (spinner) in Zawilat al-Mahdiyya and Susa. Dated 1047. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 416, and from Goitein's index cards)

The beginning of a court record in the hand of Shemuel b. Saadya (1165-1203) of a settlement between the orphans of the katib Amid al-Dawla, Yahya b. Avraham, and Abu al-Ma'ali Shemuel b. Yehuda in the Diwan al-Salihi. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 278, 488, and from Goitein's index cards)

Small blurred fragment of a court record, signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (dated docs. 1100-1138) and dealing with a sum of money which had been mentioned in a letter. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Litigation in court between the two partners, Farah and Yosef, concerning a business deal for merchandise that was apparently imported from Buna (Bone, Algieria) to Alexandria. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. Marriage agreement in the hand of Yosef b. Moshe, son of the provincial judge. The agreement outlines the groom's approval of the tawqīm ("estimate") of the trousseaux for the bride, Sitt al-Suʿada ("Mistress over the Happy Ones") which is found at T-S 20.48. The judge had a preference for obtaining explicit acknowledgement of the contents of the document in simple Arabic in order to ensure everyone understood and was in agreement. This was because the official Rabbinate marriage contract, which also listed these details, would be in formulaic Aramaic. (Information Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society)

Legal testimony (קבלת עדות). Location: the testimony was collected in Sunbāṭ and the document was drawn up three months later in Minyat Ashna. Dated: Middle decade of Iyyār 1459 Seleucid, which is May 1148 CE. Written by Ṭoviyya b. ʿEli ha-Kohen. Signed by Ṭoviyya and by Shela b. Yefet. Testimony of Berakhot b. Aharon ha-Mumhe ha-Kohen and Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq about the sequestering of the belongings of Rafāʾīl b. Abu Runa, probably a Christian, which were deposited with a Jew named Musallam b. Yiṣḥaq by a government official ("ustādh"). The story involves a mule and the denouncing of people to the government. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 488.) Join: Oded Zinger. OZ. ASE.

Recto: contract between two dyers (Abū l-Riḍā b. Abū l-Bahā and Abū Saʿd b. Ibrahim) about the sale of half of a house. The seller remains in the house for a yearly rent. Dated 1540 of the Seleucid Era (= 1228/29 CE). Verso: postscript to the document on recto in a different hand. (Information from CUDL.) NB: This used to be called T-S 10J21.17 on PGP.

Sale by two ladies, presumably cousins, in al-Mahdiyya, of a Bible codex worth 20 dinars. The ladies confirm their readiness to sell, accept receipt of the payment and acknowledge their and their heirs' responsibility to indemnify the buyer should his proprietorship of the book ever be contested. In conclusion, the husbands confirm the action taken by their wives.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Acknowledgment of debt? Concerns the late Abū Saʿd, who willed half of 50 bales (of flax) to his partner and brother Eliyya and the other half to the two children (Miryam and Abū l-Ḥasan) of his sister Sitt al-Ahl. Gershon Weiss (who did not know about the join with T-S 12.571) explains that Abū l-Ḥasan Eliyyahu, the nephew and likely partner of Abū Saʿd, testified that the latter's will instructed that his inheritance of bales of flax would go to Eliyyahu's mother and sister. Eliyyahu acted as executor of Abū Saʿd's will; he and the beneficiaries agreed that the inheritance would be paid in installments. There is a release from other responsibilities except for the debt acknowledged. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and Gershon Weiss.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Legal document. A trousseau list likely in the hand of Moshe ha-Levi b. Dovid of Cairo, Fusṭāṭ. Dating: 1110. A detailed trousseau list labeled as al-tawqīm (estimate) that acted as a continuation of an engagement contract found at T-S 13J8.24. No names are mentioned, as this would have been included in the contract. (Information from Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society)

Legal document. Receipt. The receipt confirms that Sittuna b. Khalaf received 12 items from Umm Fuṣayl as an inheritance. Shabbat b. al-ʿAzar acted as witness and the receipt was signed by three people, including Yefet b. Mevasser, Yūsuf b. Yaʿaqov, and a teacher, ʿAmram b. Moshe. (Information from Goitein's index card, Mediterranean Society, and CUDL)

Beginning of a court record dealing with a debt of thirty-three dirhams between Ḥasan b. Sahlan and Yahya b. Suwayd. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal query and responsum regarding joint ownership of a house. The person who holds three quarters of the house demands from the man holding one quarter to either sell his share to him or to buy his three quarters. The answer is signed by Shelomo b. Yishai ha-Nasi. In the line below, the name Faraḥ b. Yūsuf appears. Information in part from CUDL (via FGP). Needs further examination