Geniza Lab

Beginning of a responsum in Judaeo-Arabic, calligraphically written. About the definition of "moredet" ("rebellious (wife)"); this authority says that it refers only to a woman who refuses to sleep with her husband, not other kinds of 'rebelliousness.' Also mentions the consequences for the return of the dowry. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document concerning a partnership between David ha-Levi and Ḥayyim Ṣanuaʿ (known as ʿAjamī), written in Fusṭāṭ in 5564 of the Era of Creation (= 1804 CE). Text is in Hebrew with Judaeo-Arabic translation after every few lines. Mentions sums of money such as 4500 meydim and 5000 meydim. Signed by the two parties and Matatiya b. Shekhanya, with a monogram signature of ʿAlī b. Shalom. (Information from CUDL)

CUDL: Part of a legal ruling from Ramla, mid-11th century CE, in which the brothers Joseph and Nahum, sons of Yannay b. Nahum al-Baradānī the cantor, enlist the Sicilian judge Maṣlīaḥ b. Elijah, in a claim against Hillel b. Isaac. Gil: Segment of a court proceeding in Jerusalem, approximately 1065, in the hand of Shelomo b. Ṭoviya ha-Shelishi.

Fragment of a deed signed by Efrayim b. Shemarya (dated documents: 1007-1055), head of the Palestinian congregation and court of law, and four others. Dated to the middle of the 11th century.

Recto: calendar reckoning. Verso: legal document, mentioning Shela, his brother and a half qinṭar of mercury. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: August 1181. This document preserves the lower part of a partnership agreement between the brothers Abū al-Faraj and Abū al-Mufaḍḍal in a shop selling food. The partners are allocated maintenance from the shop’s stores, as well as one dirham each per day. The two are to eat and live together, though they are given the option of eating separately, in which case Abū al-Mufaḍḍal is to take two dirhams and Abū al-Faraj is to take four dirhams as maintenance. As well, they will divide profits, though the division itself is not specified but is likely an even division, as is explicit in the case of losses. Interestingly, although the two seem to work close at hand, the text includes the provisions for "trust and avoid[ance of] betrayal" that is often seen in long-distance agreements. The recto is signed by Joseph ha-Levi b. Samuel, later a member of the court of Abraham Maimonides; as well as Levi ha-Levi b. Abraham, a scholar and cantor. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", 195)

Legal deed, draft, regarding the estate of Avraham ha-Levi the teacher b. Yosef b. ʿAnan, which had been deposited by the Beit Din with ʿEli b. Efrayim b. ʿEli al-Tinnīsī. Mentions Yehuda b. Meshullam b. Zekharya the scribe b. ʿAnan and Jāliyya bt. Zekharya the scribe b. ʿAnan. The traces of writing between the lines and in the margins appear to be additions to the text and, perhaps, traces of an earlier text. On Yosef b. ʿAnan, a scribe whose copy of a codex of ketuvim still survives in Cairo, see Meital in JQR 2020. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Verso contains rhymed Hebrew verses.

Court record of acknowledgment of debt to be paid back in weekly installments. Drawn up in Fustat Tishri 1526/September-October 1214. (Information Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 388, 492)

Recto: legal document, in which eight persons, Levi b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi, Avraham b. Sahlān, Efrayim b. Shemarya, David b. Aharon ha-Levi, Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq, Shelomo b. Seʿadya, Shelomo b. Ḥakīm and Shelomo b. David undertake to refund Ismaʿīl b. Ṭalyūn (=Shemuel b. Avṭalyon) the sum guaranteed for the ransom of two captives. Dated: 1333 Seleucid, which is 1021 or 1022 CE. Verso: list of contributions in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Record of a release involving Nissim b. Ṣedaqa and Bahiyya bt. Ḥalfon. T-S 12.94, T-S 10J5.13, and T-S 13J37.9 are all draft documents related to each other (possibly a join), and they are somehow related to T-S 20.30. All need further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

Court validation written by Yeshua b. Josiah b. Shemaya Gaon. Dated ca. 1140. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 584)

Contract in which a payment of 25 dinars is agreed upon for a copy of sections of the Torah, to be copied after the model of the first section previously made by the scribe for the same customer. Dated to midlle of Sha'ban year 412 (A.H.), which corresponds to late November 1021 C.E.

Court record. Dated: 1408 Seleucid, which is 1096/97 CE. Of a dispute between Abū ʿImrān Moshe b. Moshe Ibn Majjān and Abū l-Faḍl Yosef b. Yoshiyya al-Dhahabi, which arose when the former claimed from the latter a complete bible codex he had bought from him some time before. The resolution is that Abū l-Faḍl gives the codex to Abū Sahl Menashshe to give to Abū ʿImrān (because he had taken a vow that he would never give it himself). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards). Join: Oded Zinger

Legal record of a release. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Dating: End of the 11th century. In which Nissim b. Aharon and his son are released from every responsibility regarding a codex sold in order to provide its owner with protection against cold weather and hunger. The man is described as poor and 'stricken of mind' (maʾūf al-ʿaql).

Record of release granted by Yefet b. Eli al-Tinnisi to his wife Turfa bat Tobias whom he releases from all obligations. Only a fragment of the date is surviving (27 Adar.. ).

Attestation (qiyyum) of a legal document by the Gaʾon Maṣliaḥ b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (1127–39); also signed by Moshe b. Sadoq Av Beit Din (president of the high court) and Yehuda b. Shelomo. The main document (now missing) was signed by the parnas Hillel b. Shabbat ha-Kohen and the cantor Eliyyahu b. ʿEli he-Ḥaver. See NLI 577.3/5 for another attestation of a document by Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon.

Verso: Court record in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Concerning a purse of 77 dinars bearing the name of Yaʿaqov b. Yaḥyā, and mentioning the parnas Moshe b. Maṣliaḥ, , Barakāt, Elʿazar b. Berakhot and [Yaʿaqo?] b. Ismāʿīl. Related to T-S Misc.29.62a. The question is whether the late judge declared that the purse belonged to Yaʿaqov b. Yaḥyā, or whether he only handed it over to him. On recto there is a fragment of a rhyming letter in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Fragment of a document preserving the beginning of an appeal by a plaintiff who feeling himself unjustly treated is exercising his right to interrupt public prayer until his case is heard. Involves Abū ʿAlī b. al-ʿĀbid.(Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 324, 598)

Record of testimony about a deposit with only fragmentary date surviving. Dated 14??/late 11th- late 12th century.

Minutes of court proceedings, recto dated Kislev 1454 sel. (December 1142), written and signed by Natan b. Shemuel. Written and signed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. Verso dated 1455/1143-44.