Geniza Lab

Legal deed: record of payment (שטר שילום), written on parchment. Nine signatures. Dated: 1419 Sel. (1108 CE).

Fragment of a Karaite ketubba, 11th-century Fustat. Information from FGP.

Recto: Ketubba fragment. Groom: Yefet b. Maṣliaḥ. Bride: Zahr bt. Yosef ha-Kohen. Verso: Document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, written on the eve of Yom Kippur, 1120 CE, after the couple had long been separated, concerning the conditions for their divorce. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Needs further examination.

Marriage contract in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated October 1116 (Thursday, 11 Marḥershvan, 142...). The marriage gift consists of 16 dinars. The bride is a divorcee on whose earning the husband will have no right, but who will provide her clothing by herself. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, p. 380.) NB: Goitein identified T-S 8.210 as a join with T-S 12.164 + Bodl. MS heb. b 12/19, but this does not seem definite.

Marriage contract in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated October 1116 (Thursday, 11 Marḥershvan, 142...). The marriage gift consists of 16 dinars. The bride is a divorcee on whose earning the husband will have no right, but who will provide her clothing by herself. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 380.)

Verso: Marriage contract dated 1050, between Saadya b. Maymun and Ḥasana bat Levi, mentioning 5 dinars that will be given at the time of the wedding and 20 dinars deferred. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 398) Recto: various texts, including a formula for a bill of divorce, and a Hebrew poem.

Legal document. Location: al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā. Dated: 1503 Seleucid, which is 1201/02 CE. Nasab bt. Barakāt sells part of her house with the permission of her husband Yefet b. Nadiv b. Shelomo ha-Meshorer. One quarter of the house, out of one half belonging to her. Price: 13 dinars. The house is in the neighborhood of the Jews (bi-khuṭṭ ḥārat al-yahūd), but one of its neighbors is Christian. The house is held by her in partnership with her husband. Signed by [...] b. Yefet ha-Melammed. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba fragment. Groom: Aharon b. Shemuel. Bride: Mulūk bt. Mukhtār. Dated: 1339 Seleucid, which is 1027/28 CE. Signed by Saʿīd b. Aharon, Yeshuʿa b. David, Shelomo b. Seʿadya, Aharon b. Moshe, and others. See Goitein's index card for further information.

Legal document. In Hebrew and Aramaic. Dating: 966–1011 CE, because the qiyyum is signed by Shemarya b. Elḥanan. Involves Yiṣḥaq b. Sha'ul and his wife Ramla(?). Signed: Avraham ha-Kohen b. Seʿadya; Tamīm ha-Kohen b. Shemuel; Ḥusayn b. Yiṣḥaq; [...] b. Seʿad'el; and Yehoshuaʿ b. Khalfa (a payyeṭan and the subject of Shulamit Elizur's 1994 book: פייטן בעידן של מפנה ר' יהושע בר כלפה ופיוטיו). The qiyyum (validation) is signed by Shemarya b. Elḥanan.

Deed of sale for a house. In Arabic script. Dating: 11th–12th century CE. Ḥusayn b. Ḥāzim al-Bayyāʿ (the food vendor) purchased a house from Ḥasan b. ʿAlī al-Baqqāl (the grocer). (Information from Khan.)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Approximately the 17 bottom lines are preserved, very densely and neatly written. Dated: 4[..] AH, so probably 11th century CE (the full date is present, just needs examination). Reused on verso for Hebrew literary text. There are pinpricks all along the edges of the paper. Needs further examination.

Legal document likely in the hand of Natan b. Shemuel (or less likely Ḥalfon b. Menashshe?). Dated: Ḥeshvan [14]50 Seleucid, which is approximately October 1138 CE, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon. Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Yehuda Ibn al-Nisṭāṣ (see T-S NS 224.18 + T-S NS 225.25c for either the same person or a family member) cedes for 10 dinars his right of 1/12 of an open space (misṭāḥ) in the al-Qālūs street to Abū l-Khayr Shelomo b. Nājī, who had the right of shafʿa(?). See Med Soc IV, ch. IX, A, 1, note 141. Unsigned. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Verso is covered with legal jottings concerning at least a dozen other legal cases, with numerous names mentioned (one name is Malīḥa bt. Yefet, a widow). All need examination.

Power of attorney (called "שטר הרשאה זה" in the antepenultimate line). In a mixture of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judaeo-Arabic. Salmān ha-Kohen b. Shabīb appoints someone as his agent. Dated: 9 Nisan 13[..] Seleucid, which is 989–1088 CE.

A fragment from the top of a ketubah from the year 1038. The bride is the daughter of Efrayim. Part of the dowry list is preserved. AA

Power of attorney to Perahya ha-Kohen to recover in India goods entrusted to Abu al-Faraj, Nissim al-Raqqi. Fustat, early 1090s.

Copy of a legal query and responsum of Elḥanan b. Ḥushiel (of Qayrawān). Published by Jacob Mann, "The Responsa of the Babylonian Geonim as a Source of Jewish History," JQR New Series Vol. 9 (1918), 139–79. This was written on a reused sheet of accounting in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals; might be a fiscal account, based on the layout.

Document of authorization from Sitana bt. Avraham to Yosef b. Sad'el. With the signatures of Efrayim b. Zadok and Sar-Shalom b. Yitzhak. In the handwriting of Shemarya b. Elhanan that signed the document as well. (Information from E. Bareket, "The leaders of the Jews in Fustat", vol. 2 p. 428). VMR

Avraham Maimonides (in office as head of the Jews 1205-1237) is asked about the procedure in which a party appears in court together with an attorney, and answers that the defendant is obliged to respond to claims and arguments made by the attorney, but questions addressed by the defendant to the claimant have to be answered by the latter in person. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 335, 600)

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides, with his autograph responsum (signed). After a man had given an oath of bankruptcy in Jewish court, he was summoned to Muslim court. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides with his autograph responsum. Two Jews were travelling together, and one had confided to the other some goods (qumāsh) and money. The other left with Christian etc. Answer: The careless carrier is responsible if claim is properly established. (Information from Goitein's index card.)