Geniza Lab

Large letter in Judaeo-Arabic about communal strife and denunciations. Abū l-[...] Ibn al-Dayyān told 'sayyidnā al-faqīh al-ḥāfiẓ' that the sender had said something derogatory about the Muslim jurisprudents (al-fuqahāʾ) in Hebrew, a phrase meaning "al-ẓalma al-athama(?)." (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) Should be edited. Same hand as T-S 10J6.4?

Draft of sale contract for 12 out of 20 shares (the whole house constituted 24 shares) in the Qadi Badr alley of the al-Mamsusa quarter, at a price of 1000 wariq (silver) dirhams (exchange rate of 1:40). Dated ca. 1230. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 278)

Testimony regarding the proselytizing of two sisters. A new edition with English translation to be published by Amir Ashur

Ketubba fragment. See Goitein's index card.

Testimony reporting an event in Sunbat, a small town in the Egyptian Delta, according to which a person was wrongly suspected of improper conduct and unjustly prevented from reading the lection from the Torah. Dated Marheshvan 1402/September 1090. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 77; II, pp. 164-165)

Court record, drawn up in Fustat, recording a gift. Given by: Sitt al-Bayt bt. Hillel ha-Zaqen, the widow of R. Ḥiyya ha-Mumḥe b. Ẓedaqa ha-Mumḥe. Given to: Abū l-Ḥasan b. ʿEli ha-Zaqen b. Yefet ha-Zaqen known as Ḥasān. This is the second entry on the page; the first seems to be an eschatological text. There is also a letter fragment on verso (PGPID 3117).

Recto: Fragment cut out from a poem of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. In the margin is a fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic letter. Verso: Legal query in a different hand concerning a husband whose wife died, and he is claiming her possessions from her mother. See Goitein's note cards and the attached correspondence with M. A. Friedman.

Fragment of a legal document regarding a sale.

Legal documents, drafts. In the margins of a literary text containing blessings.

Writ of release signed by three witnesses and dated end of Av 1404/August 1093.

Responsum regarding the scoring of parchment (שירטוט) for Torah scrolls and mezuzot.

Engagement agreement between the widow Rashīda b. Yiṣḥaq b. She'erit and the widower Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe, Minyat Ghamr, Tishrei 1315 CE, under the reshut of the Nagid Avraham II (who receives nine lines of titles). Both appear in court; both appoint wakīl. The bride undertakes to educate the groom's little son for the duration of two years. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal query with the autograph responsum of Yehuda ha-Kohen Rosh ha-Seder b. Yosef (aka "the Rav"). Yehuda b. Yosef was a student of Rabbenu Nissim b. Yaʿaqov of Qayrawān. He appears in the letters of the Maghribī merchants of the second half of the 11th century simply with the name "the Rav." This query concerns an orphan girl whose mother married her off while she was still a minor. Some time after the wedding, she stated that she had committed adultery. The man initially denied this claim but confessed upon examination by the court. The querier wishes to know if the wife is permitted to her husband. The responsum begins: "There are two sides to this ruling." The Rav ultimately rules that she is permitted to her husband. On verso, in Arabic script, "hādhihi ʿindī bi-khaṭṭihi raḥimahu Allāh" ("I have this in his handwriting, may God have mercy on him"). Information from Amir Ashur via FGP and from Friedman, "A Responsum by 'The Rav.'"

First 7 lines of a legal document from [Minyat?] Bani Jawad, dated the 25th of Heshvan, 1316 CE (1628 Seleucid), under the reshut of Avraham ha-Nagid ha-Gadol. Minyat Zifta is also named in the last remaining line. ASE.

Recto: legal document, probably a bill of release, given from Dalāl to Isaac b. Abraham. Verso: accounts in Arabic script (very similar to T-S 12.109 and T-S 12.157). (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba, nearly complete, from Cairo, dated 24 November 1822, between Hayyim and Esther (their fathers' names are written but tricky to read), with a me'ukhar of 800 reyals (16000 piastres = 160 pounds). ASE.

Ketubba fragment (upper right corner). Location: New Cairo. Groom: Hillel the elder. Bride: a widow [...] bt. Elʿazar ha-Kohen. Payments: 7 + 30 = 37 dinars. Dated: Thursday, 13 Nisan 15[..] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 1189–1288 CE. (Goitein's index card says specifically end of the 12th century.) (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document fragment (upper left corner) from Fustat. Hardly any content remains. ASE.

Fragmentary, short marriage contract from Cairo, from which most of the details are missing and which does not mention dowry. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 121, and from Goitein's index cards)

Marriage contract (ketubba). In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan (active 1150–81). Groom: [Naḥ?]um b. Menashshe ha-Dayyan. Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30. Two lines of micrography in the left margin flanking Deut. 33:29 in large letters (מי כמוך עם נושע ביהוה מגן עזרך). (Information from Goitein's index card.)