Geniza Lab

A ketubah dated Tuesday, 28th Sivan, 142[.] which can fit to 1111 or 1115. The groom father's name is Yehuda and the bride is Turfa d. Yefet. Most of the preserved text contains the dowry list. AA

Fragment of ketubba (marriage contract) in the hand of Yefet b. David, ca. 1030. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Ketubba for the marriage of Sahlān and his bride. Ca. mid 11th century CE. Written by Yefet b. David. Signed by Yaʿīsh ha-Kohen ha-Parnas b. Abraham, [Sahlān b.] Abraham Alluf he-Ḥaver, Elʿazar b. R. [...], Shelomo b. [...], [Eph]raim he-Ḥaver b. Shem[arya]. (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba (marriage contract). Location: Alexandria. Dated: 16 Sivan 4920 AM, which is 23 May 1160 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Netanel ha-Levi. Groom: ʿAmram b. Seʿadya. Bride: Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Hillel, a divorcee. Marriage payments: 1 + 5 = 6. No dowry. No monogamy clause. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Recto and verso: Court records. The entries on recto are quite faded and need examination. On verso, the first record involves Mivḥar b. Ṣedaqa and Moshe b. Moshe Ibn Majjān. The second seems to involve the stake of Moshe b. Ḥalfon known as al-Nīlī (the indigo merchant) in the inheritance of the late Abū Saʿīd Khalaf b. Hiba known as Ibn al-Dajājī. Berakhot b. Seʿadya testified regarding this issue. Mentions the female slaves and sleeping carpets (waṭā) and blankets (ghaṭā) in the property of the deceased. Shelomo b. Avraham the convert was present.

Ketubba fragment (right side). Location: Fustat. Dating: ca. mid-11th century. Groom: Muʾammal b. ʿUmayr. Signed by: the parnas Yaʿīsh b. Avraham ha-Kohen and Yeshuʿa b. Avraham ha-Levi (these two also signed T-S 20.23 in 1049 CE). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Marriage contract in which the bridegroom promises to feed and clothe the son of his future wife, a divorcee, to let him learn a craft, and never to punish him physically or hurt him with words. Written by a Palestinian scribe in Minyat Zifta on 24 Av 1421/13 August 1110. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 191) On verso: Hebrew poems.

Deed of release (שטר אביזאריה/פיצוי). Location: Almost certainly Fustat (and not Tiberias as Gil suggested). Dating: Late 10th century. Concerning property in Tiberias. A man releases his father's partner, Moshe b. Shemuel b. Sahl, from all claims. Witnesses: Yosef b. Seʿadel; Ḥashmonay b. Avraham; [...] b. Ḥasan; Fashshāṭ b. Shemuel; and Efrayim b. Ṣadoq. (Information from Gil and Friedman.)

Legal fragment. Dating: early 12th century. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi. ASE.

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Deed of gift, in which a father (evidently Netanel) gives a complete house to his son Abū Saʿd b. Netanel (same as in T-S 12.567?). The landmarks mentioned include 'the blessed canal' (al-khalīj al-mubārak), the stable, the Lemon Tree Mosque (Masjid al-Laymūna) which overlooks the Khalīj, and the house known by the name of al-Ghazāla. (Information in part from Goitein's attached notes.)

Release given by Yakhin b. ʿEli to his brother Yeḥezqel. Dated: Friday, 7 Nisan 1409 Seleucid, which is 1098 CE. Likely in the handwriting of Hillel b. ʿEli. No further details and no signatures. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Description from T-S 12.502 (PGPID 7245): Court record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Av 1434 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE. Fictive sale of a house, i.e., a debt credited under the deed of a sale of a house. "In a Muslim court a woman sold half her house (l. 6) to a man for 25 dinars (l. 7). The two parties came to terms that if the woman returns the sale money in full to the buyer after 26 months (l. 13), the house would be returned to her; the contract was signed in 1123 (l. 4) and was to expire in 1125 (l. 5). It is also stated that during this time, the buyer agrees not to collect any rent from her (l. 7) and not to charge her any interest (ribbit) (l. 8); only the purchase money invested (raʾsmāl) (l. 13) should be paid back. It was also agreed that the two undertook to be prompt in reversing the deal; i.e., the woman should pay the sum due a week or less before the deadline (l. 10). If the remittance of the mentioned sum is overdue, the man could refuse to return the house to her (l. 11). No signatures are preserved." (Information from Gershon Weiss.) See also Goitein's index card. Description from T-S 12.82 + T-S 12.553 (old PGPID 7264): Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1123 CE, based on the appearance of the same couple as in T-S NS 323.19 and BL OR 12299.12 + T-S 8.123. The husband is Elʿazar/Manṣūr b. Yefet/Ḥasan ha-Kohen, and his wife is Sitthum aka Sitt al-Jamīʿ bt. ʿOvadya. In the present document, Elʿazar's son Hillel is also mentioned. Elʿazar is apparently entrusting his affairs to his wife, and there is a reference to the eventuality of his death (l. 5). Goitein and Gershon Weiss believed T-S 12.553 to be a join with T-S NS 323.19 (which involves the same couple), but this is not certain. (Goitein and Weiss did not know about BL OR 12299.12 + T-S 8.123 or that T-S 12.502 and T-S 12.553 were from the same document.) Joins by Alan Elbaum (T-S 12.82 + T-S 12.553) and Oded Zinger (T-S 12.502 + {T-S 12.82 + T-S 12.553})

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Abū al-Wafāʾ Shemarya al-Dallāl receives a release from Abū l-Mufaḍḍal and his sister Nasab for all obligations resulting from dealings with their late father. Two witnesses, Abū l-Ḥasan Elʿazar b. Nuṣayr and Abū l-Munā, were brought by Abū l-Wafāʾ to testify. No signatures preserved. (Information from Gershon Weiss and from Goitein’s index card.)

Fol. 1: Legal document. Location: New Cairo. The bottom is missing, but it seems it was also left incomplete since the day of the week and day of the month were not filled in. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Elul 1405 Seleucid, which is 1094 CE. Banāt bt. Binyām known as "son of the Rav" gives power of attorney to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn b. Mubārak to claim from her divorced husband Maḥāsin Ibn al-ʿInānī 24 dinars adjudicated to her by the court as well as alimonies and other expenses for their daughter since he had left the town. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Fol. 2: Upper right fragment of a legal document with an unusual opening: naqūl naḥnu al-qawm al-[...]. Mentions a "mufāwaḍa." Nothing else preserved. Distinctive hand. Unrelated to fol. 1.

Legal document, faded, but mostly intact and mostly legible with effort. Many names are mentioned. Needs further examination.

Executorship deed fragment in the hand of Eliyyahu Gaon, July 1066.

Legal document from Alexandria involving Benaya ha-Zaqen, Yeshuʿa, and Abū l-Barakāt and a debt owed or claimed to be owed. Dated Kislev of either 1102/3 or 1202/3 CE (1[.]14 Seleucid). Needs further examination.

Legal document fragment, perhaps 10th century, likely a release involving Shabbat b. Yeshaʿya and a certian Avraham. Verso contains jottings in Arabic and Hebrew characters.

Legal deed. On parchment. Particularly old. Dated: Monday, 6 Shevaṭ 4716 AM = 21 January 956 CE. Signed by at least thirteen witnesses, all in very shaky hands. The Kohen signs first, then the Levi. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Appears to have been torn and reused as the cover page for a literary volume, as verso has an ownership note for 'this daftar,' and a title: Alfāẓ Tafsīr wa-Ghayruh (sounds like a miscellany partly consisting of a biblical commentary) of ʿAmram b. Moshe al-Maghribī.

Acknowledgment by Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham ha-Maʿaravi of debt amounting to 600 niqar which he owes to David Kohen b. Shelomo, written in Fustat, 967.