Geniza Lab

Verso: Formulary for a deathbed release (or at least a release in the setting of old age and frailty) granted by a woman to a male in-law. All the names are left as place fillers. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1440 Seleucid = 1128/29 CE, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon.

Recto: Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. The person making the acknowledgment is ʿAntar al-ustādh al-[...] (a eunuch and/or government officer). He is 'yellow-skinned' (aṣfar al-lawn). Dated: 515 AH = 1121/22 CE. His job description may appear at the end of l. 3: wa-huwa [...] ʿalā [...] [...] al-rīf. He seems to owe a sum of money or quantity of wheat to Abū l-Faraj b. Yūsuf al-Isrāʾīlī. Needs further examination.

Legal document fragment dated Tammuz 1009 CE (1320 Seleucid) involving a certain David b. [...], mentioning a guardianship.

Legal deed, unfinished. Dated: Probably [15]36 Seleucid = 1224/25 CE, but plausibly 1124/25 or 1324/25 instead. The titles of the Nagid and the scribe's hand should help determine. A woman named ʿIrāq (=Sitt al-ʿIrāq) sells 5 qirats (meaning 24ths, in this case of a house) for 1535 nuqra dirhams to 'tifʾeret ha-ḥashuvim' Moshe b. Shemuel. Fragment (left and right side missing). In l. 11, the copyist did not continue. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba fragment. Dating: ca. 1130 CE(?). Grand total: 322 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document fragment. Very faded.

An individual's notarized bequest of his property to charity should he die without heirs. Information from Goitein's personal notations.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 1003-1004. Location: Fustat. In bad repair, this fragment (T-S 8J22.16) reveals part of a partnership document between ʿOvadya and Menashshe ha-Kohen. It is signed by Ḥalfōn b. Manasseh and Manasseh ha-Kohen b. Jacob, thus datable to the first half of the twelfth century. Each of the partners is to receive a copy of the agreement, which is enacted in accordance with both their wills, as well as a specific appraisal (which is not preserved). This appraisal may have detailed the assets of the partnership and each partner’s contribution. Division of profits and losses is not preserved. The relationship is described both as a shutafut and a shirka. The term shirka may be used to refer to an act of qinyan; lines 8-9 seem to refer to the act of shirka along with acts of payment and appraisal. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 187-188). T-S 12.525 expresses that the store sold olive oil and legumes, and the partners invested equally (9 dinars each, ʿOvadya in cash and Menashshe in goods such as linseed oil, olives, and lemon juice). The term of the contract was one year and should a party leave, he would pay the other 2 dinars. Each party received a copy. (Information from Weiss, "Legal Documents written by the Court Clerk Halfon Ben Manasse", 149-150)

Ketubba fragment. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dating: ca. 1160 CE. Bride: Sitt al-Nasab bt. Avraham ha-Kohen the parnas, a virgin. With some interesting details in the trousseau list. Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal testimony. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Fustat. Dating: ca. 1156 CE. Sitt al-Ahl bt. Sayyid al-Kull, the widow of Hiba b. Abū Saʿd who had drowned near Aden (see PER H 161), declares that she has received from Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. Tiqva ha-Levi known as Ibn al-Amʿaṭ, a certain sum from the estate of her late husband. Sitt al-Ahl's father Sayyid al-Kull is also known as the druggist Hillel b. Naḥman. (Information from India Book.)

Legal document involving Abū l-Ḥasan and Refa'el and Abū l-Muʿāfā (who may be the same as Refa'el), possibly a dissolution of a partnership. The pressing of wine and the spoiling of wine are mentioned. Information from Worman catalog. On verso are jottings in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic, perhaps related to recto

Power of attorney (שטר אורכתא). Mentions: Makhlūf Ibn ʿAyn Sārra; Yiṣḥaq [ha-Le]vi b. [...] al-ʿAjamī; Alexandria; 6 dinars; Moshe Neʾeman ha-Yeshiva (he may be the agent for obtaining the 6 dinars from somebody else). The physician (ha-rofeʾ) ʿOvadya b. Yefet ha-Levi is the person issuing the power of attorney. Date and location are not preserved. Makhlūf Ibn ʿAyn Sārra is known from numerous documents from the India trade spanning the period 1103 (T-S 12.392) to 1141 (ENA 4020.8)—see Goitein, Med Soc V, p. 246f. This document is from the earlier end of that range, as it was validated by Ṣadoq b. Yoshiyyahu Av Bet Din and his court (known from Megillat Evyatar and documents from Tyre in the late 11th century). The main document has seven signatures: Ghālib b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Netanel b. ʿAmram; Meshullam b. Sahlān; Moshe b. Natan b. Naḥmūn; Yosef b. Yaʿaqov; ʿEli b. al-Faḍl; ʿEli b. Mevorakh. The validation has 4 signatures: Ṣadoq b. Yoshiyyahu Av Bet Din (who also wrote it); Eliyyahu b. Ḥalfon; Netanel b. Yosef; Araḥ b. Natan the Seventh (ha-sheviʿi ba-ḥavura) (aka Musāfir b. Wahb, known from documents from Alexandria ca. 1090s–1110s CE).

Recto: Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Sunday, 13 Ṭevet 1416 Seleucid, which is 1105 CE. "A report about a man who was found dead in his home, and who did not have any relatives to perform his funeral or claim his estate. On the right-hand margin the signatures of Halfon and another witness are crossed out. On a Sunday morning (l. 4) the word was spread that Yosef b. Ismāʿīl al-Bunnī of Alexandria was found dead in his home. He had died on the previous day, Saturday morning, and since then had been lying in his home. Judges, parnasim (l. 5), beadles of the synagogues, our scribe Halfon Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif (l. 8), and many others (l. 9) had to break into the house since it was locked "from the outside and the inside" (min barra wa-min dākhil). The man was found dead and was taken out by the undertakers (ghāsilīn, washers) and was put in the yard (ll. 10–11). By the order of the court, which was responsible for such cases, a search was begun to locate any estate left by the deceased. After a search, a khalqān (l. 12), a large copper cauldron, was found and 8 and three-quarter silver dirhems; also a himyān (l. 15), a purse of a girdle, and a qirṭās (l. 16), a bag, were found containing money aggregating 41 dinars (l. 17) "in cash," and ʿayn (l. 23), which means gold. The funeral expenses were estimated at 6 dinars (l. 18) and the remainder of 35 dinars were deposited (ll. 22, 20) until a legitimate heir came to claim them (l. 26). The 8 and three-quarter dirhems were added to the funeral expenses (l. 27). All chattels such as mindīl (l. 24), handkerchief, salla (l. 24), a basket, with various items were also locked in the house until an heir came for them (l. 26). The signature of Ḥalfon appears in parentheses in the margin and is crossed out; all other signatures are crossed out." (Information from Gershon Weiss.) Perhaps related to T-S NS J184, an inventory of items found in the home of a certain Yosef after his sudden death, also in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from CUDL.)

Verso: Inventory (thabt al-ḥawāʾij). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "Date not recorded. Items are listed in two columns. Probably an appendix of an estate of a deceased. There are 5 lines that divide the list into 6 sections. The list comprises items such as: a lamp (manāra) (l. 5) a ring (khātam) (l. 17), precious stones such as corals (ʿaqīq), stones (ḥijr), pearls (luʾluʾ) (ll. 21–22), and many others. This document was not signed." (Information from Gershon Weiss.)

Court document dated 15 Kislev 1469/26 November 1157 acknowledging that the court had heard the testimony of the wife of the addressee, the Shaykh Abu Mansur b. Shemuel, including testimony enumerating the assets of her son, Abu Imran, which were in her possession. List of these assets follows: Inventory of a silk-weaver's shop. Includes 32 items, most either effaced or partly torn away: 4 looms, 3 combs for silkweaving, 3 wooden rolls on which the bolts of silk were rolled, 2 irons, one for robes and another for turbans, wicker baskets full of warps, various quantities of bleached and other linen (which was woven together with silk), a small pot with weaver's reeds, copper threads covered with silver, and other items not preserved. (Information from Mediterranean Society, 1:412
s s
24; Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 1, 412; vol. 2, 150, 312; and Marina Rustow)

Legal document (bottom). Signed by Mevorakh ha-Kohen and Yefet b. Toviya.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "A suit was filed in court (ll. 1–2, 12) by the two sons of the late Abū l-Ḥasan (l. 5) against their step-mother, the widow ʿAshīra (l. 5). The formers charged in their suit that the latter took possession unlawfully (since a woman is not considered an heir) of a house in al-Qālūs which belonged to their father, the fact which probably was indicated in the original deed (kitāb aṣl) which was in their possession. Thus, they claimed to be the legitimate heirs of this house (ll. 3–5). However, the denials argued against the charges by the latter were that there had already passed 20 years from the death of her husband, during which she was in possession of that property (which was probably conveyed to her as her late portion of her marriage contract, l. 8). She accused her late husband's sons of stealing the document from her without her knowledge (ll. 7, 9). The woman probably took this opportunity to ask the court (l. 9) to issue a bill stating her rights against her rivals (l. 11). The ruling of the court was to arrange for a ḥerem setam, a general ban, against the sons (ll. 14–15). No signatures are preserved." (Information from Gershon Weiss.) This is potentially the same dispute as in T-S 13J13.6 (which in turn is related to T-S 10J16.4 and T-S Ar.18(1).107). But it does not seem possible to prove or disprove the connection.

Deed of release. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1277 Seleucid, which is 965/66 CE. Granted by Natan b. Yaʿaqov b. Shaʿbūn (שעבון) to Ḥasan b. ʿEli ha-Kohen, declaring that he has no remaining claims on the estate of the late Salmān or on Ḥasan b. ʿEli. Witnessed by Shelomo b. Saʿīd ha-Kohen (probably also the scribe), Yosef b. Ḥasan and Simḥa b. Yefet. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Bill of divorce, Qaraite. In Hebrew. T-S 12.54 and T-S 12.70 are two very rare examples of Qaraite bills of divorce. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 24 Shevaṭ 135[.] Seleucid, which is 1039–47 CE. Husband: Ḥasan b. Ṭayyib. Wife: Ḥusn bt. Yaʿqūb.

Legal document written and signed by Yeḥiʾel b. Elyaqim (active 1213–33). Quite faded. It seems that al-Rayyis Abū Saʿd gives half of a house to his daughter Sitt al-Riyāsa and her husband Efrayim. One phrase reads, "I feared lest this matter become known to the Muslims." Also signed by Yeshuʿa b. Sar Shalom ha-Kohen. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)