Geniza Lab

Partnership agreement (?) for one month dated Av 1815 CE (5575), Mitzrayim. Between Khalifah (?) b. Hayyim and Habibah (?) bt. Hayyim Yosef.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Dated: 15 Sivan 5590 AM, which is 1820 CE. Mordechai Bialobos (בייאלובוס) attests that he has received a deposit of 700 esedi gurush ("arayot") from the widow of Shemuel Mella, which it seems he will use for investments and business, and a portion of the proceeds will go toward supporting the orphans of the deceased, Eliyyahu and Saʿd. Needs further examination. ASE. MCD.

Recto: Legal fragment involving Halil (?) al-Shayzari ha-Bursi and Yishaq and various sums of money. Verso: possibly a Judaeo-Arabic draft of a sermon (?); words are written between the lines and squeezed into the margins.

Segment of a ketubba (marriage contract), in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi.

Will, probably. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In which Sayyid al-Kull disposes of his possessions (including a drug store, dukkān ʿiṭr, ḥawāʾij, ʿudda, māʿūn), giving some to his two sisters, one of whom is named ʿAduwwa. And possibly also his brother and his wife. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Might be the same Sayyid al-Kull as in Bodl. MS heb. d 66/112 + T-S 6J1.18.

Legal document in Arabic script. A contract made before a Muslim notary, in which the proprietor of a Nubian slave promises to pay to the Jewish physician Makārim b. Isḥāq b. Makārim an honorarium for the successful treatment of the slave's left eye (June, 1245)—how much is not said. The fee perhaps depended on the degree of satisfaction of the contractor. The idea that payment should be made to a physician only after successful treatment is as old as the Codex Hammurabi (paragraphs 215 ff.), and presumably much older. Med Soc II, 257, 580.

Receipt for 120 dīnārs from the account of ʿArūs b. Yūsuf for a shipment of purple dye or cloth (argaman) (information from Aodeh).

Lease of an apartment to a parnas as settlement of a debt, AD 1029-1031. The qodesh owes Yaʿaqov b. Mevasser (whom we shall find six years later in charge of the properties of the qodesh) 10 dinars, apparently the balance of money borrowes from him to carry out repairs in the arba, the estates, belonging to the qodesh. The parnasim do not find any way to pay him this sum, and therefore it is decided to lease him the compound of the qodesh in the b. Khabisa lane for two years, for 5 dinars a year. The four parnasim receive permission to do this from Isaac ha-Kohen b. Haggay, who was apparently a member of the court, the whole community being witness to the act of lease. The compound seems to be Dar Sumana. Some special stipulation was added regarding the hikr, probably stating which of the two parties had to pay it. The verso, which was probably written two years later, includes a declaration, which apparently definitively absolves the qodesh from payment of the last five dinars still due to Yaʿaqov b. Mevasser. The recipient of the declaration, Isaac ha-Kohen b. Haggay, transfers the deed to Husayn b. Hillel (probably identical with Husayn al-Dhahabi). Samuel ha-Kohen b. Avtalyon, one of the leaders of the Palestinian congregation, is the signatory at the bottom of the deed. Written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 144 #4)

Court record. Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Elʿazar summons Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Yeshuʿa to make a deposition. Abū Saʿīd says that he entered נמרה(?) and came to a certain Ṣedaqa.... (The continuation is lost.)

Legal document. Deed of dedication of a house in Damascus to the Great Synagogue, ca. 1090. A certain Meshullam, known as Ibn Shurayq al-Dimashqi, i.e. "the Damascene," dedicates his house to the Great Synagogue of Damascus, to which it is adjacent. The document is a draft written in the hand of Avraham b. Natan, one of the prominent members of the courts in Fustat and Cairo; it is unsigned, and as the name of the donor's father was not yet known, a space was left so it could be inserted later. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 214-215 #33)

Court records. Large fragment, containing at least two distinct entries. Damaged and faded. There is a testimony that begins on line 25 of recto and continues onto verso. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1401 Seleucid, which is 1089/90 CE (recto, line 26). Concerning a woman named Mansūba bt. Nahray and her ketubba payment, which was to be paid in installments. Her divorced husband is named Avraham b. Yeshuʿa ha-Zaqen known as Nissim (verso, line 2). This document might be related to JRL SERIES B 4878. ASE

Legal document. Abū l-Makārim undertakes to sell his female slave Ghazal if she behaves badly against his wife, the daughter of the head of the yeshiva (probably Masliah ha-Kohen Gaon b. Shelomo, head of the Jews 1127-1139), otherwise she has the right to sell her. Dated Heshvan 1466/1154. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves a settlement related to an inheritance divided into three shares; one of the parties is a woman named Nāshiya. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Settlement between the two brothers Muhadhdhab and Amin al-Dawla after a long litigation. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 47 and from Goitein's index cards)

Responsum, incomplete. Regarding a gift. "With humdrum Talmudic quotations." (Information from Goitein’s index card)

See T-S 12.39.

Copy of a court record from Aden. Dating: Summer 1131 CE. Concerning a controversy over Jewish communal leadership in Yemen. Goitein thought that this copy was made in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, but Friedman doubts this. It is not a direct continuation of T-S 20.37, but it concerns the same controversy. Namely, a Persian Nasi who was a cousin of the Exilarch in Baghdad had come to Aden, and the Yemeni public received him with respect and handed over to him the synagogue and religious affairs. He annulled the practice of mentioning the authority of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva (at that time Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon, based in the Egyptian capital) in prayer and legal documents. The foreign merchants, such as Ḥalfon b. Netanel, opposed this. (Information from Goitein, The Yemenites, pp. 67–68 and Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.) VMR

Court notebook. In Hebrew. Dated: 5443 AM, which is 1682/83 CE. Signatures written at the ends of the entries include Shelomo Somekh ha-Sofer, Avraham ha-Kohen ha-Sofer, and Nissim Kaʿk. There are 16 folios and many records. Needs examination

Deed of release. Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar II 1461 Seleucid, with the signing deferred until Tammuz 1461 Seleucid, which is 1150 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Avraham b. Ṣedaqa says that his mother-in-law loaned 7 dinars to Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm al-Najīb b. Yaḥyā Ibn al-ʿAnānī. Now, Avraham acknowledges that he has been repaid by Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm and the latter's sister. The debt was contracted before Avraham married into the family. He now releases Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm and the latter's sister from any claims, whether on his own part or on the part of his wife Sitt al-Jamīʿ or his mother-in-law the wife of Karīm who is the paternal uncle of Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. Interestingly the document ends with a Judaeo-Arabic formula (תאבת צחיח ומסתתם) in lieu of the customary Aramaic formula (שריר ובריר וקיים). Witnesses: Ṣemaḥ b. Shemuel ha-Kohen; Naḥum(?) b. Moshe ha-Levi. On verso there are a couple undeciphered words in Arabic script.

Court notebook, probably. There are three legal records on this folio, each one in a different hand. Record #1: Recto contains a detailed narrative concerning the disposition of the estate of the brother of Naḥum b. Yaʿaqov who was killed in a different country. The government confiscated his property, but it seems that Naḥum was able to liberate some or all of it, including indigo and other goods which he is selling off. The murdered brother left a minor son. Needs further examination. Record #2: The first document on verso is a remarriage contract (ketubba) for Fuḍayl b. Efrayim and his divorcee Ḥasana bt. Yūsuf. Location: Fustat. Dated: 26 Adar 1378 Seleucid, which is 1067 CE. (T-S 16.357 is their marriage contract from two years earlier.) Witnesses are: Ḥalfon b. Shabbat ha-Ḥazzan; Natan b. Avraham; and the well known judge ʿEli b. ʿAmram. Record #3: The second document on verso is a bill of divorce. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 24 Sivan 1378 Seleucid, which is 1067 CE. Husband: Ṣadaqa b. Abū Naṣr. Wife: Khalīfa bt. Moshe. The name of ʿEli b. ʿAmram ('ha-shaliaḥ ha-maẓliaḥ') appears in the last line, but the handwriting is different from what appears to be ʿEli b. ʿAmram's own signature, just above this document.