Geniza Lab

Small strip from a Ketubbah on vellum, contains mostly trousseau list mentioning ṭabaristān probably in connection with a garment. No further details preserved. AA

Legal deed. Opening lines only; abandoned mid-way through the fifth line. Dated: Sunday, 1 Sivan 1539 Seleucid, which is 1228 CE, under the jurisdiction of Avraham Maimonides. Parties: Avraham b. Shela and Muvḥar b. Tiqva both known as sons of Misbāḥ. On verso there are a few lines in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly hijāʾ (invective) poetry: yā jāhil bālī wa-yā khabīth al-ṭawiyya kam.... Underneath there are a couple words in Arabic script together with Greek/Coptic numerals. AA. ASE.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Bottom only. Dating: Ca. 10th century, based on the signature of Ḥabīb b. ʿAday, who also signs T-S 16.189. Other witnesses here: Iyov b. Shelomo b. Shemuel b. Sh[...]; Hillel [...]; Ḥasan [...]; Ḥasan b. ʿEli b. Ḥashmonay.

Ketubba, with very little text preserved, mentioning the trousseau items. Witnessed by Shemuʾel ha-Levi b. Elʿazar. (Information from CUDL)

Deed of sale for a house in Fustat. In the hand of ʿImmanuel b. Yeḥiel (active ca. 1231–65). Fragment from the middle of the document. Landmarks listed include Masjid al-Qubba and the dwelling of the Nagid. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: legal document referring to an agreement between [... b.] Meshullam and his wife Maymūna, possibly concerning a dowry. Signed by Abraham b. Isaac ha-Talmid and Ṣedaqa ha-Kohen b. David. There is a diagram in the right margin. Ca. second half of the 11th century. Verso: Arabic and Hebrew jottings and a drawing. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a ketubba (שטר פרנא). Location: Likely Tyre. Dating: ca. 1090s. The handwriting of the scribe seems to be identical with T-S 16.198, T-S 16.375 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 46), T-S AS 146.83 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 60), and ENA NS 3.22 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 64). Bride: Sutūt bt. Ṣabāḥ, a virgin. Her agent is Elʿazar b. Yosef. Few other details preserved. Goitein also identified T-S 8J4.18c and UPenn E 16516 as having been written by the same scribe. (But there is some potential ambiguity since on his index card for T-S 16.198 (#8182), he writes, "No! Simply Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.") (Information from Friedman's edition and Med Soc III, pp.201–02 and 466–67 note 145.)

Ketubba fragment (upper left corner). Bride is a virgin. Marriage payments: 5 + 10. Dated: 1453 Seleucid, which is 1141/42 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya (1140–59).

Dowry list. Dating: Early 12th century. The marriage is between a widow and a widower, both promising to educate the children of the other party until they would marry. Signed: Shela b. ʿAmram; Yosef b. Natan ha-Levi ha-Ḥazzan; Kawkab b. Naʿīm. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Legal document, probably a form or copy, as there is no room for signatures. The parties are Ezekiel b. Abraham ha-Bavli and David b. Sha'ayah. Probably written by Ephrayim b. Shemarya Verso text is inverted in relation to recto text. AA

Fragment of an answer by the Sura Gaon, likely a general question from the Babylonian Talmud rather than an answer to a specific question from a community member. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #44) VMR

Replacement of the original contract of marriage between Abū Manṣūr Elazar and his wife Sitt al-Sāda daughter of Abū Karām Nadīv, by a new one, according to which she receive only 25 dinars as “sacred [sic] statement, and her husband will not provide her with clothing, whether she has work or not (ll. 16-20), while her earnings will be hers. Handwriting of Nathan b. Samuel. Med. Soc. III, p. 133, n. 80, and Appendices. See Goitein's index card #7960

Marriage contract (ketubba), fragment. See Goitein's note card for some details, including a reference to Med Soc III, p. 414 no. 319a.

Fragment of deed of sale in Hebrew in which Esther bat Yosef b. Shalom, her husband Yosef, David b. Shalan and Dosa sell to each other parts of two buildings in Fustat. The buildings are described in detail. Dated ca. 1000. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. Dated: Ramaḍān 538 AH, which is 1143 CE. Abū Manṣūr Yakhin b. Elʿazar ha-Ḥazzān known as Ibn Thābit promises to Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Berakhot Ibn al-Dayyān that he will continue to pay a rent of 15 wariq dirhams for a store in the bazaar of the seeds dealers (abzāriyyīn) and to be responsible for it to the government. Yakhin has also the right to live in the store. (Information from Goitein's note card.)

Legal document. Containing testimonies about a certain document (kitāb) that is deposited with the Nasi Abū l-Ḥasan, which is a debt contract for 200 dinars. Someone testifies that the document's contents are not what they seem from the outside (laysa bāṭinuhu ka-ẓāhiruhu). It seems that there is also testimony that that document is not a maʿase bet din. Signed: Natan b. Yeshuʿa; Yefet b. [...]. On verso there is Talmud, unrelated to recto. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Very faded legal document written by Hillel b. Eli in 1096. Parties: Meshulam b. Solomon known as b. Safināt al-Muqadasi who serves as a representative of a young women regarding a legal document written in Muslim court. Also mentioned Berakhot and יהודה הרב המובהק which might be Judah b. Joseph. AA

Small fragment of a marriage document.

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late 11th century. Wuḥūd bt. Ḥalfon declares that a coex of the Torah along with other copper vessels and a pair of woollen curtains, which were deposited in the Qaysariyya with a man known as "the son-in-law of the man with the large teeth (Abū l-Asnān)" belonged to her daughter Sitt al-Ahl bt. Yiṣḥaq. Signed: Avraham b. Netanel; ʿEli ha-Kohen b. [...]. (Information from Goitein's note card.)

On recto (with few lines continued on verso) Halakhic discussion or responsa regarding the law of oaths, probably written by Abraham b. Nathan (beginning of 12th century Cairo). On verso, in a different hand, Judaeo-Arabic commentary to Genesis 1. AA