Geniza Lab

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Attesting that Sitt al-Gharb bt. Abū l-Faraj b. Semekh al-Daʿwa (known from other Geniza documents) gave a deed of manumission (גט חירות) to her male slave Munjib. There are several text blocks in different hands; all those on recto appear to pertain to the same case. On verso there are notes about other legal cases, as well as two lines from the beginning of a petition in Arabic script. Join by Moshe Yagur. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Legal query addressed to the Gaʾon Moshe (b. Netanʾel) ha-Levi concerning the claims of a creditor against the widow of the man who owed him. Goitein notes in Med Soc II, p. 528 note 46, that there is no document confirming that Moshe b. Netanʾel ever held the title Gaʾon—perhaps he did not consider this legal query to be a true document. But see also the various documents signed by Moshe's son Sar Shalom, who clearly regarded his father as having held the title Gaʾon (e.g., ENA 4020.4, T-S 13J31.3, T-S 10J20.21, and T-S 10J24.7 + T-S 10J29.4), and see M. A. Friedman's article on Zuta, pp. 474–75, for the point that at the time of Yehuda ha-Levi's arrival in Egypt (Elul of 1140 CE), Moshe b. Netanʾel definitely held the title Gaʾon.

Recto: Legal document written and signed by Natan b. Shemuel. Dated: Iyyar 1456 of the Seleucid Era (=1145 CE). Abū ʿAlī Yefet b. Shemarya ('the head of the parnasim and the trustee of the court') receives a loan of 11 dinars from Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Abū l-Ḥasan Shabbetay Ibn al-Shofeṭ. To be paid back in 11 monthly installments, beginning with the month in which the loan was given. Verso: the repayments are recorded, with signatures of Natan b. Shemuel, Elʿazar b. Moshe and Moshe b. Mevasser. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Secondary use: A judge's inventory of possessions and money relating to Avraham b. Ḥasan and Abū l-Ṭāhir. Possibly the inventory of a coppersmith who possessed also the three parts of the Bible. Mentions the Iraqi synagogue. Verso: apparently copies of legal documents, one of them relating to an engagement, all written around an Arabic chancery document (see separate record). The future wedding is dated 1391 of the Seleucid Era (= 1079/80 CE). People mentioned include Abū Zikrī, Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq, [...] the trader Pinḥas b. Elʿazar Ibn al-Shofeṭ, and Nahray he-Ḥaver (who may sign somewhere). (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) Needs further examination.

Recto: document, either a legal deed or a proclamation, written by Shemarya b. Elḥanan sentencing someone who has slandered ‘our Master and Teacher Shemarya’ to flogging. With quotes from Prov. 21:23, Mishna Sanhedrin 10:1, BT Qiddushin 70a, and Shavuʿot 21a. Verso: responsum with isolated Babylonian vocalisation, dealing with matters concerning orphans, quoting various halakhic authorities. (Information from CUDL; see also Goitein's index card.)

Writ of agency written in Tyre, dated 18 Shevat 4771 (25 January 1011). Ḥalfon b. Moses b. Aaron (Ibn Abī Qīda), the "representative of the merchants" in Tyre, authorizes his father-in-law Solomon b. Rabī' (in Fustat) to collect from Caleb b. Aaron, the "representative of the merchants" in Fustat, what he is owed for 37 mishpālōt (baskets) of glass, which were partly his property and partly held in partnership with Abraham b. Ḥabashī and Aaron b. Jacob (Ibn Abī Rujayf). (Information from Gil, Palestine 1:238)

Legal document. Zakkār b. ʿEli releases Avraham b. Elʿazar. There is no information about the occasion for the release. Dated: Sunday, 7 Av 1388 of the Seleucid Era (= 1077 CE). Signed by: Efrayim b. Moshe, ʿEli b. Yaḥyā ha-Kohen and Ṣedaqa b. Netanel. (Information from CUDL.)

Deposition (modaʿ) in court made by one Abū Saʿd. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tammuz/Av 1466 Seleucid, which is 1155 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Abū Saʿd declares that he had paid a sum of 16 dinars (out of 32) to his opponent only to protect himself against his slander. The money did not belong to him. Signed by Moshe b. Seʿadya and Sason b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi. The validation is written and signed by Sason b. Meshullam; also signed by Hillel b. Yosef and Yosef b. Yehuda. This fragment was formerly known as T-S 10J24.6. (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Verso: Copy of a will by Yeshua b. Isma’il al-Makhmuri. September 1090. In the handwriting of Shlomo ha-Kohen b. Eliyyahu (which became the Gaon later). Presenting the will in necessary for a court discussion. The will is missing the witnesses’ names but it has the names of the people that the deceased appointed to deal with selling the goods he left, as well as building his grave (“the cave”). These people are Musa b. Abi al-Hayy Khalila and Shemuel b. Yehuda. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #327) VMR

Partnership settlement recorded in the home of Rabbi Moshe Damūhī in Cairo that bears a date in line 34 of 9 Ḥeshvan 5304 AM (1543 CE). This is not the exact date of recording for this document, which has been lost to damage in the lower right corner and was likely somewhat later in the sixteenth century. The partnership settlement is related the cost of rent and repairs for a building in which a section was used as a house of prayer for the Maghrebi congregation. Some of the names of the individuals involved are: Raḥamim b. Mordechai Ḥadād and Najma bt. ha-Rofe Saʿadia Tawīl. The witness Badusa b. Asher may have also scribed this document. He is listed as the sole witness in a nearby shelfmark from 1569CE (CUL T-S 13J4.20). Information from Goitein's linked index card and Dotan Arad's edition. MCD.

Legal document: bill of sale for a slave. See also Perry's annotated edition of T-S18J1.17.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: May 14, 1238. Written in the hand of Solomon b. Elijah (identified by Goitein), teacher and court scribe. Concerning a partnership in a "kitchen" (maṭbakh), likely a facility engaged in food preparation. The mention of a "division" (that is, of assets) and the statement that "only […] remains" suggests that this may be a partnership settlement and release, or at least this release was not accompanied by a final settlement of all accounts, though the document isn't sufficiently well-preserved for certainty. The partners were Abū al-Riḍā Yaḥyā b. Samuel and al-Makīn b. Shela ha-Levi. The exact date is given in the Islamic calendar (28 Ramadan 635), and is also dated in the Jewish calendar (last ten-day period of Iyar) with the Seleucid year (1549). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 236)

Draft of a legal document. Confirming a settlement (ṣulḥ) negotiated by elders. A release for Nissim b. Meshullam and his brother Ṣedaqa b. Meshullam, along with their mother Bahiyya bt. Ḥalfon, from debts incurred by their deceased father Abū l-ʿAlā Meshullam b. Hiba known as Ibn Shuwaykiyya ("the little artichoke"). Mentions 'the judge of judges' (qāḍī l-quḍāh). T-S 12.94, T-S 10J5.13, and T-S 13J37.9 are all draft documents related to each other (possibly a join), and they are somehow related to T-S 20.30. All need further examination.

Legal document from Minyat Ghamr concerning a debt; during the holiday of Passover 1537 sel., mid-April 1226 CE. Reshut of Abraham Maimonides. Ḥalfon b. Elazar known as ben al-Meshorer received from Nadiv b. Shelomo fifty dirhems in "Egyptian cash," to pay back in four half-monthly installments. (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR and EMS

Legal document. Location: Bilbays. Dated: First decade of Sivan, 1564 Seleucid, which is 1253 CE. Under the reshut of David I Maimonides. Concerning a settlement between Sulaymān b. Yaʿaqov and his brother Nafīs b. Yaʿaqov and Dā'ūd b. Yosef regarding payments for wine left by the late Abū l-Waḥsh b. Sulaymān, who died when a grave collapsed on him. Signed by Avraham b. Elʿazar and Yaḥyā b. Ṭahor ha-Levi. (Information from CUDL and E. Struss-Ashtor, History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the rule of the Mamluks, 3:12-14) VMR.

Deed of compensation in the handwriting of Emanuel b. Yehiel concerning Sulayman ha-Kohen b. Efrayim, who engaged in dyeing silk with turquoise blue. Also mentions the Nagid David; Fustat, 1564 Sel. (1253/1252 C.E.). (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:107, 420; Joseph Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine, 2:329; E. Struss-Ashtor, History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the rule of the Mamluks, 3:8-10) VMR and EMS

Deposition in which denunciation is alleged. Dated: Thursday, first decade of Tishrei 1581 Seleucid, which is September 1269 CE. Testimony of ʿAmram b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen that he had unwillingly written an acknowledgement of debt to Moshe ha-Kohen (known as Ibn Bashāra). Signed by Yehuda b. Sar Shalom ha-Kohen and Yoel b. Shela ha-Levi. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Deed of indebtedness. Location: Fustat. Dated: 5 Iyyar 1603 Seleucid, which is 1292 CE, under the authority of David I Maimonides. Legal document concerning a loan of 400 dirhams from the perfumer Abū l-Faḍl b. Abū l-Ḥasan the doctor to Abū l-Faḍl Ibn al-Akram the banker ha-Levi (known as Ibn Nuʿmān). No signatures. On verso is a drawing of a star or flower. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Statement concering the mamraq (passage) between houses, the proprietor of which allows two neighbors to build on it, Tebeth 1555/January 1214.

Two betrothal contracts. See individual records. The hand is very close to that of the clerk who wrote many of the letters of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355); perhaps a coincidence, or perhaps he had a long life.