Geniza Lab

Legal document. Power of attorney. Sunday, last ten days of Sivan 1461 sel. (either 18th or 25th of June 1150). Also additional court or communal recordings.

Deposition by Yosef ha-Kohen b. Nataniel recording that he would not honor an agreement according to which 25 dinars out of a debt owed to him by Abu al-Khayr b. al-Tinnisi would be paid to him immediately, five at the end of the month, five in monthly installment of one quarter, while he would forego the remaining 20 dinars owed to him. That agreement was made under duress. 1174 CE. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Court record concerning a widow who has received back her dowry but is still owed her marriage gift, in Bilbays, Elul 1515/August 1204 (Elul 12th does not match Tuesday as the of the week). On verso liturgical poems.

Legal. Bill of partnership. The partners are זכרי בר כלף, Moshe and Reuven. They were merchants in jewels with Mordechai from Alexandria. Hebrew. (FGP)

Legal document. Fragment (lower right corner). In Hebrew. involving Moshe, Mordechai, Reuven and Zikrī. Concerns something Abyssinian: בענין הביעה של הכרזה חבשייה ה[...]. Dated: 20 Iyyār 5320 AM, which is 1560 CE. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Witnessed by the scribe, Yosef b. Meʾir Somekh ha-Kohen, and signed by Aharon b. Re[uven]. (Information in part from CUDL)

Legal document concerning a partnership. Abraham Mosseri receives money from Nissim Shelomo Algazi, as previously agreed. Mentions the name Isaac Shunina. Witnessed by Ḥayyim ha-Levi, Joseph Yonah, Moses Mosseri, [...] b. Zechariah Mosseri (mentioned in the text as the brother of Abraham), and dated 1st Tevet 5508 of the Era of Creation (= 1747—8 CE) in Cairo. (Information from CUDL)

Records of three betrothal agreements. The first is a receipt dated Monday, first day of Pesaḥ, mentioning the groom Yaaqov Ḥanan b. Yosef Ḥanan and the bride Kaḥla bat David Jannāḥ. The second mentions the groom Efrayim Ḥakīm b. Elihu Ḥakīm and Suqar (?) bat Shemuʾel ha-Levi, dated Nisan 5577 of the Era of Creation (= 1817 CE) in Cairo. The third mentions the groom Menaḥem Wadish b. Shelomo, and the bride Miriam bat Elijah ʿAṭias. Efrayim Ḥakim acts as a representative of the bride. Dated: 5578 of the Era of Creation (= 1818 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Fragment from a legal document, probably from Fusṭāṭ, mentioning Shemuʾel b. Jacob. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document recording acknowledgement, made through a Muslim notary, for the granting of a loan by a beadle of an Iraqi synagogue in Fustat, Eli b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen, of 28 and one/sixth dinars that was delivered to the son of a Jewish judge - Yair ha-Shofet ha-Nadiv Pe'er ha-Kahal is a son the known family Ben al-Shofet, descendant of Abu al-Bishr Azhar Ya'ir b. Avraham (middle of 11th century). 'Our' Ya'ir was active in the early 12th century. MY. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 1:251, 463) EMS On verso a different legal deed, unfinished.

Deed of a loan of 377 nuqra dirhams granted by a banker to the proprietor of a sugar factory to be paid back in weekly installments of 25 pieces, in Fustat, [157]6/1265.

Legal document granting an extension of due date on a debt, Fustat, 1265.

Record of testimony of three witnesses on a quarrel in which Abu Ishaq b. Yahya al-Najib, a communal official, was involved, Tammuz 1461/June-July 1150.

Fragment of a ketubba (marriage contract) which stipulates that the bride would move from Tyre to Akko in twelve months, ca. 1028-1037. Text in Arabic script on verso.

Likely a deathbed will. Shemuel b. Yosef grants executorship of his estate to his brother Yehuda. Written in Damascus. Rivlin says date is 1003 CE (but the hundreds column is missing both times the date is written). (See Rivlin, Inheritance and Wills, doc. 5, pp. 316-318)

Legal document from Fusṭāṭ, apparently concerning the sale of meat (and its ritual purity); mentioning ‘our lord’ Nathaniel ha-Levi. Signed by various people including Moses b. Shelomo and Yaʿir b. Shemuʾel. (Information from CUDL)

Fragmentary record of communal dispute in which Shelomo ha-Kohen, Head of the the Yeshiva, became involved; written in Fustat.

Power of attorney. In Judaeo-Arabic. A woman with the strange name of Qirā al-Lawn (קרא אללון), the widow of the late Marwān, appoints Shelomo b. David b. Shimʿon to claim from Ṣemaḥ b. Shemuel what was due to her from the estate of her paternal uncle. She had already received 38 dinars. On verso the name Sittnā bt. Yeshuʿa appears. (Information in part from CUDL.) VMR

Recto: Acknowledgment of debt of seventy dinars Abu l-Tana al-Sukkari (the sugar seller) b. Abu l-Barakat the perfumer by Aharon Ha-Kohen the perfumer. Verso: Rhymed funerary poem.

Legal document (actually two different documents concerning the same persons) concerning the poor treatment afforded to R. Moshe, a new hazzan, by R. Nissim, the muqaddam of al-Maḥalla, and centered on issues relating to a marriage ceremony and the public evaluation of a dowry. Thirteenth century. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:74, 538; Mordechai Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, 1:296; Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS (1967), 238) EMS.

Legal document written under the authority of Nathaniel ha-Levi concernning payment of fees for an orphan preparing himself for the profession of his late father, Manṣūr b. Khalaf (known as Ibn al-Muṭrī). His mother Mulūk, widow of Khalaf the cantor, wants Manṣūr to be taught Torah by Abū Saʿd Saʿadya the cantor (known as Ibn al-Muʿallima, ‘the son of the female teacher’) b. Avraham. Fustat, Adar 1471/February-March 1160.