Geniza Lab

Legal document: deathbed declaration, made by a woman whose name is not preserved. The upper part of the document is missing, but the reconstruction, as proposed by Assaf, would be approximately as follows: "This is what happened before us, the undersigned witnesses, on the date of ... We entered the house of ... and found her sick in her bed, etc." The woman bequeaths one third of a compound owned by her in Qasr al-Sham' to the two synagogues, of the Palestinians and the Babylonians, in equal parts. One sixth of the compound is handed over to a certain Fa'iza, on the condition that she marries; if she dies unmarried, this sixth also would pass to the two synagogues, and not to any of Fa'iza's heirs. Another third of the compound is willed, in equal parts, to the testator's brother Sahlan and to Rayyisa, the daughter of her other brother, Efrayim. One twelfth of the compound has previously been sold to another niece of the testator's, Sutayt, the daughter of her sister Sayyida, for 14 Mu'izzi dinars. This sum was spent for timber, to be used for repairs in the compound. Another twelfth is to be sold, and the revenue (14 dinars) used to cover the expenditures for the transportation of the woman's body to Jerusalem and her burial there. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 119 #1)

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1010 CE. Shelomo b. Avraham b. Malkī (Mulkī?) sells nine parts out of eighteen of a house in the Qaṣr Edom (Qaṣr al-Rūm), which he had inherited from his wife Salma bt. Moshe b. Ṣemaḥ ha-Kohen to Yaḥyā the banker. The house borders on three others belonging to women and one man, and on one side to the house of Malīḥ, a Christian glassmaker. Styled in beautiful Hebrew and calligraphic script. Fragmentary. 3 out of 5 houses as borders belong to women. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Bill of sale in which a seller of potions sells to a perfumer 1/8 of a house in the great Bazaar in the Surayya Lane, a blind alley, for 7.5 dinars. Half the house belonged to Christians and 1/6 to a seller of oil. Dated July 1179. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 281)

Bill of release from a partnership, after the death of one of the partners. Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: Middle decade of Elul 1432 Seleucid, which is 1121 CE. Abū l-Faḍl Shela ha-Levi Ibn al-Baṣrī was engaged in a partnership with Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Netanel ha-Sar, and after Netanel's death the partnership was dissolved, and Netanel' daughters (Sitt al-Khāṣṣa, Sitt al-Kamāl, and Sitt al-Karam) issued a release to Shela. Also signed by Yaḥyā b. Shemuel. (Information from CUDL.)

Recto: Lease of a compound in Ascalon, ca. 1120(?)-1147. A compound in Ascalon is leased by the representatives of the qodesh to to Shelomo ha-Zariz b. Ḥalfon. Verso: Record of the yearly rent paid to the elders of the Heqdesh, kept by the tenant. The yearly rent was one quarter of a dinar or 8.5 wariq dirhams, which covered the rent from Tishri to Elul. The payments were generally made several months after the end of the year. Records of ten such parments are preserved, from a period extending from 1131 through 1147. The lease itself bears four signatures, whereas the yearly payments are confirmed by two members of the court. The document includes writing in three different languges: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Confirmations of the payments are listed in chronological order. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 277 #57)

Ketubba for the remarriage of a couple, Ramla, 1052. This ketubba is cancelled, implying that the couple later divorced for a second time. Verso: Calculations and notations. (Information from CUDL)

Bill in which Shelomo b. Hakim promises to pay back to Nissim b. Yaʿaqov a sum of thirty 'pieces of gold' (dinars). The latter is represented by Moshe b. Avraham b. Khalifa. Written by Elhanan b. Shemarya. Signed by Avraham b. Sahlan, Efrayim b. Shemarya and Shemuel ha-Kohen. Dated 1328/1016-17. (Information from Bareket, pp. 84, 162, 196-198)

Marriage contract of Hayyim b. Moshe and Aziza b. Shelomo. Dated July 28, 1492. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 450)

Fragment of a settlement between Simha b. ? and Khalifa, his son-in-law, after long litigation. Dated Av 1412/1101. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Simha, daughter of Moshe b. Job, wife of Yosef al-Bali, sells a Pentateuch with gilded ornaments to Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham. Dated Iyyar 5159/April-May 1399. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from a note on the typed text)

Release given by Karima bat Sedaqa the teacher to Avraham b. Hujayj. Signed by many people, but only four of the signatures preservEd. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

An early legal document, in Hebrew rather than Arabic, in which a woman in al-Bana near Faqus, Nile Delta, sells a quarter of a third of a house owned by her to her son in law for 3.5 dinars. The latter lived in the house and had already received another twelfth as the dowry of his wife. Dated Tishri 4759/1309 Sel./998 C.E.. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 39, 435; IV, p. 277)

Bill of release (draft or copy). In the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dated: Tishrei 1356 Seleucid, which is 1044 CE. Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Shelomo Ibn al-Raqqī, representing also his mother Mubāraka bt. Levi b. Yaʿaqov and her sister Bahiyya bt. Levi (the widow of Aharon ha-Levi and the mother of Mevorakh b. Aharon), releases Yaʿaqov b. David Ibn al-Dawātī from all claims having to do with the support of Yaʿaqov's three children Faraj, Bishr and Sitt al-Bayt. Yaʿaqov is providing food and tuition for them and is also providing a Nubian female slave named Shaʿith (who remains the property of Yaʿaqov). Yaʿaqov has paid rent to Bahiyya for his apartment in Dār Ibn al-Shaʿʿāb. (Mentioned in Goitein, Med Soc I, p. 135.)

Beginning of the taqqanah (ordinance) of al-Mahalla, continued in T-S 16.135. This is an enactment passed by the Jewish community of al-Maḥalla, in which they pledge their loyalty to their judge Peraḥya [b. Yosef], to retain his position as long as he remains in the country and does not want to emigrate to the Land of Israel. Peraḥya was Avraham b. Peraḥya Ibn Yijū’s nephew (his brother’s son), and was married to his daughter Sitt al-Dar. He served as the muqaddam of al-Maḥalla. The enactment is authorised by Yehoshua b. Iyov, Moshe ha-Kohen b. Berakhot ha-Kohen, Shemuʾel b. Yefet, Natan ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, ʿUlla b. Natan, and Berakhot b. Efrayim. The community passed this enactment in response to a power struggle that was taking place between Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā (later known as Mar Zūṭa), the head of the Jews, and local communities. Zūṭa had attempted to force the local judge Peraḥya to collect a tax from anyone approaching him for halakhic rulings - a fee that was to be passed on to Zūṭa. To prevent Zūṭa from appointing a different judge who would be loyal to him, the community of al-Maḥalla pledged their loyalty to Peraḥya in this enactment. (Information from CUDL) Ed. Blau, Teshuvot ha-Rambam, vol. 2, 516-518.

Marriage contract (ketubba) from Tyre, ca. 1079.

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: August 9, 1077. Location: Alexandra. This release document, written in the Alexandria rabbinical court, concerns a partnership between Yosef b. Yoshiyya Ibn al-Dhahabī and Khalaf b. ʿIzrūn, which seems to have been canonized in an "Arabic document" in the hand of the latter. The document seems to have been the product of an Islamic court, as it "bear[s] testimony of non-Jews". The partners release each other from a number of possible partnership forms: the khulṭa, the shirka, and the muʿāmala. The partners also release each other from any qirāḍ later in the release clauses; this is certainly because of the linguistic relationship between qirāḍ and qarḍa (though qarḍa refers to a loan, not a partnership agreement). The partners also absolve each other from all oaths, including the ḥerem setam or "anonymous ban" (imposed by the Geonim as the "oath of partners" to prevent malfeasance). These partners likely worked together as partners for a number of years. In T-S 13J1.16, dated to 1066, Yosef appoints Khalaf his agent. It's possible that T-S 16.138 is a release from that agency relationship, but lines 18-19 suggest that the two parties later restructured their relationship and contracted as partners, from which the present document grants release. The signatories, Mawhūb the Ḥazzan b. Aharon the Ḥazzan and Shela b. Mevasser, are well-known members of the rabbinical court of Alexandria at the end of the eleventh century. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 131.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Legal document acknowledging a debt on account of a dowry. Fustat A.D. 982. The groom is Yosef ha-Kohen b. Avraham.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: 4 Elul 1410–1429 Seleucid, which is 1099–1118 CE (yielding a likely range of 1100–18 CE based on Ḥalfon b. Menashshe's years of activity). In which Mehullal ha-Kohen gives his wife the right to dispose of (complete taṣarruf with) her dowry, and in return she releases him from any responsibility for her dowry. The documents specifies that her entire family was present and "signed" for her. Signed by Meshullam b. Menashshe he-Ḥaver, Moshe b. Moshe ha-Levi, the cantor Menashshe b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen, and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The following validation is signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya, Yiṣḥa b. Shemuel, and Netanel b. Yeshuʿa ha-Parnas. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Legal document containing an acknowledgment by a creditor, Khalaf b. Aharon, of the full payment of the debt.

The widow of Abu al-Barakat, the son of Yosef Lebdi, buys a sixth of two adjacent stores for 53 and three/fourths dinars. The widow was Sitt al-Sada, daughter of Abu Nasr al-Tinnisi. This same share of the two stores was bought at an earlier date by Abu al-Fadil, a physician, from his two nephews. These nephews retained the right to buy.