Geniza Lab

Marriage contract (53d according to Friedman) between ʿEli b. Wahīb and Hiba bt. Yonah. One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 4693 AM (= 932/33 CE). This fragment contains four independent documents, nos. 53a-d. Documents 53a, 53b, and 53c are betrothal registers. Document 53d is a marriage contract, written at the time of the "nissuʾin." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 401–35) EMS

Betrothal register (53a according to Friedman) between Biqa (?) b. Moshe known as Abu Kāmīl and Mimuna bt. Ḥasan. One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 4693 AM (= 932/33 CE). This fragment contains four independent documents, nos. 53a-d. Documents 53a, 53b, and 53c are betrothal registers. Document 53d is a marriage contract, written at the time of the "nissuʾin." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 401–35) EMS

Court record regarding the sale of a house. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Abū Saʿd buys one-third of a house from his maternal aunt, which she had previously inherited. The neighboring house is owned by Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef b. Shelomo, the parnas of Jerusalem, who now resides in Fusṭāṭ. (Information from CUDL.)

Bill of sale for a female slave. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tuesday, 15 Ṭevet 1416 Seleucid = January 1105 CE. Abū Saʿd Ḥalfon (lines 18, 20, 26 but spelled Khalaf in line 4) and Abū l-Faḍl Yosef, sons of Moshe ha-Kohen, a high government official (titled Saniyy al-Dawla), sell a Nubian female slave named Ḥidhq ("Dexterity") to their sister Zayn Sitt al-Dār for 20 dinars. Signed by Ṣedaqa b. Shelomo ha-Levi and Aharon b. Namir ha-Kohen. Validated by Avraham b. Natan Av Bet Din, who was also the scribe for the document. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 137.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 1 Ḥeshvan 12[..] Seleucid, which is 888–987 CE. Bride: Zahra bt. ʿAlī. The groom's name is missing. Witnessed by Shelomo b. [...], Ṣadoq b. Yiṣḥaq, Ḥabīb b. ʿAday, Moshe b. Shelomo, ʿEli b. Ḥasan b. Ba[bad?]. On verso there is an unidentified and difficult to read text in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)

Quittance from uncle named Yeshua b. Avraham to his nephew, Sa'dan, after the latter returned a piece of land which had been taken illegally by his late sister. Five witnesses signed the document: Menashshe, Shelomo b. Fashshat (also mentioned in Mosseri A 134 dated 1007; T-S 13J1 f. 3 dated 1016; T-S Loan 137. See Mediterranean Society, II, p. 471), Yiṣḥaq b. Sedaq, Sahlan b. Avraham and Yeshua b. Sa'dal. Dated Adar 47xx/ ca. 1000 (Goitein)/1010 (Bareket) in Fustat. (Information from Bareket, pp.184, 251 and from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 437)

Bill of release, issued by Abū Kathīr Efrayim b. Maṣliaḥ al-Ghazzī to Abū Isḥāq Avraham ha-Levi. Signed by Yefet b. Menashshe, ʿOvadya b. […], and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi, who also wrote the document. Dated: Ṭevet 1416 Seleucid, which is 1105 CE. (Information from CUDL.)

Legal document. Record of release. Dating: 1150-1181. Written in the hand of Mevorakh b. Nathan. In this document, Abū al-Makārim Nadiv ha-Levi b. Moses ha-Levi settles a partnership account on behalf of Samuel due the father of Abū Naṣr and Abū al-Majd, perhaps upon the death of the father and the termination of the partnership. Upon payment of the balance to the two sons Nadiv is given a document of release, which indicates that Samuel had fulfilled his agency. In addition to the details concerning Nadiv’s payment to the two sons, the fragment is missing the partnership stipulations concerning term and distribution of profits and losses; it refers to the partnership as a "shirka", though the sons release Samuel from mu‘āmalāt. Line 19 replaces the Hebrew "ḥakhamim" with the Arabic "‘ulamā’" in a common rabbinic phrase; Nadiv had dealings in both Jewish and Muslim courts. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 143)

Draft, in the hand of the scribe Hillel b. Eli, of an addition to the last will of the parnas Eli ha-Kohen b. Yahya (documents signed by him 1057-1107). In his previous will, drawn up by the Andalusian judge Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel (see Mediterranean Society, II, p. 512 section 13) Eli had mentioned that one of his partners, Abu al-Muna Tiqwa b. 'Amram from Ascalon (see Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 212-214, 566, 567), owed him forty-eight dinars. The next day the witnesses reported that the partner had testified that Eli had withdrawn about six dinars, whereupon Eli asked them to include a declaration that he had been under the impression that the sum withdrawn had been profit made leaving the forty-eight dinars Eli had invested in the partnership intact. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 134, 212-214, 542)

Marriage contract. Location: Tyre. Bride: Sitt al-Bayt bt. Yaʿaqov. There is a header decorated with fleurs-de-lis. (See Goitein's index card and the PGP record for T-S 12.760 for more on this scribe.)

Verso: Hebrew formulary of an acknowledgment of a debt. Dated to the 11th century. (Information from Goitein's index cards) Recto: Ketubba portion for Jawhara the widow bat Salma and Isaac b. Hosea dated Thursday 13th Marḥešvan 1[..]2 in Fustat. Names of witnesses not preserved. Ca. 11th century. (Information from CUDL)

Elazar b. Yefet sells to Shelomo b. Sadaqa his female slave named Ṭā'ūs ('Peacock') and her 10 year old son, named Mubārak ('The Blessed') for 40 dinars. Dated Elul 1552/ August-September 1241. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 138, 434) On verso is a draft halakhic text on the laws of levirate marriage, in the same hand as the document on recto. (Information from CUDL)

A physician Shemuel grants a loan of four hundred cut-up dirhams to Abu al-Faraj, a simsar (broker) in Misr (Fustat) and Cairo, to be paid back at the end of Tishri 1537/end Ramadan-beginning of Shawwal 622/October 1225. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 385) Unfortunately for Shemuel, cut up dirhams would be taken out of circulation one month after the loan was due to be repaid. The deed also states that Shemuel had previously sold Abu l-Faraj sugar and sugar molasses. Signed by ʿAmram b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi and Shelomo b. Natan ha-Levi. Possibly in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Court record. Dated: 1083-1084. Location: Fustat. Abū al-‘Alā ‘Ūlla ha-Levi b. Joseph al-Dimashqī and Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā ha-Levi b. Joseph ha-Levi dispute the details of a partnership. The verso records ‘Ūlla’s testimony that Yaḥyā would receive one-third of the profits after expenses, following the commenda model, while Yaḥyā argued that profits were to be split evenly, and the expenses were to come out of the proceeds of the sale. Goitein points out that in addition to the partnership funds trusted to Yaḥyā, ‘Ūlla entrusted a consignment of scammony (a medicinal plant) which was “on commission”, suggesting that “business in general was largely conducted on the basis of mutual trust and friendship”. On the other hand, the dispute at hand concerns specific details of the partnership, including a dispute concerning the possible markets to which Yaḥyā was empowered to travel (Damietta, Alexandria, and the Maghreb); the partnership is terminated prior to Yaḥyā’s journey to the Maghreb. This document may have been a draft, given the many strikeouts, and blank space in the document has been used for some Arabic material whis seems to be unrelated. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 146)

Fragment from the right part of a ketubah. The groom's name is Nethan'el. Small part of the dowry list is preserved. AA

Fragment of a marriage contract from Fustat, written in the same hand as T-S 13J12.18. Dated ca 1337. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 386, 387)

Recto: Court record dealing with inheritance. In the hand of the scribe Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: 1118/19 CE. Abū l-Barakāt b. Natan al-Jaʿfarī had received a power of attorney to claim a debt from ‘al-rayyis al-jalīl al-ʿajamī’ […] b. Simḥa ha-Levi. When the men left the city they deposited the deed of attorney with a man (Abū l-Makārim), and now his widow, Sitt al-Sāda bt. Evaytar ha-Kohen Gaʾon (mentioned in numerous other documents in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe) brings the document to the court and asks for assurances that she will not be liable for any claims made. (Information from CUDL.)

Two government officials named Abu al-Makarim the scribe and Abu al-Bishr make a loan of 54 dinars belonging to them in equal shares to Yosef b. Mevasser from Damascus, to be returned in monthly payments of 2 dinars, 1 to each. Dated Kislev 566 A.H./ November 1170. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 255)

Marriage contract, small fragment, signed by Shemuel b. Ishaq and Avraham ha-Levi b. Yiṣḥaq (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 117, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1140. The partners (Abū al-Barakāt and Abū al-Faraj) split losses evenly but grant the active partner (Abū al-Faraj) thirteen twenty-fourths of the profit. In fact, the document specifies two twenty-fourths of the profit allocated to Abū al-Faraj, the amount by which his share exceeded Abū al-Barakāt's, as "remuneration [for his trouble and work]". Per Maimonides, the share of profits allocated to the active partner must be at equal to or greater than the share of losses. This suggests that in this case only 1/24 of the thirteen twenty-fourths of the profit allocated to Abū al-Faraj is the “additional amount” corresponding to payment for his work. The document is explicit that profits are split "evenly" (each partner receives eleven twenty-fourths), and an "additional amount" of two twenty-fourths is to be allocated to Abū al-Faraj. Abū al-Faraj is to have free disposal of the partnership capital, part of which is considered a loan, without any recourse to Abū al-Barakāt. Abū al-Barakāt also declares that his partner’s testimony would be trusted, even though both partners are supposed to perform an accounting. A copy of the partnership agreement is written for each of the parties' records. Should the partnership be terminated by either party before the end of the fixed period (which is not evident in the document, possibly due to deterioration), the terminating partner would be required to pay the other 50 dinars as an outright gift. If Abū al-Barakāt were to terminate the partnership prematurely, he would lose the entire amount putatively loaned to Abū al-Faraj, which was likely half his capital. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 119-120)