Geniza Lab

Will of a notable, dividing his landed property, his flocks of sheep and all the orchards possessed or leased by him between his brother and his children. Dated ca. 1090. This is a copy of the original will found in Bodl. MS heb. b 13/46. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 117, 425)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Dated: 23 Shevaṭ 1393 Seleucid (= 1082 CE). Location: Probably New Cairo. Groom: the nasi and head of the Jews David b. Daniel b. ʿAzarya (in office 1082–94), son of the gaʾon Daniel b. Azarya (in office 1051–62). Bride: Nāshiya bt. Moshe b. Aharon ha-Kohen, the daughter of a Qaraite notable, who brings in a dowry of almost 900 dinars (or over 1100 dinars?). As the bride is from a prominent Qaraite family, and the groom is a high-ranking Rabbanite, there are special clauses in the contract stating that the groom will not force the bride to compromise her Qaraite principles, and the bride will join her husband in observing the Rabbanite feasts. Attested by the Bet Din and witnessed by Yequtiʾel b. Moses, Nissim b. Maḥbūb, Shelomo b. Yiṣḥaq, Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli he-Ḥaver, Hodaya b. Yoshiyya, Yosef b. Shemuel, Yosef b. Elʿazar, Ṣedaqa b. Muvḥar, Aharon b. Avraham, Netanel b. Yefet he-Ḥaver, the cantor Aharon b. Avraham, Hillel the Cantor b. [...], Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 136, 456.)

Deed of indemnity granted by Saʿīd b. Yiṣḥaq to his brother Burayk. Written and signed by Palṭiel b. Efrayim he-Ḥaver. Location: Fusṭāṭ. From the court of Shemarya b. Elḥanan, ha-Rav ha-Rosh, who also signed. Dated: Tuesday, 14 Elul 4762 AM = 1313 Seleucid (= 25 August 1002 CE). Also witnessed by Shelomo b. David ha-Levi, Aharon b. Moshe, Ghālib b. Wuhayb, with validation by Yehoshuaʿ b. [...] and Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov. On verso there are jottings. (Information from CUDL.) Note that when Mann refers to T-S 24.11 (e.g., Mann, Jews, vol. 2, p. 91), he means the document currently bearing the shelfmark T-S 13J24.11.

Ketubba fragment. Location: Fusṭāṭ. Dated: [..]45 (probably 1345 Seleucid = 1034 CE). Groom: Avraham ha-Levi. Bride: Durra bt. Shelomo, a virgin and a rich woman. Her trousseau contains a Qarqūbī canopy worth 100 dinars and other precious Tustari, Tabaristan, and Byzantine beddings. Witnessed by [...] b. Mevorakh (מברך), Khalaf b. Seʿadya, Nissim b. Maymūn, Yefet b. Ṭoviyya ha-Levi, Ezra b. Hillel ha-Kohen. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba, Qaraite. Groom: Marzūq b. Yefet. Bride: (Sitt al-)Furs bt. Simḥa. Location: Fustat. Dated: [13]75 Seleucid, which is 1063/64 CE. Ḥananya b. Elnatan (Abū l-Tāhir Ibn al-Qatmānī) is the bride's representative. The couple undertake to accept the calendar fixed every year according to the state of the crops in Palestine. The husband promises not to dispose of any part of the marriage portion without the knowledge and consent of his wife. Witnessed by Avraham b. Yosef b. ʿAnan ha-Levi, ʿAllān b. Nahum, Elʿazar b. Shemuel b. Sahl the Slave, [...] b. Efrayim, Saʿīd b. Raziʾel, Ṣedaqa b. Menashshe, Saul b. Abraham. On verso a colophon refers to the tractates Nidda and Beraḵot. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Deed of a gift or gifts, willed by an old man to be collected after his death. Dated: 1122 CE. The testator is the Tripolitan Elʿazar/Manṣūr b. Shelomo/Salāma. Names mentioned: Ṣedaqa b. ʿEli, Mawhūb al-Dhahabī, Abū ʿImrān ha-Parnas Ibn Majjān, Abū l-Munā b. Raḥma, Abū l-Faraj al-Sibāḡ, Abū ʿImrān ha-Kohen, Najā al-Qaṣṣab, and אלכצאבי. Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver, Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel the Spaniard, Netanel b. Aharon ha-Levi, and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi, who also wrote the document. (Information from CUDL.)

Part of a ketubba. Bride: Sitt al-Maʿālī bt. Ḥesed, a divorcee. Groom:Daniel b. Ṭahōr. Date not preserved, but probably early 12th century. Rich trousseau. The total of marriage payments and dowry is over 200 dinars. Witnessed by Yiṣḥaq b. Simḥa ha-Levi al-ʿAsāb, Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli ha-Kohen (Ezekiel ha-Kohen 'the Ḥaver in the Great Sanhedrin' b. Eli ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver), [...] b. Natan, [...] b. Hillel, Moshe b. ʿAmram, Yiṣḥaq b. [Ghā]lib the Cantor. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba fragment. Very elaborately decorated with colorful patterns and micrography. The handwriting is probably that of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (ca. 1181–1209). Location: Fustat. Dated "Tuesday 10th" (amended supralinearly to Wednesday 11th); the rest of the date is lost. Bride: Khibāʾ, a virgin. Groom: [...] b. Levi ha-Levi he-Ḥaver the cantor (possibly Yedutun or Moshe, the sons of the well-known cantor Abū Sahl Levi from this time period). See Goitein's index cards for further information. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Power of attorney from Yisrael b. Yosef Januni to Nahray b. Nissim to collect the debt owed by Menashshe b. David, Qayrawan, ca. 1055 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Mostly destroyed fragment of power of attorney given to Yaʿaqov ha-Sar b. Moshe to represent the daughters of the late Avraham b. Shelomo in connection with the deceased's estate. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Ketubba fragment. Location: Fustat. Dated: 13[..] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 988–1088 CE. Groom: ʿEli. Bride: Malka/Milka/Malika, a widow or divorcee. Marriage payments: 5 + 10 = 15. Her dowry amounts to 795 dinars. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards.)

Legal document. Record of release. Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar I, 1426 Seleucid. One of two copies of a signed and executed mutual release of the partners Abū l-Karam Nadiv b. Saʿadya ha-Levi and Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. Benyamin from their long distance trading partnership. Both partners traveled to Yemen and traded in fabrics and and manufactured commodities. The partners use a number of terms to describe their complicated partnership relationships: khulṭa, shirka, and muḍāraba (commenda). There were also outside investors in their partnership, suggesting that Nadiv and Peraḥya were joint active partners employing this outside capital (as such the other partners are not mentioned in the release). The details of their relationship had been specified in a detailed agreement (kalimnā) which may or may not have been oral [NB: the document actually says "kull minnā," "each of us," which is not a reference to a prior detailed agreement]; this document represents only the termination of their joint relationship. Each party had to settle his account with his outside investors independently, in contrast to the corporate model seen elsewhere. (Information in part from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 152)

Recto: part of a deed of release (אביזר), granted by ʿEli b. Ḥusayn b. Moshe the Maghrebi, to his brother Azhar b. Ḥusayn b. Moshe the Maghrebi. Witnessed by about 20 people: Shemuel b. Mevasser b. Shemuel b. [...], ʿEli b. Nissim b. Aharon ha-Kohen, Ḥusayn b. Harūn b. [...], ʿAyyāsh b. Asad, Yaḥyā b. ʿImrān b. Mūs[ā] ha-Levi, ʿEli b. [...], Mevasser b. Moshe b. ʿEzra, Raḥami[m] b. Saʿīd, Ibrahīm b. Mūsā Qardūsī, Nahum b. Ṣadoq, Mevasser b. Nahum, Nahum b. Yisrael, ʿEli b. Shemuel, ʿEli b. Ḥarbish, Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham al-Ḥazām, Avraham b. Hillel b. Avraham, ʿEzra b. Yiṣḥaq. Attested in the court of ʿAzarya b. Moshe b. ʿAzarya the Exilarch. Verso: the name Natan b. Shelomo, on the edge of the verso; perhaps the owner of the book for which this document was subsequently used as a cover. (Information from CUDL.)

Najiya, called Sitt Hidhq, releases her husband from all obligations and resulting from her marriage contract, and releases both him and his son from the repayment of loans given to them in return for what, is not said. Dated Ayyar 1416/ May 1105. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 181, 465)

Ketubba (marriage contract).In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday 26 Adar II 1426 Seleucid, which is 1115 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Moshe b. Mevorakh. Groom: Shemarya b. Menashshe ha-Kohen. Bride: Malīḥa, a virgin and a poor woman. Marriage payments: 5 + 10 = 15 dinars. Dowry = 28 1/3 dinars. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (long vertical strip from the right side). Very similar to T-S 12.659 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 6). Groom: David. Date and other details are not preserved. Witnessed by Simḥa b. [A]haron ha-Kohen, Yehuda b. ʿImrān, Yaḥyā b. Nahum, Sāliḥ b. Ḥasan ha-Levi, Avraham b. Pinḥa[s] ha-Kohen, Nuʿmān b. ʿUmar. (Information from CUDL and Friedman's edition.)

Legal document. Copy of a divorce settlement, dated 11th Adar I 4973 (= 1213 CE), from Alexandria, in which Yeshuʿa b. Yosef b. Raṣon Tinnīsī (i.e. linen merchant), declares that he is bankrupt and thus unable to pay the second instalment, thirty dinars, that is still outstanding from the original marriage contract, to his wife, Sitt al-Kull bat Solomon b. Zechariah. The debt is divided into fifteen-dirham 'of good silver' monthly payments, but if he is unable to pay this amount, he must give half of his wage day-by-day instead. Other stipulations forbid Yeshuʿa from leaving Alexandria for four years and from ever remarrying his first wife, and instruct him to sell his clothes and to give the proceeds to Sitt al-Kull. There is also a continuation of the text of the letter from the verso. Verso: Letter, predating the legal document (i.e. prior to 1213 CE), from a certain Beraḵot, who appears to have written the legal document. The name of the recipient has been carefully rubbed out. There is also a continuation of the legal document from the recto. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card)

Recto: Marriage document (ketubba) in Palestinian style executed in 979/980. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 226-36) Verso: The end of a halakhic treatise on clean and unclean animals, meat preparation etc. (Infromation from CUDL)

Legal deed. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: Av 1413 Seleucid, which is July/August 1102 CE. The blind teacher Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Mevorakh sells to Turfa, the daughter of the late Ṭayyib al-ʿIblānī, half of a house in the Ḥarrānī street in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ for 51 dinars. The money was offered to him by the daughter’s mother, who is described as being from Aden. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 283, and from Goitein’s index card, where he adds: cf. Worman, JQR 18 (1905): 25–26.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar 1422 Seleucid, which is February–March 1111 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Mevorakh b. Seʿadya (who died in December of the same year). Groom: Salāma the freedman. Bride: name missing; a virgin. Marriage payments: 3 + 10 = 13 dinars. The marriage portion consisted of the price of half a house (in cash 14 dinars) and cloths, furniture, and household goods (at least 20 dinars); the total is not preserved. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)