Geniza Lab

Fragment of a marriage contract (ketubba). Dating: Likely 10th century, based on handwriting. This fragment begins toward the end of the dowry list. Groom: Saʿīd. Bride: Malīhā, a virgin. The dowry amounts to 456 1/3 dinars. The items are listed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Hebrew, and the document preserves the complete text of the divorce clause. (Information from Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 53–54.) On verso there is the Hoshaʿnot liturgy for the end of Sukkot. (CUDL)

Qaraite marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Cairo. Dated: 1315 AM, which is 1003/04 CE. (In fact, Goitein points out that this is one of the oldest known documents from Cairo, which had been founded only ~35 years prior.) Groom: Shelomo b. Mevasser b. Sahl al-ʿAni. Bride: Sara bt. Yeshaʿya b. Sahl al-ʿAni. (Groom and bride are first cousins, abnā' ʿamm). The groom had already paid 100 ʿAzīzī dinars and promised another 50 at the wedding. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards.)

Recto: Bill of release. In Hebrew. Granted by Aharon b. [...] to [...] b. Mevorakh ha-Shulḥani (the banker), upon receipt of 7 dinars, somehow related to the inheritance of his grandmother Samāna, the mother of his mother Azīza. Written by [...] b. Shemuel, and witnessed by Shemuel 'the lesser' (זעירא) b. [...], [...] b. Aharon, Yefet b. ʿEli ha-Kohen, and Yosef b. Efrayim.

Fragment of right side of a marriage contract

Power of attorney. Location: Malīj. Dated: Tuesday, 25 Adar I 4807 AM, which is 1047 CE. In which Rayyisa bt. Manṣūr appoints her brother Asad b. Manṣūr, to go to Ṣōʿan, Egypt (i.e., Fusṭāṭ), to obtain her share of the inheritance that her late uncle Yosef b. Asad al-Tabaranī had deposited with Ḥesed b. Yashar (aka Abū Naṣr b. Sahl al-Tustarī). Witnessed by Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq, Yeshuʿa b. Shemarya, Salmān b. Yaʿqūb ha-Levi, and Yiṣḥaq b. Barukh, with attestation by the Bet Din of Sahlān b. Avraham (here titled Sahlān Segan ha-Yeshiva b. Avraham Beḥir ha-Yeshiva), also signed by Avraham b. Iyov, Moshe b. Yefet, and Shelomo b. ʿEli. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Legal testimony. In the hand of Avraham b. Natan Av. No witness signatures. Location: Cairo. Dated: Thursday, 27 Adar I 1415 Seleucid, which is 1104 CE. The document contains the proceedings before the court regarding the matter of dispute between two members of the community of Malīj, Shelomo b. Avraham (aka Salāma b. Ibrāhīm al-Sayrajī) and Peraḥya ha-Kohen b. Ṭarfon (aka Abū l-Surūr b. Ṭarīf). The story opens with a verbatim copy of another testimony (called a sheṭar/maḥḍar) dated 2.5 months earlier (Saturday night 12 Ṭevet 1415 Seleucid), in which the witnesses Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq, Yosef b. Mevorakh, and Elʿazar b. Yosef testify that they entered the house of a Jew named Bashshār and found Salāma b. Ibrāhīm assailing Abū l-Surūr b. Ṭarīf and hanging on to his clothing; the latter was not defending himself. Salāma insisted on taking Abū l-Surūr before the government (sulṭan); Abū l-Surūr insisted on taking Salāma to the Jewish courts (before 'the Rayyis'). Salāma then insulted the Rayyis and said, "I am [King] Baldwin (Bardawīl), and Abū l-Surūr is my prisoner!" Salāma summoned the police (rajjāla) and had Abū l-Surūr and Yūsuf b. Rajā and Yūsuf b. Manṣūr taken before the Muslim courts/government (headed by "the amir"). The amir nearly had the defendants beaten. (End of first document.) Now, Abū l-Surūr has finally succeeded in bringing Salāma before the Jewish court and "sayyidnā" (though the pronouns are not entirely clear in l. 4 and it could also be Salāma suing Abū l-Surūr). The court orders Salāma to justify his behavior. Salāma says to summon the witnesses. The court refuses, saying, And what if they don't obey the order? Abū l-Surūr says that the court should use the ḥerem stam (blanket excommunication) to coerce people into reporting any communication they received from Salāma to antagonize Abū l-Surūr before the Muslim courts. Either Salāma or Abū l-Surūr at this point accuses the other of bearing false witness in the Jewish court ("before Sayyidnā"). The court reads out a letter that Salāma confesses to be his own, in which he accuses a troublemaker (=Abū l-Surūr) who had been exiled from Malīj to Cairo of sending letters to Ibn al-Qāsh the dyer and to the shoṭer and the nadiv to the effect that they aren't rid of him yet, since he will return as soon as Rabbenu dies. The court asks Salāma on what basis he made that claim, and Salāma can only respond that someone (he refuses to say who) told him about Abū l-Surūr's alleged letters. The court believes Abū l-Surūr's side of the story, but also issues a ḥerem stam commanding anyone who did receive a troublemaking letter from Abū l-Surūr to come forward with it. The shoṭer and the nadiv are present, and they deny receiving any such letter from Abū l-Surūr. The document ends abruptly with the line, "The day broke, and the crowd dispersed." ASE

Prenuptial agreement between Ḥalfon b. Yosef ha-Levi and Turfa bt. Elʿazar. Dated: Ḥeshvan 1428 Seleucid, which is 1116 CE. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel the Spaniard and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi, who also wrote the document.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Dating: ca. 1337 CE, since the same witnesses appear on T-S 13J2.18 from that year. Groom: ʿOvadya b. Avraham b. Shelomo. Bride: Ẓarīfa bt. Yehoshuaʿ. ("The men bear several pompous titles," per Goitein.) For the dowry there is a long list of jewelry, clothes, and household goods, full of late terms. The dinar is valued as being equivalent to 13 1/3 full silver dirhams, as was usual int he 13th and 14th centuries. The bride is obliged to wash herself in the ritual bath for menstrual purity (following Maimonides' enactment on this issue). The bride is entitled to keep her earnings for herself. Witnessed by Elʿazar b. Moshe ha-Kohen and Elishaʿ b. Ḥananya ha-Levi. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba fragment. Location: Fustat. Dated: 2 October 1039 CE. Groom: Faraḥ b. Raḥmūn. Bride: Sittūna bt. Naḥum, a virgin. Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30. Dowry = 110. Total = 140. (The total marriage gift of the husband is 30 dinars of which 10 were to be given immediately and 20 were delayed. The grand total is 140, of which the dowry is 110.) Unsigned. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 46; III, 378.)

Collection of halakhic rulings, concerning legal deeds and marriage. The scribe is well known from other collections of geʾonic responsa, from the beginning of the 11th century. (Information from CUDL)

Collection of geʾonic responsa. The scribe is well known from other collections of geʾonic responsa, from the beginning of the 11th century. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Court proceedings. Yaʿqūb b. Yūsuf claims that Da’ūd and Ṣedaqa, sons of Ṣemaḥ b. Da’ūd al-Raqqī, have withheld profits from a partnership in a store. The brothers were also involved in long distance trading on behalf of the partnership. Yaʿqūb himself seems to have contributed the sum total of the partnership capital, amounting to four thousand dinars, which yielded a one time payment of ten dinars to Yaʿqūb and a single dinar each week, of which Yaʿqūb would receive half and the brothers the other half. Yaʿqūb also received 30 dinars each month to satisfy a debt on the store. After working as partners for a month, Yaʿqūb produces witnesses who notarize a detailed description of responsibilities for the partners (presumably the partners previously had an informal yet specific agreement). The document validates the testimony of Da’ūd and Ṣedaqa that their profits were scanty. Unlike in many other documents, the brothers are called to swear concerning the outcome of their long-distance trading. Their testimony does not preclude the possibility that Ya‘qūb will pursue further legal action against the brothers, but simply confirms that the profits represented the sum total of profits of the partnership. The identity and role of the character “Bishr”, mentioned in line 24, is unclear. It may refer to one of the witnesses, Mubashir b. Fahīd. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 163)

Deed of release, in which Shelomo b. Moses b. Shelomo declares that he has no claims against Manṣūr ha-Levi b. Israel or against Yaʿīsh ha-Kohen b. Abraham b. Yaʿīsh. Witnessed by Yaʿaqov b. Joseph, Hiba b. Aaron, Faraḥ b. Muʾammal, Joseph b. Benjamin, Moses ha-Kohen b. Isaac and Shelomo b. ʿAllūn. Dated Thursday, 23rd of the month, 1329 (= 1018 CE), in Fusṭāṭ. (Information from CUDL)

Formulary of legal documents, with פֿבֿפֿ written in place of the names. The types of document are given above the text of each, and they include a הלואה (‘loan’), two examples of a גט חליצה (‘levirate marriage deed’), and גט חירות (‘deed of manumission’). Parts of a שטר צוואה (‘will’) and שותפות (‘partnership’) are also preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Responsa, on the subject of death of either party to a ketubba, false testimony and forged documents. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Record of release. Abū Sa‘d Abraham ha-Kohen b. Daniel releases ʿAbdallāh ʿOvadya b. Meshullam al-Ṣūrī from their partnership in weaving. The terms of the dissolution require Abraham to pay Obadiah 10 dinars. Following the dissolution, each partner is allowed to work on his own in the same industry, both individually and with other partners. Presumably each of the partners committed all his efforts and production to the partnership, to the exclusion of other business transactions, prior to the dissolution. The agreement between Abraham and Obadiah may have forbidden the investment of cash or goods in a commenda. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 157) Goitein gives the date as 23 Tammuz 1390. (Information from Goitein, index card #8555)

Legal document. Court record, Fusṭāṭ. Dated 3 Tammuz 1390. A complaint by the judge Yaʾir b. Avraham b. Yaʾir against Shelomo b. Avraham. Together they jointly owned precious stones, flax, and other agricultural products grown in Dammūh. Shelomo went against their established agreement and brought Yaʾir before a Muslim court, ultimately resulting in Yaʾir taking losses. (Information from Goitein's index card) Written on a single rotulus containing several legal documents in the handwriting of a single scribe: a trousseau document (1079 CE), documents in settlement of business matters, and a power of attorney (1074 CE).

An appointment deed (power of attorney) from Alexandria from the Year 1074/5: A woman appoints a representative who would help her collect her property from her mother and sister. The woman had moved from Alexandria to the Maghreb and left some of her property with her mother and sister. Among those who signed the deed: Shela b. Mevasser, (Information from Frenkel). Written on a single rotulus containing several legal documents in the handwriting of a single scribe, including a trousseau document (1079 CE) and documents in settlement of a business partnership.

Part of a deed of indemnity. Location: Fustat. Dated: Thursday, 26 Kislev 1338 Seleucid, which is 1026 CE. In which Thābit b. ʿEli b. Yeshuʿa acknowledges that he has received, on behalf of both himself and his brother Yiṣḥaq, the estate of his father from Yefet b. Ṭoviyya ha-Levi the Babylonian. Witnessed by the cantor Yefet b. David, ʿEli b. Yefet, Shelomo b. Ḥakīm, and Ṣedaqa b. Yaḥyā. Validated by ʿEli b. Yefet ha-Kohen, Solomon b. Ḥakīm, Ṣedaqa b. Yaḥyā, Efrayim b. Shemarya, Zekharya b. Yosef, and Binyamin b. Yaʿaqov. (Information from CUDL.)

Deposition in court on a compound of the Qodesh ca. 1230. Judge Yehi'el b. Elyaqim and Netaniel b. Yeshu'a bear witness that a tabaqa and a tarima connected to a compound of the qodesh are part of that compound. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 452 #135)