Geniza Lab

Legal document. In the hand of Shemeul b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Iyyar 1480 Seleucid, which is April/May 1169 CE, under the authority of an unidentified Seʿadya, during the lifetime of the Gaʾon Netanʾel b. Moshe ha-Levi (see line 16; he may have even signed this document, but this needs to be checked against his handwriting elsewhere). Statement about an oath to be given by the executor of a will, Abū l-Maʿālī (aka Shemuel b. Asad). He had had to spend 220 dinars in order to get back a property belonging to the orphans under his responsibility from the hands of some state officials. He was then able to sell the property for 300 dinars. The uncle of the orphans bore the title Raḍiyy al-Dawla ("Pleasing the Government"), and the father of their guardian was a kātib, or government official. Signed by Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi; Netanʾel b. Moshe; Moshe b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen; and Shemuel b. ʿOvadya. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 299, 493.)

Legal document. Record of release. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1125 CE. This document describes release from a partnership in glasswork, explaining that Shemarya ha-Kohen (also known as Abū al-Wafā b. Menashshe ha-Kohen) demanded 9 and 1/6 dinars of his erstwhile partners Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda and Yiṣḥaq's son Abū al-Karam. Yiṣḥaq gave Shemarya a settlement, andShemariah released him and his son from the partnership. The settlement of the partnership is effected through arbitration (“bederekh peshara”) by a number of “Elders of equity and propriety”. Per Goitein, Jewish courts of the Geniza period generally first sought settlements outside the court. Court decisions themselves not only required the attention of a higher court, such decisions also required an oath (a troublesome process for the court and the community). But a settlement through arbitration did not even require a qinyan. The judges in this case, Avraham b. Shemaʿya and Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi, are the two “permanent judges” of Fusṭāṭ of the period. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 12-14)

Legal document. Court record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1134. Abū Sa‘d and Abū Sahl form a partnership lasting 6.5 months to manufacture and sell glass. Half the capital (20 dinars in total) invested by Abū Sa‘d is considered a loan to Abū Sahl, who pledges title to his home as a security. This may suggest diversion from the commenda model, where the active partner is not liable for loss. But the partnership also diverges from the ‘eseq model, wherein only the active partner transacts. Both the profit/loss characteristics and the working arrangement between the partners suggests a craft partnership. Abū Sa‘d is likely the senior partner: he is identified as al-Zajjāj, “the glazier” (i.e., a known personage in the field), while Abū Sahl is given no professional designation; as well, Abū Sa‘d invests all of the capital, suggesting that he may be short of liquid assets). Finally, the partnership stipulates that Abū Sa‘d need only work two shifts a week (suggesting he may have other business elsewhere), while Abū Sahl will work the rest of the week. Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, mentioned in line 54, functioned as leader of the Jewish community of Fusṭāṭ from 1127 to 1139. The signatories to the document, Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen and Natan b. Avraham ha-Levi, signed 5 months after the agreement was initiated, for unknown reasons. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", pp. 17-21)

Legal query regarding a partnership between merchants. See also T-S 20.152 and T-S NS J161 + T-S 12.5.

Legal document, mentions ziqnei ha-yishmaelim. Deed of authorization of son to represent mother before her two brothers concerning the collection of debt at Efrayim b. Shemarya's court. Written in Tyre, confirmed in Fustat.

A query directed to Maimonides (d. 1204). Responsum.

Three distinct documents in Arabic script, chopped in half vertically and then probably glued together into a rotulus in order to be reused for the Hebrew liturgical or literary text found on recto. 1) Deed of lease (hādhā mā istaʾjara Ṣāliḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad....). Dated: 484 AH = 1091/92 CE. 2) State or legal document with a registration note at upper left (uthbita fī dīwān al-ishrāf bi-Miṣr). Also concerning the same Ṣāliḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī. Later on mentions ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī. 3) Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). The name of the person making the acknowledgment (the muqirr) appears in l. 2 followed by a physical description (... wāḍiḥ al-jabha...). In lines 4–5, the same Ṣāliḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī from the previous two documents appears. Needs further examination.

Legal document. Commenda. Dated: November 1132. Abū Zikrī Yehudah b. Yosef ha-Kohen and Ḥananel b. Nissim partner in a shop. The active partner performs a regular reckoning, the details of which are trusted without witness testimony. Profits are split evenly after expenses. The active partner is specifically prohibited from lending funds on to another partner; if he does so, those funds will be taken directly out of his share of the partnership. The laws of unlimited investment partnership (mufāwaḍa) permit a loan to be granted with both partners' permission, and the even split of partnership profits or losses is also reminiscent of the mufāwaḍa agreement. However, while the qinyan provisions here are mutual, the provisions concerning the work itself suggest that one of the partners is significantly senior. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 32-34)

Legal document. Location: Minyat Zifta. Dated: First decade of Av 1465 Seleucid, which is July 1154 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Sābiq b. Abū al-Ḥasan the tax-farmer of dyeing acknowledges a debt of 32 + 1/3 + 1/4 dinars to Abū l-Maʿālī Shemuel b. Yehuda. He will pay back one-half by the end of Av (i.e., after one month has passed) and the other half by the end of Elul. Signed by Shelomo b. Zarʿa; Peraḥya b. Shemuel. The validation (qiyyum) is written and signed by Shabbetay b. Avraham (who may have written the entire document) and three others: Yefet b. Yosef ha-Melammed; Elʿazar b. Shemarya; and Shela b. Yefet. On verso there are a few words in Arabic script (unfortunately covered up by the conservators), possibly a filing note. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Fragment of a release in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe in the name of Sitt al-Dār and involving Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ.

Legal agreement on dowry rights. Dated: First decade of Ḥeshvan 1442 Seleucid, which is 1130 CE. Betweeen Sitt al-Kull bt. Berakhot known as Naṭīra and her husband the poet (ha-meshorer) Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. He grants her all her dowry; she releases him from responsibility. He is also warned that he would have to give her the delayed marriage payment if he should ever take a second wife. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Ghālib the cantor and Natan b. Yefet. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Fragment of a marriage document including a dowry list. Location; New Cairo. Dating: 1189–1288 CE. On verso there is piyyuṭ.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Large but fragmentary (only the ends of the lines are preserved). Deathbed will. Refers to: "one of them (his sons?), named David"; "strife and lawsuits between them (his sons?)"; Fustat; a sum of dinars, of which 8 are the delayed marriage payment (presumably for his future widow). Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and [...] b. Yefet, and others whose names are missing. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib ha-Ḥazzan.

Fragment of a long legal document settling business accounts, involving a Mūsā who has gone missing, Berakhya, Sulaymān b. Yaʿaqov, Abū l-Surūr b. Natan, Maṣliaḥ, ʿAllūsh, and Yehoshua b. Natan. Verso: Three lines in Arabic script, apparently the draft of a beginning of a letter (a basmala followed by waṣal kitābak ayyuhā (?) l-ḥājib (?) aṭāl allāhu baqāk wa-adāma ʿizzaka wa-ta'ayyudaka). There are also a few jottings in Hebrew. ASE

Ketubba fragment (left side). Dated: 1374 Seleucid, which is 1062/63 CE. Groom: Hiba b. Moshe. Bride: Riḍā bt. Neḥemya ha-Kohen. The early marriage gift (muqdam) is 5 [dinars], and the grand total (line 11) of the dower is 55 [dinars], though that would leave little for the me'uḥar; jewelry and copper are also mentioned. Witnesses include: ʿEli b. Yaḥyā ha-Kohen; Yiṣḥaq b. Yeshuʿa; Yosef b. Shelomo; Netanel b. Menashshe; Yiṣḥaq b. Waḥsh(?); ʿUlla/ʿEli ha-Ḥaver b. ʿAmram. On verso there is a Hebrew poem praising God and creation (and perhaps also a powerful person). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Deed of sale for a portion of a house. Location: Fustat. Dated: Ṭevet 1468 Seleucid, which is 1156/57 CE, under the reshut of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The dyer Makarim b. Salāma sells to his brother Abū l-Ḥasan b. Salāma one one-eighth of a house in the Surayya quarter of Fustat, which had been known as the residence of Yūsuf the father of Abū al-Khayr al-Saqqā' (the water carrier) for 5 dinars. His wife Sitt […] bt. Fahid lifts her mortgage. Written and signed by Mevorakh b. Natan. Also signed by Seʿadya b. Avraham. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Court record in which Abū Sulaymān Dāʾūd b. Abū al-Khaṣīb Zurʿa confirms to owe to Abū al-Maʿālī al-Tājir b. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Tājir, aka Shemuʾel b. Judah Ben Asad, 100 dinars which he will return in two yearly installments. If he were to be late in doing so, he owes a fine of 10 dinars to the poor of Egypt to be collected for them by the Court. This debt was originally made before a Muslim court. Here it is prolonged. Fustat, Marḥeshvan 1153, written but not signed by Natan b. Shemuʿel. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 9, Vol. 2, p. 110.)

Legal testimony from Minyat Ashna, dated Tamuz 1461 (1150 CE), under the reshut of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya, in which Ṣedaqa b. Netanel ha-Ḥazzan, known as al-Raḥbī acknowledges a debt of 25 dinars to Shemuel ha-Sar b. Yehuda ha-Zaqen, known as Ibn Asad. He will pay 10 dinars over Elul and Tishrei, then 5 dinars each in Shevat, Adar and Nisan. ASE.

Court proceeding from the court of Yoshiyyahu Gaon, approximately 1010. Testimony of two business partners who quarreled. Original document of their partnership done in Fustat by Shemariyah b. Elhanan.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Sunbāṭ (סמבוטיה). Dated: Monday, 1 Ḥeshvan 1445 Seleucid, which is 2 October 1133 Seleucid, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon. Avraham b. Shelomo remarries his divorcee Rafīʿa bt. Shemaʿya. The bride and groom are very poor. Marriage payments: 1 + 3 =4. The dowry consists of 3 items, amounting to 5 dinars. Witnesses include: Elʿazar b. Avraham; Refaʾel b. Eliyya; Menaḥem b. Yosef; ʿAmram b. [...]. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)