Geniza Lab

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly two different documents in two different hands. Dated: Before Elul 1411 Seleucid (1100 CE). People named: Avraham b. Yosef, Shelomo b. Seʿadya al-Ṣurī, Ḥalfon b. Avraham, Netan'el b. [...], Elʿazar b. Avraham. Involves a payment in installments over a period of 13 months starting in Elul 1411 Seleucid. Sums mentioned: 9 1/4 dinars [...], 15 dinars minus one qirāṭ. ASE.

Part of a ketubba for Abū l-Munā Ṭiqva b. Berakhot (groom), who is remarrying his divorcee. Dated 14[..] (12th century CE) in Fusṭāṭ, invoking the authority of the Nagid [Sam]uel (b. Ḥananya, 1140-59 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba for Sitt al-Ḥasab (bride). Most of the text is too badly faded to read. (Information from CUDL)

Abu al-Munajja Shelomo b. Saadya leaves to each of his three minor daughters 100 dinars for their bridal outfits. He arranges to have his two sons be the heirs of the balance of his property, and he orders that his wife, whose father was still alive, function as executor for all his children. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 253, 482)

Short attestation by the Bet Din, followed by the signatures of Abraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver and [Isaac] b. Shemuʾel the Spaniard. Judaeo-Arabic pen-exercises in the lower margin. (Information from CUDL)

Deed of quittance from Abū l-Makārim b. […] known as Ibn Baqā to Saʿadya ha-Kohen. Also mentions pledges deposited with […] b. Shelomo ha-Kohen known as Abū l-Khayr. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (1100-1138 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Court record of a testimony in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe concerning a dispute among the heirs of a murdered woman named Sitt al-Husn. She had concluded two marriage contracts after the death of her first husband, but perished (in what is called "the murder case") together with her mother and her two husbands. Her second husband had been absent for a long period but returned after she had married a third time and at a time when an outburst of pillage and murder by marauding soldiers or bandits was hitting their provincial town. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 80-81) There is a duplicate copy in T-S NS 31.9 (PGPID 25293).

Engagement contract in which Ṭahor ha-Kohen b. Yehuda b. Seʿadya pledges his minor daughter after 5 years to Muhadhdhab b. Shemuel. Muqaddam: 51 dinars. Mu'akhkhar: 60 dinars. Fine: 280 nuqra (~20 dinars). See Med Soc IX B 2, n. 32. Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Part of a ketubba with no details preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Segment of a court testimony. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (Date: 1100-1138). Regarding dowry arrangements after the renewal of a lost ketubba. The ketubba of Abu l-Fadl Ṣadoq b. Ḥalfon b. Moshe and his wife […] bt. Berakhot b. Yehuda ha-Levi was lost when the Franks (‘May God ruin them’) captured Tripoli (Lebanon, in 1109 CE) and Abū l-Faḍl and his wife were taken prisoner. On verso there is Genesis 1:1-3. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba for Shelomo (groom), in the hand of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya (1014-57 CE). (Information from CUDL)

End of a ketubba for the bride [...] bat Hillel ha-Levi. Witnessed by Judah ha-Kohen b. Yefet, Ṣedaqa b. Baqā, Hārūn b. Judah, Aaron [...] and Isaac b. Ṣed[aqa]. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Avraham b. Nissim gives part of a house to the wife of Shelomo, and she will bear his burial expenses and will provide him with fine clothing. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Contract between ʿAlun and Judah the cantor. Signatures include Maʿarūf b. Judah, Yaʾir b. Elʿazar and Menashshe b. Judah. Verso: possibly accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba for [...] bat Meshullam (bride). Witnessed by Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, mostly illegible. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a ketubba. Bride: [...] bt. Yoel b. Yeshuʿa. Groom: Shelomo b. [...]. Location: Fusṭāṭ. Dating: ca. 1237–79 CE, as it is written In the hand of ʿImmanuel b. Yeḥiel (active ca. 1231–79), under the authority of David I Maimonides (in office ca. 1237–1300). (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Part of a divorce deed (geṭ) signed by Ḥalfon ha-Kohen b. Elʿazar and Sar Shalom b. Shelomo (second half of the 11th century CE). (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract (ketubba) concerning a wealthy and influential family. Dated: 18 Kislev [48]41, which is 1080 CE. (Gil thinks 4741 AM and 979/80 CE.) The groom is [...] b. Shelomo from Damascus. The bride is [...] bt. […] b. [… ha-Ko]hen ha-Gizbar ("the treasurer") b. Shemuel b. Moshe ha-Kohen […] al-Qazzāz, and her agent is her uncle. Moss. VII,118.1 is in the hand of the same scribe (though probably not a join), and the Khalaf ha-Kohen ha-Gizbar mentioned there may be identical with the [...] ha-Kohen ha-Gizbar mentioned here. (Information in part from CUDL and Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 356.) EMS. ASE

Page from a court record book, one entry in which is dated 455 (= 1144 CE). Mentions the town Malīj, and the following individuals: Abraham b. Yeshuʿa, Abū Saʿd b. Tamām, ʿAmram b. Elʿazar, Saʿdān b. Sahl. (Information from CUDL)