Geniza Lab

Small fragment of a ketubba, mentioning ‘golden dinars’. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: end of a Judaeo-Arabic legal document, signed by Elijah b. Moses, Nissim [..], Ismaʿīl b. Khal[af], Shemuʾel b. Nehemiah Kohen, [… b. So]lomon, Barukh b. Jacob, and Daniel b. Ḥ[..]n. Verso: liturgical poetry in Hebrew (part of a rotulus). (Information from CUDL)

Agreement, possibly for the sale of land/property. The parties are Daniel b. Jacob and […]m b. Hille[l]. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Opening of a ketubba for Malika bat Mukhtār and Ṣedaqa b. Yeshuʿa dated Wednesday 3 [month] [1]365 (= 1054 CE) in Fusṭāṭ. Malika was formerly married to a man named Isaac and the ketubba mentions her son Mafrij b. Isaac (מפרג), whom Ṣedaqa will now treat as his own child. Witnessed by Aharon the Adept b. Efrayim, Hassan b. ʿAvham (עבהם), Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham, Sahl b. Mevasser, Sh[...]on b. Yiṣḥaq, Ghālib b. Aharon (גאלב), [...] b. Shemuʾel. (Information from CUDL)

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The names of the parties are purposely erased. Date not preserved. One man purchases a house which is located in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ (Fustat) from a Kohen. The house was owned by two parties, and it seems that one of them was the buyer of the other party's share. A gift/donation to the pious foundations' institution is also mentions (kitāb al-ṣadaqa). No signatures preserved. (Information from Goitein's index card and Weiss's edition.)

Geṭ for Hilāla bat […] (הלאלה), dated 143[.] (= 1118-1128 CE) in Egypt. The witnesses’ names are repeated in a note on the verso: ʿEli ha-Levi b. Nathaniel ha-Levi and Hillel b. Joseph the Cantor, the Babylonian. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Monday, 16 Sivan 1769 Seleucid, which is 1458 CE. Under the reshut of the Nagid Yehosef. Location: Cairo. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Levi b. Muhadhdhab known as Ibn ʿAbda(?) acknowledges a debt of 12,000 dirhams(!) that he owes to a woman named (Sitt al-)ʿAbīd bt. Sulaymān, the wife of al-Shamūsī b. Shemuel Tājir. Verso: Another legal document, dated Sunday, 7 Av 1770 Seleucid, which is 1459 CE. ʿAbīd attests that ʿAbd al-Laṭīf has repaid the debt in full. Join: Oded Zinger.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Acknowledgement of debt. A certain individual promises to make a payment of 298 dinars for precious items of textile merchandise (aʿlāq) which he had received in Damascus. He will pay off the debt in a single payment as soon as the seller/creditor arrives in Fustat. (Information from Goitein’s index card and Weiss's edition.)

Bill of release in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (1100-1138 CE). Probably connected with the dissolution of a partnership, since the words "profit" (fā'ida) and "account" (ḥisāb) are mentioned. There is a unusual clause that reads "whether by oral witness or through a written document" (l.8) ([mā kāna] minhu be-ʿedut al pe wa-mā kāna minhu bi-sheṭar ve-qinyan). (Information from CUDL and Weiss's edition.)

Legal document (end only) signed by witnesses including Menaḥem ha-Levi b. Tamim and Efrayim b. Ḥayyim. (Information from CUDL)

Bill of divorce (geṭ). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Thursday 28 Tevet 1448 Seleucid, which is 24 December 1136 CE. Husband: Ṣadaqa b.Yiṣḥaq ha-Ḥazzan. Wife: Naẓar bt. Nadiv. On verso there is a testimony that the bill was properly delivered, signed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. There is an additional note on verso in Judaeo-Arabic concerning a woman whose husband died and who married Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm the poor spindle-maker (al-ʿAni al-Maghazilī). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and Weiss's edition.)

Bill of release in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (1100-1138 CE). Given to a Kohen. No details preserved. (Information from CUDL and Weiss's edition.)

Legal document, concerning Abū ʿAlī b. [...], a debt of 100 dirhams, and possibly the appointing of an agent. At the bottom the names: Ḥalfon b. ʿEli(?) and Meʾir. On verso there are pen trials in Hebrew script. (Information in part from CUDL)

Beautiful fragment of a legal document from Alexandria in the hand of the court clerk Mawhub. A father gives an entire house to his son Yaʿaqov, who was borne to him by his wife Rafi'a. No doubt the lost part of the document contained a declaration by Rafi'a granting her husband free access to her property. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 243, 479)

End of a legal document; no names preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Legal notes for the preparation of documents. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The first contains details for the wedding contract for a particularly poor couple. The groom is [...] al-Iṭrābulsī (from Tripoli). The wedding (dukhūl) is set for Sivan 1438 Seleucid, which is 1127 CE. The early marriage payment is 12.5 dirhams and the late marriage payment is 25 dirhams, altogether worth about 1 gold dinar. The second note may or may not refer to the same couple. The bride is […]hdiyya bt. Aharon ha-Kohen. She is the widow of Hillel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya, and has a child from this previous marriage (or rather, Hillel ha-Levi seems to be her son, and Seʿadya is her late husband). A "son of the spindlemaker" (Ibn al-Maghāzilī) is mentioned. (Information in part from CUDL and Weiss's edition. See also Goitein's index card.)

Only a small amount of text is legible, but what little remains, and the fact it is written on vellum, suggests a legal document rather than a letter. The name Sahlān occurs. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated October 1116 (Thursday, 11 Marḥershvan, 142...). The marriage gift consists of 16 dinars. The bride is a divorcee on whose earning the husband will have no right, but who will provide her clothing by herself. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 380.)

Barely legible, probably a legal document. (Information from CUDL)

Digest of a partnership contract for a period of one year between Abū ʿAlī b. David and Netanʾel b. Nadiv. Written mainly in Judaeo-Arabic, but with some Arabic script mixed in. Each of the partners may take one dirham each day from the shop. The sums 150 (or rather 500-something?) and 500 wariq (dirhams) are mentioned in relation to each of the partners. On verso there are pen trials. (Information from Goitein's index card.)