Geniza Lab

Small fragment from the beginning of a legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Mentioning Shelomo ha-Kohen. (Information from CUDL)

Geṭ (divorce deed) witnessed by Ḥalfon ha-Kohen b. Elʿazar and Shemuʾel b. Mevasser ha-Melammed. Ca, 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: responsa in the hand of Joseph b. Jacob Rosh ha-Seder. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic poem and dirge also written by Joseph. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: legal document concerning debt, referring to Ibn Mardūk, Abū l-Faraj al-Kohen b. Mordekhay […] b. Saʿadya. Verso: unidentified Arabic document. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba. The surviving text contains part of the dowry list. (Information from CUDL.) See T-S 12.600, a probable join

Part of the opening of a ketubba for Meshullam ha-Levi b. Ṣedaqa (groom) dated [13]91 (= 1080 CE). In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. (Information from CUDL)

Deed of quittance. One of the parties is Yeshuʿa b. Ḥananya. Probably early, but no date is legible. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Valencia (ברנסיה). Dated: 48[..] AM, which is 1039–1140 CE. Groom: Avraham b. Yosef. Bride: פטבוניה bt. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Published by Ashtor in Sefarad 24 (1964), 71–75.

Alchemical or medical recipe containing both organic and metal substances, followed by a short history of the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus written in Judaeo-Persian. Both texts are written in the same hand. On recto there are also 2 lines from the end of an Arabic legal document in large, calligraphic script. On parchment. (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: deed of partnership between Aaron b. Baqāʾ and a certain Saʿadya. Verso: jottings including the name Ezekiel b. Nathan. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Extract from Ruth 1. Verso: Fragment of a deed signed by Moshe ben Maymun, Damascus, late tenth century. The document includes a description of a piece of property that appears to have been part of a Palestinian-style ketubba and dowry. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 370-1 and CUDL) EMS

Fragment of a deed of sale for one half of a sugar factory which was held in partnership by the son of the Rav and a Qadi. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 292, 531, 590, and from Goitein's index cards)

One side: Testimony of Efrayim b. Ṣibyān ha-Kohen. Dating: 11th century. Describing how Yaʿqūb b. Yaʿīsh traveled in the time of the unrest and famine (צרות ורעב) to the country of Aleppo and from there to Raḥba, and took with him his daughter Jalīla bt. Menashshe. He apparently died. The other side: Unclear how it is related. Includes phrases such as "all that in the court... neither you nor your mother... everything that you (pl.) left, that is what remains...," then describes several valuable garments. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Small fragment of a legal document. It seems signed by Avraham b. Sahlān. Dating: No later than 1032 CE. Involves someone giving something to his wife. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Halakhic treatise by Ḥananel b. Shemuʾel, concerning laws of divorce. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, with only a few words preserved. Part of the shemaʿ has been written between the lines in faded ink and a different hand. (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba fragment. Dated: Ḥeshvan 136[.] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 1048–57 CE. For the remarriage of a previously divorced couple. Bride: [...] bt. Sahl. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Header of a beautifully illuminated ketubba, with micrography in the border.

Part of a ketubba, with no names or date preserved. Between the lines, a different hand has practiced writing the Hebrew alphabet. Verso: part of a letter in Arabic (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba fragment. Bride: Sitt al-Maʿālī, a virgin. Location: Fustat. Date: Tammuz 14[..] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 1099–1187, under the authority of Moshe ha-Rav ha-Gadol. (So either Moshe b. Mevorakh or Moshe Maimonides.)