Geniza Lab

Court notebook. Location: Fustat. Ff. 1r–2r: Betrothal contract between Sitt al-Kull bt. ʿEli from Fusṭāṭ and Moshe b. Yisrael from al-Maḥalla, in which the bride agrees to follow her husband to his domicile. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and signed by Ḥalfon and Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Dated Ḥeshvan 1443 Seleucid, which is 1131 CE. F. 2v: Betrothal (erusin) contract. Fiancé: Yosef b. ʿEli Ibn Qashqūsh. Fiancée: [Sitt al-]Jamīʿ bt. Shelomo, a virgin. Dated: middle decade of Ṭevet 1443 Seleucid, which is 1132 CE, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Marriage payments: 1 + 10 = 11. This means that Sitt al-Jamīʿ was extremely poor. Written and signed by Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Also signed by Ḥiyya b. Meshullam. The postscript states that he divorced her and she received the geṭ (before the consummation of the wedding?). T-S AS 148.16 is their bill of divorce. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Draft of a financial (partnership?) agreement between Nathan ha-Kohen and ʿArūs, regulating what happens if the partners die, etc. (Information from CUDL)

Lower part of a legal document in Arabic script. These appear to be 3 witness clauses. The document itself is lost.

Document containing mostly signatures, above a few lines of faded text. Signed by Ezekiel b. Avraham, Shemarya b. Shelomo, Shelomo b. Thabit, Avraham b. Farrah, Sedaqa b. Yosef, Yehuda b. Yiṣḥaq, She’erit b. Avraham b. Habib, Shalom b. Daniel al-Kohen, Ezra b. Aharon, Yosef b. Farrah, Nahman b. Sedaqa, 'Ammar b. Yeshu'a, Yaʿaqov b. Shalom, Mattan ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen, Yaʿaqov b. Ezra, Yaʿaqov b. Da'ud and Menuha ha-Kohen b. Yosef. EMS

Prenuptial agreement in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. (Ashur, "Engagement and Betrothal documents", 42, no.144). VMR

A certain [...] b. al-Gharbi declares he owes 200 dirhams to Abu al-Ma'ali al-Alawi. November 1193. (Information Goitein's index card). VMR

Legal queries (2) in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, one about niddah, another about oaths, addressed to Abraham Maimuni.

Legal document that is a late (16th-17th century) agreement between two businessmen, with a sigla preceding the legal text. It concerns the lending of a sum of money (60,600 medins) and arrangements for repaying the loan (העיסקא) in monthly installments. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document concerning financial matters, signed by Joseph Benjamin, and mentioning Judah Bunan and Joseph’s son Nissim. Dated 5579 of the Era of Creation (= 1819 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides concerning the permissiveness of Qaraite, Muslim, and Christian wine. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Bottom of a note from Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions a shipment of pearls. Verso: Legal document, perhaps a draft (no signatures). Hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. A warning to the wife of Moshe b. Berakhot that her husband will have the right to annul his gift of a quarter of a house in New Cairo, if she does not serve him as due to a man of weak signt and general weakness. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document, mentioning Yehoshuaʿ the Parnas, a dispute between siblings over an inheritance, and Ḥalfon. Signed by Berakhot b. Peraḥya, Shela b. Yefet and Yiṣḥaq b. [...]. (Information in part from CUDL.)

The activity of Elḥanan b. Shemarya as a judge, a holograph: warns someone that he will be banished unless he appears in court the following Monday. For another letter on the this see CUL 1080 J48.

Beginning of a query submitted to Maimonides, beginning by telling about a local man who is now living in another city (the rest is too fragmentary to understand). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal query. Dating: Early 13th century (per Goitein). Concerning the wife of a Kohen who traveled 2 or 3 times without letting her know how long he would remain absent or leaving her sufficient food. She swore "oaths frightening the mountains" (אימאן תרעד אלגבאל) that after his return she would not remain with him. Not complete. (Information from Goitein's note card.)

Legal document in which Ishaq b. Avraham acknowledges that he has no claims against Shemuel.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: Mamluk period (1250–1517), per Goitein. This document preserves a partnership agreement between two teachers, Raḍī b. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz b. Raḍī and Yeshu‘a Dukhān, in the manufacture and sale of cheese and other dairy products, for an unspecified fixed period. Each partner contributes both labor and capital: Raḍī is to be responsible for manufacture in the cheesemaking courtyard, bringing fifty qintār of halloumi cheese to the partnership. Yeshu‘a is to be responsible for sales, remaining in the shop and investing 1,000 silver half-dirhems, to be brought by Yeshu‘a in payments according to a schedule (see lines 10-12). Raḍī is to keep accounts. Profits and losses are to be divided equally, including rent for both the shop and the courtyard. Line 13 refers to the trustworthiness of the partners, important in this case since the two partners will not be working side by side. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 188)

Fragment of a question mentioning a woman and a daughter, the father having been absent 16 years.

Fragment of a court record containing testimony about a negotiation between Abu al-Fadl b. Abu al-Majd and Abu al-Barakat b. al-Dayyan. In the top margin is an Arabic text recording a payment by al-Shaykh Abu Ali b. [...].

Settlement agreement as part of which golden rings worth forty dinars were exchanged (one with a pearl) before the consummation of the marriage which was postponed to complete this exchange. (Information from Goitein's index cards)