Geniza Lab

Power of attorney. Location: Fustat. Dated: 4976 AM, which is 1215/16 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. In which the daughter of Menaḥem ha-Talmid b. Menashshe appoints her husband Sulaymān/Shelomo b. ʿAmram ha-Levi for some purpose (not preserved). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Dated: 1529 Seleucid, which is 1217/18 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. In which Abū al-Barakāt/Berakhot al-Sukkarī releases his maternal aunt Sitt al-Khibāʾ bt. Moshe ha-Kohen from any claims resulting from the inheritance of Moshe ha-Kohen (i.e., his grandfather and her mother.) This document was left unfinished. (Information from Goitein's index card) EMS

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Thursday night, 23 Tammuz 1538 Seleucid, which is 1227 CE. ʿIbād and her sister, the daughters of Abū l-Majd, release each other from mutual claims. Signed by Judge Eliyyahu. Signatures validated on verso by Avraham Maimonides and Yaḥyā b. Elyaqim. (Information from FGP and CUDL.) ENA NS 21.18 and T-S 8J6.6 + T-S 10J4.4 are related to the same case.

Legal document. Unsigned. Location: Fustat. Dated: Last decade of Tammuz 1540 Seleucid, which is 1229 CE. In which Shelomo b. Eliyyahu purchases from Abū l-Faḍl b. Maḥāsn Ibn al-Kāmukhī ("preparer of vinegar sauce") a codex of the Prophets for 65 dirhams. The conditions include the right to buy it back within the first two months (until Rosh Hashana). On verso there are two lines of draft text for a version of the same document.

Fragment of a Hebrew deed in which witnesses testify that Ezra b. Shemuel b. Ezra, the representative of the merchants, came to them to complain about his sister, Mubāraka. He asked the witnesses to go and convince her to retract her claim to a share from her father’s inheritance. (Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 346, 349.) EMS. Join: Oded Zinger.

Court record. Dated: 3 Av 1542 Seleucid, which is 1231 CE. Partnership contract made after one of the four partners fell sick and was unable to travel to Syria with his partners.

Legal document. Commenda. Dated July 1231. Unsigned form of a commenda agreement between four parties (Abū Sa‘d b. Ibrahīm al-Ṣabbāgh, Abū Manṣūr b. al-Sūkkari, Suleymān b. ‘Imrān al-Ṣabbāgh and Futūḥ b. Abū al-‘Izz al-Ṣabbāgh), all of whom are to travel to al-Shām to trade. Tthe scribal notes were likely composed quickly, with the intention of subsequently filling in these details when the fuller agreement was written. The amount of the partners’ investment is specified only for Abū Sa‘d b. Ibrahīm al-Ṣabbāgh, who lays out 82 and 11/12ths dinars. Prior to departure, Abū Sa‘d fell ill and was unable to travel. Generally, this situation might require the ill (active) partner to be demoted to an investor; the division of profits here may reflect such a restructuring. The three active partners are allocated 13/24ths of profits while Abū Sa‘d is allocated 11/24ths, while losses are split evenly. The additional twelfth of the profit is allocated to the partners as "wages for their work and maintenance". Separately, Abū Sa‘d places 19 dinars in a commenda with Suleyman b. ‘Imrān with a similar division of profits and losses. It is unclear why Abū Sa‘d places the bulk of his investment with the three partners and then an additional investment with only Suleyman. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 182-183) Verso: Legal document. Court record. Dated: First third of Av 1542 (1231 CE). Legal document concerning a loan of 215 dirhams between Shelomo ha-Levi b. Shemuel and Abu Sa'd Sa'adya b. Avraham the dyer, to be repaid in one lump sum after the lapse of twelve months. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:385) EMS

Formulary of an oath to be given by the mother of Abū l-Ḥasan to him, concerning a female slave and other possessions, especially spices; oath was necessary after the death of her brother. On verso there is a poem about Sarah the wife of Abraham. All in the hand of Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Testimony of Abū Saʿd al-Ḥarīrī Ḥalfon b. Isaac, referring to Abū l-Ḥasan and Hiba b. Abraham. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from CUDL)

Legal deed in Aramaic copied three times, partially written and signed by Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen and signed by Moshe b. Yahya Majjani. Ca. 1060.

Request for a responsum concerning a carpenter who let his Muslim employees work making doors on a Saturday. He was ordered flogged by some scholars, while others wanted him to be fined and excommunicated as well. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:297, 330, 590, 599) EMS

Qiyyum (legal approval of court record). AA

Sales contract between Yosef b. Efrayim and Sadaqa b. David Ha-Kohen. Fustat, 1103. The verso contains a beautifully drawn-up poem by the Egyptian poet Sahlan b. Avraham.

Record of the testimony of Tiqva, known as Raja' (רגא, ‘hope') b. 'Azariah the cantor, concerning someone from Damascus whose name is only partially preserved as ‘known as the son of the hod-carrier' (אלטיאן, though possibly to be read אלעיאן). Although not much of the document is preserved, it was probably all in Hebrew, suggesting a date early in the 11th century. (Information from the Cambridge Genizah Research Unit via FGP).

Fragment of a responsum (or a letter). In Judaeo-Arabic. EMS. On verso there is an ofan for Roš ha-Šana. The refrain is ה’ אלהים צבאות מי כמוךחסין יה, and a second strophe starts עליונים ותחתונים שמו. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document issued under the Nagid Shemuel in which Sitt al-Baha, after having received ten dirhams and her promised monthly payment of five dirhams, releases a certain individual (name cut off). (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

An agreement between two treasurers and Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq.

Will of Na’ima bt. Yaʿaqov stating that one-half of a house with a store in Malij that she bought from her son for six dinars, with the money she received from her second husband at divorce, was to be divided as gifts: one-quarter to a grandson and the other quarter to a granddaughter. Twelfth century. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:275) EMS

Legal fragment. Last few lines only. Mentions a claim granted to Maṣliaḥ b. Yosef. Witnesses: Avraham b. Shemaʿya; Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi. (Information from CUDL.)

Legal question addressed to Jehiel b. Eliakim.