Geniza Lab

Recto: late legal document, detailing the financial arrangements between the woman Sitt al-Bayt b. Aaron the merchant (אל תאג׳ר), her husband Joseph the carpenter (אל נג׳אר), and her brother and mother. The document is unfinished and undated. Verso: different legal document involving the same parties, written in Egypt and dated 1st Ḥeshvan 5326 (= 1565 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Copy of a deathbed will. Location: Fustat. Dated: Sunday, 20 Sivan 4845 AM, which is June 1085 CE. Testator: Moshe b. Aharon ha-Kohen. Mentions his wife Munā bt. Hiba; his partner Abū l-Khayr al-Ger; and Abū Zikrī. His wife will get the price of codices to be sold. There are many additional details; see Goitein's index card for further information.

Deed of partnership. In Hebrew. Dating: First half of the 16th century, based on the names and the hand of the scribe (who was prolific in this period). The parties are Yehuda b. Yaʿaqov Senyor (שיניור, not שיכור) and Moshe b. Yosef Bagilyer (באגלייר). The business is tanning (bi-l-madābigh / באלמדאבג). (Information in part from CUDL)

Legal document recording the sale of a Nubian female slave by Hiba Nataniel, under the authority of Moshe ha-Talmid; contains the idiomatic phrase אלכאמל אלשרוט: ‘the totality of the stipulations.’ (Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman, “Legal Writing in Medieval Cairo,” in From a Sacred Source: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif,” ed. Ben Outhwaite and Siam Bhayro, Brill: 2010, 23) EMS

Legal document concerning business matters, particularly the price of wax (thaman al-sham’), and citing various sums of money. Abu Yaqub Yusuf al-Fasi, Ibn Ishaq al-Andalusi, al-Farah b. Ishaq al-Muqaddas, and Yusuf b. ‘Ali are all mentioned. EMS

Transfer of amounts of dinars made for a loan or partnership (qirḍ) in front of witnesses. Signed by Yusuf b. Faraj al-Fasi and Dawud b. Nahum, who signs twice. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Declaration in front of witnesses in which Ḥalfon b. Moshe states that he sold some property and acquitted the sellers from the sales price.

Legal document concerning Yosef’s repayment of a debt. Witnessed by Ibn Abu al-Fadl and Jafar b. Hilal. EMS

Legal document relating to the return of half of the dowry of a woman.

Part of a late legal document, c. 16th-17th century, from Egypt, concerning a property (אלקצר, ‘hall, ground-floor building’) in the quarter סוליימאן כ[א.]שה. The principal parties are Moses Abulafia (אבו אל[ע]אפיא), Jacob מטראטיל and Aaron Berav (בירב). The date is not preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Bill of testimony concerning the will of Abu al-Faraj b. Hillel. EMS

End of a legal document from Egypt, dated 5337 (= 1577 CE), signed by Joseph b. (בכמה״ר) Moses Dammuhi (דמוהי). (Information from CUDL)

Fragment from a legal document signed by Shemuʾel. (Information from CUDL)

Sales contract of the Persian slave-girl called 'Perfume' for ten and a half dinars including brokerage and sales tax. Written in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan (1150-1181).

Deed of sale for a female slave between Bu al-‘Izz b. al-Shaykh bu ‘Imran al-Sharabi and Bu al-Ḥasan, the teacher, executed in the presence of Bu al-Fadl al-Radwi. Dated Iyyar 127 of the Seleucid Era (= 1216 CE). A few lines of unrelated jotting are below. EMS

A qiyyum (approval of a legal deed) signed by [Moshe Sofer] b. Yiṣḥaq Ḥaver and Eli Ḥaver b. Amram and others.

Legal document concerning money owed by Avraham ha-Levi to Meshullam (EMS). Likely also a join with T-S 8J4.10. Joins by Oded Zinger.

Legal fragment (lower right corner). Dating: ca. 14th–16th centuries, based on handwriting. A previous description referred to this as a deed of sale, but there is no information preserved about the case. Signed by Menaḥem b. Avraham (probably the scribe) and Hārūn Kohen.

Legal document draft detailing that Makin, son of Moshe, the judge, was a proprietor of part of a sugar factory and agreed to sell his share to Ibrahim b. Abu Sa‘id. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:91, 373) EMS

Engagement (‘shiddukhin’) contract drafted in Bilbays, 1218, for a nine-year-old orphan girl named Sutayt, noting that she will “enter the huppa in the year 1523 (= 1221 CE), three years from today.” (Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 84, 251). Recto and verso relate to the same case; see also T-S 8J9.13 recto. EMS Written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who serves as the muqaddam of Bilbays. Published by Ashur, Engagement documents, p. 116-120. See also Mosseri VII.124.1, probably another contract related to the same couple.