Geniza Lab

Legal document(s) in Arabic script. One side: Legal document. Bottom part only. Written on vellum, so the text follows the curve of the fragment. There are at least three mentions of years; the document may be dated 570 AH, which would be 1175/75 CE, but this has to be confirmed. The other side: Remnants of another legal document (two witness statements) and, in large letters, a pious statement and a note mentioning the daughter of al-Sharīf Ibrāhīm b. Ṭāhir al-[...]. Needs examination.

Deed of acknowledgement (iqrār). In Arabic script. Concerns a debt of 2 dinars contracted by Abū l-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā, the Christian bath attendant (al-ḥammāmī) from ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥāris [...] b. Abū l-Qāsim al-[…] (ll. 4–5). Dating: ca. 11th century CE. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Perhaps a deed of sale. Mentions (l. 6) the mound known as Kawm Dīnār in the vicinity of Birkat Ramīs ("the pool of Ramīs"), which was situated in the Ḥamrāʾ district in the north of Fustat. See Khan, ALAD, 175–76. (Information from Baker/Polliack catalogue.) Needs further examination.

Fragment of an Arabic deed of sale on recto and Hebrew pen trials citing the Book of Esther. writing exercise on verso. (Wissem Gueddich in FGP). AA

Deed of sale (Wissem Gueddich FGP). Needs examination

A fragmentary Arabic court record (needs examination)

End of an Arabic document. AA

Legal document. In Arabic script. Almost complete (missing a small piece from the right side). Dated: Dhū l-Ḥijja 407 AH, which is May 1017 CE. Acknowledgment of the repayment of a debt in monthly installments over the preceding year. Al-Ḥasan b. al-Ḥusayn b. Jaʿfar al-Hāshimī al-Khazīnī and his paternal sister Mubāraka bt. al-Ḥusayn b. Jaʿfar al-Hāshimī al-Khazīnī acknowledge the receipt of the following amounts of money as repayments of a debt from Aḥmad Ibn al-Sayyidī, representative of the head of the Ṭālibīs, Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Zaydī: 479 dinars for Rabīʿ II, 3.5 dinars for Jumādā I, 2 dinars and 1/8 for Jumādā II, 2.5 dinars for Rajab, 2 and 1/4 dinars for Šaʿbān, 5.5 and 1/8 for Ramaḍān, 3 and 1/4 dinars for Shawwāl, 1.5 dinars for Dhū al-Qaʿda and 3 dinars for Dhū al-Ḥijja of the year 407 Hijrī (1017 CE), for a total of 32 and 3/4 dinars. The document is witnessed by ʿAlī b. Aḥmad, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Sādān and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. ʿAlī. (Information from CUDL and Goitein’s index card)

Possibly a document (needs examination)

Recto: Legal document in Arabic script. Fragment (the right halves of ~7 lines). Needs examination. Verso: Legal document in Arabic script. One of the parties seems to be a slave or retainer of al-ʿĀdil (aḥad al-mamālīk al-ʿādiliyya)—perhaps Ibn al-Sallār or one of the the Ayyubid caliphs of that name. A pregnant woman is also involved (l. 2). May have to do with a khulʿ divorce, but requires much more examination.

Legal document. In Arabic script. Fragment (beginning only). Probably a deed of sale (hādha mā ishtarā...). The (Jewish) buyer is named Bū Manṣūr b. Abū l-Riḍā b. Hilāl Ibn al-Amshāṭī.

Legal document in Arabic script. Fragment (bottom part). On parchment. Probably a deed of sale. Dated: 450 AH = 1058/59 CE.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Fragment (lower left corner). Dating: Likely 11th century if not earlier. Deed of release (שטר פיצוי) given by a woman named Farjiyya to Shelomo b. Ṭovi[yya]. Signed by: Shelomo b. Yosef ha-Kohen; someone whose signature was written on his behalf (נ{כתבה} ע{דותו} ע{ל} פ{יו}); [...] b. Yaʿaqov; [...] b. Yosef; Yeshuʿa b. Yefet ha-Levi. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Court record in Arabic script. Location: Ibwān, al-Ashmūnayn. Dated: First decade of Ramaḍān 495 AH, which is June 1102 CE. Settlement between Durrī b. ʿAskar al-Qarītī and his wife Maghribiyya the freedwoman of Yaḥyā regarding the ownership of domestic animals. In the document it is stated that a red cow and its female offspring belong to Maghribiyya and her daughter Taʿīsh, a black cow and its male offspring belong to Maghribiyya alone, and that 25 white sheep and their followers are shared between Durrī b. ʿAskar al-Qarīṭī and his wife. The record is witnessed and signed by Naṣr b. Badr al-Salūlī, Jawwāb b. Naṣr al-Salūlī, Zaydūn b. Mahdī al-Salūlī, Rikāb b. Jawhar al-Salūlī, Futūḥ b. Qāsim and Sughlūl b. Mahdī. (Information from Khan, CUDL, and Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Describes various architectural elements of a house: the living room (majlis), the guesthouse (dār al-ḍiyāfa), the wind catcher (al-bādhanj). Signed by Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. ʿAlī, among others. Needs further examination.

Legal document in Arabic script. It seems to involve the daughter of Muḥsin b. Naṣr al-Kātib and 50 dinars and a Jewish physician named Yūsuf b. [...]. Needs examination.

Marriage contract. Dating: Probably 11th century. Groom: Ṣāfī b. ʿAbdallāh, freedman of the elder Abū l-Faḍl Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Anbārī. Bride: Dhakhīra (or Dhukhayra) bt. Jāmiʿ, from the community of Majdal Kurūm in ʿAkkā. The groom gives 15 dinars (five of which had been paid in advance) to his bride. (Information from CUDL, Khan and Rustow)

Marriage contract between Riḍwān b. ʿAṭiyya and a bride whose name has not been preserved in front of the qāḍī ʿImād al-Dawla. Signed by ʿAlī b. Ghanāʾim b. Muḥammad the moneylender, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Malik b. al-Ḥusayn b. Mahdī al-Anṣārī, Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlī Ibn al-Ḥasan, Abū l-Faḍāʾil al-Ḥasan b. Ḥayyān b. ʿAlī. Upper and lower fragments; middle is missing. Dated: 14 Jumādā II 559 AH (9 May 1164 CE). Verso contains an iqrār regarding a divorce. (Information from Khan) The layout of the document on verso suggests that it may be related to the recto: often subsequent transactions in the same case were written on verso in a smaller text-block. Verso needs further examination: the text on the left is legible, and the text on the right may not be too faint to read, as Khan suggested. MR

Court record in Arabic script, likely a draft. Concerning the inheritance of the late Sittāt bt. ʿAbdallāh. This document was probably drawn up in North Africa, based on paleographic considerations as well as the fact that verso was reused for the address of a letter from Nahray b. Natan to his cousin (ibn ʿamma) Nahray b. Nissim (who was originally from Qayrawān). The three lines at the bottom of recto are written in a different hand than the main document. The document contains an interesting glimpse into judicial archiving practices: "Subsequently the judge died and another judge assumed office. He examined the archive (dīwān) of the deceased (judge) and found that the money had been registered in it (l. 11). (Information from Goitein's index cards and from Khan.)

Deed of sale