Geniza Lab

Legal document. In Arabic script. Dated: 18 Shawwāl 549 AH, which is 1154/55 CE (the reading of the decade digit is not certain, but the other two digits are very clear). In which Muḥammad b. [...] ʿĀmir b. Muḥammad rents a 'little house' (duwayra) from Faḍāʾil b. Bū l-Faraj b. Hilāl al-Yahūdī. Needs further examination.

Recto: Arabic legal document, dated ywm as-sabt 20 Rajab, 550 A.H. Document in Arabic script. Needs examination.” Verso: Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic magical text (fgp)

Legal document, dated A.H. 529 (= 1134-35 C.E.). - needs examination.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Dated: 525 AH = 1130/31 CE. The muqirr is Sayyid al-Ahl b. ʿAlī. Might be a debt contract. Needs further examination.

End of a legal document certifying a loan.- needs examination.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār) in Arabic script. Involves two Jews, a man named [...] b. Ibrāhīm b. [...] b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿAllān, and a woman named Qurrat al-ʿAyn bt. ʿAllūn b. Musāfir b. Wahb (her grandfather Musāfir b. Wahb is known from many Geniza documents ca. 1100 CE). There seems to be a mutual release, but needs further examination for further details. On verso there is a Hebrew elegy.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār) in Arabic script. Bū l-Faraj b. Yūsuf the Rabbanite Jew makes a declaration for Bū Saʿd b. [...] the Jew, probably that he owes him money. Needs examination for content. The foot of recto was reused for five oval rings enclosing the Hebrew word שיחטש (apparently magical). Verso contains multiple records of receipts of sums of money, probably related to recto. AA. ASE.

Legal document, dated A.H. 569 (= 1173-74 C.E.). - needs examination.

Legal document, contract of hire/rent. - needs examination.

Recto: Contract of hire/rent.- needs examination. Verso: Hebrew liturgy.

Bill of sale of a slave. In Arabic script. Location: Fustat. Dated: first decade of Ramaḍān 438 AH, which is October/November 1090 CE. Seller: Ḥanūn b. ʿAllūn, the Christian clerk (kātib) in the Dār al-Dībāj (‘residence of the viziers’). Buyer: ʿArūs b. Yosef, a wealthy cloth merchant, many of whose accounts and letters are preserved in the Geniza. The sale is for an unnamed Christian woman and for her son Qiwām. Price: 21 dinars. (Information from Khan and CUDL)

Legal document (Baker and Polliack call it an 'Ottoman mustarad'). Location: Cairo. Dated 12 Rajab 1023 AH, which is 1614 CE. 4 witness signatures. May concern the estate of a dead man (al-marḥūm). Various names are mentioned, including ʿĪsā Bey the nāẓir and [...] b. Yahūdā b. Mūsā. Needs examination.

Recto: Legal document in Arabic script. Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). Unsigned. Involves the sale of one or more goods (possibly a donkey). Needs examination. Verso: Rhymed strophes of a Hebrew liturgical poem (FGP)

Legal document, dated 24 Rabï' I, A.H. 797 (= 17 January, 1395 C.E.). Mention is made of Ibn Musu al-Yahudi and of Ibn Yüsuf al-Yahûdî and his sister and mother. (Data from Baker & Polliack cayalogue)

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār) made by Salmūn b. Qūrīl (=Cyril), apparently a Coptic civil servant (al-[...] fī l-dīwān). Includes a description of his physical appearance (as is usual for iqrārs). On verso there is Hebrew poetry. Needs examination for content. (Information in part from Baker & Polliack catalogue)

Recto: Possibly a receipt (barely legible hand). Verso: Columns of numbers which are added up. (Data from Baker & Polliack catalogue)

Legal note. About money taken from a tailor. Dating: No earlier than 1425 CE, based on the use of the ashrafī.

Legal document(s). In Arabic script. Dating: Perhaps Mamluk-era; the dates are given, but are faded and difficult to read. Recto and verso contain two distinct (but related) sections, in different handwriting and with different layouts. It is possible that each of these is a supplement to an earlier document, since they seem abbreviated and refer, e.g., to "al-Muʿallim ʿAbd al-Karīm al-madhkūr bāṭinuhu." One of the sections (the one with closer line spacing and witness signatures) may be dated 18 Shawwāl 913 AH, which would be 1508 CE. There are a few lines underneath in Arabic script in a different hand, perhaps "wa-ittafaqnā bi-mā fīhi... siwā..." The section on the other side lists various sums of money. There is a filing note in Judaeo-Arabic on the folded (empty) section of the letter: "[...] between me and ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ḥulwānī(??)... regarding Yūsuf." (This is not a letter as catalogued by Baker & Polliack.) Needs further examination.

Legal testimony. In Arabic script. Dated: First decade of Rabīʿ I 486 AH, which is April 1093 CE. Apparently concerning some confusion over shipments of produce (ghalla) from two tax farmers (? bi-rasmi muqṭaʿayn). The captain/owner (rayyis) of the ship who delivered the produce to the arsenal (Dār al-Ṣināʿa) may be insisting that the taxes have already been paid on these shipments. (For more on the Fatimid arsenal, see David Bramoullé, Les Fatimides et la mer (909-1171) (Leiden, 2019), ch. 5.) The rayyis swears by God, by the caliph al-Mustanṣir, and by another person titled amīr al-juyūsh, sayf al-islām, nāṣir al-imām, chief dāʿī, etc. (=Badr al-Jamālī?). (Information in part from the Baker & Polliack catalogue.) Needs further examination.

Recto: Legal document in Arabic script. Opens, "Aqarra al-muʿallim Ibrāhīm b. ʿAfīf b. Sulaymān al-Yahūdī al-qaṭan(?)...." Verso: Legal document in Arabic script. Opens, "Aḥāla l-muaʿallim faṣīl..." Information from Baker/Polliack catalog via FGP.