Geniza Lab

Draft of chancery document. Verso contains scribblings, probably signatures - needs examination. (data from Baker & Polliack catalogue)

Receipt for a repayment of a debt. The creditor received half of the 9 dinars (in the six month installment), in the form 18.5 wariq dirhams. Issued by the Fatimid amir Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ḥusayn the qāʾid. Dated: 507 AH, which is 1113/14 CE. On verso there is part of a medical work in Judaeo-Arabic on lice and delousing. (Information from CUDL)

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. Concerning the estate of a deceased man and a transaction carried out by his widow. Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Responsum. In Judaeo-Arabic (mainly). Written on a bifolium. Regarding the leasing of a synagogue to a certain Abū l-Munā. The legal authority who wrote this response discusses the general halakhic background to this issue (and cites BT Megilla 4:1, 26a-b), and provides a formulary for the appropriate legal document. Information from FGP. Written by Nathan b. Shmuel ha-Haver (AA)

Legal fragment. Dated: 1358 Seleucid, which is 1046/47 CE. Involves [...] b. Avraham b. Mukhtār; possibly his wife; and a girl under 11 years of age. On verso the name "Ibn Mukhtār" appears in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Recto: Legal document. Dated: Monday, 3 Tishrei 1526 Seleucid, which is 1214 CE. Under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Involves Abū Saʿīd b. Abū Manṣūr al-Nushādirī trying to claim a debt of 20 dinars from Manṣūr b. Ibrāhīm and the subsequent compromise—it seems that Manṣūr will pay 5 dinars by Adar of the same year, and Abū Saʿīd will release him from the rest. Needs deeper examination. On verso there is a literary text, a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on Psalms 90.

Legal formulary. For a loan contract.

Legal fragment. Filling both sides of the folio. Location: Cairo. Dated: 26 Tevet, 1546 or 1547 Seleucid, which is 1234-1236 CE. Involves Yeshuʿa ha-Levi ha-Sar b. Hayya(?) ha-Levi ha-Sar and Efrayim ha-Levi ha-Sar. Has to do with someone's house (record of a deed of sale?). Needs examination

Verso: Draft of a deathbed will in which a man gives two houses to two distant relatives, forestalls the possible claims of two other female relatives by assigning them 5 dinars each, and donates to the synagogue of Cairo a codex of the Five Books of Moshe and 3 dinars for the purchase of copper case for a Torah scroll. Dated ca. 1150. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 436.)

Leaf from a file of responsum, written in the hand of Shemuel Ha-Levi b. Saadya.

Bill of divorce, fragment. Location: Somewhere in Egypt. Involves someone named al-Sarūjī.

Four legal queries and one responsum in the handwriting of Daniel. b. Azarya. A part of a collection of questions that were sent to b. Azarya or one of his ancestors, as "Nasi" or "Rosh ha-Gola". The first question is about money that is kept by a guardian for orphans. The second deals with the value of promising money without a contract. The third is concerning a person who says bad things about his wife and as a result his son was seen by the community as "Halal". The fourth is about the responsibility of a person that inherited a vow that he did not fulfill. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 704-712) VMR

Legal fragment. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1100-1138 CE. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves a man named Namir known as al-Ḥakham(?) al-Ṣabbāgh.

Legal document concerning the lease of a house by ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Aḥmad the preacher, from Mūsā b. ʿAdī, the Jew, in the district of al-Khawlān in Fustat. Dated: 13 Muharram 424 AH, which is 19 December 1032 CE. (Information from Khan.) The transcription appears below along with the transcriptions for several unrelated documents, which were all glued together to form a large sheet. EMS

Small fragment containing large red letters and illumination. Likely a fragment of a ketubba (הכשרה המאו[שרת?).

Legal fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Involves Sitthūm, the mother of Abū l-Maḥāsin. Needs examination.

Marriage contract, upper right portion, between Yosef b. Mawhūb and Sittān bt. Mevasser b. Yeshuʿa, written in Tyre, dated (not completely legibly) from the destruction of the Temple, along with blessings and pious wishes for the redemption of Israel. The text is a Hebrew rendition of an Aramaic-Palestinian-style marriage contract. Items in the dowry list include gold coins, earrings and a wristband. The brother of the bride, Yeshuʿa b. Mevasser, acts as her agent and representative. Dating: 11th century. On verso is the beginning of Kitāb ḥudūd al-bulūgh wa-l-idrāk (Treatise on the attainment of majority), possibly by Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document or documents. Folio 2 is dated: 1343 Seleucid, which is 1031/32 CE. Folio 1 has several names at the bottom. Needs examination.

Legal document? Probably from a book of legal formulas. Very damaged. Hebrew, Aramaic. AA

Legal fragment. Location: Minyat Zifta. Dated: [..]26 Seleucid, which doesn't narrow it down much unless the people named are identifiable. Involves Zakkay b. Shelomo and Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi and the settling of accounts. Scribed and signed by by [A]haron ha-Kohen b. Namir.