Geniza Lab

Legal fragment. Involves [...] b. Natan and Abū Surūr.

Two different legal documents. One of them is catalogued as a deed of sale. These are folios 2 and 3; folio 1 is literary. Information from FGP. Needs examination

Legal document; marriage document. Three unrelated texts: Two contracts (ketubah and deed of sale) and a commentary on Genesis 12. Fol. 1: commentary on Genesis 12. Fol. 2: deed of sale? ‘Imrān is mentioned. Looks like the hand of Avraham b. Nathan Av (or Hillel b. Eli). Fol. 3: Small and damaged fragment from a ketuba. On verso remains of color decoration. Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic. AA

Legal document or documents in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 1432 Seleucid, which is 1120/21 CE. See join for further information. Join by Amir Ashur.

Legal documents (or drafts). Location: Fustat. One is dated: Shevat 1394 Seleucid, which is 1082/83 CE.

Recto: Bill of divorce. Dated: Sunday, 16 Heshvan 1456(?) Seleucid, which is 1144/45 CE. Location: al-Maḥalla. Husband: Yeshuʿa b. Merayot (a man of the same rare name appears as a witness in T-S 8J12.2). Wife: Malīḥa bt. David. Witnesses: Re'uven b. Yaʿaqov and Elʿazar b. Gilʿad. Verso: Addendum stating that Malīḥa received the get.

A pre nuptial agreement written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi from the year 1117. The top part of the document is missing. TS Ar. 51.103 join to complete the left part. The groom Zedaqa b. Shelomo is marrying Kula d. Yefet. The bill of divorce of the couple is found in TS 8J35.12, also written by Halfon. So the marriage didn't end well. It was Zedaqa's second marriage. Published by Ashur, Engagement and Betrothal, p. 311-313. (AA)

Multifragment. (a) Several legal documents, all the in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In one, Ṣadaqa b. Avraham known as Ibn al-Warda and his wife Sitt al-[...] give to their daughter Sitt al-Khawāt bt. Yefet the wife of Hillel b. Naḥman 1/2 of a new house. There are also entries about dowry evaluations (taqwīm). Dated Sivan 1435 Seleucid, which is 1124 CE. And there is an entry about a divorce. See Goitein's note card and Med Soc III, A, 3, n. 24 and B, 4, n. 41. Partially ed. Weiss, Ḥalfon, p. 272. (b) Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Needs examination.

Bill of testimony. In Arabic script. People mentioned: al-Ra'īs Ibrāhīm known as Natan b. Saʿīd b. Natan the Rabbanite Jew; ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Mūsā b. Ṣadaqa the Rabbanite Jew; Saʿīd b. Ṣadaqa b. Muhadhdhab the Rabbanite Jew (and physician, mutaṭabbib). Mentions Cairo and Fustat. A witness mentioned in the document is Sulaymān b. Yūsuf b. Shemuel known as Ibn al-Tājir the Rabbanite Jew.

Bill of settlement (taṣāduq). In Arabic script. Dated: 15 Dhū l-Qaʿda 924 AH, which is 1518 CE. Principal protagonists are Mīkhā'īl b. Isḥāq b. Abī Saʿīd the Jacobite Christian, a broker; and Shaqrā bt. Shemuel b. Sulaymān the Rabbanite Jew. On taṣāduq, see Munther Al-Sabbagh, "Before Banks: Credit, Society, and Law in Sixteenth-Century Palestine and Syria" (PhD diss.), p. 156.

State document. Petition to a Fatimid official titled ʿAmīd al-Dawla requesting that the state seize the petitioner's properties in Palestine because they are not producing revenue and are essentially abandoned, and the petitioner doesn’t want to incur further liability on them. This probably dates to just before the reassignment of iqṭāʿ properties in 1107-1108 CE, when state revenues had dwindled and government officials were harassing the owners of iqṭāʿāt for revenue. On verso there is Hebrew liturgical poetry. (Information from CUDL)

Legal documents in Arabic script. There are four distinct entries. The entry on recto is extremely long. There is a Judaeo-Arabic filing note in the upper right corner. Two of the entries on verso are dated: Shaʿbān 805 AH, which is 1403 CE. Needs further examination

Recto: deed in which ʿUmar b. Mūsā, a dealer in oil, leases the lower floor of a house in Fusṭāṭ from Yaʾʾāsa bint Ismaʿīl al-Kohen ‘the Jewess’. The deed provides a detailed physical description of ʿUmar: ‘average stature, pure reddy-brown in complexion, a smooth broad forehead, fine eyebrows separated in the middle, fleshy eye-lids, dark brown eyes, a wide, thick nose, prominent cheekbones and a round beard’. The property abuts the house of Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. ʿAlī, the house of Abū l-Ḥusayn Ismaʿīl b. al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAbbāsī, and the house of the daughter of Abū l-Ḥusayn Ismaʿīl b. al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAbbāsī. Dated Ḏū al-Qaʿda 520 AH (= November 1126 CE). Futūḥ b. Faḍl and Abū ʿUmar Daʾūd b. Ḥasan formally recognised the lessor. Witnessed by ʿAbd al-Bāqī b. Ibrahim Ibn al-Salam, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan. Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn, and ʿAbdallāh b. […] b. Aḥmad. Verso: confirmation that the payments specified on recto have been received, written by ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. Aḥmad. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic, which partly consists of a deathbed will. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 24 Iyyar, 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. The testator appoints someone as his agent in all his affairs, but if he should recover (ואן חב אללה תעאלי ונקהת מן מרצי ותצרפת וכרגת אלטריק ודכלת אלחמאם), this provision is void. The continuation of the document describes what happened on Sunday the 28th of the same month and mentions Rabbenu ha-Meʿulle (but it is torn away here). AA. ASE.

Legal document. A woman named Sitt al-Kull b. Eliyya appears before the court, informing them that her husband Yakhin b. Shabbat left few years ago without leaving her any provisions to support her and her daughter. She wishes to appoint Avraham b. Abū l-Khayr to travel, locate her husband and to try and collect her delayed marriage payment of 25 dinars, and her dowry's value of 50 dinars. On verso there are two undeciphered notes in Arabic script at 90 degrees to each other. (Information from Oded Zinger via FGP.)

Deed of sale. In Arabic script. Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ḥasan, the Jewish druggist, bought four shares of a house in Minyat Ghamr, consisting of a rectangular gate, a court, a ṣāḥa, and three buyūt, partly made of timber, from the Jewish woman Naẓar bt. Abū l-Ḥasan. The transaction took place in Minyat Zifta. The courtyard is described as containing a water closet (mirḥāḍ) and the root (? aṣl) of a ziziphus tree (sidr). The house borders on those of 3 Muslims and 1 Christian. On verso there are additional notes in Arabic script. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. Fragment (bottom part only). Location: Fustat. Probably a deed of gift from Avraham b. [...] b. Yefet, (There is a blank space after Avraham's name, probably to fill in his father's name later). The value is 60 dinars ("half of which is 30 dinars"). AA

Legal agreement. In Judaeo-Arabic. Damaged and torn. Dating: 1481 Seleucid, which is 1169/70 CE, as it mentions "the upcoming year which is 1482" (line 2). The parties are Abū Saʿd and Yefet (one of them is also called al-Ḥazzan). It may be dealing with a person who should have brought money (sums of 2 dinars and 30 dinars are mentioned) from the Rif to Fustat during the month of high holidays. (שהר אלמועדים). There is a clause stating that in a certain situation, a document (maybe this agreement itself) is no longer valid, including in Muslim courts. The parties seem to be agreeing on who can be where at what times of the year. One agrees not to come to Fustat during the high holidays; the other agrees not to enter Alexandria until the high holidays. AA. ASE.

Multifragment. Fol. 1r: List of different quantities of grain in enormous Arabic script. Fol. 1v: Legal document (lower right corner) involving the sale of a share of a property; one person is named Abū Saʿd. Signed by Shelomo b. Nissim ha-Levi. Both fragments are written on parchment.

Legal document. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Abū Saʿd Seʿadya b. Shemuel ha-Meshorer relinquishes any claim against Ghāliya, the widow of his late brother Sulaymān, and her daughter X (the name is left blank) arising from business between himself and Sulaymān. (Information from Goitein’s index card)