Geniza Lab

A court record, Fustat, 1148. Bu al-Ḥasan, the cantor, confesses to have beaten and cursed his wife and to have falsely accused her of filching money and utensils from his house. The wife ran away from the house as a result. In the present settlement, Bu al-Ḥasan forgoes all his claims against his wife and promises not to beat or curse her, under penalty to divorce her and to pay in cash the sums due to her under her marriage contract, in case he relapses. Written and witnessed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Recto is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, pp. 187-188.)

Legal document. Debt contract. Date not preserved. The names of debtor and creditor are very effaced. The sum of money is given in Kāmilī dirhams, but the amount is not preserved. A weekly payment plan is specified. Signed by Shelomo b. Yefet.

Fragment of a legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Power of attorney (שטר הרשאה) in which the community of Safed appoints Yisrael Benveniste and Ḥayyīm Mordechai Būnan as their sheliḥim. See previous shelfmark. There are numerous signatures (or at least names written out by the scribe), including that of Masʿūd Būnan, perhaps identical with the shaliaḥ sent from Tiberias to Pisa nearly twenty years earlier (Bodl. MS heb. c 64/6). ASE.

Legal document. Location: Alexandria. Dated: 30 Nisan 5241 AM, which is 1481 CE. The leaders of the Alexandria community convene to deal with the inheritance of the late Yaʿaqov Sahlān. The will of the dead man was recorded by the Jerusalem scribe R. Yom Ṭov b. ʿImmanuel (cf. T-S NS 99.66 and T-S 16.260) and sent to Alexandria. This document lists 'the 7 notable men of the city.'

Legal document. Dated: Sivan 1411 Seleucid, which is May/June 1100 CE. Ghanya bt. Ḥusayn and her divorced husband Hillel b. Faraj agree that their little boy will stay with his mother for four months. He shall pay a total of 1 dinar of maintenance for that period. Signed by: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel and Yosef b. Ṣedaqa.

Legal document of the court of Fustat, dated Nisan 1411/March 1100. Yosef, the son of Yosef, the milkman (labban), receives from 'the money of the poor' one dinar as a loan to be paid back in weekly installments of two dirhams. A term is set for the beginning of the repayment, but not for its end. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 383)

Legal query addressed to Yiṣḥaq b. Sasson ha-Dayyan, with his responsum and signature. Concerning an upstanding man whose only trade is teaching Torah but who is a bachelor. If someone objects to his teaching Torah because he is unmarried, what is the law? The responsum cites the Mishna and Gemara of Qiddushin 82a and explains that he may continue teaching children but that he may not go to their houses to teach them, because there are usually women around. ASE

Marriage contract (ketubba). Left upper part. Dated: Nisan 1380 Seleucid, which is 1069 CE. (10 +) 20 = 30. As far as preserved, the dowry is worth at least 70 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Fragment of a beautifully written ketubba. Early style. Ca. 1080. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document. Very damaged. Location: Probably Cairo; only ''אל" is clearly legible of the location's name, but only three common locations begin with "al" (al-Qāhira, al-Maḥalla, and al-Mahdiyya), and the rest of the word is plausibly קאהרה. Dating: The date is lost, but Avraham ha-Rav ha-Gadol in line 3 has to be Avraham Maimonides, and Rabbenu Menaḥem is mentioned in line 12, a person known from other early 13th-century documents. (Menaḥem is introduced in line 7, where he is called Menaḥem ha-Rav ha-Gadol be-Yis[ra'el] Yeḥid ha-Dor, as in T-S 8J15.7.) Another person mentioned in this document: Yiṣḥaq ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad. Somebody attests that he received 25 dinars for something. Perhaps for a property sale, because a location is given in lines 11–12 (.... al-ākhar bi-darb qaḍīb). ASE

Legal document. Location: Alexandria. Dated: Ṭevet 4957 AM, which is November/December 1196 CE. Yeshūʿā b. Elʿazar receives from ʿAlīya (possibly his mother, or rather a more distant relative) a house located on the outskirts of Alexandria near the funduq. It seems that ʿĀliya owns this house in partnership with Mūsā b. Abī l-Munā al-Labbān. Against this he will provide her with domicile (in the same house), food, and medicine (mashrūb), and will pay her 15 dirhams per month. No signatures. (Information from Goitein’s index card.) The handwriting seems familiar and may be identifiable—the same scribe may have also left literary fragments in the Geniza.

Ketubba, fragmentary. Groom: Yosef Kohen b. Khalūf. Likely from North Africa. Resembles Bodl. MS heb. a 2/2 (from Barqa, 990 CE). (Information from Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, Vol. 1, pp. 165, 269, and 288.) On verso there are piyyutim.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: New Cairo. Dating: ca. 1080 CE. Groom: Yosef b. Yeshuʿa b. ʿAllūn. The bride is not a virgin. Marriage payments: 3 + 6 = 9. Dowry adds up to 15 dinars. Same (poor) handwriting as T-S 12.442. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (narrow strip from the middle). Location: New Cairo. Dated: Elul 14[..] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 1088–1189 CE. Names mentioned include Yefet, Abū Sahl ha-Kohen, and Yeshuʿa. The bride is not a virgin. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Court record in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Moshe b. Elḥanan releases his wife Mudallala from the obligation to leave a house of his mother (in which he put her while going abroad) in the case that he does not return. This release is not valid if he should return. Witnesses: Avraham b. Yeshuʿa; Avraham b. Shemaʿya; the ḥaver Yeḥezqel b. ʿEli ha-Kohen; [...] b. Yosef b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Pinḥas b. Yahaboy ha-Levi. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (middle of the bottom part). Dating: 13th century, per Goitein. Groom: Tiqva b. Shelomo ha-Levi. Bride: Sitt al-Kuttāb. No dowry. The document was subsequently covered with jottings in Arabic script. On verso there are outlines of huge blocky letters in both Hebrew and Arabic. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Deed of sale of a house. Large fragment. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: 1467 Seleucid, which is 1155/56 CE, under the reshut of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The son of Bū Saʿd al-Ṣayrafī known as Ibn ʿUmayr sells to his partner in the house the quarter which he had inherited from his father in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in the alley (zuqāq) of Manā'il (? מנאיל), for 15 dinars. The buyer is Bū l-Faraj al-Kohen al-Ṣayrafī b. […] b. Moshe known as Ibn Mardūk. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Ketubba fragments. Lower part. One of the witnesses is Shelomo b. Yosef. There is literary text on verso.

Ketubba fragment. Opening only. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1[4]31 Seleucid, which is 1119/20 CE. Groom: [...] b. Tiqva. Bride: Ḥasana bt. [...].