Geniza Lab

Legal document, bottom part only, plus qiyyum/validation. Location: Fustat. Dated: [14]38 Seleucid, which is 1126/27 CE. Witnesses: Avraham b. Shemaʿya ha-Ḥaver descendant of Shemaʿyahu Gaon; Ḥalfon b. Menashshe; Meshullam b. Menashshe ha-Ḥaver; Ḥalfon b. Ghālib; Natan b. Yefet. The qiyyum is signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi; Zakkay b. Moshe; Menashshe ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver b. [Yaʿīsh?].

Ketubba (marriage contract). A four piece join from an early 11th century Palestinian style ketubba from Tinnīs. Groom: Mevasser b. Yiṣḥaq. Bride: ʿAzīza bt. Ḥasan. Location: Tinnīs (Egypt). Written by Ṣemaḥ the cantor. Dating: Between 942/43 and 1033/34 CE.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Upper left corner. Location: Fustat. Bride: Sitt al-Ahl bt. [...] ha-Kohen Rosh ha-Qahal.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Lower right corner. Signed by Shelomo Kohen b. Yehuda and Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Shelomo.

Legal document. Release. In Hebrew.

Marriage contract from Damascus, 956, which records a marriage gift of 225 dinars (of which only 25 were advanced) and a dowry evaluated at 395 dinars. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 197-9) EMS

Legal document. Dated: 14[..] Seleucid. The day of the month was left blank, so this is presumably a draft. Ṣadaqa ha-Kohen b. David makes a declaration concerning a quarrel (wa-jarā baynanā mushājarāt) over various large sums of money including 500 dinars. There is also a Yosef involved.

Prenuptial agreement, probably.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Beginning only. Dated: 20 Kislev 1550 Seleucid, which is 29 November 1238 CE. Groom: Yosef b. Yaʿaqov. Goitein's index card suggests that the Nagid at this time is already David I, but it is not clear if he deduced that from the phrases in the document or if he already knew that Avraham died before this date. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves [...] b. Munajjā al-ʿAṭṭār and his young daughter. Involves giving something to his in-law Abū l-Faḍl Menashshe al-Raffā' ("the darner").

Marriage contract, possibly. Only a few words of the inscription at the top (mentioning rejoicing and the Nagid) and the first line of the document are preserved. Dated: 1595 Seleucid, which is 1283/84 CE.

Bill of divorce (get). Dated: Thursday, 2 Adar I 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. Location: Fustat. Husband: Avraham b. Shemarya. Wife: Esther bt. Namir. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi. The attestation on verso that she received the get is signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and Yiṣḥaq ha-Melammed b. Ḥayyim Nafūsī.

Bill of divorce (get). On vellum. Location: al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā. Dated: Monday, 10 Iyyar 1454 Seleucid, which is 1143 CE. Husband: Abū Naṣr b. Dinar(??). Wife: Sutūt bt. Abū l-Ḥasan. Signed by Zakkay b. Moshe and Tamīm b. Yosef ha-Levi. The same two witnesses also sign the attestation on verso that she received the get.

Legal document. Cut roughly into the shape of an octagon ("perhaps to make a sign or an amulet"). Dated: Ṭevet 1529 Seleucid, which is 1217/18 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Yosef Beḥir ha-Misra sells 1/4 of a house to Abū l-Faḍl ha-Sofer ha-Mahir b. Yosef ha-Sar ha-Kohen for 150 dinars ("good gold dinars"). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: 14 Ḥeshvan 1849 Seleucid, which is 1537 CE. Groom: Shelomo b. Shemuel.

Ketubba fragment (upper left corner). Dating: Late 13th century, based on Goitein's assessment. Groom: [...] b. Natan b. Yehuda. Bride: ʿIyāl bt. Shela ha-Rofe b. Avraham ha-Levi. This may be the remarriage of a divorced couple. Marriage payments: 10 + 40 = 50. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal testimony. Location: Fustat. Dated: 16 Sivan 1394 Seleucid, which is 1082 CE. Shaʿyā b. David b. [...] makes a declaration concerning Mevorakh ha-Parnas (Segulat ha-Parnasim) and Avraham b. Yaʿaqov and something that occurred the previous year.

Legal document. Dated Thursday 26 Elul 1386 Sel. (September 1075 CE). There is an invocation of the Nagid Yehuda b. Seʿadya at the beginning. Yiṣḥaq b. Musāfir b. Pinḥas b. Zurayq, heir to his maternal uncle Yūsuf b. ʿAbdallāh's estate registers a claim against Avraham b. Naṣīr ha-Levi, with whom his uncle had deposited some of his belongings. In the deposition before the Fusṭāṭ tribunal, Avrahām acknowledged that he had stored the items in his house in Malīj. However, "his house had been plundered (nuhiba) during the pillage which affected Malīj and the whole region" when the entire population was affected by the plunder (nahb). Avraham had managed to secure some of Yūsuf's possessions but he was "intercepted and waylaid by the Lawāta Berbers who robbed him of his clothes and those of Yūsuf that he was carrying" (Cohen, Self-government, pg. 59). The pillage had most likely taken place during the period of lawlessness and famine, 1062–74 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card and Med Soc V, p.524, n.110.) The document was written around the text of a fiscal account in Arabic relating to the kharāj payments of 437 Kharaji (ca. 1046 CE) (PGPID 34343). YU

Legal document. Quittance/release (שטר אביזאריה). Mivḥar b. Ṣedaqa releases Moshe b. Moshe known as Ibn Majjān from all obligations except for an ounce of זבאר(?), a dinar and a half, a cloak (ʿabā'a) and some oil (nafṭ), in partnership with Abū l-Faḍl al-Dhahabī(?). Written around a reused fiscal account, and also reused for another legal document.

Formularies for divorce-related documents. The one on recto is clearly based on a real document and a real case, but gives "peloni" for the month and for some of the names. Location: Fustat. Dated: 5514 AM, which is 1753/54 CE. The husband is Barukh b. Yosef Ḥayyūn. The wife and her family are from Alexandria. Sums of money are given in silver dīwānī muayyadis and gold maḥbūbs. Somehow involved is a pin (in Ladino: אלפיניטי=alfinete) embedded with a precious gem (שקבוע בו אבן טובה). Two witnesses are named in the document but their signatures do not appear at the bottom. See also Bodl. MS heb. d 66/101