Geniza Lab

Sub-leasing agreement of a tax farm of silk production for the town of Bush and its surroundings, which was worth 3.5 dinars. Dated Tammuz 1458/ June 1147. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 606, 607)

Legal document. Dated: 1448 Seleucid, which is 1136/37 CE. Very faded. Signed by: Moshe b. Ṣadoq ha-Ṣadiq Av Bet Din b. Yoshiyyahu; Moshe ha-Ḥazzan b. Yehuda.

Marriage contract of Faḍā'il b. Yosef and Sittunā, signed in Abyār. Dated: December 1070 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 388)

Legal document. Bottom part only. Perhaps a marriage contract, as there is a note in between the document and the qiyyum making a statement about the value of the delayed dower measured according to 'the weight of the Bedouins' (? ṣanjat al-ʿarab). The main document is signed by [..]LM b. Yosef; Shemuel b. Yiṣḥaq; [...] b. Shelomo b. Manṣūr nin Qāṣir; [...]Sofer; Yehuda ha-Ḥazzan b. ʿEli ha-Ḥazzan b. Moshe ha-Ḥazzan; Suhayl b. Mevasser. The qiyyum mentions [..]l b. Aharon; Meshullam b. [...]; Shemarya b. Moshe; and [...] b. Efrayim.

Legal document of some sort. Only the bottom part is preserved, which includes praises for the Nagid Sar ha-Shalom (or at least a Nagid with that title). Signed: Natan b. Shelomo; Peraḥya b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Yefet b. Araḥ; Avraham b. Seʿadya.

Legal document dealing with a widow in a small town who died, leaving a girl of three and a small house. The judge, among other questions, asks for a report about who took the orphan into his house and cared for her. Signed by Mevorakh b. Natan, Shemuel ha-Levi b. Saadia and Elazar b. Michael. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 303)

Legal document dealing with an oath given by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu on Adar 1036 Seleucid Era (document's dating; should be 1536) /February-March 1225 (Goitein's dating, based on fact that the document is under the authority of the Nagid Avraham Maimonides, head of the Jews from 1205-1237). (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR 

Court record about the settlement of various claims between Shela ha-Kohen b. ʿAyyāsh and Tiqva b. ʿAmram. Fustat, dated 1099. Describes a dispute over a debt. The defendant paid part of the debt at the time of becoming engaged to a sister of the complainant. An oath was to be given by one party declaring to have meddled with wine adjudicated to the other party by a previous decision of the court. Receipt of sums adjudicated. In the hand of Nissim b. Nahray (Goitein). In the hand of Iṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi (Ashur). Verso is blank. See also T-S NS 324.30 in relation to this document. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below, Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 2, p. 513, Ashur, Engagement and Betrothal Documents from the Cairo Geniza (PhD, Tel-Aviv, 2006). p. 14.)

The engagement contract of Abu Mansur, Semah b. Yefet, to Sitt al-Khassa in Fustat, 1146. Sitt al-Khassa was the daughter of Abu Barakat, son of Yosef Lebdi, the India trader. The groom deposited the very large early marriage gift of 40 dinars with a third party and promised the delayed marriage gift of 100 dinars. The bride received five shares (out of twenty four) of the house that used to belong to her grandfather, and half of her father's house. Moreover, 'the rent from her real estate will be in her hands, not in his hands, and she may deal with it as she sees fit.' She also is promised the right to choose the domicile. Her very large dowry amounts to 500 dinars (actually it adds up to 496 dinars), and it is stated that this sum was not exaggerated. The document begins with Bodl. MS Heb d 66 48r then continues to Bodl. MS d 66 47r and then to the latter's verso. Previous description: Engagement of Sitt al-Khāṣa bt. Abū l-Barakāt al-Lebdī and Ṣemaḥ al-ʿAṭṭār. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. 11 November 1146. Information from Goitein's note card.

Formulary for a marriage contract, Qaraite/interdenominational. Dated: 1036 CE, at the time of Ṣemaḥ Nasi. One sheet is possibly missing in between, and with it the details about the tosefet and the nedunya. Information in part from Goitein's index card

Deposition in court by Abū al-Baqā ha-Kohen, son of Abū al-Ḥasan, that his step daughter owed him nothing with regard to the heritage of his wife, while he and his brother were in possession of certain ornaments belonging to the former. Dated 24 Sivan, 1541 Seleucid (1230). One of the witnesses if Shelomo, son of the judge Eliahu b. Zakhariya ha-dayyan. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Legal testimony. In Hebrew. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 15th or 16th century. Unfinished and unsigned. Esther bt. Elʿazar b. Pinḥas, the wife of Yosef b. Moshe b. Asher makes a declaration concerning the business partnership between her father and her husband.

India Book I, 6–7: Court proceedings dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. This Monday morning session of the Fustat court followed immediately that of document no. I, 4-5 which was held on the preceding Thursday. In this session the questioning of Yosef Lebdi was concluded. The document is written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Dated: Monday, 8 Iyyar 1409 Seleucid, which is 12 April 1098 CE.

India Book I, 12: Court proceedings from Fustat dealing with the dispute between Yosef ha-Lebdi the India trader and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. These are the proceedings of the eighth session. With no news from Aden, Yequtiʾel and Yosef came up with the idea of sending a man to Aden to fetch the disputed goods. After some discussion, however, the parties retracted their proposal. No signatures are attached to this deed. Dated: Dated: Wednesday, 18 Elul 1409 Seleucid, which is 18 August 1098 CE.

Document (b), written in the blank space underneath the book list, at 90 degrees: Draft or copy of a legal document. Looks like the same hand as the booklist. In which ʿIzziyya(?) the daughter of Barakāt al-Qalyūbī ratifies a settlement (ṣulḥ) with (or on behalf of?) the wife of her recently deceased father. The widow is owed money from belayot (i.e., wear and tear on her trousseau). The widow (or the daughter?) will receive 15 dinars, and the daughter relinquishes her right to the two half-ruins and the half-schoolhouse that Barakāt owned in Qalyūb. At the end of the entry, it states that her husband Hillel b. [...] al-Malījī was also present and in agreement. This is probably not the same case as DK 239.1 + T-S AS 151.31 (a petition featuring an Umm ʿIzziyya(?), a dead man, a widow, and two ruins), but it is tempting to consider that possibility.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: 5 Av 1443, which is July 1132 CE. Connected with the same case as T-S 8.131, namely the divorce arrangements of Ṣedaqa b. Semaḥ (called ha-Meshorer, the poet or singer) and Sitt al-Kull bt. Berakhot ha-Levi. The separation took place three months earlier (8 Iyyar 1443/1132). By the decree ("marsūm") of Maṣliaḥ Gaon (probably after the request of the woman's father: see T-S 8.131), a committee of eight elders (all undersigned) was appointed in order to confirm and fix the alimony for Ṣedaqa's wife and child. The committee gathered in the synagogue of the Palestinians. It was suggested that one and a half dirhams per day would suffice to provide for their living expenses (ll.7-8), but after the recommendations of some people attending (l.4), it was decided to decrease the payment, and fix the alimony at one dinar per month (l.14), arguing that the aforementioned sum was overrated (ll.12–13). This sum was intended to cover all her expenses for food, lighting, public bath and rent. Witnesses: Avraham b. Shemaʿya; Natan b. Shelomo; Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver; Peraḥya b. Ḥalfon ha-Ḥaver; Menashshe b. Yaʿaqov; Avraham b. Shelomo; Meshullam b. Menashshe; and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from Weiss's edition and Goitein's index cards)

Fragments of the minute book (Pinkas) of the Jewish community of Cairo (testimonies), 1436. [Goitein (on photostat) reads different date: 1236 and recognises handwriting of Yehuda (Ha-Melammed b. Aharon al-Ammani)].

Leaf from a court ledger. Probably belongs together with Bodl. MS heb. d 66/77 (and perhaps 66/78 as well). On recto, document (a) may be the end of a trousseau list. Document (b) is a record about a financial dispute between Faḍā'il and his mother-in-law. Among other matters, he accuses her of breaking a jar (zīr) that was worth 1 dinar by carrying it around from place to place.

Detailed court record of the court of Fustat about an oath given by Abu Mansur ha-Kohen concerning many claims dropped by Sitt al-Hasab against one of her agents who happened to be a tenant in one of her houses. Dated Heshvan 1473/ October 1161. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 326, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: 27 Tammuz 1472 Seleucid, which is 1161 CE. The widow of Bunyān(?) b. Durra(?) testifies that she received 10 dinars collected on her behalf by by a well-known tājir, or big merchant, Abū l-Maʿālī b. Bū l-Ḥasan b. Asad. The contributions: 2 dinars from the Nagid Netanel ha-Levi; 2 dinars from Abū l-Maʿālī of al-Maḥalla; 1 dinar from Abū Naṣr; 1 dinar from Bū l-Faraj al-Ṣūrī; 2 dinars from Sālim al-Parnas Ibn al-Jubaylī; and 2 dinars from Ṣāf(ī) the ghulām/slave/business agent of the tājir on the very day on which the document was written. "The participation of the slave seems to indicate that the dead merchant had been connected with his master by partnership or otherwise. In any case, such a collection also represents some form of mutual help" (Information from Goitein, Med Soc I, 204 and 451 n. 65, where he erroneously cites the document as MS heb. d.66/76). Although the scribe is different, this shelfmark may belong together with the preceding 2 shelfmarks.