Geniza Lab

Sub-leasing agreement written in Damietta in 1106 in which the farmer of the dues from dyeing and selling silk in the district of Damietta sub-leases his rights regarding a small town named Ibwan to three partners for the duration of one year against a payment of two dinars per month. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 361, 362, 606)

Legal document. Bottom part only. Sitt al-Ḥasan releases another woman from all claims. Signed: Mordekhay ha-Kohen b. Moshe.

Court record dated Tevet 1357/ January 1046 in the handwriting of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Mansur b. Mukhtar sues Shelomo b. Natanel, accusing him of taking the money that the deceased wife of Mansur inherited from their father. (Information from E. Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, pp. 53, 225; Yehudei misrayim, p. 178)

An autograph responsum by Avraham Maimonides (1186-1237) dealing with wine brought by a Karaite and the injunction about preparation of wine by Jews (rabbanite Jews). (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 14, 123, 428)

Legal document. The case involves a house worth 75 dinars and an orphan boy who has yet to come of age. People named include Mevorakh b. Yisrael and Hārūn and Abū Naṣr Ghālib b. Moshe ha-Kohen. There are many witnesses (which should facilitate precise dating): Avraham b. David; Yehoshuaʿ b. Natan; Natan b. Sasson; [...] ha-Mumḥe b. Natan Av Bet Din; ʿAyyāsh b. Nissim; [...] ha-Levi b. Shela; and [...] ha-Mumḥe.

An incomplete deed of a sale of one quarter of a house by a public leader, Ibn al-ʿAjamī, to the wife of a money assayer for 1,000 dirhams. The sale took place with the permission and in the presence of the woman’s husband. The purchase may have been an investment. Fustat, 29 Marḥeshvan, 1541 Seleucid (18 October 1229). Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 1, p. 462n123, Vol. 3, p. 328, Vol. 4. p. 283.)

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: First decade of Ḥeshvan 1493 Seleucid, which is 1181 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In which Fakhr bt. Thaʿlab, the divorcee of Abū l-Khayr b. Avraham, appoints Maʿālī b. Khalaf al-Dajājī as her representative to sue her ex-husband for the 12 dinars owed to her under the terms of her ketubba. Written and signed by Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (active ca. 1181–1209). Also signed by Levi b. Avraham ha-Levi (likely identical with the cantor Abū Sahl Levi, the father of Yedutun and Moshe). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Deed of sale of one half of a house in the al-Musasa quarter in Fustat, in which one owner sells his half to the other owner for 300 dinars to be paid in three installments. Dated Tishri 1451 Seleucid, which is September 1139 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 288)

Account and agreement between the Qodesh and a partner, ca. 1156. A certain al-Nadiv, otherwise known as the perfume maker, tenant of a compound partly owned by the qodesh known as al-Burj, carried out repairs (probably in that compound) for which the qodesh owes him 19.5 dinars. He had previously received 9.75 dinars from the qodesh and owes 3 dinars representing his rent for four months. Thus, the qodesh still owes him 6.75 dinars. His expenditure of an additional sum of 10.5 dinars is approved, for repairs to be made in his brewery. As the qodesh will pay half of this, its total debt will come to 12 dinars. Also, some minor improvements in the compound will be made jointly. The debt of 12 dinars will be returned to him by counting it as his rent for 16 months. For this purpose, a deed of lease will be written in a Muslim court also. This arrangement is made toward the end of January 1156, one month before the former lease expires on the 24th of February. The new lease will start on the 25th. Coptic numerals are used. Mentions a wind catcher (bādhanj). (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 287 #59)

Certificate of the Qodesh in Alexandria, ca. 1253. The leaders of the community of Alexandria grant Elazar b. Shelomo the right to receive bread from the qodesh as well as the sum needed for the capitation tax. The right is granted to him by reason of his poverty, old age, and membership in a family of scholars. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 477 #144)

Bill of divorce. Location: Cairo. Dated: 15[..] Seleucid, which is 1188–1288 CE. Probably in the second half of this range, to judge by handwriting (which is likely known). Husband: al-Rayyis Yaḥyā [...] al-Levi. Bride: Sitt al-[...]. Signed: Pinḥas ha-Kohen; ʿOvadya b. Yehuda ha-Dayyan. On verso, apart from the note that the wife received the get in front of witnesses, there is a list of three men somehow related to the case: Abū l-Riḍā b. al-Nagid; [...]r b. al-Sukkarī; and Abū l-Majd b. al-ʿAwwād. This part is also signed by ʿOvadya b. Yehuda ha-Dayyan and one other person.

A representative appointment deed. Deed in the hand of Ḥalfon ben Menashshe ha-Levi (there are documents in his hand from 1100-1138) in which the bride appoints her father as her representative for the arrangement of marriage. In other appointment deeds, such as T-S 13J25.20 + T-S AS 153.12, the wife appointed her father or another agent to choose for her any groom he sees fit. However, in this deed the bride appointed her father to arrange the marriage with a specific groom. The deed is without signature and might be a draft. Edited in Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, 1:218-19.

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Reconciliation between al-Muʿallim Manṣūr al-Dajjājī (same as in T-S NS 297.76?) and his wife, in which Manṣūr submits to various conditions concerning his wife's property. Mentions the 'waraqa' that is 'against him' in the Muslim courts. The name Shemuel al-Amshāṭī appears in the margin. Signed: ʿOvadya b. Shemuel; Yehuda b. Moshe.

Bill of sale for a female slave. Dating: ca. 1100 CE (based on Med Soc II, p. 601 n. 18). The name of the female slave may not have been preserved. Parties to the transaction: Ḥalfon b. Seʿadya and Netanel ha-Levi b. Ḥalfon. The document and the qiyyum (validation) are scribed and signed by Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva, apparently in the same session. Witnesses for the main part of the document: Moshe ha-Levi b. David; Menaḥem b. Shemuel. Witnesses for the validation: Aharon ha-Kohen b. Ḥalfon ha-Ḥaver; Mevorakh b. Natan. Information mainly from Goitein's note card.

Legal testimony. Location: Alexandria. Dated: Sunday, 11 Tammuz 4912 AM, which is 1152 CE. Under the reshut of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Witnesses (=judges): Mevorakh ha-Kohen b. Natan; Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Ṭahor ha-Kohen; Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef. Shemuel b. Yehuda Ibn Asad and ʿUlla b. Yeshuʿa Ibn al-ʿIrāqī are the two litigants (mutashājirīn). They appear before the court together with a messenger of the Muslim qāḍī, and all agree that they will annul a previous agreement made before a Jewish court and make a similar agreement in Muslim court. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Legal queries from al-Maḥalla. The first one asks how to calculate the value of a marriage contract (ketubba) where there is no fixed rule concerning the additional marriage payment (ziyāda). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Ghāliya bt. Yiṣḥaq, widow of Furayj b. X, and Ḥusn bt. Ibrāhīm acknowledge in court that they have received two dinars from the debt transfer (ḥawāla) of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿaqov b. David through the cantor Musāfr b. Shelomo, the cantor from the debt transfer of Abū Manṣūr Ghālib b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Signed by Eliyyahu b. Zekharya and Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram. Dating: Avraham Maimonides is called Nagid, so 1213–37 CE. Quite faded. Quittance between Abū l-Fakhr b. Abū Saʿīd and Munajjā b. Abū l-[...]. Maybe upon the dissolution of a partnership.

Legal deed drawn up in Damascus, September 1084 CE (25 Tishrei, 1396 Seleucid), both qiyum and shimush written by Shemuel ha-Nasi 'the third' b. Daniel ha-Nasi.

Legal document. Apparently unfinished. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated 1145 CE (Elul 1456 Seleucid). Involves a certain Abū l-Ḥasan b. Mūsā.