Geniza Lab

Marriage contract for Shelomo b. Yosef and Munā bt. ʿAmram. From somewhere in Egypt. Dated 1086/87 CE (1398 Seleucid).

Legal affidavit or court record. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Middle third of Shevat 1434 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE. But this dating is not certain, because it is very faded. In which Yefet b. ʿEli praises and acknowledges the help of Moshe ha-Sar b. Tiqva(?) and ʿEli ha-Levi b. Netanel, who intervened on his behalf with the Nagid (=Moshe b. Mevorakh, if the dating is correct). The document is very faded, but it appears that the matter has to do with the Palestinian synagogue as well as 'the congregation of the Cairenes.'

Very important legal document consisting of two depositions held in the synagogue of Syracuse, dealing with a lawsuit against Eliyyahu b. al-Harrar, who was accused of taking a share of the estate of Nahum b. Ismail al-Harrar. Dated April 1020. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 654, and from Yehudei Sitziliya, p. 104)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Concerns Abū l-Faḍā'il and his wife ("amḍā la-hā al-taṣarruf fī jamīʿihā"). No details preserved. Dated: 1135 CE, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Witnesses: Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, Natan b. Shelomo, and Avraham b. Yeshuʿa (ZL). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from a certain Abū l-Faraj to a judge. He complains that after he had paid 10 dinars according to the judge's decision, his debtors wanted to receive (or received) the rest with interest. Mentions an encounter in the "small guardhouse" (מחרץ for מחרס/maḥras). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Two fragments of the same legal document, dated 1532/1220-1221. The physician Abū l-Maḥāsin Yefet b. Yoshiyya and the sugar merchant Abū l-ʿIzz b. Abū l-Maʿānī declare that they had operated a sugar factory for many years together, but were now unable to pay the heavy government taxes any longer. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 580)

Declaration in court by Abu al-Tahir b. Elazar regarding a business of timber for building belonging to Abu al-Baha b. Moshe. Dated Heshvan 1543 Seleucid, which is September-October 1231 CE. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal testimony. Dated: Wednesday the 6th of Ḥeshvan, which Goitein identified as October 1231 CE, based on the surmise that this document belongs together with Bodl. MS heb. e 101/14. The testimony describes how Shamun b. al-Muzanjir was attacked by his brother, ʿImrān, while sewing in the store of Simḥa. Shamun didn't lift his hand against his brother for this happened in the presence of Jews, Muslims and Christians. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p.47; V, pp. 305, 306)

Court record dated Nisan 1410 Seleucid, which is April 1099 CE. Dealing with a complicated lawsuit of a case in which Abū l-Faḍl had sold 91 jars of wine to Hillel b. Yosef for 9 dinars. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 256, and from Goitein's index cards)

Book list in Ladino. On the last page of a literary midrashic work in Hebrew. "These are the books I bought here in Patras (Greece), it is good to know(?)" (אישטוש שון ליש לוברוש קי מירקי אקי אין פאטראש קון בייני אשאביר). Dating: Possibly ca. 1498 CE, if this belongs together with the next fragment. Entries include: Naḥmanides; Sefer ha-Agur; Ibn ʿEzra; Kad ha-Qemaḥ; Sefer Miṣvot ha-Qaṣar; commentary on the Moreh by אפ״ד; two books of liquṭim; a commentary on something ("the first book" or perhaps "the razon"?) of Avicenna and other matters; a commentary on the Higayon of Maimonides with other selections; the Intentions of the Philosophers (Kavanot ha-Pilosofim, the Hebrew translation of Maqāṣid al-Falāsifa) by "Abū Ḥamid" (=al-Ghazālī); an introduction to logic; the laws of Yom Kippur (or from Masekhet Yoma); Moshe Narboni's commentary on the Intentions of the Philosophers; Iggeret ha-Musar; Sefer ha-Malmad (of Jacob Anatoli); the book of Ibn Shuʿayb; Ḥovot ha-Levavot; and a few more. ASE

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Cairo. Dated: 23 Nisan 1434 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE.

Legal document, fragment. Dating: ca. 1020 CE. Muʾammala bt. Shemuel b. Menashshe b. Avraham al-Qazzaz releases her sister Mulūk and other relatives (probably her sister's family) from obligations concerning the estate of her aunt Ḥusn bt. Menashshe b. Ibrāhīm including properties in a place called Tur Ruba and in Tyre, in the 'Armon' (mansion?) of Ibn al-Qazzāz. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Deed of sale. Location: Ḥamida/Ḥamuda, Yemen. Dated: 24 Av במ״ד, which is likely 2044 Seleucid, which is 1733 CE. The parties include [..] and Saʿīd and Avraham the sons of Yūsuf. Currency: gurush. Signed: Menaḥem b. Ḥayyim; Seʿadya b. Avraham. There is a note on verso with more names.

Kitāb al-Sheṭarot (the book of legal formularies) of Hayya Ga'on b. Sherira Ga'on. Per the Bodleian catalog, the copyist or owner is Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver.

Legal document in Arabic script. Only the bottom is preserved. On verso there is a prayer in Hebrew.

Document in Arabic script. Possibly the draft of an iqrār or other legal deed. Written on (or reused for?) a page of magical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document. Bottom part only. Underneath, at 180 degrees, there is a jotting of the beginning of a legal document that includes the date: 10 Nisan 1549 Seleucid, which is 1238 CE. On verso there is a Hebrew elegy for 'my son' Yosef ha-Kohen and his three brothers.

Marriage authorization. Part A: An authorization from the legal court that there is no legal hindrance to the marriage, from 1159. The authorization is written in approximately the same style as other such documents. This document, like others of its type, shows that matters of marriage were monitored by the community and that the court kept a systematic record of such matters. Part B: in the bottom of the page, written up-side down a short registration of marriage.

Legal document, unfinished, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100-1138). Jayyida who possessed two thirds of a house was in need of fifty dinars. She received the fifty dinars from David the dyer in exchange for her house for a period of two years during which she was to pay him a total 'rent' of 16 dinars, 8 per year. In other words this document records a loan with a usurious yearly interest of 16 percent. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 329, 500)

Jayyida, wife of a scholarly grape-presser, gives two-thirds of a house in the Hudayji street, which was her share, as a collateral against a loan of 50 dinars granted by a dyer. She remained in the house promising to pay 16 dinars as rent for two years. The remaining third was or became communal property. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 280)