Geniza Lab

Query to the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda (lines 1–7), with his responsum below (lines 8–15). See also PGPID 31556.

Recto: Legal query in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Yiṣḥaq the judge (perhaps Yiṣḥaq b. Sason from the court of Maimonides). Concerns a business partnership between a Muslim and a Jew. The Muslim collected interest from the Jew on the Muslim's money which the Jew was doing business with. The interest amounted to the entire sum that the Jew would have earned as his salary. The Muslim drew up a document against the Jew for collecting this debt. The question is if the Jew may deny the validity of the document in front of the Muslim court (here called "Beit Din") and even to swear falsely to prevent the Muslim from getting the money. (Information from עקיבא סילבצקי via FGP.)

Legal declaration, probably the concluding page of a deposition, signed by Shem Ṭov al-Ḥāmī. In Hebrew and Ladino. Dating: Late. Shem Ṭov declares that he vowed to undertake the nezirut of Samson (i.e., abstain from wine and let his hair go wild) when his son had an eye disease. He wanted his mother-in-law to come visit her daughter and sick grandson, so Shem Ṭov told her that he had beaten her daughter. This had the desired effect, but led to a great quarrel, in which both Shem Ṭov and his wife denied any beating, and the mother-in-law asks, "Why are you denying the truth?" At this point they wanted the mother-in-law to leave them alone, but she refused to leave without her daughter. Shem Ṭov made a fist and threatened her in order to end the argument. The husband concludes by reporting the words of his vow to refrain from wine and, it seems, not to leave his wife alone on Sabbath (meaning that he would fulfill his conjugal obligations), "Yo recibo nezirut Shimshon bar Manoaḥ baʿal Delilah con todos sus tena'im de non dexarla עלא דומתי (?) on the Sabbath." He signs Shem Tov ("Good Name") al-Ḥāmī, watchman of a quarter. "The purpose of the declaration was, of course, that the impulsive watchman thirsted for wine and wished to be absolved from his overhasty vow." Information from Weiss and Goitein (Med. Soc, II, 608 n. 41 and Med Soc V, 110 and 536–37). ASE.

Rough draft of a question probably sent to a Gaon in Palestine.

Query to Avraham Maimonides.

Responsum of a Babylonian Gaon.

Responsum from Shelomo b. Yehuda Gaon, in the hand of his son Avraham, regarding levirate marriage, Palestine.

Fragments of responsum by a Gaon, dealing with children of female slaves.

Segment of a responsum regarding a child of a female slave.

Responsa in Avraham Ibn Yiju's hand: legitimacy of a manumitted female slave's marriage and status of her children, Yemen, ca. 1140.

Responsum of the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda concerning a woman who proselytized for a man.

Responsum of R. Hayya Gaon in the Arabic original.

Legal document: deed of sale in Arabic for the purchase of part of a house. Abū l-Faraj Ṣemaḥ b. Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ the money-changer buys part of a house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat from his uncle Dāwūd b. Ṣemaḥ the indigo dealer. The house abuts the former church of St Michael, the oven of al-Jalāl, and the house of Maymūn b. Dāwūd. Dated 10–20 Shaʿbān 448 (October-November 1056 CE). On verso there is a liturgical text in Hebrew. (Information from Khan.) It is unusual that the document is written on a bifolio; it may be a court copy, which would also explain what seems to be an archival annotation on verso summarizing the document (which Khan deciphers in part but doesn't discuss). MR

Probably a legal document in Arabic script, referring to someone demanding his rights. Small fragment. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

Legal note(s) in Arabic script. The most preserved one: "The buyer: [...] b. Ḥammūd b. ʿAmmār.... on the defects (al-ʿuyūb)... from the aforementioned price." The nature of the sale is not clear.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Dated: 5 Ṣafar 520 AH, which is 2 March 1126 CE. Sayyid al-Kull b. Jaʿfar, a clothier in Fustat (al-bazzāz bi-Miṣr), acknowledges a debt of 270 dirhams to the Jew Abū Hiba(?) b. ʿImrān.

A draft of a pre nuptial agreement between husband and wife, contains most of the known stipulations found in marriage documents during the 12th century such as the monogamy clause, the wife permission to work, domicile stipulation, husband behavior. On the bottom of the page pen trials. On recto a poem. AA

Fol. 1v: Muslim marriage contract. In Arabic script. Groom: Zayd b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn. 1.5 (dinars) are mentioned. May be dated. Fol. 2v: Fragment of a deed of sale for real estate. In Arabic script. Fol. 3v: Accounts in Arabic script.

Legal documents. Summaries of court records kept in the court registry. One of the entries details the maintenance payments (10 dirhams per month) that Ṣadaqa b. ʿEli must pay to his divorcee Miryam the freedwoman starting in Tishrei 1412 Seleucid, which is September 1100 CE. Another is a quittance between Ḥananel b. Yaʿaqov known as Khiyār and Ḥananel b. Ṣadaqa concerning a quantity of coral that had been deposited. In another entry what left from the a dowry of Maliha d. Yehezkel Hakohen in her husband's hand Yosef b. Ya'aqov. The couple's marriage document is found in TS 10 J 7.13 from 1090. (Information from Moshe Yagur [via FGP] and Goitein's note card. Additions by AA.)

Dowry list and nuptial gift of a rich bride. In the hand of Natan b.Shemuel he-Ḥaver. Dating: ca. 1128–53 CE.