Geniza Lab

Legal query involving Sitt al-Ḥusn and the property of an orphan. With responsa from Moshe Maimonides, Sason ha-Dayyan, and Shelomo b. Natan. There is another legal query with responsum on verso. This document has been published by both M. A. Friedman and Joshua Blau. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Deed of gift to an engaged woman. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: 1440 Seleucid, which is 1128/29 CE. This gift was given in addition to the payment of the ketubba and the 'added to the ketubba',and the women could do with it as she pleases. Edited also at Weiss, Ḥalfon, Doc. #9.

Court record. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dated: 5307 AM, which is 1546/47 CE. The case involves the payment of the ketubba for Esther, the widow of Moshe Castro, and a debt that the late Moshe was owed by the well-known merchant Avraham b. Shānjī, also dead. The story begins in Jerusalem when the widow demanded payment from Shemuel b. Avraham Ibn Shānjī that he repay the debt of his father (80 Venetian ducats). Later, in Fustat/Cairo, the case came before the judge David Ibn Abi Zimra. See A. David's edition on FGP for further information.

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. Concerning a certain Kohen who is seeking a restraining order against his divorcee and to prohibit her from entering the alley where he lives, because he is scared of her and her witchcraft (כישוף). She keeps visiting her female friends who live the same alley as he. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.) ASE

Fragment of a marriage contract between the bridegroom X b. Yosef [the great Rav] and the bride Sitt al-Adab daughter of Yehuda b. Nissim the sar b. Masliah the haver, the judge. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 103)

Copy of a copy of a ketubba from Ashkelon, 1100.

Legal document in Hebrew. Very faded. Dated, but only the number 4 or 40 is readily legible. The hand looks late and/or Sefaradi-influenced. Mentions a financial loss (ההפסד שהפסיד...). Signed: Yeshaʿya b. Ḥiyya; [...] b. ʿOvadya; Yosef Seruji; Shelomo al-Maghribī.

Legal document in Hebrew. Very faded. A woman named ʿAzīza makes a declaration. "My husband Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen" is mentioned three lines from the bottom. On verso there is a faṣl or note in Judaeo-Arabic describing the contents of the legal document: "iqrār of the wife of [.......]."

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1122-1153. A one-year partnership in an apothecary between Sayyid al-Ahl and his partner Faraḥ b. Abū al-‘Alā. The relationship may have been an apprenticeship; both parties are entitled to 1.5 dirhams a day, but profits from the sale of some commodities within the shop will accrue only to Sayyid al-Ahl, who seems to be the primary partner. However, Faraḥ’s investment is significant; the pharmacy inventory was only 7 dinars, but Faraḥ brings a total of 20 dinars, 16 of which are invested immediately. This document lacks most of the formulae seen in partnership agreements (including stock qinyan phrases, which effect the contract) – it may have been simply the personal outline of a scribe who would later add in the framework from a formulary, as it also lacks signatures. Goitein identifies the handwriting as that of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver (active 1122-1153). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 38-39)

Sitt al-ʿAlā', the wife of Abu al-Fakhr, asks the court for her Ketubba, which was apparently given to R. Moshe.

Draft of of a legal document in which Sitt al-ʿIzz bt. Yeshaʿyahu b. Yefet appoints 'Amat al-Qādir' Sitt al-Milāḥ Turfa as her representative with regard to her share in the house in the al-Muṣāṣa quarter. Small note without signatures, though the names of the witnesses are mentioned in the body of the text: Kochav and Abū l-Munā. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document. Bottom part only. Dated: 14[.]7 Seleucid, probably 1407 Seleucid, which is 1095/96 CE. Signed by Ghālib b. Ḥalfon in massive letters.

Bill of divorce (get). Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 13 Shevat 1442 Seleucid, which is 1131 CE. Husband: Ḥalfon b. [...].

Legal record in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. On 27 Kislev, the blind woman Sitt Ṣāfī receives from Abū l-Makārim Jābī l-Rubʿ 10 dirhams that are due to her for Elul and Tishrei of 1159 CE. Signed: Nissim b. Shelomo; Simḥa b. [???]. The money was handed over by Tiqva b. David. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document, small fragment. Location: Fustat. Involves Sasson b. Efrayim.

Order of payment. In dreadful handwriting. On verso there are jottings in both Hebrew and Arabic script.

Legal document, fragment. Mentions [Avraham?] b. Natan Av Bet Din and seems to be some sort of release. There is a list of items covered: silk, flax, codices, furniture, clothing, taʿlīq. Then "Avraham his son" and something about 3 dinars.

Bill of divorce. Scribed and signed by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. Also signed by ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yaʿish. The husband may be named Ḥal[fon]. There is no note that the geṭ was delivered, unless that note was written on the corner that has been torn away.

Page from a book of legal formulas contains a will, Ketubah for widow or divorced and for remarriage (מחזיר גרושתו) and a deed of prozbol (Bill of delivery, which allowing to take interest-free loans before the Sabbatical year. Fol 2-4 contains a ketubah with a marriage poem and a commentary on the ketubah. Fol. 5 a deed of testimony of inheritance. In Judeo Arabic. It is from Yemen, probably 18th century. The name Yaḥyā Ṣāliḥ יחיא צאלח is written. AA

Record of a deposition regarding donation of parts of a compound, ca. 1160. Sitt al-Riyad, al-Na'iha, who owns seven qirats of a compound, donates a third of her part to the Karaites and a little less than that (7.5 qirats) to the Rabbanites. This is recorded on the left part of a leaf detached from a notebook, apparently belonging to a 'adl, a "righteous witness," or notary. Three witnesses, inclusive of the writer, are mentioned at the beginning, but their signatures are not preserved. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 294 #63.) See also Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix A, #164.