Geniza Lab

Legal fragment. In Hebrew, with some uncommon formulae. Involves Moshe b. Yaʿaqov.

Fragment of a legal document in Arabic script. Dated: 12 Muḥarram 52[.] AH = 1126–34 CE.

Responsum. Index of Geonic responsa and their subject matter, numbered and organised by authority or questioner where known (‘questions of the people of Wādī al-Qarī to rabbenu Šerira Gaʾon’). ;Belongs with T-S Misc. 35.90, T-S Misc. 35.104, T-S Misc. 35.105, T-S NS 310.64 and T-S NS 329.445. (cudl and AA)

Fragment of a marriage document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated 1123/4 CE.

Legal document dated 1220 CE (24 Sivan 1531) under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. The handwriting is very rudimentary; needs further examination for content.

Multiple documents sharing one bifolium. (1) There is a draft of a legal attestation that al-Shaykh al-Ḥakīm al-Muhadhdhab Abī Saʿīd b. Shela ha-Sar betrothed a woman who is both a virgin and a divorcee. Al-Muhadhdhab Abū Saʿīd is also named in T-S NS J494. (2) An entry in Arabic containing several words in Judaeo-Arabic: the document of the dowry belonging to the daughter of Yūsuf b. Nufayʿ. Someone of the same name appears in T-S NS J357 (mid-13th-century). (3) and (4): Other entries, it seems also marriage-related, in a mix of Arabic and Hebrew.

Document in rudimentary script naming sums of money to be paid for a period of time in the year '52, using the Islamic calendar.

Several legal attestations in Hebrew, perhaps from a court ledger, in multiple handwritints, regarding the dispute between Yosef Kalido (?) and David Leon, who were in the securities ("polisas") business. David Leon transfered to Yosef Kalido a debt owed by Yosef Shunina (the Talmudic term "apoteiki" is used here, but seems to refer to Kalido himself rather than to assets designated as repayment). There was also a dispute between Yosef Shunina and Makhlūf Mayo (?), likewise regarding polisas. The plot thickens here, and more characters are introduced, including Eliezer Benveniste and Yosef de Leon. The settlements reached appear on verso in statements introduced by "I the undersigned, by the power vested in me. . . ." which sounds like a European documentary formula. The date Friday, 17 Elul appears, but the year (if given) is difficult to parse—may be gematriya. ASE

Fragment of a late legal document in Hebrew detailing financial transactions. Mentions 181 peraḥim that were detained with the consul; a certain Hayyim; a total sum of 971 peraḥim; and Sunday, the 29th of Kislev of the previous year.

Small portion of a marriage document listing the elements of a dowry in Judaeo-Arabic.

Probably a fragment of a court ledger from Fustat, including three records dated November 1719 (Kislev 5480). The first is marriage-related; the second is a betrothal document; the third is some sort of financial arrangement. (1) Names Shemuel Neḥemias the acquaintance of Avraham and the widow Confrada (?) bt. Avraham Mizraḥī. (2) The groom-to-be is Yiṣḥaq Afiya (?) and the bride-to-be is Kabīra (?) bt. Gabriel Amarillo of Crete (Candia). (3) Names Yaʿaqov Yo'av and Ḥava the wife of David ha-Levi Ṭorina (?).

Recto: Partnership agreement dated Purim 5365 = 1605 CE, Fustat, between Shemuel Mosseri of Damascus and [...], which is to last for a period of 10 years. Verso: Three columns of text, probably literary, in Hebrew and Aramaic and possibly some Judaeo-Arabic; the three columns seem to be versions of each other. There is also, scribbled out, a note in Arabic: "what was received from al-Muʿallim Ibrāhīm ʿAlī. . . ." ASE.

Fragment of an 11th-century legal document in Judaeo-Arabic, involving a Manṣūr and an ʿAmram.

A curious fragment that looks like it was torn out of a notebook. It is hard to make anything of the writing on the small pages. There may be remnants of very large letters underlying or overlying the text. On the large pages, there is a ketubba for ʿAmram b. Yeshuʿa ha-Zaqen and Sitt al-Nās, dated 24 Tevet 1477 (1165 CE) and invoking the reshut of the Gaon Netanel ha-Levi (recto), it seems including some of the trousseau (verso). ASE.

Deed in which Hiba b. ʿAlī b. […], the carpenter, leases a shop from al-Ḥasan b. Makkī b. Abī al-Ḥadīd, who in turn had been leasing it from his maternal uncle, Ibrahim Ibn al-Fatḥ. Dated Muḥarram 410 AH (= May-June 1019 CE). The verso has the names ‘Isaac and Yefet, sons of Ḥalfon’ in Hebrew script. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document, quite faded, involving Abū Saʿd b. Ṣedaqa the cantor. Needs further examination.

Fragment (right side) of a legal document, perhaps a release, involving [...] al-Ṣabbāgh b. Ṣedaqa.

Legal document. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the courts of Cairo and Fustat; the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya; David al-Ṣabbāgh al-Rūmī b. Avraham; Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi; Abū l-Munā b. Abū l-Faraj; Abū Isḥāq.

Declaration of receipt of money. In Arabic script. Location: the Fayyūm. Dated: Monday, 4 Shaʿbān 438 AH, which is 3 February 1047 CE. Ghālib b. Ḥabāsa, son of the amīr Murād al-Dawla, acknowledges the receipt of the remainder (12 dinars) of the first installment of a due payment from Abū Ghālib ʿAbdallāh b. Manṣūr, the cashier in the land-tax office (al-jahbadh bi-dīwān al-kharāj). Recto and verso were reused for Hebrew poetry. (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

Testimony concerning the death of a man and his son. In Arabic script. Dated: 5 Shawwāl 427 AH, which is 1 August 1036 CE. The witnesses attest that Ṣadaqa b. ʿAllūn Ibn al-Dabbāb has died in Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān after the death of his son Bū Faraj in the town of al-Lādhiqiyya (Latakia) and that his sole heir is his daughter Yamānī, the wife of Mawhūb b. Bashshār. Witnesses: Salāma b. Isḥāq; ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn; Yūsuf b. Menashshe; Barakāt b. Menaḥem b. Mubārak. Three of the signatures have צח ("valid") in Hebrew script above them. As the witnesses are Jews, this would not have been regarded as a valid legal instrument in a Muslim court. (Information from Khan.)