Geniza Lab

Witness statement(s) in Arabic script, originally at the bottom of a deed of acknowledgment made by a woman. Dated: Shawwāl 427 AH = July/August 1036 CE. Reused on verso for Hebrew piyyuṭ.

Ownership note on a literary work that resembles but is not identical with Ruth Rabba (information from FGP). "The undersigned witness that Yehuda b. Ovadya sold this commentary to Elazar b. Yehuda. . . ."

Record of a testimony written in Alexandria regarding a family excommunicated by Daniel b. Azarya. The members of the family desecrate his memory. Date: May 1079.

Court record. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: Ṭevet 1438 Seleucid, which is 1126/27 CE. A woman (Ḥasana bt. Menashshe ha-Kohen the wife of Elʿazar b. Mevorakh ha-Kohen) had sued her brother (the banker Abū l-Ḥasan Shelomo b. Menashshe ha-Kohen) in the Muslim courts after she learned that the female slave (Iftikhār) she had purchased from him (for 17 dinars) had "defects" (ʿuyūb) which made her want to return her. They settled the matter when her brother agreed to reimburse 1.25 dinars of the purchase price. She has now received the settlement money, and she releases her brother from all subsequent claims against him in this matter. (Information in part from Craig Perry via FGP.)

Three court records dealing with the same conflict over bay windows of two confronting houses which were touching. Dated: Tuesday, last decade of Shevaṭ, 1419 Sel. (February 1108). When both houses fell into disrepair and, after many years, one of them was rebuilt, witnesses testify that the alcove of the original house had protruded from the wall by about one cubit. Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya. Written by Hillel b. Eli. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 61-62, where he mistakenly cites this as T-S Misc.24.5, for which see PGPID 35229 and Med. Soc. I p. 110. We have retained all index cards and both transcriptions under both PGPIDs.)

Leaf from a court ledger. At the top of recto: Contract of debt. Abū l-Munajjā b. Abū Manṣūr ha-Kohen owes Abu al-Makārim b. Barakāt al-Khāmī 230 dirhams to be paid in installments of ten dirhams a month. Dated: Tuesday, 20 Shevat 1471 Seleucid, which is January 1160 CE. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Leaf from a court ledger. On recto, written at 90 degrees to the other text blocks: Draft of the deathbed will of Abū l-Ḥasan. Dating: ca. 1160. He gives sums of money to rayyis Abū l-Najm, his son Abū l-Nabaʾ, and to the Nezer. He gives 1/6 of a house in Fustat to his older sister, Sitt al-Ḥasab, the widow of the rayyis Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, and 1/12 to his brother's son. To his younger sister, Sitt al-Riyāsa, he gives two houses in the Zuwayla quarter of New Cairo. He also manumits his two female slaves, Gharaḍ and Kashf (still a minor, so she will remain with Sitt al-Riyāsa until she comes of age, at which time she can decide to stay or to leave). Written by Mevorakh b. Natan. Goitein's index card indicates that Abū l-Ḥasan was the son of Abū l-Faḍl Shela ha-Levi Sar ha-Leviim; another document relating to the same family is Sitt al-Riyāsa's trousseau list, found in Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.25r–26r (PGPID 2725). (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 456.)

Recto: Draft of either a legal document or a text on legal procedure in general, mentioning requiring an opponent to take an oath, and orphans. Verso: Fragment of a document in Arabic script.

Court decision in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Sulayman ha-Kohen al-Naqqad suspected the trustworthiness of al-Rasuy in matters of money, and the latter gave oath to the former. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 341)

Court record of three sessions concerning the same case dealing with two merchants, Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Saadya and Saadya b. Ishaq. Shelomo had sued Saadya for eight dinars, but when Saadya failed to appear for the final hearing, he was informed that if he did not attend the court session the following week, he would have to pay a fine of five dinars. According to the third record he did appear and paid the eight dinars. Written in Fustat. Dated Adar-Iyar 1410/ March-May 1099. The second record is in the hand of Avraham b. Shemaʿya. The first and third were written by Hillel b. Eli. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 110 at n. 31, where he mistakenly cites this as T-S Misc.24.137.1, for which see PGPID 4209; this shelfmark is cited in Med. Soc. II, p. 573 n. 17, but Goitein's summary must refer to a different, still-unidentified shelfmark. We have retained all index cards and both transcriptions under both PGPIDs.)

Legal document concerning the dissolvement of a partnership at the death of one of the partners.

Bottom of a legal document. Location: Might be Palermo (פלרם), but this word is very faded. Dated: Elul 4904 AM = August 1144 CE. Settlement between [...] bt. ʿIwāḍ and her husband Shelomo b. Mevorakh. No details of the settlement. Witnesses: the parnas Avraham b. Aharon the cantor; Barakāt b. ʿAmram; Moshe b. Sahlān. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Deathbed will in which Sitt al-Dalāl bt. Ḥananel (n’e) endows the enslaved woman who took care of her through illness with freedom (and likely other objects/property in the missing half of this document). Dated: Dated: Thursday, 23 Ḥeshvan 1542 Seleucid = 1230 CE under the authority of Avraham b. Moshe Maimonides. Document produced in the home of her son Abū l-Baqāʾ Elʿazar b. Evyatar, who likely inherits property from his mother in the missing part of the document. In the handwriting of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu? The scribe has reused verso for (1) biblical verses; (2) the beginning of a draft of a letter to the ḥaver Abū l-Bayān; and (3) notes for drawing up a (debt?) contract between Shelomo ha-Levi and Abū Saʿd b. Ibrāhīm al-Ṣabbāgh. RR. ASE. For transcription and Hebrew description, see Rivlin, Inheritance and Wills, #60, pp. 395–96.

Legal declaration, or perhaps a legal query, presenting the facts of a business dispute between the jewel merchants Avraham b. Ḥayyim and Yehuda de לויא. In Hebrew. Dating: Late, perhaps 16th century. Mentions Adrianople (Edirne) and Castile. Information from FGP.

Recto: Legal testimony, possibly a draft. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated Sunday 9 Iyyar 1559 Seleucid (1248 CE). Place: Fustat. Involves Sulaymān al-Ṣayrafī al-Levi b. Abū l-Munā al-Sukkarī, a sum of 140 dinars, the brothers Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān Al-Levi and Abū l-Faraj Zayn al-Tujjār al-Levi the executors (or heirs?) of the late ʿAmram, and monthly payments of 4 dinars to the brothers. Verso: Jottings in Arabic script and the name "Shelomo b. Yishay ha-Nasi" several times.

Bill of divorce. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 4 Elul 1392 Seleucid, which is 1081 CE. Husband: Ṣedaqa b. Avraham. Wife: Rashīda bt. Yeshuʿa. Witnesses: Mevorakh b. Saʿadya; ʿEli b. Yaḥyā ha-Kohen. No confirmation of receipt on verso.

Guardian deed from the heirs of Israel b. Yosef Januni to Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1065. Marduk and Yosef, the sons of Israel, probably from Mahadiyya, assign Nahray to collect a debt deed that was left by their uncle, Yehuda b. Yosef Januni, to his brother, Israel. Israel passed away, while the changer who held the inheritance money passed away as well. The money is with his son, Yehuda. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #819) VMR

Legal document. Renewed ketubba after an incomplete divorce. Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: Sunday, 5 Elul 1438 Seleucid = 14 August 1127 CE. The husband, Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Elʿazar al-Zajjāj had already written the geṭ, but it was not delivered. The new ketubba was written specifying a delayed marriage payment (meʾuḥar) of 9 dinars or less, probably 5. His wife agreed to continue to live with his parents and not ask for separation (furqa). Also signed by Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen; Aharon b. Avraham ha-Kohen; and [...] b. ʿEzra ha-Gelili. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Legal testimony (marriage permit). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar 1485 Seleucid, which is 1174 CE. Natan b. Yaḥyā and Shelomo b. Yefet testify that there is no impediment, whether sulṭānī or sharʿī, to the marriage of Dalāl bt. Abū l-Ḥasan. The members of the court sign the qiyyum, although only 2 of the 3 names are preserved: Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya and Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen b. Yosef. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Responsum regarding polygyny. Only the relevant passages in this responsum are brought in this work.