Geniza Lab

Legal formulary, mainly in Judaeo-Arabic.

Marriage document. Small fragment. In Aramaic. Dated: [...]3. Involving [... b.] She'erit ha-Kohen.

A legal query regarding contradiction between two testimonies, sent to Yehuda Hakohen b. Yosef Rosh Haseder (also known as 'ha-Rav'). Qayrawan 11th century. A business dispute between two partners leads one of the parties to write a bill of release in front of two witnesses, approved by the court. The witnesses approved their signatures but didn't mention anything regarding the content of the bill of release. According to Jewish law, if the writer of the bill will bring another testimony that supports his claims, it is void. Sometime later the writer of the bill brought another deed with the testimony of the two former witnesses, and this deed contains a condition that make him void. There are few problematic issues in the deed: 1. The same witnesses testify in both deeds; 2. the dates of both deeds are identical, but in both the court approval is later to the time of testimony. . After a long halakhic discussion the Rav ruled that the bill of release is accepted .

Monograph, Rabbinica; fol. 1: specimen writ of divorce, with a few instructions in Judaeo-Arabic; fol. 2r: unidentified Judaeo-Arabic text, possibly from a preface; fol. 2v: blank (Data from Brody hand list)

Responsa, Documentary; most probably a series of exegetical queries concerning BT Shabbat; also, in Arabic script, a decree concerning payment of taxes. Judaeo-Arabic/Hebrew/Aramaic: probably series of exegetical queries concerning BT Shabbat; Arabic: decree concerning the payment of taxes (data from Brody hand list)

Bottom of a legal document in Arabic script. Needs examination. On verso there is liturgy

Recto: draft of a suretyship agreement, Khaluf b. Judah undertakes to act as surety for Joseph b. Jacob; possibly also draft of another contract; with marginalia, written by Efraim b. Shemarya; verso: Arabic accounts.

Fragment from a ketubah. 11th century. The bride's father named Hubaysh

From a book of legal deed, contains formula of deed of partnership and and פסיקה

Legal document in Arabic script. Very difficult to read. On recto there is poetry in a mixture of Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Legal document in Arabic script. There is part of a witness's signature on bottom. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. Join: Marina Rustow. The date 437 AH appears in the first line, which is 1045/46 CE.

This fragment contains a poem for marriage and part of marriage stipulations

Very faded Arabic legal document - needs examination. Reused on verso for a piyyuṭ of Yiṣhaq ibn Ghiyath.

Legal document: bill of sale in which Makhlūf b. Jābir b. Nāṣir buys a house in al-Muʿizziyya (Cairo) from […] b. ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn b. Ibrahim b. ʿAlī, one of two trustees of Cairene legacies, under the supervision of Abū l-Ḥasan Masarra b. ʿAbdallāh. Makhlūf’s father, Jābir b. Nāṣir the miller, acts as his agent in the transaction. The house previously belonged to the wife of the amir, Sitt al-Dawla, and is apparently now intestate, hence the involvement of the trustees. 11th-12th century. On verso (recto as conserved) is a Hebrew liturgical text. (Information from Khan, ALAD)

On verso a note, probably a draft of an agreement about a quarrel between husband and wife. The husband is taking upon himself not to leave her. On verso very faded dowry list. AA

Two legal documents written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (ca. 1100–38). Recto: Possibly a debt acknowledgment. Fragment (upper right corner). Involves Abū Sahl Menashshe b. Yehuda who owes 5 dinars to [...] b. Efrayim ha-Kohen. 1 dinar will be paid per every הרגה (the meaning is unclear; Goitein's index card suggests חרגה, "fit of anger"). Verso: Oath to be given by Ḥassūn/Yefet b. Ḥalfon to his brother-in-law Avraham b. Yosef that he had paid (him?) the 4.5 dinars given to him in Abyār. There is an itemized list, mentioning goods from Syria (al-Shām). Underneath the names of probably family members (recipients of some of the money): Rashīda bt. Ḥalfon, Abū ʿAlī b. Ḥalfon, al-Ṭarābulsī b. Abū l-Khayr. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Text in Arabic script on one leaf. Order of payment? Ṣuḥḥa li-l-shaykh al-ajall Abū l-Ḥajjāj yadfaʿ l-muwaṣṣilihā...

Declaration of a father and husband, testifying that he had not married anyone before the mother of his first-born and that he had not sired a child before this one. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (ca. 1100-1138). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 279)

Marriage contract for two enslaved people, both born into slavery (muwallad(at) al-jins), Muwaffaq and Dhahab. In Arabic script. Excerpt: ...انه زوج مملوكه موفق المولد الجنس لمملوكته ذهب المولدة الجنس ايضا... مبلغه ربع دينار دفعه هذا المولا.... On verso reused for the Passover Haggada. Needs further examination. ASE

On recto end of a Judeao Arabic letter. On verso fragment from a Bill of Consent- ab acknowledgment of debt by the banker son of Nethan'el