Geniza Lab

legal document (bill of release of a claim). Written and signed by Eliyya b. David Ḥavriya. Dated: 1559/60 CE. Verso is blank.

Very torn and faded, from the date only 970 is preserved, which is probably 4970 to the creation.

Minute fragment from a top of a legal deed, probably ketubah

Draft of the bottom part of a legal deed

Minute fragment from a ketubah written by Emanuel b. Yehiel (Date: ca. 1231-1265)

Legal deed in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Minute fragment. Dating: 1100–38. Someone will not sue someone. There is a remaining debt of 2 dinars. Essentially nothing else is preserved.

Legal notes for drawing up a bill of sale of a female slave. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dating: 1100–38 CE. Abū Naṣr [...] b. Ṣadaqa ha-Kohen and [...]t b. Yeshuʿa are the seller and buyer, but it is not clear which is which. The slave is named Ikhtiṣār, she is black, and she has reached maturity.

Legal document concerning a deceased person (perhaps related to a dispute over the inheritance) and making reference to an orphan, a widow, and a mother. The document also mentions an agent ('wakil', recto line 9), a cantor ('hazzan', recto line 11), the Iraqi synagogue (recto line 12), the Nagid (recto line 18), and a Gaon (verso line 2). (No other information or index cards)

Legal notes in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The main document on recto mentions a roofed market (saqīfa) and numerous other landmarks. There are additional notes probably for other documents on verso, one of which is dated 524 AH (1129/30 CE).

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Containing references to a sum of 10 dinars, a qāḍī (judge), the feast of Purim, and the year 1142 Seleucid (1130/31 CE). Likely an indirect join with T-S NS 173.78.

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe? Deed of gift, or possibly a power of attorney appointing Abu l-Faḍl to collect the money and/or goods mentioned. Mentions 17 dinars which is the balance of the value of the rubʿ (house or compound), a box (ṣundūq), implements for silk weaving, and six combs (Amshāṭī, 'comb-maker', was a common Jewish family name of well-to-do people). (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, IV, 225; also Goitein index cards.)

Bill of sale for the purchase of a house by Maḥrūz. Constructed from three fragments: T-S NS 184 52, T-S NS 184 55 and T-S NS 184 56. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1131–32 CE.

Will in which a woman is donating a house for religious and charitable purposes while she stayed in an apartment she had acquired. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (ca. 1100-1138). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 327)

Legal proceedings whereby two friends of Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq testify to the court of how Avraham betrothed his cousin, Sitt al-Ahl b. Yosef Lebdi. Apparently When Yosef Lebdi was alive, Avraham and his mother lived in the Lebdi residence. When both Lebdi and Avraham's mother died, Avraham sought to marry Lebdi;s daughter so that he would still be tied to the great merchant's house. He came to Sitt al-Ahl's house, with two male friends and a certain prominent member of the community to try to secure the match. Lebdi's widow, Sitt al-Ahl's mother, tried to stall and wait until Sitt al-Ahl's older brother, now the man of the house, came back from his journey. Avraham, however, did not want to leave empty handed and pressured the widow to agree. Sitt al-Ahl was summoned and she agreed to the match. Avraham betrothed Sitt al-Ahl with two rings, one of gold and one of silver, and gave her five dinars. All this was done in the presence of her mother and her younger brother. The betrothal was carried out in November 1118 and the court record is from January 1120. Friedman rightly notes that the record was made after it became clear that Sitt al-Ahl was not intending to marry Avraham and, indeed, the court ruled that she is legally Avraham's wife and required a formal bill of divorce. The story can also be read as how a young relative could pressure and almost bully his female cousin to agree to a marriage by coming into her house with two young male friends, while only her widowed mother and young brother were in the house.

Fragment of a release, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (ca. 1100-1138). (No other information or index card)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Fragment (lower left corner). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar 143[.] Seleucid, which is 1119–29 CE. Apparently concerning a sale. The buyer is Abū l-Khayr Ṣedaqa. Also mentions Abū l-Ḥasan the brother of the deceased.

Fragment from a deed of gift of a house probably given to a daughter names Husn as a marriage gift. Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date 1100-1138). AA

Fragment regarding a loan. The name of Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi is mentioned. Written on a Wednesday and in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (ca. 1100-1138). (No other information or index card)

Fragment from a legal deed written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138)

Verso: Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involving a betrothal (erusin); the appointing of a representative, Ḥalfon ha-Levi; the mother of the bride, ʿAshīra bt. Avraham; the mother giving 6 out of her 12 shares in a house in al-Mamṣūṣa to her daughter; the condition that the groom not host weddings "or do anything from the ornaments (? zakhrafāt) of the Egyptians/Cairenes." Goitein's index card says that the date is Sivan 1121 CE, but the date does not appear to be preserved. On recto there are a few words from an Arabic state document.