Geniza Lab

Legal fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Perhaps notes for the drawing up of a document. Looks like the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involving Yosef b. Yehuda and Abū Saʿd b. Abū Yaʿqūb. Lists the names of witnesses (but not signatures): Avraham b. Elʿazar and Ṭahor b. Yeshuʿa.

Legal fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Perhaps notes for the drawing up of a document. Looks like the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Reused for Hebrew literary text (in a different hand).

Recto: Legal fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Likely the authentication of a testimony. Somebody attests that Salāma b. Avraham used to serve Sahlān the head of [the yeshiva?]. Verso: Legal fragment (or formulary or draft?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Needs examination.

Legal testimony. It has elements of a formulary (the protagonists are called only fulāna and fulān), but very specific dates are mentioned as well as the names of four witnesses. Likely a writing exercise in which a student copied a legal document but redacted the names. Supporting evidence for this theory is that all the witnesses' names are in the same hand, and the bottom line is a phrase from the beginning of a letter but with a spelling error. The substance of the legal document is that the witnesses came to the woman's house and she told them that on Thursday when everyone was in the synagogue (באת הכנאסת!) she released a certain man then present from all obligations. Witnesses: Mubārak b. Moshe ha-Aḥbār (ZL) (the unusual Arabic word meaning Kohen? or perhaps meaning Ḥaver?); Meshullam ha-Levi b. Sar Shalom (ZL); Yosef ha-Levi b. Shemuel (ZL); Moshe b. Ṣedaqa (ZL). On verso there are piyyutim. ASE

Recto: Small fragment of a legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Involving a woman's rights and a man's maintenance payments while he is absent. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. The Judaeo-Arabic portion mentions flax.

Verso: Fragment from a deed of betrothal (qiddushin). In the hand of Halfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dating: 1100–38. The marriage will take place on Shabbat Naḥamu. The man may be named Moshe (last line). He will only make her live in a neighborhood of righteous people. Another of the stipulations involves her mother.

Recto: Unidentified document in Arabic script. The ends of 8 lines are preserved. Rubbed and faded. Probably either a legal document or a letter. Needs further examination.

Fragment from a bill of release. In the hand of Halfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Drawn up under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Dating: 1127–38 CE. Abū l-Makārim Ṣedaqa ha-Kohen releases Berakhot ha-Levi from claims.

Minute fragment- opening words of a legal deed written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi

On verso an Arabic letter - needs examination. On recto -very damaged legal document, probably regarding a sale between two pertners- Avraham and Abu al-Fadl.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Drawn up under the authority of the Nagid Moshe b. Mevorakh (ca. 1112–26 CE). It is a testimony that was delivered before the two permanent judges in Fustat who were appointed by the late Nagid Mevorakh b. Seʿadya and by his son Moshe (for similar examples, see Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 275 note 13). Concerning what happened after the death of Abū l-Faḍl ʿAmram b. Raḥamim. The continuation is mostly missing. Mentions the blessed congregation of Fustat; a woman who paid a large sum out of her own money; the mother of Abū l-Faḍl who is a widow; and someone called al-Rayyis al-Jalīl.

Legal fragment in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Nearly identical formulary as the neighboring document (T-S NS 224.14 + T-S NS 224.13).

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100–38 CE). Involves Abū l-Faraj Netanel, who dies; the sister of Shela ha-Kohen; Hiba Ibn al-Shāmī; Sitt al-Nasab, Sitt al-Fakhr, Faḍāʾil, Abū l-Faraj known as Nisṭās b. Yeshuʿa the elder (see T-S 12.174 for either the same person or a family member). Regarding inheritance. Join: Oded Zinger.

Fragment from the bottom part of a legal deed written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi under the authority of Masliah Gaon/ Only part of the year is preserved 144[.] = 1130-1138.

Legal deed written and signed by Halfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Small fragment (lower left corner). Mentions: al-ʿadanī ("from Aden," either a commodity or a person); bales of lac; Abū Saʿīd; goods worth 700 dinars deposited in a warehouse by Abū Sulaymān Dāʾūd with Sālim; and Isḥāq al-Nafūsī (a well-known India trader). Two copies of this deed were written, one to stay in Fustat and one to travel "with him." Also signed by [Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver the descendant of Shem]aʿyahu Gaon. AA. ASE.

Fragment a bill of compromise written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138)

Small fragment from a legal deed, probably written by Hillel b. Eli (Date: 1055-1108)

Small fragment from a legal deed regarding a passageway belong Efraim the Elder and his wife (?). Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138)

Very damaged legal deed by the court appointed by the Nagid Moshe b. Mevurakh (1122-1126). Amram b. Aharon Hakohen appears in court, but the actual content is unclear.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (dates: 1100–38). Fragment (upper right corner). Moshe b. Shelomo makes a declaration in favor of Natan b. [...]. Concerns half of something (a house? a shop?) located in al-Sūq al-Kabir.