Geniza Lab

Two damaged fragment of a legal deed, probably regarding a debt? The amount of 50 dirhams a month are mentioned. Name: Abu al-Fadail.

Beginning of the ketubah of Avraham b. Yosef and Husn. Some of the dowry list is preserved. AA

Document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment (left side). Concerning business in pepper in Yemen. Involves Seʿadya ha-Kohen, Abū l-Khayr, Yeshuʿa ha-Levi b. [...] Rosh ha-Qahal, and Abū l-Mufaḍḍal. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Formula of a get (bill of divorce)

A fragment from a ketubah containing part of the dowry list

Long and narrow strip from the ketubah of Sitt al-Sada, written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138). AA

Damaged and torn fragment of a legal deed. Barhun, one of the parties, approve in court that he holds or give merchandise including bale of pepper, and amount of sugar . Names mentioned: Ishaq and Mawhub. Probably written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. AA

Very faded bill of release from Abu Ishaq b. Abu al-karam b. al-Dayyan. Not signed so might be a draft. On verso some Arabic words- needs examination.

Torn fragment of a legal deed.

Recto: Beginning of a legal deed written by Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver (dated documents: 1128–54). Location: Fustat. Dated: 145[.] Seleucid, corresponding to the range 1138–48 CE. Part of the reshut formula is preserved, probably tor Shemuel b. Ḥananya (r. 1140–59). The case involves ʿEli b. [...] Rosh ha-Qahal. Verso: Document in Arabic script. Might be a summary of the case on recto or related in some other way. Mentions Abū l-Ḥasan. Needs exxamination. AA

Torn fragment of a court record written by Halfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (1100–38 CE). There is a detailed narrative of a quarrel over a house. There is text on both sides, and some lines are crossed out. One side: Refers to a woman; her son Abū l-Ḥasan; and someone upset that she wants to sell the house. They went to the Jewish court, then there was some sort of gathering outside of the court, but apparently not yet in the Muslim courts. The dispute involves 30-some dinars. The other side: Refers to a knife (? sikkīn), a declaration made by Abū l-Surūr, probably the same sum of 30-some dinars, and a threat to resort to Muslim courts. Someone then says, "My mother then said...." There is a reference to handing over a document as a pledge (rahn). The story will remain very confusing until some joins are found. AA. ASE.

Fragment from the end of legal document involving a man and his son Moshe. Signed by Eli b. Yosef. AA

Probably a page from a community or a court ledger: information about a group entering the synagogue, a list of items, probably given or delivered there by this group, and also a list of items given by the cantor R. Zadoq. AA

Fragment of a bill of release. Granted by David b. Menashshe to a woman and her husband. May be related to a gift which he gives them. AA. ASE.

Fragment of a late court record regarding partnership between 3 partnets: Avraham Almoshnino, Netanel Rozo and Yosef Barukh. AA

Very damaged and torn fragment of a legal deed.

Legal deed involving R. Yiṣḥaq Luria Ashkenazi and Rafa'el Kalonymos. Location: Egypt. Dated: Tevet 5319 AM, which is 1559 CE. The deed details the terms under which a certain Refaʾel Kalonymos will settle a loan with Yiṣḥaq Luria Ashkenazi by working in the latter's "bazares/באזאריש" in Alexandria (l.5). As Avraham David notes in his description, "bazares/באזאריש" is most likely a reference to market shops. The witness Yosef b. Meʾir Somekh ha-Kohen is also likely the scribe, given that he penned at least four other legal documents across the sixteenth century (T-S 13J5.6, Moss. VII.20.1, T-S AS 145.222,T-S 13J4.23.) The scribal production of Yosef b. Meʾir Somekh ha-Kohen is also widely attested in responsa: Rabbi Meʿīr Gāviṣōn, responsum 9; Rabbi Beṣalel Ashkenazi, reponsum 33; Rabbi Yaʿacov Castro, responsum 18; Rabbi Ḥayīm Kapūsī, responsum 33, cited in Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky, "The Community and its Institutions / הקהילה ומוסדותיה", in The Jews of Ottoman Egypt 1517-1914, ed., Jacob Landau (Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim, 1988), 177. (Information in part from Avraham David's edition on FGP.) MCD.

Legal document in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Small fragment (upper left corner). Location: New Cairo. Dating: No later than 1195 CE, as it was written under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. The document concerns Yūsuf al-Ḍarīr ("the blind"). On the scribe, see A. Elbaum, "Assembling a Life: Several Dozen New Fragments on Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi" (FOTM April 2020). Several documents indicate that although Moshe lived in Qalyūb, he regularly came into Cairo for work (e.g., as a scribe) and to Fustat to see his wife and father and brother. AA. ASE.

Minute fragment from the bottom of a legal deed from Fustat

Small fragment from a bill of release regarding a shipment of tamarind to (or from) Mahalla an-Kubra by Abu al-Hasan, written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138). AA