Geniza Lab

Ketubba, beautifully illuminated, from Cairo, dated 16 April 1821 (14 Nisan 5581) for Ḥayy Dayyān b. David Dayyān and Mazal Ṭov bt. Yehuda Dayyān. The couple are likely paternal cousins. The document is cut in the shape of a dome, with a heading depicting birds, trees, and a building structure overseen by a sun and an eye. The bride and groom sit in one room, holding hands. The border of the document is decorated with the twelve signs of the zodiac. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Deed of sale or rent? Includes the phrase "whatever he wants whenever he wants" (mahmā shāʾa minhu matā shāʾa). One of the parties is Abū l-Faraj b. Ḥayyūn al-Yahūdī al-Tājir.

Lease of an apartment of the Qodesh ca. 1180. Abu'l-Bayan, one of the prominent parnasim of this period, leases an apartment, which is in a tabaqa, i.e. an upper floor, to a certain Abu'l-Fadl. The apartment is in Dar al-Zajjaj, one of the compounds owned by the qodesh. The lessee is himself a parnas. The tabaqa is described as the apartment, sukn, of Makarim Ibn Sahlan. In fact, this must be understood as Makarim and Ibn Sahlan, since they are listed separately in accounts of rent, where they pay five dirhams a month each, the same sum of rent that Abu'l-Fadl, the new tenant, will have to pay. Abu'l-Bayan, the representative of the qodesh, cannot be one of the parties in the concluding formula which says "from each of the two," since he represents the court. The most plausible explanation is that the two tenants rented the tabaqa of the qodesh inhabited by them, to a third party, with the knowlesge and active participation of the qodesh. This would represent a subletting of an apartment of the qodesh. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 313 #73)

Legal document. Fragment of beautifully written old ketubba. No name, no date, no conditions preserved. No or next to no jewelry reported. Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal deed dated Av (July/August) 1233 CE in the handwriting of the judge Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim. Fragment: beginning only. Information from Goitein's note card.

Seven autograph responsa in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. The last one is even signed: אברהם ברבי משה זצל. Awaits further examination. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Court record, fragmentary, dated 1227; see Gotein Nachlass material

Bill of sale dated December 481/1088 (original document), in which Khulayf b. 'Ubayd b. 'Ali sells a house to Harun b. Khulayf b. Harun, the perfumer, a Jew. There are two addenda on verso written a century after the original. Above, Abu Sahl b. Ibrahim makes a gift of the house to his son Abu l-Ḥasan the physician; below, Musa b. Abu Sahl rents part of it from his brother Abu l-Ḥasan. (Goitein, Med Soc, III:479.) ASE.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Involves Barakāt al-Kohen, Mūsā known as al-Raṣṣāṣ, a widow, Abū l-ʿAlā', the Nagid, someone who insists that he is no relation of Barakāt al-Kohen, an inheritance, a tawqīʿ, and payments to 'the orphans.' The fragment is quite damaged and the story is difficult to piece together.

Legal: partnership agreement. Dated: Thursday, 10 Kislev 5319 AM (חושה), which is 1558/59 CE.The partners Yehuda Castro and Namir Viryuti (? וריוטי) enter into a partnership for selling (ostrich) feathers (נוצה) in Venice. Namir has obtained 140 raṭls of feathers, and Yehuda has shipped them to Venice for the price of 116 gold Venetian ducats and 24.5 medins, apart from the costs of shipping and customs. Yehuda is to receive 3/4 of the profits and Namir 1/4. Information from Avraham David's edition on FGP.

Legal document. Partnership. Dated: 1215-1216 CE. This fragment emerged from the court of Avraham Maimonides. The partners ʿImrān Moshe al-Iskandarī b. Bū Manṣūr ha-Zaqen and Abū al-Ma‘ālī b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi ha-Zaqen contract a partnership. The division of profits and losses is not retained in the preserved portion of the document, but allusions to it in line 15 indicate it was outlined clearly. Line 12 suggests it was an "‘isqa under the rules of a commenda", in which case the active partner would have received 1/3 of the profits and not have been responsible for losses. The active partner, apparently Moshe, was to journey as far as Aden; that the partners were to be separated by distance suggested by the fact that Moshe takes upon himself "the avoidance of betrayal". (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 275-276)

Legal document written and signed by Natan ha-Kohen, in which Abu al-Faraj the physician permits his debtor Abu al-Ḥasan b. Mu'ammar b. al-Batt to pay him a debt of 22 dinars and 70 dirhams in rates of one/fourth dinar each month, beginning with Tevet 1441/ December 1129. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 252, and from Goitein's index cards)

Legal fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Shevat 1341 Seleucid, which is 1030 CE. Written by Bishr b. Yefet ha-Ḥazzan b. David ha-Ḥazzan. Validated by Shemuel ha-Kohen b. Avṭalyon. The purpose of the document is to attest that Manṣūr b. Yosef gave to Barhūn b. Thābit al-Ṣā'igh the power-of-attorney to make out a bill of divorce for his wife Surūra. This was attested in "al-Ṣaʿīd al-Fawqānī" by Ghālib b. Faraj and Abū Saʿīd Maymūn b. Dandūsa. Information from Goitein's note card.

Court record. This is a copy of the marriage contract (ketubba) between Shemuel Kahna b. Nissim and Fā'iza bt. Yūsuf, originally dated Tuesday, 2 Heshvan 1357 Seleucid, which is 15 October 1045 CE. The copy of the marriage contract is introduced with a statement that Fā'iza came to the court and asked them to copy the marriage contract into the court ledger ('shimmush') so that it would serve as a proof, because she intends to send an agent to claim a bill of divorce and her mu'akhkhar (delayed marriage payment). Information from Goitein's note card.

Court record in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: Mentions the date Av 1425 Seleucid, which is 1114 CE. This is a post-divorce settlement. The former husband, Seʿadya b. Avraham, and the former wife, Jawhara bt. Seʿadya known as Abū l-Yumn b. al-Baṣal, release each other from all claims. She initiated the divorce by agreeing to forego the delayed payment from her marriage contract (this is known as "ransom" or iftidā'), and the court obligated him to give her the bill of divorce. The ex-husband does commit to maintaining their infant daughter by giving Jawhara 10 dirhams each month and 8 pieces of clothing each year. Information from Friedman's edition and from Goitein's index card.

Legal document. Dated: Thursday, 17 Nisan 1483 Seleucid (1172 CE). Inventory of the estate of the physician Abū l-Riḍā al-Levi, which was designated for the benefit of the orphan daughter of ʿImrān by order of "the great Rav Moshe," that is, Maimonides, who had recently been appointed head of the Jews. Also mentions the dead man's female slave named Musk. Join by S. D. Goitein. Join awaiting transcription. Goitein's notes say that Westminster Frag. Cairens. 25+ is another copy of this document, but the shelfmark must have changed (this should correspond to L-G Misc. 25, and nothing in the L-G Misc. folder appears to be related to this document).

Legal fragment (right half). Deed of sale of a house, probably from Qayrawān. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal fragment. End of a marriage contract, signed by Efrayim b. Sadoq, Shelomo b. Mevorakh and Yosef b. Nissin.

Fragment of a court testimony in which Bishr b. Ibrahim sues Zayn concerning items in the estate of his deceased paternal uncle, Sadaqa b. Khalaf. Dated Tevet 1453/ December 1141. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Ketubba fragment. Calligraphic.