Geniza Lab

Legal testimony. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1070 CE. Regarding the collection of a debt owed by Hillel b. Menashshe to the judge Avraham b. Natan. After a number of court sessions an agreement was reached, but Avraham was unable to collect the balance of the debt due to travel. He sent his uncle Ṣedaqa b. Mevorakh to collect the remainder of the debt, part of which has already been collected. The parties may have disagreed about the remaining amount of the debt because some of it was equity in one or more joint enterprise (kull mu‘āmala), initiated by Natan (Avraham’s father). It fell to Hillel to repay this debt, and a penalty clause is included should he fail to repay, indicating that Ṣedaqa didn't actually collect the total, but a portion plus an assurance of the remainder. Once Ṣedaqa collected payment from Hillel, the latter was cleared of further obligations. The missing portion of the document likely specified the amount of this payment, as well as containing the closing formulae and the witnesses’ signatures. The cause of the dispute may have been a disagreement over valuation of partnership assets, or over the terms of the partnership itself. Lieberman notes that if Avraham’s business relationships with Hillel had spanned a number of partnerships, then the disagreement could have been about the division of partnership profits (rather than the value of these profits). Abraham held a debt document (kitāb dayn), suggesting that the terms of an initial loan to Hillel and perhaps the terms of the mu‘āmala itself were laid out, in which case the dispute could be over the valuation of partnership assets. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 1-2)

Marriage contract between the groom, Yaʿaqov b. Natan, and the bride, Darra bat Nisan. Dated Nisan 1376/1065.

Legal document. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Very long and quite damaged. Involves a certain Shela, Ḥalfon, and a deceased wife. One of the witnesses is named ʿEli ha-Kohen. Needs further examination.

Ketubba. Entirely in Hebrew and Aramaic (Qaraite?). Groom: Aharon b. Sameaḥ. Bride: Rayyisa bt. Yehuda b. Yiṣḥaq. Groom's agent: Yeshaʿya ha-Zaqen ha-Ḥaver b. Namir. Sums of 100 and 200 dinars (דרכמונים) are named in connection to the portions of the dower. The beginning of the dowry list is preserved, in smaller letters. Needs further examination.

Marriage contract (ketubba). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Tuesday, 5 Adar II 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. Groom: Elʿazar b. Shemarya. Bride: Ḥasana bt. Seʿadya ha-Levi the cantor, a divorcee or widow. There is a special clause stipulating that Elʿazar will not remarry his divorcee. Should he violate this condition, he will have to give her a bill of divorce and pay her delayed marriage settlement. ("Note that under the conditions of the contract there was no bar to Elʿazar taking a second wife other than his divorcee. Shortly after this ketubba had been issued a standard monogamy clause whereby the husband undertook not to marry a second wife or to keep a slave girl of whom his wife disapproved was routinely written in Fustat ketubbot.") This marriage contract was torn into 5 pieces apparently upon the divorce of Elʿazar and Ḥasana, of which M. A. Friedman located 3 pieces, and Yiftach Eitan and Oded Zinger located the upper right corner. (Information in part from Friedman, "A Case of Polygyny with David, Abigail, and Ḥasana," Dine Israel X–XI (1981–83). Also discussed in Friedman, "Polygyny in Jewish Tradition and Practice," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 49 (1982), 33–68.) Moshe Yagur has discovered that Elʿāzar and Ḥasana subsequently remarried; Bodl. MS heb. b 12/18 is the upper right corner of their new ketubba.

Marriage contract from Tyre, dated Tuesday, 19 Av, fifth year the sabbatical cycle (ca. 1054). The town of 'Ibillin is mentioned, and the document notes the bride is a divorcee. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 280) EMS

Recto: Ketubba fragment. Dating: Prior to 1144 CE. Groom: Tamīm ha-Kohen b. Yefet ha-Zaqen. Witnesses: Ẓemaḥ ha-Kohen b. Shemuel ha-Kohen; Elqana b. Shelomo. Verso: Legal document. The settlement of a protracted marital dispute between the same Tamīm b. Yefet and his wife Sitt al-Khawāt. Needs further examination for the details of the resolution. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dated: Adar 1455 Seleucid, which is 1144 CE, under the reshut of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Witnesses: Berakhot ha-Kohen b. Aharon ha-Galīlī, Munajjā ha-Parnas b. Shelomo, and Natan b. Shemarya ha-Kohen.

Marriage contract for the same couple as in Antonin 637r. Begins with a clause concerning the appointment of the bride's agent, concludes with the last line of the formulary of the contract, including the blessings. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 288, 295) EMS

One of two separate texts of a ketubba (marriage contract) written for the same Karaite - Rabbanite 'mixed marriage' and preserved on a single fragment, one text on either side, ca. 1011-1037.

Ketubba fragment. Groom: Yaʿaqov. Bride: Nisāba bt. Hiba, virgin. There are numerous witnesses: Ya'ir b. Elazar, [...] ha-Levi b. Avraham, Yosef b. Saadya, Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver b. ʿEli ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver, Yequtiel b. Moshe, ʿUlla ha-Kohen b. Hillel, among others.

Ketubba fragment.

Legal fragment. In Hebrew. Dated: 15 Tishrei [...]5 Seleucid (this does not really narrow it down unless the join is found). Involves Faraj b. Fadlān (sic: פרג בן פדלאן) and gold coins.

Ketubba fragment. In Hebrew and Aramaic. Dated [..]24 Seleucid. Bride: [...] bt. S[...], virgin. It is a very small strip.

Ketubba fragment. Dating: 1141–59 CE, based on the reshut clause naming Shemuel ha-Nagid. Groom: Natan. Bride: Sitt al-Turaf bt. Yeshuʿa, virgin. witnesses: Yosef b. Yehuda, Shemarya b. A[...], Ḥiyya.

Ketubba fragment. Dating: 14[..] Seleucid, which is 1089–1188 CE. Possibly this could be narrowed based on the reshut clause naming ha-Nagid ha-Gadol (Shemuel b. Ḥananya?). The groom is named Seʿadya. There are some jottings in Hebrew script on verso.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Nisan 4977 AM, which is 1217 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. It is a bill of sale for a female slave named Muhja. Yefet b. Meir sells her to Yeshuʿa b. Yehuda for 27 dinars. Information in part from Craig Perry.

Ketubba. Date: Sivan 1420 Seleucid, which is 1109 CE. Groom: Ḥalfon b. Tamīm ha-Zaqen. Bride: Sitt al-[...]. The non-formulaic portion is in Judaeo-Arabic. Witnesses include: Menashshe ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen, Yosef b. Saadya, Shemarya b. Aharon, Elazar ha-Levi b. Avraham, ʿAmram b. Ya'ir(?) the judge, Avraham b. Shemaʿya ha-Ḥaver, Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi.

Ketubba fragment. The location, date, and names do not appear to be preserved on this portion. The bride is a virgin. The non-formulaic portion is in Judaeo-Arabic. Probably in the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya: start with T-S 12.141 and look at Joins Suggestions for more in his hand.

Documentary per FGP - communal enactment concerning the division of property. Not digitized?

Court notebook from the year 1467 Seleucid = 1156 CE. 29 folios, ~66 documents. Also contains non-legal items. See individual PGPIDS for individual documents. "The largest preserved fragment of a record book is contained in the Firkovitch collection in Leningrad. It consists of twenty-eight consecutive folios comprising sixty-six items, all but one (the last) written by the judge Mevorakh b. Nathan during the months of April through August, 1156. The official character of such a record book emerges from the fact that the signatures are originals throughout, and not copies. On the other hand we find in this particular specimen also a medical prescription, indicating that the border line between public and private papers was not too sharply drawn at that time" (Goitein, Med Soc II, p. 343).