Geniza Lab

Legal record (#34). Divorce settlement(?). Dated: 20 Sivan, 1467 Seleucid. Turfa bt. Bū Saʿd b. Ṭībān, the wife of Bū Naṣr known as Ibn al-Dayyān, acknowledges to have received the qumāsh (her dowry/household furnishings) worth 30 dinars (presumably on account of an upcoming divorce) in the presence of her mother, and she releases her husband from this sum. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#35). Loan contract, outline. Stating that a contract shall be written regarding a loan of 6 5/6 dinars to be paid back in weekly installments of 1 dinar. If the debtor Faraḥ al-Ṣabbāgh b. Bū l-Munā is late, the creditor Abū Yaʿqūb Yaʿqov(!) b. Avraham has the right to take him to the Muslim courts. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#36). Liquidation of a trust. Revised copy of Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.15, recto. See PGPID 9395 for summary. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq. Efrayim b. Meshullam. There are two lines in Arabic script underneath this record at 90 degrees which need examination.

Legal record (#39). Engagement contract, outline. Extremely abbreviated. "The groom: Elʿazar b. Shemarya. The girl (bride): Khawātī. Early marriage payment: 3(?) dinars. Delayed marriage payment: 5 dinars." The name "Khawātī" is unusual and literally means "my sisters." A woman by the name of Sitt al-Khawāt is known from another document. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#41a). Power of attorney. Dated: Monday, 2{1} Sivan 1467 Seleucid. Avraham ha-Ḥazzan and Yaʿaqov al-Maghribī al-Tājir testify that Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān al-Kohen al-ʿAṭṭār appointed Manṣūr b. al-Dayyān as his agent in the suit that the wife of Abū l-Khayr al-Rūmī al-Ḥarīrī has brought against him(?) concerning him and her husband Abū l-Khayr. Information from Goitein's notes. NB: #41a has no connection to #41b; Goitein probably skipped over the latter and returned to it when he had already given the number #42 to the next record.

Legal record (#37). Concerning earthenware vessels. The beginning of the record is missing, and it was not completed. Makārim al-Abzārī b. Avraham attests that he has 350 earthenware vessels for wine (טמאויה פכאר) which "he bought from him" for 70 dirhams; that they are in his (Makārim's) possession; that he pays 1 dirham per month as their rent (bi-ajrihi); and that the remaining balance he owes is 45 dirhams, which he will pay when he wishes to do so. Makārim al-Abzārī appears also in record #61 (Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.24, verso). (NB: Goitein referred to this document as folio 16 (Firk. II NS 1700.16AI, with the A indicating recto and the I indicating text block) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 17, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8). ASE.

Entry in court notebook (#40). Note stating that a letter shall be written to Ibn al-Zurzūr(?) Bū l-Faraj ha-Ḥazzan informing him not to raise any objection regarding the inheritance due to the daughter of the Rav (or of Ibn al-Rav?), because the court has seen the will, and the brother of the girl has already come and paid(?) all that was due to her, so the addressee should not object/interfere. Information from Goitein's notes.

Legal record (#41b). Loan contract. Abū l-Faḍl b. Yūsuf is granted the right to repay his debt of 10 dinars to Abū Isḥāq al-ʿAṭṭār b. ʿAlī in installments of 0.5 dinar each month starting in Sivan 1467 Seleucid. NB: #41a has no connection to #41b; Goitein probably skipped over the latter and returned to it when he had already given the number #42 to the next record.

Legal record (#42). Deposition of securities (thabat al-ḥawā'ij). Dated: Monday, 28 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. These valuable items (aʿlāq), some of which are taken from the debtor's wife's trousseau, were given by Ghālib b. Ḥasan known as Ibn al-Mu'addab(?) to Bū l-Makārim to hand over to Abū l-Fakhr b. al-Shaykh al-Asʿad as a security against a loan of 34.5 dinars. Starting on 1 Rajab/1 Elul, Ghālib will pay 0.5 dinars a month. If after 15 months he has not paid ("obviously the monthly value" -Goitein), Abū l-Fakhr will sell the goods. Witnesses: Nadiv b. Seʿadya; Mevorakh b. Natan. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#43 and #44). Engagement contract, outline. Dated: Thursday, 14 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. In the hand of Meovrakh b. Natan (like the rest of the notebook). Engagement agreement between a Qaraite man (Abū Saʿīd) and a Rabbanite woman (Sitt al-Naṣr bt. Netan'el ha-Kohen). Goitein suggests that it is an agreement between a husband and wife that was composed after a quarrel (Med. Soc. 3:152–53). But Ashur judges the document to be an engagement agreement because the early marriage payment (muqaddam) is mentioned and there is a condition that the muqaddam will be considered 'a gift', alongside many other conditions common in agreements before the marriage. These conditions include: not to bring into the house anything forbidden by the Rabbanites (ṭā'ifat al-rabbānīn), that the early marriage payment is a gift, that he will not marry a second wife nor take a concubine if she disapproves, on pain of having to pay the delayed marriage payment and giving her a divorce, etc. NB: Goitein and Ashur referred to this document as folio 17 (Firk. II NS 1700.17) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 18, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8). ASE.

Legal record (#45). Alimony owed. Dated: Thursday, 24 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. Location: Cairo in the moshav/majlis of the Nagid (the other items in this notebook pertain to the court of Fustat rather than Cairo). Hiba al-Kaḥḥāl must pay 1.5 dirhams a day as maintenance for his wife and son starting on Friday, 25 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam.

Legal record (#46). Discharge of debt. The court ordered Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān al-Kohen to purchase 1/8 of a house for 50 dinars for the unmarried orphan Sitt al-Ḥasab, because this was a "binding debt" owed to her by him him and by their late father (Abū Zikrī Kohen), meaning that this sum had been formally set aside for her dowry (Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 157). The house is in Fustat, Suwayqat al-Wazīr, Darb al-Nabbādhīn (Winesellers' Street). Bū Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm acted as agent for this purchase. In case Sitt al-Ḥasab dies unmarried, this property will return (ʿā'id) to her mother, after Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān takes whatever value has appreciated (al-perot) from the time of purchase to her death. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#47 and 48). Liquidation of a dowry. This record belongs with #49 on the facing page. The family is Qaraite. The father is selling off items from the dowry of his wife, Sitt al-Dār ("he said that he sold all these things with her consent"). The records #47 and #48 enumerate the items that have gone to their daughter Sitt al-Karam from her mother's dowry. The first entry has many items crossed out. Underneath, there appears the word "Qaraites" and a clean copy of the same record as above, with no cross-outs or corrections. Witnesses: Elʿazar b. Shemarya; Yosef b. Ḥalfon. These men may be Qaraites; they do not appears as witnesses elsewhere in the extant pages of the notebook. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#1). Partnership dispute. Involving the partners Abū l-Ḥasan Nānū al-Tājir and Yaʿqūb b. Ibrāhīm. Abū l-Ḥasan presented a document stating that Yaʿqūb owes him 28 dinars and 14 qirats. There follows a complex series of declarations involving who owes what to whom. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam; Hillel b. Ẓadoq Av Bet Din. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#2). Concerning a house. Dated: Wednesday, 3 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. People: Ḥassūn b. Hiba; his brother; Bū l-ʿAlā; the widow of Bū ʿAlī al-Ne'eman. Concerning: A house; a penalty of 50 dinars that Ḥassūn and his brother will have to be paid to 'the poor' of Fustat if the house is transferred to gentile ownership(?) during the lifetime of the widow. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#2.5). Stub. Dated: Monday, 8 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. Apart from the date, gives only a name: Abū l-Faraj b. Barakāt b. Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Dayyān.

Legal record (#3). Loan contract. Crossed out with four vertical lines. Dated: Monday, 8 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. Sayyid al-Kull al-Zayyāt Ibn al-Makḥūl (joine later by Abū ʿAlī b. Abū Saʿd) testifies that Sibāʿ al-Ḥalabī ("who was a zayyāt'") owes 15 dinars to Abū l-Faraj b. Barakāt Ibn al-Dayyān. The loan is to be repaid within two months. Security: Half of a house in Fustat located on Darb al-Kharrāṭīn. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam. Record #11 in the notebook (Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.7, recto) is a corrected version of this contract. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#50). Deathbed will. Dated: Wednesday, end of Sivan 1467 Seleucid. Deathbed will of Abū ʿImrān al-Ṣā'igh b. Yūsuf. He leaves the little that he owns to his wife Tujjār (=Sitt al-Tujjār) bt. Zākī as a payment toward her ketubba (delayed marriage payment). He releases her from all oaths. Witnesses: Mevorakh b. Natan; Natan b. ʿUlla(?); Yosef ha-Kohen b. Shemuel ha-Kohen. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#49). Liquidation of a dowry. This record belongs with #47 and #48 on the facing page. The family is Qaraite. The father is selling off items from the dowry of his wife, Sitt al-Dār ("he said that he sold all these things with her consent"). Witnesses: Elʿazar b. Shemarya; Yosef b. Ḥalfon. These men may be Qaraites; they do not appears as witnesses elsewhere in the extant pages of the notebook. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#51). Disposition of inheritance. Dated: Monday, 13 Tammuz 1467 Seleucid. Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq al-Skandarānī appeared before the court bearing a power of attorney from a woman named Munā bt. Shemarya from Alexandria regarding collecting the qumāsh that her late mother had bequeathed her and that had passed into the possession of her late father. The court inquired about the matter, and it seems that the qumāsh was given to her (i.e., to her agent) before the court by Bū Saʿd al-ʿAṭṭār b. Abū l-ʿAlā Ibn al-Zayyātī. The next record clarifies that Bū Saʿd was the trustee of the court with whom the father deposited the items of the qumāsh in the name of his daughter. There is an Arabic-script ḥamdala underneath. The next record (Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.21r–21v) deals with the same case.