Geniza Lab

Legal document. Large release in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated 1130 CE. Khalaf/Ḥalfon b. Yosef Ibn Qashqūsh declares to have no claims whatsoever against Abū l-Baqāʾ Elʿazar b. Evyatar al-Ahwāzī after the settlement of the inheritance of his wife. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Legal document. Dissolution of partnership between Saʿīd b. Seʿadya and Shemuel b. Avraham. Verso: Literary text in Hebrew. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. Dating: January 1112 CE. Large and well written fragment of a document in which Daniel b. Yiṣḥaq accepts 12 out of 20 dinars due to him from one Musallam b. Efrayim. The sum was paid by the latter's brother Yosef. Dealings in the villages Būra and Ibwān, near Damietta (called Kaphtor), are mentioned. Eight signatures. Information from Goitein's index card.

Legal document: testimony on the date of a bill of divorce written by Yaʿaqov b. Avraham, Yosef Lebdi's travel companion. The document is dated to April 5, 1095.

Fragment of an agreement for a planned engagement from the city of Cairo in the year 1191. The fragment is faded and very difficult to decipher. The suggested reading is uncertain. From what can be salvaged, it appears that the son acts as his father's representative for the marriage. The father might have been going through the divorce procedures while the son was handling the arrangements of the wedding with the new wife. If this is the case, it is a unique situation which does not appear elsewhere.

Court record in the record book of Fustat dealing with the remains of an inheritance in Qayrawan. Dated Adar 1345/March 1034.

Legal document. Draft. Dated: 18 Av 15[..] Seleucid. More of the date might be deduced from the titles of the Nagid. The document involves Abū l-Munajjā b. Seʿadya and Hiba b. Shelomo.

List of books that [...] al-Dawla Abū l-Barakāt inherited from the late Abū l-[...]. The first two items are difficult to read (except for maqāla in both and al-malikī in item 2). The remaining items are two volumes of Kitāb al-Filāḥa, a volume of al-Mutanabbī, a volume of Adab al-Kātib, a volume of ashʿār wa-tuḥaf (sounds like a literary anthology), a volume containing a grammar treatise, and two volumes of Kitāb al-Aghānī. 10 books altogether. Dated: Tuesday, 1[8?] Av. The first two items are called نسخة and the remainder جزء. ASE

Legal deed. Dated 1145 CE. Involves Abū l-Makārim b. Abū l-Faraj al-Parnas, [...] b. Yeshuʿa, and Abū Saʿd Seʿadya b. Menashshe al-Kohen. Needs examination.

Fragment of a will, written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, in which the donor, an old man being in good health, specifies the legacies made by him, especially in favor of his wife, emphasizing that they were irrevocable. Also he gives a bible codex, bible commentaries, and other books to synagogue in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 133)

Legal document. Possibly written in Damsīs. Little remains except for the date: Tevet 1424 Seleucid, which is 1112/13 CE. One of the witnesses is Aharon ha-Kohen b. Avram.

Statement signed in 1225 CE by Judge Eliyyahu about a sale in the bazaar of a woman's clothes-- see Goitein Nachlass material

Legal deed. Release given to Ṣedaqa ha-Levi by his divorcee. Written and signed by Natan b. Shemuel, Elul 1145 CE. Cosigned David ha-Palit b. Asaf and Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq. Same three signatories as in CUL Or.1080 J49. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Deed of sale for 1/12 of a house located in the ṣuqʿ Maḥras ʿAmmār. The seller is Shemuel b. Yehoshuaʿ he-Ḥaver. The original document had been lost. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Draft of the beginning of a legal query addressed to the judge Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim). Dating: ca. 1220 CE. The question is whether a woman who was suspected, but not convicted, of intimate relations with a man was allowed to marry him, in particular as he was prepared to give an oath that no such relations had occurred. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Beginning of the draft of a legal query to the judge Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim) concerning the trousseau of a woman in levirate status, most of which had been lost. It was local custom to return to such a woman the trousseau in full. Dating: Early 13th century. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal documents, drafts, in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya concerning a legal dispute between Yiṣḥaq (Surūr) b. Yaʿaqov b. Aharon, known as al-Jāsūs (אלגאסוס), and his ex-wife Surūra b. Shelomo the physician b. Rabīʿ who moved with their three children from Qayrawān to Fusṭāṭ. When her husband left, the wife claimed her dowry. As he has no money he suggests giving her his share (the roof) of a house in Qayrawān, which he had inherited along with his brother and sister from his father, instead. It is worth 295 dirhams, which is 5 dirhams less than her dowry. In a second document he hands over the roof and she states that he is no longer obligated to her. Dated 1351 Seleucid (= 1040 CE). T-S 13J8.2, part of CUL Or.1080 J7, and T-S NS J149 all include versions of the same document, or at least concerning the same case. Verso: continuation of the drafted documents and a preliminary draft of a petition to al-Mustanṣir (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: ca. 1090 CE. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. One ‘Ulla and one Yaḥyā release one another from a partnership. These individuals are likely Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā b. Samuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī and Abū al-‘Alā ‘Ulla b. Joseph ha-Levi al-Dimashqī, who repeatedly release one another and rekindle their partnership in a number of documents in the Geniza corpus. The majority of the present document concerns the establishment of a 2-year long-distance trading partnership. This release from that partnership includes the text of the contract. One of the partners invested 120 dinars, and the other one 150. Both partners would trade actively. Profits and losses are to be split evenly. The active partner is liable for losses at sea, a departure from the commenda model (see also the verso of T-S K25.153, PGPID 9291, for an example). On the verso there are jottings and accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals ("expenses on Sunday: syrup(?)... sugar... a cup of [...]... chicken: 3...."). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 273-274; and from Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document. Written and signed by Mevorakh b. Natan. Location: Fustat. Dated: Middle decade of Iyyar 1484 Seleucid, which is 1173 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom b. Moshe ha-Levi. (This is the earliest known document from Sar Shalom's second term in office, after Maimonides held the title ca. 1171–72.) Abū l-Maʿrūf Ṣedaqa b. Shemarya has taken in the orphaned boy Hiba of his late brother Abū Saʿd al-Miṣrī, and he asks the court to grant money for him to support the boy. The court agrees to provide 10 dirhams a month out of the estate deposited in the name of the orphan. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 299, 493.)

Marriage contract (ketubba) with an ornate border. Location: Fustat. Dated: Friday, 14 Nisan 5532 AM, which is 1772 CE. Groom: Yehuda b. Moshe Masʿūd. Bride: Sitt al-Bayt Vieto(?). Total payments: 300 Abū Ṭāqa reals. (Information from Goitein's index card)