Geniza Lab

Recto: Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: Elul 1308 Seleucid, which is 997 CE. “A bride's mother wrote in an interesting detailed Hebrew deed issued at Fustat in 996, for the transfer of one half a house in Ramla, Egypt, to her daughter, that ‘this half a house is what I wrote for her in her ketubba’“ (Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine 1:302n53). Names mentioned: Ḥisān bt. Yosef Ibn al-Zāmir ("the flute player"); Sirwa bt. ʿImrān. On verso (see separate record) there is a letter in Judeo-Arabic from Qayrawān to Yosef Ibn ʿAwkal, published by Gil, Kingdom of Ishmael, 2:581–586. Note that this document is misdated in the Danzig Catalog (evidently the year was read as ושמונים instead of ושמנה). AA

Deed of restitution written in Jerusalem regarding alimony, in the hand of Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen Gaon, May or June 1071.

Legal document long and faded, from 1078. Ghālib b. Avraham comes to court with a deed of appoint by Yehuda b. Meshullam b. Zecharia the scribe b. Anan and Ghalia bt. Zecharia the scribe b. Anan. He might being litigating against Avraham ha-Melammed ha-Levi b. Joseph b. Annan in a monetary affair. Many other names are mentioned. On verso is a Hebrew prayer.

Contract of debt. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dated: The case came before the court in the last decade of Kislev 1438 Seleucid, which is December 1126 CE, but the deed was written and signed in the first decade of Ṭevet (so anywhere from 1 day to 20 days later). Berakhot b. Seʿadya acknowledges that he owes 32 dinars to Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Sasson, a perfumer (al-ʿAṭṭār) from al-Maḥalla (al-Maḥallī). He promises to pay by Passover. The fragment is torn above the part where the witness signatures would have been. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Verso: Legal document (bill of sale?) involving a Nubian female slave and the daughter of R. Yosef and someone's wife. Very faded. Dated: 1 Elul 1538 Seleucid (i.e., about a week after the main document on recto). No signatures.

Recto: Legal document. Last will of Abū al-Barakāt b. Abū al-Riḍā Yosef Lebdi. This deathbed declaration was made in the presence of his sons and of the partner in his sugar factory. This document is largely damaged, but several interesting points emerge. For instance, when his eldest son reminds him that according to Jewish law the firstborn was entitled to a double share (Deuteronomy 21: 17), the dying man replies: "I do not prefer one child over another." Also, he and his business partner mutually declare that they trust each other completely; Abū al-Barakāt’s account books would speak for him after his death. At the end, a large bag with ʿūd (aromatic wood) was brought in, a purse with gold was put into it; the bag was laid into a Rumī (European) chest, which was locked, and the key was put into the hand of the dying man. Location: Fustat. Dated: 25 Av 1538 Seleucid, which is August 9, 1227 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Two fragmentary legal records or drafts, perhaps from a court notebook. The lower one refers to Abū l-Maḥāsin [...] b. Abū l-Riḍā [...] and the purchase of a shop with all its equipment and scales for a sum of 46[.]. Verso: Draft of a the beginning of a legal document. In a different hand. Dated: 1540 Seleucid = 1228/29 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. One of the parties is Shelomo ha-Kohen.

Recto: Legal deed. Location: Qalyūb. Dated: Tuesday, 7 Adar 1505 Seleucid, which is 1194 CE, under the authority of the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Moshe later cut it very neatly down the middle, yielding ENA 2558.18 and T-S 13J7.12, and wrote a family letter on the verso of each half. The deed concerns the dissolution of a partnership in a house and in a store between Khalaf and Abū l-Faḍl, the sons of Hilāl. It seems that Khalaf retained the store, while Abū l-Faḍl bought out Khalaf's half of the house for 16.5 dinars. (See also Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS (1968), 13; Jacob Mann, Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs, 2:294. An earlier description said the document was dated 1481 Seleucid, but this must refer to a different document, because the date was previously missing.)

Deed of lease. Dating: The year-long lease begins on [Ṭevet] 1525 Seleucid = [Shaʿbān] 610 and ends on Kislev 15[26] Seleucid = Rajab 611 AH. So the document was drawn up in December 1213 CE or shortly before then, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. Lessor: A woman, unclear if her name is preserved. Lessee: Abū l-Baqāʾ b. Yefet al-Kohen. The terms of the rent are laid down. The house is in the alleyway of the domed mosque (Darb Masjid al-Qubba). On verso there are pen trials and jottings.

Acknowledgement of debt in Judaeo-Arabic from Fustat 1230. Joseph b. Avraham known as son of the poet, acknowledges a debt of 600 nuqra dirhems to the sons of Abu al-Munajja, Sa'adya and - name left blank - . He will pay them 80 dirhem every month. On the back is something to do with clothing.

Legal/communal declaration. Location: Minyat Zifta Jawād. Dated: Middle third of Shevaṭ 1554, which is 1243 CE. The people making the declaration (whose names, probably originally written at the bottom, have been torn away) support the judge al-Shaykh al-Makīn Yosef b. Moshe (b. Peraḥya Ibn Yiju?) the judge in assuming the position of his father as muqaddam of the community after the latter's death. "Whereas we have known [him]... and he grew up among us...." The community has already written to him "singly and collectively" asking him to return and take the leadership. Their testimony is meant to counter those opposing the appointment (though the opponents may simply be hypothetical). They "kiss the ground" before the addressee and ask him to send Yosef b. Moshe (imḍāʾ ḥālih wa-khurūjih ilaynā) to lead them and engage in "enjoining good and forbidding wrong as the Law dictates" (al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-l-nahy ʿan al-munkar ʿalā mā tūjibu al-sharīʿā).

Query and the beginning of the answer in another hand. The question and answer revolve around a commercial partnership involving wine. the respondent hand resembles Shemuʾel b. Eli's.

Three legal queries to Yiṣḥaq b. Sason with his responsa. At least one of the cases concerns the maintenance of children

Bill of sale for part of a house. Seller: Ṣadaqa b. Abū l-Khayr. Buyer: Dhakhīra bt. ʿEli. Location: Cairo (although it seems that the property is located in Fustat). Dated: Tammuz 1452 Seleucid, which is 1141 CE. A sum of 10 dinars is mentioned—perhaps the price. Signed: the cantor Moshe b. Yehuda; [Maḥās]in(?) b. Seʿadya (this part is torn away and partially concealed by the black tab from the folder where it was photographed).

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning a group of people who share an underground(?) storage room of wheat in a single courtyard; some have stored less, some have stored more. One of them lives in the same house. Then, a government representative "attacked" the majority of the houses in the city, demanding the harvest stores "for the strengthening of the lands." (There is a tricky phrase at the beginning of this section: this representative appears to be called בליל, which could be Bulayl and a diminutive of Bilāl; it is faintly possible that בליל חמס refers to "the one sodden with discord/oppression"; it is also possible that there is a pun or code for בעל המס, tax collector, and the querier did not wish to put that phrase in the document.) It seems that the one who lived in the house handed over some of the wheat, and now there is a legal question about how the losses should be distributed.

Legal document. Fragment (upper right corner). Location: Fustat. Dated: 14 Sivan 156[.] Seleucid, which is 1561–69 Seleucid, which is 1250–58 CE, under the authority of the Nagid David I Maimonides. One of the parties appears to be Yefet ha-Yaqir. Nothing else is preserved.

Cheque / order of payment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 10 Kislev 1530 Seleucid, which is December 1218 CE. The beadle Abū l-Ṭāhir is to pay the bearer, Abū l-Faraj al-Ziftāwī (i.e., from Minyat Zifta), from the [...] of al-Shaykh al-M[...], some money for his maintenance during his illness. There is an addendum: "He said that he paid him 3.5 (dirhams) in cash."

Deed of sale of part of a house. Location: Fustat. Precise date is not preserved. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Sitt al-Banāt bt. Shelomo (Salāma) al-ʿAṭṭār inherited 1/6 of a house in the al-Mamṣūṣa neigborhood of Fustat from her late husband Abū l-ʿAlā' b. Dā'ūd. The other parts of the house are owned by the qodesh and by a Kohen known as Ibn Abū l-Khurasān. The widow sells her share of the house to David ha-Kohen for a price of 11 dinars. The buyer receives the husband's will and all former property deeds. Witneses: Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo; Yeshuʿa ha-Levi b. Ḥalfon; Shabbat b. Avraham b. Shabbat; Ḥalfon b. Menashshe; Ḥalfon b. Ghālib; ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Menashshe. The term "mushāʿa ghayr maqsūma" (l.13), jointly owned undivided, should be more elaborated. Houses, usually, are described as being held in joint, undivided ownership. This means that the parts of a house, which normally formed the object of a contract, were units of account, not real segments of a building. A house was divided into 24 nominal shares, a division modeled on the 24 qirats, or parts of the dinar. The shares transferred by sale or gift (a sixth in our document) could be very small. (Information from Weiss's edition.)

Ketubba. Only some signatures are preserved together with the validation (qiyyum) of the ketubba. The witnesses of the main document are: ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi; Moshe b. Yehuda; the teacher Yiṣḥaq b. Nissim Nafūsī (עולה הלוי ביר יוסף משה בר יהודה יצחק המלמד[ביר ניסי]ם נפוסי). The witnesses of the qiyyum are: Avraham b. Shemaʿya ha-Ḥaver; Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi; Moshe b. Ṣadoq; and at least two additional names, one including "Yoshiyyahu" and the other "ʿEli ha-Levi." (אברהם בר שמעיה החבר נין שמעיהו יצחק ביר שמואל הספרדי משה ברבי צדוק ועוד שם אחד).

Legal deed written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. On parchment. Almost nothing is left. The name of some of the other signatories may be recovered. Somebody (Goitein or Friedman?) added the year range 1105–32 to the manuscript in pencil; but it is not clear what this could be based on apart from Ḥalfon's years of activity (1100–38).