Geniza Lab

Quittance, large but faded, from Yakhin b. Mevorakh ha-Levi. Seven signatures, mostly faded or fragmentary. 11th century.

Detailed trousseau of Bint Menahem (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 403, and from Goitein's index cards)

Cheque in the hand of Abu Zikri ha-Kohen. See Goitein Nachlass material linked below.

Court record regarding inheritance. mentioned Aharon and an orphan. Bibliography: Zinger, Ginzei Qedem 13. Probably an indirect join with Moss. VII,43 + T-S Ar.53.53.

Two or three different documents stuck together. (1) Ketubba. Only a few words from near the beginning are preserved. (2) Draft of a legal document concerning the estate of the late Rūma bt. [Bin]yām b. Aharon ha-Kohen died. Her possessions are to be given to her son according to certain conditions. (He might still be a minor, and other people are specified to look after money.) Mentions the names [...] b. Salāma Ibn Rūḥīrjān (the same family name appears in T-S 24.76) and Khalaf. (3) Possibly accounts of the Qodesh. Same hand as the note about Rūma's property. Refers to the rent of various people in different dwellings; the patrolmen (al-rajjāla) on [...] Shabbat; the ground rent (ḥikr) payment which is somehow connected to Nārūz (the Coptic New Year); a raqqāṣ possibly named ʿIwāḍ.

Bill of divorce. Written by Shemuel b. Seʿadya (1165–1203). Husband: Avraham b. M[aymūn?]. Wife: Miryam bt. Ḥabīb ha-Maʿaravi.

Ketubba fragment. The groom is Avraham.

Engagement Agreements. Two sides of what appears to be a page from the court notebook from the 1330s. In side A there are two engagement agreements, the first in the righthand side of the page and the second begins in the lefthand side of the paper and continues on the verso. The writing is faded and difficult to decipher.

Legal document. Tiny fragment. Signed by Elʿazar b. Evyatar.

Quittance given to the carriers of goods sent from Yemen by a husband, Efrayim b. Yaʿqūb, to his wife. Written by Hillel b. Eli. On the verso another legal deed dealing with an oath, written by another hand.

Legal document. Oath by Ibrahīm b. Naḥḥās concerning payment for a house, of which Abū ʿAlī retains the right to enter. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Draft of a court declaration written by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu regarding the estate of the late physician (al-mutaṭabbib al-ḥakīm) Ibrāhim b. Mukhtār Ibn Ilyās. He bequeathes his property—including medical books (nusakh ṭibbiyya)—to the synagogue of Dammūh. Also mentions "al-rayyis Nuʿmān" and another physician with many titles Sulaymān/Shelomo.

Court record in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Refers to a rent; 20 dinars; a power of attorney; a period of 5 years; Aharon ha-Kohen; Nissim.

Verso: Legal agreement. Probably in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Avigayil bt. Eliyya ha-Kohen gives her husband David b. Eliyya the right to remarry his divorcee Ḥasana bt. Yehuda. The bottom of the document is not preserved, so we do not know if there are signatures or not. This document may be the notes of the scribe or the court rather than the legal agreement itself. On recto (see separate record) there is a fragment from a letter by an untrained hand.

Ketubba fragment written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The groom's father named Elazar.

Legal document. Commenda. Following the Talmudic isqa method whereby the agents have some responsibility for losses, the active partner or partners (Abū Sa‘d and his son Abū al-Ma‘ānī) collect 2/3 of the profit and bear equal responsibility for losses, while the investor Abū Naṣr collects 1/3. The divison of losses is not clear due to the manuscript's deterioration. While Udovitch (1970, pg. 239) suggests that the fact that the active partner in a qiraḍ bears no liability for loss is ideal for long distance trade, the partners in this agreement seem to plan to travel and still use the Talmudic model rather than the qirāḍ. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 45-47)

Court order. In Hebrew. Dating: Second half of the 16th century, based on the assessment of Avraham David. Anyone who has knowledge of the whereabouts of any of the possessions of Avraham קולודרו, the son-in-law of Yosef Qalʿī—or of the whereabouts of Avraham himself—must inform the court within 3 days on pain of excommunication.

Legal document. Involving Abū Saʿīd Dāʾūd Ibn Shaʿya, Zekharya b. Tammām, Yehoshuaʿ b. Natan, and a house. Quite faded.

Legal record. In the hand of David b. Yefet (or rather Efrayim b. Shemarya?). Khallūf makes a claim on the inheritance of Ibrāhīm b. ʿAllān. The document is fragmented, so it is tricky to figure out what is happening. Mentions a shop; mentions Yeshuʿa making a deposit; mentions a sum of 190 dinars; mentions "his father Hārūn b. Ismāʿīl"; Khallūf b. Yehuda; Yaʿaqov; ʿAllān; Efrayim; and again ʿAllān. On verso there is some literary text in Hebrew and a tiny fragment of a separate Judaeo-Arabic document (ʿindahu... danānīr...)

Legal record from the early thirteenth century explicating a communal conflict. The sermon of local Jewish judge describes accusations concerning women in the city lending money with interest, women being adorned and sitting bedecked in the marketplace, and people listening to musical instruments while drinking. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:256, 464; 5:42, 517; Oded Zinger, “What Sort of Sermon is this?” in Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times: A festschrift in honor of Mark R. Cohen, 83-98) EMS