Geniza Lab

Legal document describing how a person took an oath of the holy torah. Abu al-Makarim is mentioned and a fine of 5 dinars to the poor. Signed on the validation caluse: Yishaq b. Moshe Avraham b. Amram . On the back of this document are the remains of four lines in wide spacing - a bleed out of ENA 2735.15 which obiously was attached to this document (and they were later placed next to one another in the same folder).

Legal document concerning Shelomo al-Tilmisānī. Various names, including Abū al-Kāram and Abū al-Barakāt and Abū Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, are mentioned, along with a sum of five dinars. (Information from Goitein’s index card.) In the hand of Hillel b. Eli. The text also mentions a number of different fabrics.

Fragment from the bottom of a legal deed in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning sums of money and the names Abū Isḥāq and Abū l-Riḍā. Signed by Yeshaʿyahu b. Maṣliaḥ b. ʿAzaryahu ha-Kohen. There are also two notes in Arabic script, both of which mention "the two women." They seem to be related to the Judaeo-Arabic legal document, but it is not clear exactly how.

Recto: Legal deed in Judaeo-Arabic about a partnership in a perfume/drug shop. Fragment (upper right corner). Location: Fustat. Dated: Probably [15]22 Seleucid = 1210/11 CE (if the Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram on verso is the same who signed Bodl. MS heb. d 75/10; the other possibility is 1422 = 1110/11). The document concerns two men whose names contain the following components: Abū ʿImrān Moshe ha-Talmid ha-Kohen, Sheʾerit ha-Kohen, [...] b. Abū Naṣr Elʿazar ha-K[ohen], and Khalaf. They previously had a partnership in a perfume/drug shop and then ended the partnership. This document specifies the amounts of money still owed by one to the other (over 800 dirhams). Verso: After the document on recto was torn, a later legal record was added to the effect that Abū ʿImrān b. Abū l-Bahāʾ received the money that was owed to him by Khalaf the cantor: 485.75 dirhams. Someone is in Sūq al-Ghazal (the Yarn Market) in a silk shop. "And these are the dirhams... in his ledger (daftar) in my handwriting." Somone also received 7.5 dirhams' worth of silk. Signed: Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram. Shela b. Seʿadya.

Legal deed in which Shelomo Tov Elem appoints Avraham b. Yehuda (written Ya’uda) ibn Asayag to be his agent to collect a debt from Eliezer ibn Malka on 7/2/1825 in Gibraltar (Information from Dotan Arad). Signed by Yosef Lezualis.

Lower fragment: Legal record in Judaeo-Arabic. Refers to "our master the noble judge, the judge of judges (sayyidnā al-qāḍī al-ajall qāḍī al-quḍāh); a fight (munāzaʿa) between two men; Abū ʿAlī; and someone who brought four policemen (rajjāla, pl. of rājil). Signed by [...] b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen and Avraham b. [...] ha-Levi.

Upper fragment: Replacement ketubba (כתובה אירכסא), meant to replace one that was torn or lost. Mentions Avraham ha-Rav he-Ḥasid b. Yehuda (presumably the groom) and Esther bt. Yosef he-Ḥashuv (presumably the bride). is probably the bride. 150 zuz are mentioned.

Legal deeds, fragments on parchment, most of which do not contain enough text to be described. The bottom right fragment joins the top left fragment where you can read at the top: הסופר יוסף and below: רבי יוסף הסופר

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: 1169. Location: Fustat. Likely in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan b. Shemuel. Onetime business partners Abū al-Faraj Yeshu‘a and Abū al-Riḍā release one another from partnership obligations. Line 13 refers to the “oath of partners”, in which the partners swear that they have not engaged in malfeasance or negligence with partnership assets. This phrase is a statement made at the termination of a partnership, particularly where partnership assets have been lost; reports of partnership profits are often more frequent and are often performed during the life of the partnership. The release clauses pair “loan” (qarḍ) with commenda (qirāḍ) because of the linguistic relationship between the two. The release clauses are mutual. Signed by [unclear] b. Ya'aqov ha-Melammed. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 51-53)

Verso: Power of attorney (שטר אורכתא) in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. A certain Yaʿaqov appoints Abū Saʿd b. Zandavir (?) ... al-Amani as his agent. On recto there is a document in Arabic script (see separate record).

Legal document regarding ritual slaughter from Damascus

Legal deed regarding the division of the inheritance in 2 equal shares.

Court record regarding inheritance, probably sent to a religious authority for approval.

List of three bills of divorce, apparently notes of a court scribe. (1) Husband: Sālim b. Avraham. Wife: [...]b al-Dīn bt. Maṣliaḥ. (2) Husband: David b. Yaʿaqov. Wife: Shams bt. Ḥalfon. (3) Husband: Natan b. Mevorakh ha-Kohen. This one might be followed by a piece of a 4th entry.

Court record, probably a bill of release between a woman named Turfa and a man named Sayyid al-Kull. Signed by [...] b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen and Natan b. Ulla. Probably written by Mevorakh b. Natan. On verso, pen trials with biblical verses.

Letter from an unknown sender, in Jerusalem, to Samḥūn b. Yaḥyā al-Maghribī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Damascus, a scary situation, Nāblus, Shelomo Ibn Ḥabīb, and various business matters. Also mentions Shelomo b. Efrayim ha-Kohen. Uncited in the literature and needs examination.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating: Probably 1082 CE. The approximate time period is established by the mention of Yaʾir ha-Nadiv Peʾer ha-Qahal, who also appears in T-S 28.6 (1070s). This document is dated in the opening lines Thursday, 21 Elul, year not preserved. The last three lines indicate that the document was signed (although this copy doesn't appear to be signed) and given to the parties Saʿd and Yaʿaqov on Thursday, 4 Ḥeshvan [..]94. The full date at the top of the document is probably 21 Elul 1393 Seleucid, and the full date at the bottom of the document is probably 4 Ḥeshvan 1394 Seleucid. The case concerns Sahl b. Faraj al-Ghazzī and a sizeable sum of investment capital (over 45 dinars). He reports on his travels and misfortunes. Apparently someone named ʿImrān had him imprisoned by the government. When he got out, he used the rest of the money to purchase goods and travel to Tyre, but "the land was plundered, together with all of my goods, and I was wounded, and I returned to Fustat a 'drowned man.'" The local community helped him, especially Yaʾir ha-Nadiv. The rest of the document seems to detail his efforts to settle his accounts. On verso there is a Hebrew/Judaeo-Arabic glossary of Halakhot Gedolot. ASE

Responsum draft about Reuben who gave Shimon checks to deiver to Baghdad and also lend him money. Shimon pawned jewelry as a guarantee for Reuben and wrote a document about it. Later on the monetary exchange rate was reduced. The query ends there. On verso a draft of the beginning of a ketubbah, and few scribblings in Arabic

Legal note, unsigned, beginning "Yaqūlu...": "ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn says that Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Ḥalabī has a note (ruqʿa) of [...] under the name of Abū ʿImrān worth 2 dinars. I lost it (wa-qad waqaʿat minnī) and I collected the substitute/equivalent (al-ʿiwaḍ) and released him from it. Whenever it surfaces, it is false and invalid." The dates are then specified. ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn was an India trader in the early 12th century (and the subject of Goitein's "Portrait of a Medieval India Trader"); Abū l-Ḥusayn (Yaḥyā) al-Ḥalabī was a banker (ṣayrafī), also known from several other documents from the same period.

Acknowledgment of a debt. Between Sedaqa b. Yosef and Yeshuʿa b. Hannaya. Signed by Elʿazar b. Yosef and the parnas ʿOvadya b. Shabbetay. Dated: Last decade of Ḥeshvan (year missing). There is Arabic script in the margins and a few words above the signature, and verso is filled with Arabic script (basmalas and various drafts—needs further examination). The lines in the margin of recto contain a basmala and the name of the writer: min hadhayān ('from the raving of??') Abū Manṣūr b. Yehuda, who calls himself al-Mutaṭabbib on verso), and at 180 degrees and upside down there is a blessing (for the caliph?), ṣalawāt allāh wa-barakātuhu wa-nawāmī zakawātihi wa-afḍal al-salām. Cf. the same language in T-S 20.32r (petition draft from Hibatallāh b. Abū Manṣūr to al-Ḥākim), cited in Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 468 note 15.