Geniza Lab

Fragment from the end of a legal document. In Hebrew. In the hand of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya (per Goitein's index card #6774). Dated: [13]57 Seleucid, which is 1045/46 CE. Signed by ʿEli b. ʿAmram ha-Levi and Shemarya b. A[…] ha-Levi. Both signatures are written by the scribe of the document, which might suggest that this was a copy kept in the court. On ʿEli b. ʿAmram, see א. ברקת ״החבר המעולה״ או ״הבוגד המעולה״:מנהיג שנוי במחלוקת עלי בן עמרם, ראש קהל הירושלמיים בפסטאט במחצית השנייה של המאה האחת־עשרה, AJS Review, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1998), pp. 1-27.) AA

Legal document. Dated: Nisan [13]34 Seleucid, which is 1023 CE. Binyamin b. Yūsuf (probably Ibn ʿAwkal) gives money to Aharon b. Yosef known as al-Ghazāl to trade on his behalf against 'the cost of my effort and work.' שכר טרחותי עמלי. The second signature is Yosef b. Yaʿaqov al-Ṭarābulsī. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. [Sitt al-Sāda bt.?] Evyatar ha-Kohen and [Shelomo b. Abū] al-Riḍā al-Wakīl and Sālim (probably identical with Shelomo) are mentioned. Likely an indirect join with T-S Misc.28.79.6 or ENA NS 77.275, and related to the same parties as in T-S NS J11 + T-S 10J4.16 + T-S 16.158 + T-S 10J4.17,

Excerpt of a writ written in Ramla, 1076.

Legal deed? Signatures of various people. Was probably part of a legal deed or communal decree

Court deposition in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Dated: 1406 Seleucid, which is 1094/95 CE. Abū ʿAlī Yefet b. Menashshe accuses his wife Milāḥ b. Khayrūn of wishing to divorce him in order to marry Barakāt b. Abū Saʿīd al-ʿAṭṭār, who has "corrupted" (afsada) her. She takes mighty oaths, denying that she would ever marry Barakāt. Later, Abū ʿAlī verbally abuses Barakāt, "Yā fāʿil, yā ṣāniʿ, you corrupt my wife and tell her, 'Divorce him so that I can marry you!'" They have a great fight and hurl accusations at each other ("some serious, some trivial"). Barakāt takes a mighty oath that he will pay a fine of 50 dinars to the poor of Egypt if he ever proposed marriage or anything else to Milāḥ. Signed by Binyamin b. Avraham. NB: Three distinct fragments have been joined and are all photographed under the shelfmark ENA NS 19.14 (this is why there are no photographs under the shelfmarks ENA 4010.7 or ENA Misc. 17). The lower left fragment is still missing. Join by M. A. Friedman. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) ASE

Oath made by al-Parnas b. Yaʿaqov regarding 12 dinars owed to him by Avraham al-Malījī b. Mevorakh for jewelry.

Power of attorney. Netanel b. Yefet b. Meshullam known as Ibn Harnash permits a certain individual to collect all that is due to his late father in al-Mahdiyya.

Verso: Cheque by Abū Zikrī Kohen. The banker Abū l-Khayr Khiyār is to pay the bearer 25 dinars. Dated: Tishrei 1447 Seleucid, which is 1135 CE.

Recto: Legal or state document in Arabic script, in what looks like a chancery hand. Fragment from the bottom of the document (4 lines preserved). The document concerns Abū Ṭāhir al-ʿAsqalānī, riding animals (dawābb), and Buqṭur (=Victor)? The فاجاب واشهد clause at the end of l3 suggests that it could either be a rental agreement for the transport of weapons (asliḥa, l1) or a legal testimony.

Geṭ ḥaliṣa (release from levirate marriage). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: New Cairo. Dating: 1127–38 CE, based on Ḥalfon's years of activity and the fragmentary reference to Maṣliaḥ Gaon. The widow is named [...]a bt. Menashshe ha-Levi. Her late husband is Yosef ha-Levi (or conceivably [... b.] Yosef ha-Levi).

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: [14]41 Seleucid, which is 1129/30 CE. The parties are Abū l-Munā and his agent Faraj b. ʿUkaysh. Involves a release from a power of attorney, and transporting something to Damascus. Or maybe this is the power of attorney itself, and it details the conditions under which Faraj will be released from his obligation (i.e. after he has successfully transported the thing to Damascus and returned.) Related to T-S AS 147.65 + T-S 6J8.12 but not a join with it. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Prenuptial agreement, 1100-1127, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

ENA 4011.16a (upper fragment): Legal document or communal accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic. Written and signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi. Very faded. There are at least two distinct entries. The first mentions a sum collected from Sālim al-Khādim. The second mentions the heqdesh and is dated: middle decade of Elul 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE.

ENA 4011.16b (lower fragment): A cheque of Abū Zikrī Kohen. Abū l-Khayr Khiyār is to pay the bearer Dār Rayḥān (the wife of Rayḥān?) 2 dinars and 2 ḥabbas. Dated: Elul 1452 Seleucid, which is 1141 CE.

Bottom of a legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Ḥeshvan 1435 Seleucid, which is 1123 CE. Mentions the rent of a house.

ENA 4011.19a (upper fragment): Marriage contract (ketubba). Dated: 1445 Seleucid, which is 1133/34 CE. Only the beginning is preserved. Bride: Turfa, a divorcee from a betrothal (מתרכתא מן הא[רוסין). Goitein's index card notes that the Turfa in T-S 16.52, who was already divorced from a marriage in 1124 CE, has nothing to do with the woman in this document. NB: Goitein cites this document as ENA 4011.18.

Legal deed. Only the date is preserved: Kislev 1454 Seleucid, which is 1133 CE.

Legal document. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: 1474 Seleucid, which is 1162/63 CE, under the authority of Netanel ha-Levi. Quittance or agreement regarding 18 dinars. The parties: Abū l-Khayr al-Ṣabbāgh b. Abū l-[...]; Ṣedaqa b. Shelomo b. Yosef ha-Dayyan; Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ al-Tājir and his brother Abū l-[...]. (Information from Goitein’s index card.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.22 as ENA 4011.21.

Court record in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Location: Minyat al-Sharīf. Dated: Monday, 5 Adar 4920 AM, which is 1160 CE, under the authority of Netanel Gaon (with all his titles listed). The parties are Avraham b. Tamīm and Shelomo b. [...]. No details of the case are preserved. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.27 as ENA 4011.26.