Geniza Lab

Power of attorney for a woman appointing an agent. Signed by Sa'adya b. Natan and Elazar b. yeshu'a. On the back is some unclear text

Legal case in which Aziza bt. Elazar the widow of Abu al-khayr Mevorakh b. Meshullam comes to court to collect her ketubba. The court examines her ketubba and does not find in it a trustworthy clause - so she takes an oath. The ketubba is worth over 550 dinars, dower and dowry, and she is thus entitled to some 250 dinars according to the local custom to double the sums in a ketubba. Since her husband did not leave behind anything the court permits Aziza to collect her ketubba from a Muslim to whom her husband mortgaged a piece of real estate. On the back is a Judaeo-Arabic archival note and two lines in Arabic script. (Written by Natan b. Shlomo. AA)

Legal document Aharon ha-levi b. Fuhayd sued Yishaq over some morgaged real estate. The name Yeshu'a b. Shelomo is also mentioned.

Legal document according to which Efrayim Abu Kathir b. Masliah owes Yosef b. Shelomo 4 dinars, to be repaid 2 dinars per year. Dated Adar 1411/ February- March 1100. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal agreement in which Abu al-Husayn al-Halabi the banker agrees to pay Ḥalfon b. Efrayim 8.5 dinars every month on a debt of 15 dinars. Dated Sivan 1411/ May- June 1100. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal agreement. Sittān bt. Yefet, widow of Abū Naṣr, pays 40 dinars to Abū Kathīr, which her husband owed him from a business arrangement. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal case from 1100. Shemuel b. Natan he-haver - a well known figure in the Jewish court - now appears as a litigant and sues Sittan bt. Yefet, the widow of Abu Nasr the banker for her daughter, Shemuel's late wife and the mother of his children, left after her death. He also sued his mother-in-law for the share of his late wife in her sister's inheritance, which is half her inheritance. He is also suing for half of the house in which his mother in law lives. The court then asks Sittan and she says that her late husband gave her the house in Muslim courts. She also claims to have dedicated the entire sum inherited from her daughter for the burial and for the wailing (the lamenting of the wailing women). Dated Shevat 1411/ February 1100. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 163, from Goitein's index cards and from OZ. On the back of the document is a continuation of the matter - About 40 dinars her late husband owed Abu Kathir, her in-law (is this Shemuel?)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Written on parchment. Location: Alexandria. Dating: 1140–59 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Groom: Abū Karam b. [...] ha-Parnas. Bride: Sitt al-Kull bt. Naʿīm, a divorcee. No other details preserved. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

See PGP 15888

Bill of sale for a female slave. Dating: Perhaps second half of the 11th century or beginning of the 12th century, based on the hand. This is an unsigned draft (with additional legal jottings in the upper margin). T-S NS 320.15 appears to be the final version of the same document (though the lower part along with any signatures are missing, and that too may have been a draft). Seller: Ṣedaqa b. Moshe ha-Levi. Buyer: Yosef b. Shelomo. Slave: Tawfīq. Price: 25 dinars. (Information from OZ, AA, CP, ASE.)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dating: refers to a period of time beginning in Nisan 1424 Seleucid, which is 1113 CE. Involves Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa [...] al-Ramlī and Abū Yaʿaqov [...] Avraham. The acknowledgment has to do with a portion of a house in Fustat that is located on the alley of Michael (זקאק מכיל); maybe a lease or a temporary sale. Signed: ʿEli b. Yeḥezqel ha-Kohen. On the back two names are listed: Yefet b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi and Ḥasana bt. [Manṣūr?]. It looks like this was a meant to be a summary of marriage arrangement.

Bifolium from a court notebook. Dating: One entry is dated 1411 Seleucid, which is 1099/1100 CE. The four pages have four different cases recorded in four different hands. The details of each case are hard to make out due to the poor state of preservation. 1. A certain (Abū l-)Ḥasan b. Yaʿaqov al-Āmidī is asked to hand over various Bible codices to Yehuda b. Ḥayyim ha-Melammed. 2. Concerning garments sent from Sicily to Damietta to Yemen. The parties are Shalem, Tiqva, Ṣedaqa al-Dimashqī, Ḥusayn, and Ibn Masʿūd. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel and Avraham b. Shemaʿya. 3. Appointment of an agent in a commercial matter. Mentions Abū l-Faḍl, Ṣāliḥ b. Meshullam, and 6 dinars. 4. One entry involves a testimony of [...] the judge b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva about the delivery of a bill of divorce (get). Involves Elʿazar b. Shelomo. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Bill of sale, faded, of a house from Damascus, 1113–14. There is a rashut statement for Hisdai ha-Nasi. Some of the names are quite interesting: Safiya the wife of Karam b. Avraham known as Siraj al-Hanukka (i.e. Hannuka lamp). Also mentioned is Meshullam b. Yishaq ha-qosem al-Ma'ari.

Moshe b. Abu al-Hayya hands over to Shela b. Yefet a release after receiving 37 dinars for a box of saffron. Written by Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Yosef. Dated February 1068. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 600, #800)

Agreement made by Abu al-Faraj Yaʿaqov b. Avraham b. Allan with his business partner Efrayim b. Ismail al-Jawhari, who takes care of his commercial interests in the Maghreb, containing details about the partner's wage and the goods. (Information from E. Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, p. 53 and Yehudei misrayim, p. 198) In the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya (MR)

Recto: Partnership record. Dating: 1096. Written in the hand of Hillel ben Eli. Describes a settlement between Yaḥyā and Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh. Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh loans 210 dinars to and places some agricultural commodities with Yaḥyā. Yaḥyā agrees to take upon himself the maintenance of the poor of Fusṭāṭ for a year in the event of nonrepayment. The repayments do not appear here because this would have been recorded only on the debtor’s copy of the loan agreement. Yaḥyā’s testimony that he paid his debt wouldn't be accepted without these records, but testimony by Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh (the creditor) is to be accepted without such condition. Verso: Court record. Dating: 1116. Part of a court record detailing a different partnership. Abū al-Surūr Simḥa ha-Kohen brings a power of attorney to pursue the claims of the brothers Abū al-Ma‘ālī and Abū al-Wafā Tamīm b. Yeshu‘a regarding a partnership held by their dead brother Mevorakh, with Yaḥyā (the same Yaḥyā from the recto) and Abū al-Ḥusayn the money-changer. The structure of the partnership is unclear, but it seems likely that Mevorakh was an investor and Abū al-Barakāt had always been the active partner. Upon Mevorakh’s death, Yaḥyā and Abū Ḥusayn claim 2/3 of the partnership assets, leaving Simḥa to collect the remaining 1/3 for Mevorakh’s heirs. The verso is written in a different hand from the recto, likely that of Nissim b. Naḥray. Signed by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq, the chief judge of Aleppo. The connection between the two documents is Abū al-Barakāt and Yaḥyā. Per Goitein, this Abū al-Barakāt is not the Mevorakh mentioned on the recto but rather Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh b. Shelomo al-Ḥalabī, and Yaḥyā is Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 56-60)

Page of the record book of the rabbinical court of Fustat, in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Trimmed at top, bottom and one side. Recto: a bill of sale or a quittance. Verso: Top contains last lines of a record dated last day of Nissan, 1472 Sel. = 14 April 1116, signed by Nissim b. Nahray; Avraham b. Shemaya he-haver. Main entry is a legal document also dated 1116 (4427), citing a document written by the chief rabbi of Aleppo, Barukh b. Yishaq, a power of attorney for Abu Surur Simha ha-Kohen, representing the brothers Abu l-Ma'ali and Abu l-Wafa, and Abu l-Ḥasan al-Halabi al-Sayrafi. (Information from Goitein's 8.5x11 notes; see attached scan).

Court record book of 1116 from the rabbinical court of Fustat, in the hand of Hillel b. Eli (OZ thinks it is Ḥalfon b. Menashshe). Trimmed at top, bottom and one side. Recto: a bill of sale or a quittance. Verso: Top contains last lines of a record dated last day of Nissan, 1427 Sel. = 14 April 1116, signed by Nissim b. Nahray; Avraham b. Shemaya he-haver. Main entry is a legal document also dated 1116 (1427), citing a document written by the chief rabbi of Aleppo, Barukh b. Yishaq, a power of attorney for Abu Surur Simha ha-Kohen, representing the brothers Abu l-Ma'ali and Abu l-Wafa, and Abu l-Ḥasan al-Halabi al-Sayrafi. (Information from Goitein's 8.5x11 notes; see attached scan).

Legal document. it seems to be a release. Signed are Yishaq b. Mevorakh, Avraham b. Yeshu'a, Yisrael b. Yefet, and Hayyim b. Sasson b. Hayyim from the Ben Sabra family.

Legal testimony about the custom of the merchants of Fustat regarding partnerships. The testimony describes how partnerships are established. dated to 1141. Signed by Shemarya b. Shelomo, Yoshiyahu ha-kohen b. [...] Yosef b. Avon, Yosef ha-Levi b. [...]