Geniza Lab

Legal document: quittance in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. A certain Avraham b. Shelomo Tiilmisani, acting as a custodian (apotropos), releases a certain Joseph b. Amram known as al-Fituri (?) in some commercial transaction. Aharon and Na'aman are also mentioned. Maybe Alexandria. The three fragments do not actually join but they are clearly related to the same case, and perhaps part from the same document. Join by Amir Ashur and Oded Zinger.

Legal document. Release. Location: Fustat. Regarding partners, a sum of 400 dinars, and every party receiving his due in full. Names mentioned include Avraham b. Sh[...]; Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Yaʿqūb and Abū l-F[...].

Legal testimony. Probably in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Conveying a blow-by-blow narrative of a dispute over a house and a sum of money. Needs examination.

Letter addressed to a 'Sar ha-Leviim,' asking him to help his son, who is imprisoned in Cairo for a debt. Fifteen dirhams had been pledged, but his son owes 25 more. (Information from Goitein's index cards). The letter is written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who served as the muqqadam of Bilbays from 1180's-1220.

Deed of lease of an apartment in Sicily for forty years for Yosef Yiju, Probably Mazara, after 1136. Yosef Yiju pays the rent for forty years in advance (!) to the owner Umm al-Aziz.

Rental contract for a Jewish woman, Umm al-'Az to Yosef Yiju. The contract is for an apartment in Sicily, for 40 years, paid in advance. Mazar, Sicily, after 1136 (Goitein and Friedman estimation). VMR

Legal document. Minute fragment. Opening line of a legal deed, probably written by Hillel b. Eli. Aramaic. AA

Legal document dealing with the allocation of an estate.

Legal document. Damaged deed of gift. Faiza d. Ya'aqov appeared in court after the death of her father Ya'aqov b. Shuaib שועיב, regarding half appartement bought (or rented) to Ami b. Moshe אמי ב. משה in Qasr al-Sham’ Hebrew. AA

Segment of a prenuptial agreement, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi.

Legal fragment. In Aramaic. Portions of five lines are preserved.

Legal document and a marriage document. Damaged fragment containing 3 different legal deeds in 3 different hands, most likely refers to the same parties. On recto what looks like a part from a bill of gift or a will, in Hebrew and Aramaic. Two names mentioned: מובחר and Ya'aqov. On verso two legal documents. On the right side from a legal document of unknown nature, probably between husband and wife. Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. On the left side a damaged fragment from a ketubah de'irkasa כתובה דארכסא, that is a ketubah written as a replacement for a lost ketubah. Aramaic. AA

Legal document. Fragment (lower right corner). In the hand of Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (active 1122–50). Someone makes an acknowledgment in favor of Sayyid al-Kull. In the missing upper part of the document there was an interlinear insertion reading "all of it without installments." AA. ASE.

A Palestinian marriage contract from Ḥaṣor. The groom is to pay 10 dinars as the “security” of the marriage contract. (Information from Friedman, Jewish Marriage, pp. 316-320.)

Legal document. On verso remains of a legal document in mirror writing - the imprint left by another fragment. Hardly readable. Recto a colophon in Hebrew by Yosef b. Ya'aqov known as Abu al-Ridda. אבו אלרצא Judeo-Arabic. AA

Recto: Legal document. Fragment (upper right corner). Opens with the date (Tuesday the 5th of [...]) and then a long genealogy of Moshe ha-Sar b. [...] b. [...] Rosh Yeshivat Gaʾon Yaʿaqov. Nothing else is preserved.

Legal document. Small fragment from a beginning of a legal document, probably bill of gift, written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi, under the authority of Masliah Gaon, whose name is not mentioned but his father and grandfathers are. It is probably from the first years of his rule, ca. 1127. Elazar [… son of …] Iskandrani is also mentioned. Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic. AA

Order of payment in the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen. Abū l-Surūr is to give the bearer 1/4 pound pulverized olibanum (lubān) and 1/4 pound שגרה. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Court record in the hand of R. Daniel b. Azarya ha-Nasi. Hayyim b. Harun announces his intention to marry a woman in Sahrajt, but people say that he already has a wife in Fustat. The man vows 10 dinars to the waqf if he is indeed married. People check and discover that he is in fact married; he then says he had vowed 5 dinars to the Jeruslaem waqf and 5 dinars to the local synagogue, but people object. The court believes him, but then he argues that he doesn't have the money, so the court allows him to pay only a quarter of a dinar per month.

Marriage contract (ketubba) of a divorcee. The grand total of the marriage gift and dowry is 39 dinars. Dated ca. 1000. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 397)