Geniza Lab

Legal deed from 1234/5. The content is not clear but it deals with paying rent. The sum of 20 dinars is mentioned, perhaps as a fine - so maybe this is an agreement to restore a house beloning to the pious foundation while living in it? This understanding is supported by the text on the other side mentioning: "The desired (אלרצוי i.e. רצוי הישיבה written with a typo: אלרציו) will live in the house which he built." Written by Shemuel b. Ḥalfon.

Legal document from 1233 or 1236 about the pesiqa. On the back is a talmudic qoute.

Testimony regarding bridal consent to marriage. Two manuscripts that deal with the marriage of a bride named Karam. The two manuscripts contain the bride's consent to the marriage, her receiving the initial marriage gift (Muqaddam) and an appoint of a representative on her behalf. The first manuscript, ENA NS I.95a, from the 3rd of Nissan (Monday, the 14th of March) year 1244, is a testimony of witnesses that the bride gave in their presence her consent to the marriage to the aforementioned Groom, and that she received the initial marriage gift (Muqaddam) and accepted the sum of the delayed marriage gift (Me'ukhar). The story takes an unexpected twist in the second manuscript dated two days afterward. While the wife testified in the previous document that she received the initial marriage gift and accepted the sum of the delayed marriage gift, in the second document she appoints her brother to receive the initial marriage gift and to set the sum of the delayed marriage gift. Since the ending of the first document did not survive it is impossible to determine what took place in those two days. The wife might have wanted to testify that she received the muqaddam but things did not turn out the way they should have (the two sides might have fallen into dispute and the agreement was not signed?) Thus, direct involvement of the bride's wife was required. Another option is that the brother's appointment as representative was carried out informally before receiving the initial marriage gift, but only later was this formalized in court. [NB volume number in shelfmark is roman numeral I, not Arabic numeral 1]

Legal document, probably late, involving a transfer (of funds?) to Safed and Avraham b. Ayyash. The judge of the westeners is also mentioned.

Recto (written later): Legal document written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Also signed by Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: last decade of Tishrei 1428 Seleucid = 1116 CE. Settlement of a dispute over business in Yemen, stating that Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid aka ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi al-Dimashqī is owed 4 dinars and 1 qirat by Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef al-Urjuwānī. 2 dinars will be paid right away and the remainder by the end of the year. Verso (written earlier): Legal document written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver, Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi, and a third person with bad handwriting. Dated: Last decade of Tammuz 1427 Seleucid, and the signing was delayed until the first decade of Av 1427 = 1116 CE (two months before recto). In which Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef al-Urjuwānī acknowledges that he owes 2 dinars and 1 qirat to Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid aka ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi al-Dimashqī.

Legal testimony dated 1151 CE (1462 Seleucid). Witnessed by Yeshuʿa b. Shemarya, Shela b. Yakhin, and Natan b. Yosef ha-Kohen. Abū l-Maʿālī b. Shemuel b. Yehuda Ibn Asad declares that he has been cheated out of 1000 dinars by Abū l-ʿAlā b. Bū l-Faraj and his partner Ṣadaqa b. Yaʿqūb Ibn al-Qalʿī. They already took Ibn Asad to a Muslim judge, al-Athīr, who evidently ruled againsth. Information from Gottheil-Worrell, p. 33. Should be revisited.

Bill of divorce (geṭ). Location: Fustat. Dated: Tammuz 1590 Seleucid = 1279 CE. Written and signed by ʿImmanuel b. Yeḥiel (active ca. 1231–79). Also signed by Shela b. ʿAmram. Husband: [...] b. Nadiv ha-[...], of Fustat. Wife: Sitt al-Dār bt. Yiṣḥaq, of Banhā al-ʿAsl. There is confirmation of receipt on verso, signed by the same two witnesses as on recto.

Notebook of a marriage broker. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew with Coptic numerals. Dating: 1511 CE (1823 Seleucid). Enumerates the circumstances attending the marriage of certain persons named, chiefly concerned with invoicing the brides' trousseaus. Gottheil suggests that these are Qaraite documents. Information from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 179.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Dated: 2 Shawwāl 454 AH, which is 9 October 1062 CE. In which a Muslim acknowledges that he no longer has any claims on a particular Jew. Muḥammad b. Muṣṭafā b. ʿAbdallāh the baker (al-farrān) acknowledges that he has received from the Jew Isḥāq b. Abū Saʿd b. Maḥāsin the cake maker (al-kaʿkī) all the money owed by Isḥāq and by Ibrāhīm b. Barakāt. Witnesses: Aḥmad b. Sulaymān b. Aḥmad; Muḥammad b. Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. al-Manṣūr. On verso there are 3 lines in Arabic script from a document acknowledging a debt. Presumably a draft, as the scribe left the text of the document unfinished. (Information from Khan's edition.)

Settlement between Shelomo b. Yehuda and Natan b. Avraham, ending the four-year schism of the geonut. Drawn up in Jerusalem. In the hand of Ẓadoq ha-Levi b. Levi. Dating: Late 1042 or early 1043 CE (Goitein and Rustow); or October 8, 1042 CE (Gil). By the terms of the agreement, Natan was deposed and demoted to Av Bet Din, and Shelomo b. Yehuda was reinstated in office. "The terms lean in Shelomo's favor, except for one item: the creation of a board of five overseers to regulate the affairs of the yeshiva, including the Gaon (Shelomo) and the Av Bet Din (Natan)." Information from Rustow, Heresy, p. 321, and from Gil.

Bifolio from a court ledger. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. Three records at least: 1) Settlement of a complex marriage dispute involving Abū Yaʿqūb b. Yosef Ibn al-Dhahabī, his daughter, and her husband Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Avraham b. ʿOvadya. The father-in-law and wife must fulfill some condition involving property rights, and if they do not, she will be divorced without a right to her ketubba. If they do, the ketubba stays as is. On the other side, the husband Abū l-Mufaḍḍal undertakes not to beat her or insult her or demand "the fruits" of the property. Dated: Tammuz 1453 Seleucid = 1142 CE. 2) Long inventory of valuable goods. Dowry list? Spans front and back of a single folio. 3) Details of the sale of a female slave. Her name: Jinān. Buyer: Mufaḍḍal b. Abū Saʿd b. Ṣibyān. Seller: Netanʾel b. Yiṣḥaq. Price: 34 dinars. 2 dinars will be paid in Tishrei 1454 Seleucid = 1142 CE, and the remaining 32 dinars in monthly installments of 1 dinar. The guarantor is al-Labbān b. ʿAbdallāh. Jinān has a 2-year-old daughter named Wafāʾ, who will remain with the seller (separated from her mother).

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. First few lines only. Involves a female broker (al-dallāla).

Legal fragment.

Deed of sale, probably. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment. "The large dār with the square door" in Qaṣr al-Rūm.

Deed of sale, probably. Fragment.

Legal document. Small fragment. Containing the first words of 15 lines. Likely a deed of sale, as it is describing the location and boundaries of a property.

Letter addressed to Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav ha-Gadol. In Judaeo-Arabic. Small fragment. Concerning a cantor Ibn [...].

Legal query with Avraham Maimonides' autograph responsum and signature. Description from Penn Catalog: "The recto contains three related inquiries, in three separate paragraphs. Each of the inquiries is signed with the common salutation ושכרו כפול מן השמים; In the remaining exterior edge of the lower two thirds, written lengthwise to fit the open space, is R. Abraham's six-lines of reply, probably in his own hand. The reply starts with the headline אלגואב and is signed אברהם ברבי משה זצ״ל; The inquiry deals with the debt of an unnamed widow. Published from this source in the edition edited by Goitein and Freimann: Teshuvot / Avraham ben ha-Rambam ; Abraham Freimann and S. D. Goitein [editors]. Jersualem : Meḳitse nirdamin, 1937, p 202-204, item no. 118; The folio has been folded lengthwise into two halves, after the primary inscriptions. The verso bears a secondary inscription that fits this fold. It contains two columns of Hebrew poetry; The right column is filled by a poem in honor of a prince named Joshua, that starts מה תצרי מה תרחבי. Published from this source by Israel Davidson: Ginze Shekhṭer. New York : Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1928-1929, v. 3, p. 307-308; The left column, ll. 1-5 is a short poem that starts צורי חסדיך, published, from a different source, by S. Wertheimer: Sefer Zikhron le-rishonim ṿele-aḥaronim / Solomon Aaron Werthaimer. Yerushalayim : Bi-defus ha-Aḥim Solomon, 1909, part 3, p. 6a; Followed by Judah ha-Levi's יפה נוף (in H. Brody's: Diṿan / Yehudah ha-Leṿi (Judah, ha-Levi) ; Heinrich Brody [ed.] Berlin : Ḥevrat Meḳits nirdamim, 1910-, v. 2, p. 167 and also in Harkavy's edition: Yehudah ha-Leṿi / Albert Harakvy [ed.]. Ṿarsha : Aḥiasaf, 1893-1895, v. 1, p. 7); Under the heading אחר מאברם בן אזרא ז"ל, Abraham ibn Ezra's לאלהים כלתה נפשי (in the Diwan of Abraham Ibn Ezra: Diṿan le-Rabi Avraham ben Ezra / Aḳiva ben Yosef Eger [ed.]. Berlin, 1886, p. 187)."

Beginning of a ketubba, 870 CE. (Or 871 CE?) "The oldest dated Genizah document. A draft of a ketubah, in which the writing is interrupted after the date in the seventh line, probably because the day in the month is mistaken: 17 Tishre 1183 Seleucid, which is (שבת אשר בתשרי [...] אלפא ומאת ותמנ״ן מציון ותלת), Seleucid year (לשתרות)." Information from Penn Catalog.

Recto: Marriage contract (or renewal of a marriage contract?). Location: Fustat. Date: 13[..] Seleucid, which combined with the fact that the document on verso was signed by Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva, suggests not long before 1088 CE. Groom: Manṣūr b. Moshe ha-Kohen. Bride: Zayn bt. Aharon ha-Mumḥe. Early marriage gift: 10 dinars. Delayed marriage gift: 5 dinars. Dowry: 1/4 house worth 30 dinars, outfit worth 30 dinars. Verso: Addendum in the hand of Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva (who also signs). The wife, Zayn, sells the 1/4 house, receives 30 dinars, and releases (her husband; not expressly said, but since it was included in the ketubba, must be him). Two others sign: Moshe b. David ha-Levi and Ṣemāh b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. There are a few phrases in Arabic script on verso (only on Halper 333); one of them appears to be about love (perhaps the superiority of old love over infatuation? ويا عشقي القديم على...). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards; Halper catalgoue; and CUDL.)