Geniza Lab

Order of payment. In Judaeo-Arabic. "Our master al-Rayyis Abū l-Makārim" orders the addressee to give a quarter wayba (of wheat?) to Abū l-Munā. The order is summarized in Arabic script on lower right. (Information in part from JRL catalogue.)

Legal document in Arabic script. The flap on verso should likely be unfolded and read as part of recto. Needs examination for content.

Legal or official document (ṣaḥḥā bi-ism...). Perhaps involving the inheritance or heirs (ورثة؟) of Abū Isḥāq. Dated: 617 AH, which is 1220/21 CE. Needs further examination.

Order addressed to Abū l-Bahāʾ asking him to send something with the bearer.

Legal document. In Arabic script. Concerning the cultivation of cotton and berries (ashjār al-tūt) in the lands of the valley (arāḍī l-wādī). Dated: 1243 AH, which is 1827/28 CE. The document is signed and stamped. There is a filing note in Ladino(!) on verso. (Information in part from JRL catalogue.) Needs further examination.

Order. In Judaeo-Arabic. Sulaymān Kohen tells the addressee to give two ounces of lemon and rose (syrups?) to Abū l-Faraj. (This Sulaymān Kohen may be the son of Abū Zikrī Kohen; cf. Sassoon 713 and ENA NS 33.16.)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Concerning a house (... مشاعا غير مقسوم ... الدار المجاورة لها ...). Perhaps a deed of sale. Only four lines are preserved here.

Debenture bond / promissory note (ورقة سند). An adorned printed template states that this is "a debenture bond for the sum of less than 100 piaster (qirsh)," continued on the left side: "its value [is] 10 silver." Dated: 1264 AH, which is 1847/48 CE. Further information added in hand-writing: just beneath the title the equivalent of the sum in French (?) currency first in numerals: 62 ½ (?), and then in words. The signature of al-Ḥājj Ibrāhīm Khalīl appears at the end, next to a stamp. (Information from JRL catalogue.)

Order of payment in Arabic script with a Hebrew emet. From Abū Zikrī Kohen? Fragment (left side only).

Legal document in Arabic script. Likely a deed of sale for real estate. The borders are specified, including the house of ʿAṭāʾ al-Anmāṭī and the house of Ibn Qaṭāʾif.

Two legal documents concerning the same case. The first is a Muslim legal query together with the ruling/fatwā, in Arabic script. The second is a Jewish court record, in Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: [12]48 AH, which is 1832/33 CE. The legal query reads, "A Jewish woman died, and some man came and demanded a bribe from her husband and brother "as is their custom" (ʿalā ʿādatihim)" The ruling of the jurist Aḥmad al-Tamīmī al-Khalīlī al-Ḥanafī: the bribe is invalid and the husband and brother can demand their money back. The Jewish court record reports that Yiṣḥaq Levi came with a messenger from the Muslim court, presented the fatwā, and demanded a reimbursement from the community for the burial expenses for his wife. The community pays up, and Yiṣḥaq releases them from further claims. The viewpoints in the 2 documents are strikingly opposed. The Ḥanafī court apparently objects to an administrative practice within the Jewish community ("he took a bribe as is their custom"). In the Judaeo-Arabic document, Yiṣḥaq is the one presented as extorting the community with an unjust demand. There are two official seals on this document, the first belonging to the Muslim authority (Aḥmad al-Tamīmī al-Ḥanafī), the second belonging to the Jewish authority (Gabriel Yisrael). MCD. ASE.

Palimpsest. This parchment contained an Arabic legal document, which was scraped. The part on recto refers to [...] b. Yaḥyā al-ʿAfṣī (the gallnut merchant) and Abū Saʿīd the Jew. On the verso, at ninety degrees to the original text, a later hand wrote a table of names in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals, with one entry in Hebrew script possibly reading Natan b. Yona. (Information in part from JRL Catalogue.)

Order of payment. Mainly in Arabic script, with an אמת in Hebrew in the upper margin. Abū l-Faraj is instructed to pay the bearer perhaps 5 dirhams.

Deed of lease. In Arabic script. Lessor: "Shaykh al-Islām" ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad al-ʿIbādī(?). Lessee: Shemuel b. Mūsā al-Yahūdī al-Rūmī. The property is a first floor (al-ṭabaqa al-ūlā) in the glaziers' quarter (rabʿ al-zajjājīn). The period of the lease is 6 years (1113–19 AH), with the rent to be paid at the beginning of each year. The document itself is dated Rabīʿ I 1112 AH, which is 1700 CE. The witness signatures and a stamped seal appear at 90 degrees in the right margin. (Information in part from JRL catalogue.)

Legal document. Location: Tehran ('on the river Zu l-Qarnayn'). Dated: Tuesday, 16 Av 5673 AM, which is 1913 CE. Concerning the sending of a bill of divorce from Mashiaḥ/Masīḥ b. Shelomo to his wife Sulṭāna bt. Eliyya Shākī. It seems that the agent appointed to deliver the get, Yeḥezqel b. Yehuda, is appointing Nūrallāh b. Moshe to be his agent. There are witnesses listed in the document as well as witnesses underneath, and a seal in purple ink with both Hebrew and Arabic script.

The bill of divorce that is the subject of JRL Gaster heb. ms 1636/12a.

Legal fragment. Ending only. Signed: Yosef b. Shelomo. Late. There are pen trials and some Latin script below.

Upper left fragment: Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi known as Sayyid al-Kull. Mutual release or settlement of a dispute. May be an indirect join with Bodl. MS heb. d 66/112 + T-S 6J1.18.

Upper fragment: Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 1437 Seleucid, which is 1125/26 CE. Involves Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. [...], Aharon b. Yefet, and the revered judge (qāḍī) Hibatallāh. Aharon may be [Abū l-Ḥa]san (l. 5). Sums of 11, 7, and 4, dinars are mentioned. A payment is agreed upon. This fragment is very damaged. Note that the small flap beginning in line 7 is misaligned (the left side should be raised one line).

Upper fragment: Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves Abū l-Munā and [...] b. David ha-Parnas and [Shelomo?] b. Ḥayyim ha-Sheviʿī. Cf. T-S 8J4.24, not a join but potentially involving some of the same people.