Medieval History
In April 1143, a well off Egyptian woman made some out-of-the-ordinary requests from her deathbed.
Anyone who elects to leave instructions in a will obviously has something to bequeath that is worth recording. After S.D. Goitein discovered numerous testaments in the Cairo Geniza, he published the texts of a number of wills in the Sefunot annual in their original Judaeo-Arabic with his Hebrew translation, and some appear in English in his five-volume work, A Mediterranean Society (i.e. see vol. 5:153-155 for the case below).
The wife of Abu Nasr, a highly successful merchant from Aleppo, made a deathbed statement in April, 1143. Her family, namely her parents and brother, all resided in the three-story house that she owned.
Two years earlier, this building had been given to her as a gift by her father, Abu ?l-Muna, who had been careful about legalizing the transfer and documented the transaction with the Muslim authorities. This gift included the clear condition that as long as he, his wife and son lived, they could never be evicted from the apartment on the third floor. He made certain to have his son-in-law present when this stipulation was made, so that it could not be changed or challenged at a later date. If the two men were to have a falling out, it would not be farfetched to imagine that Abu Nasr might attempt to be rid of his in-law?s presence.
Click here to read this article from The Jerusalem Post
See also Bodleian Libraries Cairo Genizah collection now available online
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Medieval History
A deathbed will from medieval Cairo
Anyone who elects to leave instructions in a will obviously has something to bequeath that is worth recording. After S.D. Goitein discovered numerous testaments in the Cairo Geniza, he published the texts of a number of wills in the Sefunot annual in their original Judaeo-Arabic with his Hebrew translation, and some appear in English in his five-volume work, A Mediterranean Society (i.e. see vol. 5:153-155 for the case below).
The wife of Abu Nasr, a highly successful merchant from Aleppo, made a deathbed statement in April, 1143. Her family, namely her parents and brother, all resided in the three-story house that she owned.
Two years earlier, this building had been given to her as a gift by her father, Abu ?l-Muna, who had been careful about legalizing the transfer and documented the transaction with the Muslim authorities. This gift included the clear condition that as long as he, his wife and son lived, they could never be evicted from the apartment on the third floor. He made certain to have his son-in-law present when this stipulation was made, so that it could not be changed or challenged at a later date. If the two men were to have a falling out, it would not be farfetched to imagine that Abu Nasr might attempt to be rid of his in-law?s presence.
Click here to read this article from The Jerusalem Post
See also Bodleian Libraries Cairo Genizah collection now available online
- Israeli Library Unveils Medieval Manuscript Collection Discovered In Afghanistan
A trove of ancient manuscripts in Hebrew characters rescued from caves in a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan is providing the first physical evidence of a Jewish community that thrived there a thousand years ago. On Thursday Israel's...
- Second Oldest Case Of Prostate Cancer Discovered In Egyptian Mummy
Recent radiological findings led by experts from the American University in Cairo may potentially dispel the long held-belief that cancer is a man-made, modern-day disease. With the diagnosis of the first real case of prostate cancer in a mummy, researchers...
- Israel Computer Solves Jigsaw Of Letters, Prayers Scattered For Centuries
Thousands of fragments of centuries-old Jewish texts, from shopping lists to historical documents, are being joined together using new software. The scraps of the Cairo Genizah being cataloged include a letter from a wife complaining about her husband...
- Computers Piece Together Scattered Medieval Scrolls
It's like something out of "The Da Vinci Code": Hundreds of thousands of fragments from medieval religious scrolls are scattered across the globe. How will scholars put them back together? The answer, according to scientists at Tel Aviv University,...
- Egyptian Museum Attacked, Artifacts Damaged
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