Legal document: T-S 6J2.1

Description

Recto: Levirate case in which a widow appoints an attorney to sue her brother-in-law with the demand either to marry or to free her. Zayn al-Dār bt. Zekharya, the widow of Yefet b. Shela Muqaddasī, appoints Meʾir b. Yakhin to sue the brother of her late husband to make him come to Alexandria to marry or repudiate her. Witnessed by the teacher Zekharya b. Ḥalfon. Dated: 20 Sivan 4800 + 164 = 4964 AM = 28 May 1204 CE. Regarding the dating: the dating clause is written clearly, but there's a key to interpreting it. Ashtor interpreted it incorrectly as (5)164 (AM) = 1404 CE (History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the Mamluks, vol. 3, p. 100 n. 2). Goitein corrected Ashtor's reading to 1204 because, as with many other 13th century documents in the geniza, you have to add 4800 to the stated date, so 4964 AM = 1204. To write 4964 in Hebrew, you would have to use a lot of characters, since the alef-bet only covers up until 400. So 4964 would be דתתקסד (that is, 4(000) + 400 + 400 + 100 + 60 + 4). But since in 1204, everyone knew the 4000 + 400 + 400 part, they just omitted it and wrote 164. So the document dates to 1204. Verso is a note from Meʾir (probably Meʾir b. Yakhin) to Rabbi Yosef requesting 'the notebook of the siyyum' and certain other piyyuṭim. The Judaeo-Arabic term פזמאן appears here (for Hebrew פזמון).