Manuscript Responsum to Permit an Agunah by Rabbi Masoud Chai Ben Shimon - With Responsum by Rabbi Aharon Mendel ...

Manuscript Responsum to Permit an Agunah by Rabbi Masoud Chai Ben Shimon - With Responsum by Rabbi Aharon Mendel HaKohen - Cairo (Egypt), 1907 - "We Have a Tradition… That the Conversion of a Muslim Heralds the Beginning of the Redemption"
Manuscript responsum to permit an agunah, by R. Masoud Chai Ben Shimon - a rabbi of Egypt, with a responsum by R. Aharon Mendel HaKohen - Ashkenazi rabbi of Egypt. [Cairo, ca. 1907].
Comprehensive halachic study of a case of a Muslim who coveted a beautiful and poor orphaned Jewish girl. To that end, he succeeded in tricking the Beit Din and converted under a fictitious name. His conversion was insincere, and he continued practicing Islam and declaring himself a Muslim. The manuscript describes how he married the girl and later abandoned her as an agunah.
The manuscript begins with a copying of a testimony received on the affair, dated Av 1907, with the copied signatures of the dayanim who received the testimony: R. Masoud Chai Ben Shimon, R. Avraham Fresco and R. Aharon Mendel Baharan HaKohen. This is followed by a lengthy responsum signed by R. Masoud Chai Ben Shimon, and a copying of a responsum by R. Aharon Mendel HaKohen. The rabbis annul the fictitious conversion and the marriage, and permit the girl to remarry.
In his responsum, R. Aharon Mendel explains that the rabbis were hasty in accepting the conversion, since converts from Islam are rare, and states: "We have a tradition… that the conversion of a Muslim heralds the beginning of the redemption".
Eventually, the rabbis succeeded in getting the runaway husband to give his wife a get.
R. Aharon Mendel HaKohen (1866-1927), outstanding Torah scholar and author. Served as Ashkenazi rabbi of Cairo for thirty years. He is particularly renowned for his efforts to reinstate Semichah.
R. Masoud Chaim Ben Shimon (1869-1925), leading dayan in Egypt and later chief rabbi of Egypt.
[23] leaves (approx. 44 written pages). 20.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and wear. Without binding. Seven final leaves from a different copying of the responsum. These leaves are detached, with margins trimmed affecting text.