قائمة/جدول: ENA NS I.50

الوصف

List of communal funds dated 1651 (Iyyar 5411 AM) that may relate to stipends allotted for Torah study given the fact that the verso mentions haspaqa (הספקה) in Cairo (or perhaps all of Egypt: "יד אלבעלי תורה אלדי כאנו במצר ען אל הספקה"). The alphanumerical figure following this account heading is 750 (תשנ) which tentatively can be read as the total number of people who received haspaqa in Egypt or Cairo c. 1651-52 CE. This number seems somewhat high to have applied to just Cairo and might also include Torah scholars from Alexandria and Rosetta (Rashīd) which appear collectively in the final line of figures Toward the bottom of the recto. At least one other account listed on the recto refers to a collective group "מערבים" i.e. "Maghrebi" congregation(s). Some entries also include mention of unnamed study(?) partners (שותפו), such as: "Moshe Villisid and his partner" and "Yaʿacōv Zagadon and his partner." At least two of the names mentioned include the professional title "ṣayrāfī" (accountant/moneychanger) rather than the individual's surname. The list on the recto features several well-known rabbis of seventeenth-century Egypt and, more broadly, is an invaluable source given the level of detail it offers for Rabbanite Jewish communal membership in seventeenth-century Egypt. MCD.