ثيقة شرعيّة: ENA 3958.10

الوصف

Legal document. In Arabic script. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Rajab 1244 AH, which is January 1829 CE. In the introduction to her edition, Jane Hathaway notes: "ENA 3958.10 is an abbreviated acknowledgement, or iqrār, dated 1244 AH/1829 CE, of liability for a loan by an official known as Ḫāḫām Başı (Khākhām Bāshi in Arabic). After 1835, this title referred to the Chief Rabbi of Istanbul, who, at least in theory, represented all Jewish subjects of the Ottoman sultan. The title appears sporadically before that date, but its connotations are neither clear nor consistent.... These considerations make the identification of the person called Chief Rabbi in this document problematic. The document renders his name Bārkār or Bārkāra. This name is close enough to that of the leading rabbi of Istanbul’s Jewish community at the time, Ḥayyim Yaʿḳov Benyakār, to make it plausible that the figure named in the loan agreement is, in fact, Benyakār, whose name could also be rendered Bāryakār, using the Aramaic bār instead of the Hebrew ben for ‘son of’. Benyakār led Istanbul’s Jewish community from 1800–35. Curiously, the office of Ḫāḫām Başı was officially established in the year of his death; its first holder was Benyakār’s successor as leader of Istanbul’s Jewish community.... If our document did emanate from Cairo, then Bārkār’s lender, the merchant (khwāja) Elkān Amminadab, may have been based there, as well. The guarantor of the loan, Shimʿūn Fransīs, unquestionably was. Shimʿūn was the Jewish international merchant, encountered in Ch. 3, Doc. 6 [PGPID 30998], whose company, Karo y Fransīs, had financial dealings throughout the Mediterranean between roughly 1790 and 1830. Shimʿūn’s ‘mark’ and seal are mentioned in our document but are not visible; presumably, he signed and sealed the unabridged original." (Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah, 313-316) NB: Both references to the surname of the Ḫāḫām Başı read as: ىار كاره . Future research into the nomenclature of the Ḫāḫām Başı in question should consider whether this may be a two-part surname with the patronymic Bār followed by a name bearing Iberian or Italianate linguistic influence: Bār-Kāra (Cara) or even Bār-Gāra (Gara) if the scribe was familiar with Ottoman Turkish orthography. Accordingly, the Iberian surname "Vārgāra" is not out of the question (more commonly sp. Vergara). The potential relationship of the surnames Cara and Caro/Karo in early modern Cairo also await further research. MCD.