List or table: T-S Ar.51.78

Description

Informal note from a bookseller named Yefet to a Nasi. He is acting as a middleman and presenting a bill for approximately a dozen books bought by the Nasi from a third party ("the owner"). The total came out to 93.5 (black dirhams). Yefet has so far received 6 Kāmilī dirhams, and the owner has received 8. The addressee stated that he has paid another 3 nuqra (pure silver) dirhams to the owner (Allony et al read this as "13" nuqra dirhams). Yefet calculates that altogether these payments amount to 50 black dirhams less 1 and 1/8 dirham (= 48.875 dirhams). Kāmilī dirhams (approximately 33% silver content) were first minted in 1225 CE to replace the black dirhams previously in use (often less than 33% silver content). As the black dirhams were taken out of circulation, their appearance in this document is likely as a unit of account. It is hard to make the figures add up. If we assume that the Kāmilī dirhams contained 33% silver and the nuqra dirhams 100% silver, then the black dirham mentioned here has to be ~16% silver. Regardless, the sum which remains to be paid is 44 + 1/2 + 1/8 = 44.625 dirhams. (Information in part from Allony et al, The Jewish Library, pp. 218–19.)