Legal document: ENA 1822a.56

Legal document ENA 1822a.56

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Legal document. Partnership agreement. Location: Cairo. Dating: 1204-1237. Partnership agreement in cloth trade between Pinhas b. Elazar ha-Kohen and Moshe ha-Levi. Both partners seem to be active. Profits are to be split evenly, and each of the partners is to be trusted (that is, without requiring the testimony of witnesses) as to partnership accounting, suggesting that the partners did not spend their time together in a single location. The term of the partnership is also specified, though not preserved. The date has not been preserved, but the incomplete titles on lines 23-24 suggest that it falls during the headship of Avraham Maimuni (active between 1204-1237). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 47-49)

ENA 1822a.56 1

1

Transcription

S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.
  1. נקול נחן אלשהוד אלואצעין כט [
  2. אללה תע בין אלשיך אלסדיד כגק [
  3. מר ור אלעזר הכהן הזקן החכם [
  4. מר ור משה הלוי בר כגק מר ור [
  5. . . . .] ופיהא אלבז אכרג כל ואחד מ[נהמא
  6. . . . . . .]רייה ואצאפו דלך .צא[
  7. . . .]ת[.] ויאכדו ויעטו חסב ארבא[ב
  8. אולהא תאריך הדא אלמסטור ואבו [
  9. מן פאידה כאן בינהמא נצפין באל[סויה
  10. באלסויה ומהמא יסתגר אחדהם מ[
  11. קבאלתה ואן אנעתק אחדהם פי [
  12. אמר אלשרכה אלמדכורה או במר[ץ
  13. פי דלך אלמדה אלתי אנטאק פיהא [
  14. אלשרכה אלמדכורה ואן כל ואחד [
  15. נאמן כשני עדים כשירים ו. . .[
  16. לאזמה לה עליה בסבב הדה אל.[
  17. לכל ואחד מנהם מן צאחבה הי לה ול[
  18. כארג ען אלשרכה מכתובין פי ורקה ה[
  19. בז הם מתסאוין פיהא לם יקבלו פי אל [
  20. יד מר ור פינחס ומן יד מר ור משה ה[
  21. בלשון מעשיו ברצונם בלי אונס כלל ב[
  22. וכאן דלך פי אלעשר אלאול מחדש אדר שני [
  23. אלקאהרה הסמוכה לפסטאט מצרים דעל נ[ילוס
  24. הרב המובהק הפטיש החזק נר המערבי [
  25. ומה דהוה קדמנא כתבנא וחתמנא למהוי [

Translation

Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture: Jewish Economic and Social Life Seen Through the Legal Documents of the Cairo Geniza" (PhD diss., Princeton University, 2007).

Recto

  1. We, the witnesses whose sig[nature] appears [at the bottom of this document] said […]
  2. exa(lted) God, between the Elder, the Sound, (his) h(onor,) g(reatness, and) h(oliness) [(our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Phineas … b.]
  3. (our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Eleazar ha-Kohen, the Elder, the Sage […]
  4. (our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Moses ha-Levi b. (his) h(onor,) g(reatness,) and h(oliness, our) tea(cher) and m(aster) […]
  5. […] within which was cloth. Each of th[em] brought out […]
  6. […]… [... of Fus]ṭāṭ [(coinage) … ] and they added that and […] retained […]
  7. […]…[…] and they will transact according to the princip[als of this business …]
  8. the first of which is the date of this document. Abū […]
  9. the profit will be split between them eq[ually,] in halves. […]
  10. exactly. Whatever one of them receives fr[om…]
  11. his responsibility, and if one of them releases (himself) in […]
  12. the matter of the aforementioned partnership (shirka), or in illne[ss…]
  13. in that period mentioned therein […]
  14. the aforementioned partnership (shirka), and each one of [them…]
  15. is trusted as two proper witnesses and … […]
  16. he is obligated to him because of this […]
  17. to each of them from his fellow, it is his and […]
  18. apart from the partnership (shirka), written on th[is] paper of his […]
  19. cloth, they are equal therein. None of them will receive the [ … We performed a qinyan]
  20. with (our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Phineas and with (our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Moses the Levi … a complete and weighty qinyan, with an item suitable for doing so,
  21. orally, effective immediately, in accordance with their will, without any sort of compulsion, [nullifying all secret dispositions and conditions concerning all that which has been written and stipulated above.]
  22. This took place in the first ten-day period of the month of Adar II [of the year … (of the Era) of Documents, in the city]
  23. of Cairo, adjacent to Fusṭāṭ Egypt, [situated] on the N[ile River, the jurisdiction of our lord, our Nagid …]
  24. the outstanding Rav, the mighty Hammer, Lamp of the West […]
  25. That which took place before us, we wrote and signed in order that he would have [a title of right and proof…]

ENA 1822a.56 2

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