Legal document: T-S NS J185b + T-S AS 147.14 + T-S Misc.34.27 + T-S NS 304.13 + T-S NS J185a

Description

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dated: Middle decade of Ṭevet 143[.] Seleucid = 1118–28 CE. Power of attorney, granted by Abū Saʿd Seʿadʾel b. Netanʾel known as Hibatallāh al-Mawṣilī, to the agent Abū l-Bishr Yosef b. Shelomo known as Ibn al-Tawwazī (or al-Tayūzī? אלתיוזי), for the purposes of suing Saʿadya b. Yisraʾel for the dinar which he still owes, and suing the physician Berakhot b. Yeshuʿa who borrowed "the medical device called 'catheter' and never returned it." Catheters (qāthāṭīr/קאתאטיר/ قاثاطير/καθετήρ), then as now, were used for treating urinary retention and for the removal or dislodging of stones; they are mentioned by al-Rāzī and Avicenna among others; see Marwān Ibn Janāḥ, On the Nomenclature of Medicinal Drugs, ed. Gerrit Bos et al, p. 1030 (entry 898). The document is unsigned, maybe because there are a couple uncorrected errors in it (e.g., חכמה חכמה instead of חכמה חכמי). (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) Joins: Alan Elbaum and Oded Zinger.