Legal document: ENA NS 21.1

Legal document ENA NS 21.1

Tags

Input date

In PGP since 2017

Description

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 1248-1249. Location: Fustat. This document describes a partnership in a sugar-factory. It's likely the document is a draft because it lacks the signatures of witnesses, and because it uses “So-and-So” ("Pl[oni] ben Pl[oni]") in place of the partners’ names throughout. However, the level of detail which is included suggests that this was not simply the page out of a formulary work. The partnership may have been an apprenticeship since only one of the partners is described as bringing assets to the partnership, the distribution of profits is not even between the partners but rather grants one partner two-thirds of the profit despite the fact that both partners are active in trading, and the partnership itself is to last “a number of years”. Lines 14-15 read “And if So-and-So requests [this] of us, we will affix our signature”, suggesting that perhaps sometimes partnership agreements were formed without witnesse. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 85)

ENA NS 21.1 1

1

Transcription

S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.
  1. נ]קול נחן אלשהוד אלואצעין כטוט[נא
  2. אכר הדא [אל]סטור אן נחן נעלם
  3. ונתחקק ונשהד אן פל בן פל
  4. בן פל אשתרכא פי מטבך ס[כר
  5. מן סנין עדידה ודלך אן פל
  6. אכרג מן מאלה צ דינ מצריה דפע
  7. דלך לפ ועקדא אלשרכה עלי אן
  8. [[ב.]] מהמא תחצל מן אלפאידה
  9. כאן לפ מנה אלתלת ולפל אל
  10. תלתין ואן כאן חס וש גראמה
  11. חכמהא כדלך ונשהד באן נחן מצאשרין
  12. להמא מתצרפין כלאהמא פי אלמטבך
  13. פי אלביע ואלשרא ואלאכד ואלעטא
  14. אלי אכר וקת תאריכה פלמא ראם מנא
  15. פל ו. . . כטוטנא במא קד עלמנא
  16. . . . . . . . . .] פעלמנא לה דלך פי אלעשר
  17. אלאול מן שהר . . . . . . . . .[. . . . .
  18. אתקס לש. .[. . . . . . . . . . .
  19. נילוס .[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  20. כתבו [. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  21. ליכ[ון . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  22. ס. .[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

right margin, straight line at 90 degrees to main text

ולם נעלם שי בכלאף דלך

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] say—we, the witnesses who have placed [our] signature
  2. at the bottom of this [doc]ument—that we attested
  3. and confirmed and testified that So-(and-So) b. So-(and-So) [and So-and-So]
  4. b. So-(and-So agreed to) collaborate in a su[gar-]factory
  5. for a number of years. Thus, So-(and-so)
  6. brought out 90 Fusṭāṭ din(ars) from his assets, paying
  7. that to So-(and-So). The two of them contracted the partnership (shirka) such that
  8. whatever it achieves in terms of profit,
  9. one-third therefrom will be for So-(and-So) and So-(and-So) will have
  10. two-thirds. If, God for(bid,) there be a loss,
  11. its ruling will be likewise. We testified—we, directing
  12. the two of them to have free right of disposal in the factory
  13. concerning buying and selling and transacting,
  14. until the last moment of the (terminal) date (of the partnership). If So-(and-So) requests (this) of us,
  15. we will affix our signature to that which we attested
  16. […] We attested to this in the
  17. first ten-day period of the month of …[… of the year]
  18. 1560 (of the Era) of Docu[ments, in Fusṭāṭ Egypt, situated on]
  19. the Nile R[iver …]
  20. They wrote […]
  21. in order that there would be [in his hand a title of right and proof]
  22. S…[…]

Right margin

  1. We did not know of anything contradicting this

ENA NS 21.1 2

2
Image Permissions Statement
  • ENA NS 21.1: Images provided by the Jewish Theological Seminary Library (JTSL) CC-Zero / Public Domain