Legal document: NLI Ar. 726

Description

Deed of sale in Arabic script. Concerns a house named "Dār al-Nakhla" in Cairo, in the Ḥārat Zuwayla neighborhood, in a place called Raḥbat Surūr al-Luʾluʾi. The document was in the possesion of the Qaraite community of Cairo in the Dār Simḥa synagogue in Ḥārat Zuwayla and was documented there by D. S. Richards in 1969, who later published the description of all the documents he found there in his 1972 article (as document no. IV). Today the document is at the National Library of Israel. On recto it is described how the amīr Shams al-Dīn Tuquz bought the entire house from Muḥāsin b. Hibba b. Thābit the Jew, his brother Abū al-Izz, and their three sisters. This happened on the 29th of Ramaḍān 684 AH (1285 CE). On verso, several additional faṣls detail further conveyances of the house: 1. On 687 AH (1288 CE) the said amīr sold back the whole house to Muḥāsin and another Jew (not Muḥāsin's brother). 2. On 688 AH (1289 CE) Muḥāsin sold half of the house to another amīr. Two more faṣls detail further purchases of parts of the house by the same amīr. On top of verso, later additional notes in Arabic and Judeo-Arabic concern the identity of the discussed house: "דאר אלנכלה... רחבה סרור אללולוי" (Dār al-Nakhla... Raḥbat Surūr al-Luʾluʾi). These are probably archival notes identifying the property discussed in the document. These notes and the fact that the document was preserved by the Karaite community suggest that the house was later endowed to the Qaraite community.