Legal document: T-S AS 91.142

Description

Bifolio with multiple records in Hebrew. Location: Cairo. Dated in multiple entries as 1569–1570 CE. The entries are heavily edited and thus may be drafts that were later copied into the final version a Rabbanite communal court register. However, a relatively complete Karaite court register from the same time period (~1560–1575) in Cairo bears many edits and incomplete drafts (Yevr.-Arab. I 328). Transcription/description in-progress Recto, right side: (Record #1) Partnership agreement in an Ottoman tax farm (iltizām), probably comprising a sublease. Dated: 14 Ḥeshvan 5331 AM (1570 CE). Shelomo b. Raṣon Kohen appoints Yiṣḥaq b. חוי׳ Tūnsi as a partner in the tax farm with a two-thirds stake, leaving himself a one-third stake. This agreement is probably a sublease for a tax farm whose principal lessee is Ṣākī/Ṣārī(?) Ḥasan, who is listed as a member of the Ottoman Müteferrika military regiment. The portion of the tax farm that Shelomo Kohen and Yiṣḥaq Tūnsi agree to run together is a "moneychanging" opeartion (ṣarf) of some kind, but the related keywords have erratic spellings. The ṣarf might be run out of a shop, or multiple shops, based on the words (?)חציוט/חניוט and (?)לחאנות in ll. 1, 7. (Record #2) Divorce agreement between Shalom ʿAlū.n and Ḥabība bt. Aharon Ṭarābulusī. Shalom testifies that, when the couple married, he was not aware that his wife had violated biblical prohibitions (שהיא מחייבי לאוין) and thus now seeks to divorce her. The couple agrees to a weekly ketubba payout amount until the tosefet portion of Ḥabība's ketubba is paid off in full. Recto, left side: (Record #3) Debt acknowledgment draft agreement between Moshe b. ʿImannuʾel Kohen and Yiṣḥaq b. Nafatalī Ashkenazi. Due to the scribe's heavy editing and varied spelling the details of the agreement are not entirely clear. Yiṣḥaq Ashkenazi commits to serve as guarantor (ערבן) for a debt before the "head of the ministers and the judge." This venue is later described as a "dīwān" in line 7, possibly providing a clue that this is the governor's court of Cairo given the mention of both legal and administrative personnel (i.e. al-Dīwān al-ʿĀlī). Other aspects of the agreement may involve clothing, based on the repeated usage of the Hebrew verb לבש which is somehow related to the word(s) variably spelled: המקאטעה and המראעה/המקאעה. This term מקאטעה can be used to refer to an Ottoman tax farm (مقاطعة) but this does not seem to fit the context of the legal agreement. The word רופא in line 18 is probably "clothing" in Ladino rather than "physician" in Hebrew. Requires further examination. Verso, right side: (Record #4) Drafts of an agreement regarding the sale of cheese where the term appears as Judaeo-Arabic גבן instead of Hebrew גבינה. A certain Yaʿaqov Ben-Raqbān (or Ben-Zebulon?) agrees to a variety of exclusionary clauses about where, when, and for how much he can sell cheese, e.g. "he cannot sell kaşkaval cheese outside the neighborhood (חארה)" (חארה possibly = Jewish quarter of Cairo). In addition to kaşkaval cheese "water buffalo cheese" is also mentioned as a specific type "jubn [...] jāmūsī." There may be at least one other type of cheese mentioned in the third draft: גבן כשכבל וימבנר // גבן [...] גאמוסי וימבנר. Both surnames that Yaʿaqov is listed with are very uncommon and may account for the scribe's uncertainty on how to spell them (unless the entries are for different people). Verso, left side: Engagement (shiddukhin) contract draft. Dated: 28 Tishrei 5331 AM (1570 AM). Location: Cairo. The engagement is between Sālim b. Khalfūn Ḥamiera(?) (חמיירה) and Ḥaḍriyya bt. ʿOvadiya Miṣrājī, who is a widow from a previous marriage. Both the prospective bride and groom's names/surnames are uncommon in the Cairo Geniza. The Mustaʿrabī Synagogue is also mentioned as part of the engagement conditions a few lines later. Ḥaḍriyya has an "orphan" son from her previous marriage that Sālim agrees to support as part of the conditions. The wedding date is set for the coming month of Kislev (making this less than a two-month engagement). Requires further examination. ASE/MCD