Legal document: T-S NS J174

Description

Legal document(s). Dating: Possibly 1168 CE, based on the fact that the document was written shortly after the pillage/burning of Fustat (nahb/nawba/ḥarīq Fusṭāṭ). On recto, the parnas Sālim al-Jubaylī makes a first-person declaration making a case for his lack of liability in the loss of the 10,000 dinars that many Jews had deposited in the synagogue ('miqdash') of Fustat under his stewardship. These Jews were apparently suing him to try to recoup some of their losses in the catastrophe. On verso, there is a declaration by witnesses in support of Sālim al-Jubaylī. "Needless to say, the great pillage of Fustat in 1168, nahb misr (referred to also as the affliction, nawba, or burning), the last notorious demonstration of Fatimid impotence, is reflected in the Geniza. The districts preferred by Jews for their homes seem to have been less affected. But a loss of deposits worth about 10,000 dinars, a sum unheard of in the Geniza, shows that the community was by no means spared during that infamous sack" (Goitein, Med Soc V, p. 525).