Legal document: IOM D 55.8

Legal document IOM D 55.8

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In PGP since 2017

Description

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 18 January 1061. Location: Fustat. This document initiates a partnership in the ritual washing of corpses. Sulaymān b. Ḥusayn and his son Isḥaq take on a third partner, Daʾūd b. Ḥasan (nicknamed Abū Jaʿd, "Curly"), who will receive a quarter of all revenues. The three worked in shifts, with one on duty at any given time, but the other two partners agree to work outside of their regularly scheduled shifts if necessary. Isḥaq’s share in the profits is not stipulated. All funds are to be given to Suleyman, suggesting that Isḥaq and Dāwūd may have been his apprentices. No partnership term is given. The document states explicitly that the terms of the contract are immutable. Signed by: ʿEli b. ʿAmram ha-Levi; Shemuel b. Avraham; and Surūr b. Ḥayyim Ibn Sabra. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 95)

Transcription

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. Suleyman b. Ḥasson and his son Isḥaq came to court, and
  2. Dāwūd b. Ḥasan, nicknamed Abū Ja‘d, came, in the synagogue of the Shāmiyin,
  3. and (they) testified concerning themselves that they established their service in
  4. washing their corpses for all that the community wished—day or night,
  5. they would not delay therein. They would not place conditions on the families of the deceased,
  6. nor would they refuse them. A complete qinyan was performed with them concerning this,
  7. with an item suitable for doing so. Then, Suleyman b. Ḥassūn and
  8. his son Isḥaq partnered with this Dāwūd, such that during
  9. the shift of one of them, all of them will serve therein until
  10. they finish the work, each of them on behalf of the other, with a full heart and clear intention.
  11. Of whatever God provides, small or large, Dāwūd will have a quarter,
  12. and the remainder will be for Suleyman and his son. [And] when one (of them) collects on a request (for services rendered), he will bring it
  13. to Suleyman; a quarter of it will be for this Dāwūd. None of them may violate (this agreement,)
  14. A complete qinyan was performed with them concerning this,
  15. with an item suitable for doing so. This was written on Thursday in the month of Shevaṭ,
  16. the twenty-fifth (of the month), of the year 1372 (of the Era) of Documents,
  17. in Fusṭāṭ Egypt, situated on the Nile River. ‘Alī ha-Levi b. S
  18. Samuel b. Abraham … [A]bū Ḥasan Surūr b. Ḥayyim Ibn Sabra (who) r(ests in) E(den)