List or table: ENA 3931.14

Description

Communal account in Arabic script. "The sum that was collected for the curtain (sitr)" or "curtains (sutur)": 50 dirhams. This may be referring to the parokhet in the synagogue given the communal context. On curtains in general, see Goitein, Med Soc IV, pp. 117–23. Of the 50 dirhams which were collected, the following sums were earmarked, 'in the hand of the Rav and in the presence of the judges': 10 dirhams for Tamīm, 3.5 dirhams for laundering the [...] of the brocade curtain (al-sitr al-dībāj), 3.5 dirhams for laundering the two white covers (? ghiṭāʾayn); 1 dirham for the price of silk; 3 dirhams for the price of dye; 24.5 dirhams for the dyer; 1.5 dirhams for "unstitching" (fatq) of the curtain in the hand of Yūsuf the tailor; and 2 dirhams for laundering the [...] of the old curtain. The subtotals only add up to 48 dirhams; it is possible something has been read incorrectly. Holes: Has the usual closely-spaced holes in the margin, but two interesting features: the verso has a very light-colored strip at the margin, presumably where the paper was inside a binding and not exposed to oxygen; and the holes are unevenly spaced, suggesting that it was sewn into a binding not once but twice.