Legal document: ENA NS 50.32

Legal document ENA NS 50.32

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In PGP since 2017

Description

Legal document. Power of attorney. Dated: November 1050. Location: Fustat. An unsigned assignment of power of attorney from Eleazar Manṣūr ("Head of the Congregations") b. Menaḥem of Aleppo to Hillel b. Avraham. Eleazar waives all right to the claim that Hillel subverted his agency, suggesting this is an unlimited power of attorney. Although documents granting unlimited power of attorney are typically granted to agents effecting marriage, this document reveals Eleazar to have been appointed to collect on an inheritance claim advanced by one Mulūk bt. Neḥuma b. Wahab, a claim described in T-S 18J2.12 (PGPID 3527) wherein Mulūk explains that her inheritance was left by her father’s wife with Tamīm; in this document, Eleazar appoints Hillel to collect Mulūk’s inheritance from "…any person at all, among them… Tamīm…" (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 86-87)

ENA NS 50.32 1

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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. [Recor]d of witness testimony which took place before us—we, the witnesses who have sealed our testimony below in this document—that (his) hon(or and) ho[liness]
  2. M(r.) master Eleazar the Elder, called Manṣūr, Head of the Congregations, b. Menahem of the town of //Aleppo// said to us, “Gentlemen, b[e]
  3. witnesses on my behalf and perform a qinyan with me, a complete and weighty qinyan, effective immediately; write and sign on my behalf using all the language of claims. Give (it)
  4. to Mr. Hillel the Elder b. Mr. Abraham known as (I)bn …Wāqa’ in order that there would be in his hand a title of right and proof after today. I [am not under]
  5. duress nor am I (in) error, nor have I gone astray, nor am I ill, nor am I forced (to do this), rather in the fullness of my mind and desire and knowledge, I declare
  6. before you in a complete and definitive declaration, a declaration made in good health, not as a deathbed declaration, in truth and righteousness,
  7. with an open heart and mouth, I declare before you that I have given to this Mr. Hillel four cubits of my land which to which I have a permanent claim
  8. and coupled thereto I have assigned him control, appointing him, assigning him and making him an agent and representative to claim from any person at all,
  9. among them (his) hon(or and) hol(iness) Mr. Tamīm b. Isaac, known as (I)bn al-‘Amm, for all that which the deceased  Ṭibān b. the Maḥūẓ al-Qummī
  10. left in Aleppo, to which Mulūk bt. Neḥuma b. Wahab, who is the wife of Mr. Joseph the Scri[be b. Manasseh]
  11. known as (I)bn al-‘Anī, who is the (woman) who authorized me, had claim; and she wrote for me on her own (behalf) this agency collection document and authorized me to appoint
  12. in my place an(other) agent to claim this legacy, giving me power to adjudicate his claim in any court
  13. that he wishes, and to extract this legacy, and to take it for himself, to cause (others) to swear and to contract, to arbitrate
  14. and to indemnify, to announce and to specify, and to respond. Everything which he does is done, as I have given him my hand, and I have placed him
  15. in my place, and his words (are considered as) my words, and his demands (are considered as) my demands, and his claims (are considered as) my claims; and everything he does is done, and he accepts upon himself everything
  16. imposed by the court. I am unable to go back and say, “(I retained you) to fulfill my (agency) and not to subvert it.”
  17. Rather, everything he does is done. Responsibility for th[is] agency collection document is as [a decree of] the Sages, (may their) m(emory be) f(or a blessing)] for it is not [like promises]
  18. and not like formularies, but rather (bears) the weight and force of all established legal agency collection documents which the Sages decreed
  19. and [which] are generally [employed] from this day forward. We, the witnesses, performed a qinyan with an item sui[table for doing so, with our teacher and] master
  20. Eleazar, called Manṣūr, Head of the Congregations, b. Menaḥem, and with Mr. Hillel b. Abr[aham, concerning] everything written
  21. [and] specifi[ed above, as a ti]tle of right and proof after today. Written on Tuesda[y] the twenty-fifth day
  22. of the mo[nth of Marḥeshvan of the year one th]ousand three hundred and sixty t[w]o, (of the Era) of Documents which we ordinarily
  23. employ in Fusṭāṭ Egypt, which is situated on the Nile River. Proper and enduring.

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  • ENA NS 50.32: Images provided by the Jewish Theological Seminary Library (JTSL) CC-Zero / Public Domain