Legal document: T-S 8J11.14
Legal document T-S 8J11.14Tags
Input date
In PGP since 1990Description
Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: ca. 1210s. Location: Fustat. This fragment preserves the right side of a partnership agreement between Ibrahīm b. Mūsā al-Māyurkī ("from Mallorca") and another Ibrahīm b. Mūsā, whose origin isn't preserved in the text. Both would contribute both financial capital and labor. Funds are brought out into a single purse, suggesting that the act of qinyan effected the partnership. Both partners are to engage in trade. The division of profit and loss is not preserved, but line 10 hints that profits and losses were to be divided equally between the two partners. Line 11 affirms the partners' mandate to "avoid betrayal and indolence and neglect", suggesting this may have been a long-distance trading partnership. The partners promise "ethical and honorable", perhaps because certain norms of behavior are expected of the partners. This does not release the partners from the "oath of partners", though, so legal recourse for misappropriation or negligence remains possible. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 185-186) Probably in the hand of the same scribe, some bearing the signature of the same witness, and some cut in half vertically like this document: T-S 13J3.25 (dated 1215), T-S 13J3.27 (dated 1218), T-S NS 226.12 (dated 1217/18 CE), MS 8254, fol. 17a (dated 1216), T-S NS J242 (dated 1214), ENA 2727.23a, and T-S 13J22.18. Another Ḥalfon b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen document: T-S 247. EMS. ASE.
Edition: Goitein, S. D.
Translation: Ackerman-Lieberman, Phillip (in English)
T-S 8J11.14 1r
Transcription
S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.- למא כאן פי אלעשר אלאכיר מחדש תשרי שנת אלפא וחמ[ש
- מצרים דעל נילוס נהרא מותבה רשותיה דאדונינו נגידינ[ו
- המערבי דגל הרבנים יחיד הדור ופלאו הנגיד הגדול ירומ הודו [
- אלשיך אברהים בן מוסי אלמאירקי ואברהים בן מוסי מן מ[
- בגמיע אלאלפאט אלמחכמה ואלמעאני אלמוכדה אן כל ואחד [
- צאחבה במאלה וגסמה באן יכרג כל ואחד מן מאלה מאיתין [
- ווזנה ואצפנא גמלה הדה אלדראהם אלי כיס ואחד ואתפקנא [
- ונשתרי ונאכד ונעטי ונתגר אתנינא חסב מא יקע [
- אללה מן אלפאידה בעד אכראג אלכלף ואלנואיב כ[
- ועיאד באללה אלגראמה ואן כל ואחד מנא יקא[
- אגתהאד ואגתנב אלכיאנה ואלכסל ואלתהאון ויעמ[ל
- אלדין ואלמרוה ולא יכיר נפסה ען צאחבה ויצ[
- שריכה ואן כל מנא פי דלך בלב שלם ונפש ח[פצה
- טאיע גיר מכרוה לא מקהור ולא מגבור לא ס[
- כל ואחד מנהמא קנין גמור בכלי הכשר לק[נות
- בלי אונס כלל בביטול כל מודעין ותנ[ ]כל [
- והכל שריר וב[ריר
- חלפון הכהן בר אלעזר הכהן נע
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
- In the last ten-day period of the month of Tishri, of the year one thousand and fiv[e hundred … years of (the Era of) Documents, in Fusṭāṭ]
- Egypt, situated on the Nile River, jurisdiction of our lord, ou[r] Nagid [ … the outstanding rav, the mighty hammer, light]
- of the West, standard of the Sages, inimitable of (his) generation and its wonder, the great Nagid, may (God) lift up his glory [and enhance his honor]
- the Elder Ibrahīm b. Mūsā al-Māyurkī and Ibrahīm b. Mūsā from […] came before us, [and said to us, “Perform a qinyan with us, write and sign]
- using all the appropriate legal formulae and the expressions of certainty, that each one [of us …]
- his fellow with his assets and his flesh, in that each one shall bring out two hundred [… dirhams] from his assets […]
- and we weighed it and combined all of these dirhams in a single purse and agreed […] the two of us [will sell]
- and buy and transact and trade according to that which happenedl [ … And that which]
- God [facilitates] in terms of profit, after covering any discrepancy and misfortune w[ill be split between us in equal halves. Likewise, then, if there were,]
- God forbid, a loss, each of us […]
- effort and avoid betrayal and indolence and neglect, and [each of us] will wo[rk on behalf of his fellow (in accordance)]
- with that which is ethical and honorable, not benefiting oneself at the expense of his fellow […]
- his partner. Each of us (proceeded) therein with a full heart and a d[esirous] spirit […]
- willingly, not pressured, nor under duress, nor compelled, nor (subject to) an[y of the factors which nullify testimony. We performed] a complete [qinyan with]
- each of them, with an item suitable [for doing so, effective immediately, in accordance with their will,]
- without any duress whatsoever, nullifying all secret dispositions and con[ditions concerning] all that [written and specified above.]
- Everything is proper and c[lear and enduring]
- Ḥalfōn ha-Kohen b. Eleazar ha-Kohen (who) r(ests in) E(den) […] … […]
T-S 8J11.14 1v
