Legal document: T-S 20.161

Description

Legal record of an inheritance, issued in the court of R. Levi b. Ḥabib in Jerusalem in September 1532 CE (3 Tishrei 5293), for the estate of the late Naṣr bt. Eliyyahu b. ʿAbd al-Waliyy Melammed, the widow of R. Fuhayd known as Barābak (?), who died without direct descendants. Her nephew, ʿAbd al-Kāfi b. Sulaymān ha-Ḥazzan—whose mother Ẓarīfa was Naṣr's sister—presented a power of attorney drawn up in Fusṭāṭ in May 1532 (7 Sivan 5292), witnessed by Yosef Abuhab and Yosef b. David Moreno, entitling him to claim the amount of the inheritance willed to him (subsequently it transpires that his aunt willed his mother Ẓarīfa and her family a full 2/3 of the inheritance, while the other 1/3 was to go to their other sister Rivka and her family). ʿAbd al-Kāfī brought a suit against Shemuel ha-Levi b. Shelomo ha-Levi, aka Shemuel Kalaḥ, the guardian/executor of the estate, to receive his share of the inheritance. Shemuel then claimed that he had already sent enough of the money to David Ḥavriya (? חבריא), who was supposed to give a portion to his wife Rivka bt. Zubayda (the other sister of Naṣr) and to give the remainder to ʿAbd al-Kāfī, who, however, didn't receive a penny. Shemuel responded that there was not enough money left from the inheritance to pay ʿAbd al-Kāfī his share (and his mother's and siblings'), but there was enough if he made up the difference with property and jewelry and clothing. The document continues for another 100 lines or so, detailing all the different denominations of currency that Shemuel handed over to ʿAbd al-Kāfī, along with all the jewelry, clothing, and other items (with a detailed inventory of 70 items of mainly clothing appearing in a separate list on the facing page). However, of these items, some were to go to David Ḥavriya, and the jewelry in particular was put in a bag and sealed with the seal of Ovadya Kohen, and ʿAbd al-Kāfī had to take an oath not to open it until the pair of them could go through it together in Fusṭāṭ under the supervision of Shemuel ha-Levi b. Ḥakīm. Among the currencies named are gold Sholali peraḥim and gold Ibrahimi peraḥim, respectively coins minted in the mint of R. Yiṣḥaq Sholal and Avraham Castro. Information largely from Avraham David's description on FGP