Legal document: BL OR 10126(1).6
Legal document BL OR 10126(1).6Tags
Input date
In PGP since 2017Description
Legal document. Loan terms. Dated: September 1239. Location: Bilbays. Between Amram b. Ḥalfon and Avraham b. Efrayim. Initially described as commenda (qirāḍ) but re-negotiated into a loan with a fixed rate of interest at 20 dirhams on the 36 dinars of capital. Emerged both from Jewish and Islamic courts. The renegotiation is because of Abraham's failure as the active partner in the qirāḍ: under pressure from Amram in the Islamic courts, he deeds his house to Amram for the value of 36 dinars. This sale is confirmed in the Jewish courts with a codicil that Avraham can redeem the house by repaying the loan (which has an initial term of four years) within 12 years. Avraham had given Amram promissory notes prior to this sale, produced in Jewish and Islamic courts. Following the debt restructuring, a ban placed on Avraham (likely in some earlier document) by the judge Peraḥya is lifted. In this case, the ban was brought down on anyone who had information concerning the partnership yet had not come forward to testify. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 5-7)
Edition: Goitein, S. D.
Translation: Ackerman-Lieberman, Phillip (in English)
Transcription
S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.- נקול נחן אלשהוד אלואצין כטוטנא אכר הדה(!) אלמסטור אן למא כאן פי אלעש
- אלאכיר מן חדש תשרי שנת אתקנא לשטרות בעיר בלביס הסמוכה לאר
- גשן מותבה רשותי'ה דאדונינו דויד הנגיד הגדול בישראל י'הי שמו לעולם
- חצר אלינא עמרם הכהן הזקן בר חלפון הכהן נע וטלב מנא שהאדה נעלמה
- בינה ובין אלשיך אברהם הזקן בר אפרים הזקן מגרבי(!) פי אלמסאטיר אלמכתת]ב
- לה עלי'ה ו[ד]לך א.א.ל גמיע אלמבלג אלמכתתב לה עלי'ה בדיני ישראל ובדיני
- גוים קראץ תם אנתקל מן דלך אלי פאידה מתעינה יאכדהא מנה פי כל שה
- רבית דלך אלמבלג ואקאם דלך מדה ד סנין ואכד מנה רבית מתעין עשרי
- דרהם פי כל שהר תם קהרה פי תלך אלמדה וקוי עלי'ה באלותאיק אלאסלאמי'
- אלי אן כאתבה עלי אלדאר ביע נאפד בדיני גוים בסתה ותלאתין דינאר מצרי'
- ואשהד עלי'ה בדיני ישראל בשטר וקנין אנה מתי מא אוצל לה סתה ותלאתין דינא[
- עינא מצרי'ה הו וראתה פי מדה יב סנה עאד אלי'ה אלדאר הו או וראת
- וכל חגג או מסאטיר בקית לה עלי'ה בין בדיני ישראל בין בדיני גוים הי פצל
- רבא דלך אלמבלג פלמא טלב מנא אתבאת מא נעלמה ונתחקקה בינהם בע
- אטלאק אלחרם מן אלדיין אלגליל ר פרחי'ה שצ באסם כל מן יעלם בינה
- שהאדה ולא ישהד בהא פי בית דין אגבנאה עלי דלך לתהוי לי'ה ולראי
- והכל שריר ובריר וקיי
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
- We, the undersigned witnesses, say that on the last ten-day
- period of the month of Tishri of the year 1541 of (the Era of) Documents in the city of Bilbays situated near the land of
- Goshen, jurisdiction of our lord David, the great Nagid in Israel, may his name endure forever,
- the Elder Amram ha-Kohen b. Ḥalfōn ha-Kohen (who) r(ests in) E(den) came before us and requested that we produce testimony of what we knew
- concerning him and the Elder Abraham b. the Elder Ephraim Maghrebī in the writt[en] documents
- concerning what he owed him, and [th]at … the entire recorded amount concerning what he owed him, according to Jewish law and according to
- gentile law as a commenda (qirāḍ). Then it was switched to the fixed profit which he would take from him each month
- as interest on that amount, with a fixed term of 4 years. He took from him the fixed interest of twenty
- dirhams each month. Then he coerced him during this period and prevailed over him with Islamic documents
- until (Abraham) signed over the residence to him, a sale legally valid in gentile law, for thirty-six Fusṭāṭ dinars.
- He testified concerning it in Jewish law with a (valid Jewish) document and a qinyan, to the effect that whenever he paid him the thirty-six dina[rs]
- of Fusṭāṭ coinage, he or his heirs, within 12 years, the residence would revert to him or his heirs.
- Any remaining (debts in) all (promissory) notes or documents concerning what he owes him, whether in Jewish law or in gentile law, represent the remainder
- of the interest for that amount. When he asked us to confirm and verify what we we knew of what transpired between them after
- removal of the ban of the glorious judge, m(aster) Peraḥya (may his) R(ock) p(rotect him), placed on anyone who had knowledge to
- (the) testimony among them, and did not testify to this in the court, we responded to him concerning that in order that he would have it and (that it would be) a proof.
- Everything is proper and clear and enduring.