Legal document: ENA NS 17.31
Legal document ENA NS 17.31Tags
Description
Legal document. Court record. Dated: 1084. Location: Fustat. This document contains a partial court record of a partnership between Yefet b. Wad‘a and Abū Zikrī. While Abū Zikrī was away travelling, Yefet invited Sa‘āda to join the partnership, for which Sa‘āda was to be paid 1.5 dirhams each day. Sa‘āda purchased henna for the partnership, and he called the court to validate his testimony that the value of the henna had dropped. As Yefet both invited Sa‘āda to the partnership in the absence of Abū Zikrī and agreed to pay him a daily wage, he appears to have been either the senior partner or a passive investor, while Abū Zikrī and Sa‘āda are active partners. Given that Yefet has invited Sa‘āda to join the extant partnership (instead of contracting a new partnership with Sa‘āda) Yefet and Abū Zikrī likely both had capital investments in the intial partnership, and Yefet had the task of investing the joint capital while Abū Zikrī pursued other trading opportunities. Unusually, the agreement between Sa‘āda and the other two partners required him to take an oath attesting to partnership accounts should the partnership assets lose value. The remainder of the document (lines 8-28) is a draft of a marriage agreement of a couple who were divorced in Tyre and subsequently reconciled in al-Mahalla. It provides specifics as to the dowry (including money, textiles and clothing, a drinking cup, and a mirror) but lacks the names of the relevant parties. This fragment may have been a page from a notary’s register. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 75-76)
Edition: Goitein, S. D.
Translation: Ackerman-Lieberman, Phillip (in English)
ENA NS 17.31 2
Transcription
S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.- בחמשה בשבה דהוא עשרין ושיתה יומין בירח
- ניסן דשנת אלפא ותלת מאה ותשעין וחמש שנין למנינא
- דרגיליננא ביה בפסטאט מצרים דעל נילוס נהרא מותבה
- חצר יפת בן ודעה בבית דין ושהד באנה אגתמע מע
- סעאדה מן בעד ספר אבי זכרי ואנה סאל סעאדה
- ען שרכתה מע אבי זכרי וקאל לה אנה אגרי לי דרהם
- ונצף פי כל יום ואן ענדי חנא בתלתה דנאניר אלקנטאר
- הו יסוא אליום דינ ואחד ונצ ואן ימין בימין כן הוה הוך פל
- בר פל הוה נסיב לפ בר פל במדינת צור וגירשה
- ותסלמת גטה מניה וחזר ופיסה בעיר אלמחלה דעל
- נילוס נהרא מותבה . . . אמר לה //הואי לי// לאנתו כדת
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .] מסובריתן [. .
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]
- . . . . .] ושמעתיה פל דא והות ליה לאינתו [. . . . .
- . .[. .]ה עשרין וחמשה זוזי דכספא מ[. . . . . .
- דחז[ון לה מדאו]ריתא כד. . .לוה. . . . .[. . . . . .
- . . . . . .] על כתובתא דא עשרין וח[משה . .
- . . . .] יהב לה מנהון חמשה דינרי [. . . . . . . . .
- עלאי עשרין דינרי דדהבה . .[. .]. .[. . . . . . . .
- הנדוניא די הנעלת עלוהי מבית . .[. . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . . . .]. . . . . . פצה שוין . . . . . . .
- . . . . . . . . . . . .] תוב דביקי ביאץ גדיד מכלף שרב
- ונצפין ארדיה //שון// תוב דביקי סמאוי ארע מעאגר
- . . . . . . . דינ חד רדי ואיזאר לנום מכדתין דינ
- מרתבה טאסה . . מראה נצ . . . והואי כלל
- . . .תא.א מוהרי ותוספתא ונדוניא שבעין דינרין דדהב
- וארבעה דינרין דדהב ועשרין וחמשה זוזי דכספא
- [[ואירכהא כתוב. . וקבלת לה ב.]]
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
- On Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of the month
- of Nisan of the year one thousand three hundred and ninety-five years according to the count
- to which we are accustomed, in Fusṭāṭ Egypt, situated on the Nile River,
- Japheth b. Wad‘a came to the court and testified that he had joined with
- Sa‘āda after the journey of Abū Zikrī, and that he had invited Sa‘āda
- to his partnership (shirka) with Abū Zikrī, and said to him that “he allocated to me a dirham
- and a half each day. I had henna which (cost) three dinars a qinṭār,
- which today is worth one din(ar) and a ha(lf),” swearing an oath. Thus: this So-(and-So)
- b. So-(and-So) who was a kinsman of So-(and-So) b. So-(and-So) came in the town of Tyre and he divorced her
- and she received his geṭ from him, then he went back and appeased her, in the town of al-Maḥalla,
- situated on the Nile River … He said to her, //“Be to me// a wife, in accordance with the laws
- [of Moses and Israel … ] … […]
- […] Jewish men who serve, nourish, and esteem their women
- [faithfully.] So(-and-So) heard all this (and accepted the proposal) and became his wife [and this groom consented and gave]
- her [from] his [possessions] twenty-five silver zuz, the m[ohar of a virgin]
- which is fix[ed for her by the Tor]ah … […]
- [“And I will add for her] on top of this ketubba twenty-fi[ve]
- [dinars,”] of which he gave her from his possession five dinars, [leaving]
- twenty dinars of gold. [This ketubba] inclu[ded her mohar, and this is]
- the dowry which she brought from her father’s house … […]
- […] … silver equivalent to …
- […] new white Dabīqī linen, a patchwork cloak of fine linen,
- and two halves, a broad shawl //worth//, a (piece of) sky-blue Dabīqī linen, a wavy …
- … worth one din(ar)—an outer garment, and a shawl for sleeping worth a din(ar)
- arranged, a drinking vessel … a mirror worth ha(lf) … and let all this be
- … my mohar and the additional payment, and the dowry of seventy dinars of gold
- and four dinars of gold, and twenty-five zuz of silver
- her ketubba was lost //and I accepted it before (witnesses)// and I called witnesses to testify
ENA NS 17.31 1
