Legal document: ENA 2727.23a

Legal document ENA 2727.23a

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Shelfmark
ENA 2727.23a
Editor
S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.
Primary Language
Judaeo-Arabic

Tags

Input date

In PGP since 2017

Description

Legal document. Commenda. Following the Talmudic isqa method whereby the agents have some responsibility for losses, the active partner or partners (Abū Sa‘d and his son Abū al-Ma‘ānī) collect 2/3 of the profit and bear equal responsibility for losses, while the investor Abū Naṣr collects 1/3. The divison of losses is not clear due to the manuscript's deterioration. While Udovitch (1970, pg. 239) suggests that the fact that the active partner in a qiraḍ bears no liability for loss is ideal for long distance trade, the partners in this agreement seem to plan to travel and still use the Talmudic model rather than the qirāḍ. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 45-47)

ENA 2727.23a 1

1

Transcription

S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.
  1. חצר אלינא אנן ח]תומי מטה אלשיך אבו אלמעאוי מר ור
  2. ]ן הלוי הזקן היקר נע וולדה אבו סעד
  3. וקאלו לנא אקנו] מנא ואשהדו עלינא בגמיע אלאלפאט
  4. אלמחכמה . . . . ]א ותסלמנא מן אלשיך אבו נצר בן אלשיך טייב
  5. ]ה כליל היופי בר מר ור טוביה הזקן היקר נע
  6. ] אתני עשר דינארא עינא מצריה גיאדא
  7. ] וזנה עלי חכם אלקראץ בתורת עיסקא עלי
  8. ] אלמדכור אלי אי אלקים אן ארדנא ואכתרנא
  9. ]אר אמתתלנא נביע ונשתרי ונאכד ונעטי
  10. ] ידה כאן ללשיך אבו נצר אלמדכור אלתלת ולנא
  11. ] אלגראמה ואן נחן פי מא נתצרף פי הדא אלק
  12. ] נבדל אלגהד פי מא נתצרף פי דלך חסב //מא// יסבב
  13. ] אלשיך אבו נצר אלמדכור באעלאה אקנו מני
  14. ] אלמבלג אלמדכור לאבו אלמעאני וולדה אלמדכורין
  15. ] אלשטר והו אן להם אן יסאפרו אלי אי בלאד
  16. ]פאידה ולי אלתלת כמא דכר וכדלך אלגראמה
  17. ]ל ואחד מן אבו אלמעאני וולדה אבו סעיד ומן יד
  18. ] הכשר לקנות בו בלשון מעכשיו ברצונם בלי אונס
  19. ]ל כל מא דכתיב ומפורש לעילא מא מלחק ודן קיומה
  20. ש]ריר ובריר וקיים

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. The Elder Abū al-Ma‘ānī … (our) tea(cher) and m(aster) …
  2. […] the Levi the beloved Elder (who) r(ests in) E(den,) and his father Abū Sa‘d
  3. [came before us—we, the un]dersigned—[and they said to us, “Perform a qinyan] with us, and testify concerning us, using all the appropriate legal formulae
  4. [and all the expressions of certainty, and all the language of claims, that we have accepte]d and received from the Elder Abū Naṣr b. the Elder Ṭayyib
  5. […] Crown of Beauty b. (our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Tobias the beloved Elder (who)  r(ests in) E(den)
  6. […] twelve dinars of good and [correct, precisely-]weighed Fusṭāṭ coinage
  7. by way of a commenda subject to the laws of partnership (torat ‘isqa), upon
  8. […] the aforementioned, to any locale that we wish and we choose
  9. […] he appointed us to sell and buy and transact
  10. [… and from whatever God facilitates in terms of profit,] the Elder, the aforementioned Abū Naṣr, will have one third, and we
  11. [will have two thirds. Likewise, if—God forbid—there were] a loss. We, in that which we will administer this commenda
  12. [...] we will compensate the effort in that which we manage according //to what// is produced
  13. [...] The aforementioned Elder Abū al-Naṣr [said to us,] “Perform a qinyan with me,
  14. [and testify concerning me that I have given] the aforementioned amount to Abū al Ma‘ānī and his father, mentioned
  15. [in thi]s document. If they would travel to any country
  16. [… The two of them will have two thirds of the] profit, and I will have one third, as is mentioned; and likewise, with a loss.
  17. [We performed a qinyan from] both Abū al-Ma‘ānī and his father Abū Sa‘d, and from
  18. [the aforementioned Abū Naṣr, a complete and weighty qinyan, with an item] suitable for doing so, from now, in accordance with their will, without any sort of compulsion
  19. [nullifying all secret dispositions and conditions] concerning everything written and stipulated above. A codicil: “This is its confirmation.”
  20. [Everything is pr]oper and clear and enduring.

ENA 2727.23a 2

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https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/2634/