Legal document: Moss. VII,58.1

Description

Verso: Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: Late 13th century CE according to Lieberman, but in fact probably closer to 1230 CE (the date of recto). Location: Fustat. The scholar (ha-talmid) Moshe b. Ṭahor partners with Abū Saʿd b. Abū l-ʿAlā al-Ṣabbāgh in an apothecary shop. Moshe is paid 6 dirhams a month agrees to work for a year and a half. His wage is guaranteed by Abū Saʿd’s father Abū l-ʿAlāʾ (ll.7-8). Because of the guarantee of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ, three qinyanim are performed: Moshe's agreement to work, Abū Saʿd’s agreement to pay, and the guarantee of Abū l-ʿAlāʾ’. Although the parties’ relationship is described as a partnership, Moshe's wages being fixed suggests an employment agreement, though likely not an apprenticeship, both because Moshe is not a youth (line 5 alludes to his five sons) and is said to manage or set up the store. The date and signatures are missing from the document in its current state of preservation, though T-S NS J405 (PGPID 26473) reveals Abū Saʿd agreeing to repay a debt of some eight hundred dirhams from November 1275. Perhaps Abū Saʿd had come upon difficult times and needed the guarantee of his father in order to convince Moshe to manage the apothecary shop. Note: Abū al-ʿAlāʾ's guarantee is for fulfillment of the obligation “to the store”, suggesting a sense of corporate identity ascribed to the store and its creditors. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", 100)