Legal document: T-S G1.21
Legal document T-S G1.21Description
Two drafts, in two different hands, of legal queries concerning whether a teacher who took an oath not to teach his clients can be released from his oath. Recto: a teacher went to a party (daʿwa) with a group of people. There he complained about how little money he made. The father of some of his students was present; he was asked how much he paid the teacher, and he gave an unsatisfactory answer. The teacher took an oath not to teach any children of his again. The teacher was apparently tipsy but not drunk (وكان المعلم قد اخذ منه الشراب ولكنه كان فائق على ما جرى فلما فاق من الشراب . . .). When he sobered up completely, he was filled with regret. The query is whether the oath can be released because (a) he was tipsy (mā kāna illā ʿalā sabīl al-mujūn), and (b) he has no livelihood other than this. Verso: a teacher of girls took an oath not to teach a certain person's daughters after getting in a fight with him and being embarrassed. Later he regretted his oath. In this case the grounds for releasing the oath are that (a) there is nobody else to teach them, and (b) it is important for his livelihood. (The description on FGP indicates that he is blind and that the girls would only take off their headscarves before him, but it's not clear where this information comes from; if from the last word of l. 5, this is difficult to read, and it's not clear what ינכשו would mean; if from the verb "inḍarra," this is probably referring to his economic distress rather than going blind.) (Information in part from Shmuel Glick via FGP.)