Legal document: T-S NS J299

Legal document T-S NS J299

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T-S NS J299
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Primary Language
Judaeo-Arabic

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  • 1 Transcription
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Legal document. In the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Unsigned. Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday, 17 Adar 1536 Seleucid = 26 February 1225 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. Concerning two members of an orphans’ court who sell certain garments through the “great simsār,” referred to here as “munādī,” market crier or auctioneer, whose compensation is termed “dilāla,” or broker’s fee. Same cluster: T-S AS 157.434 (PGPID 38900), CUL Or.1080 J64 (PGPID 8866), and T-S NS J299 (PGPID 4311). This draft is more elaborate than the final version, and provides interesting details about auctioning in the textile bazaar, as well as procedures related to orphans' property. Those offering the testimony, presumably the brokers tasked with selling this orphan's property, make careful claims about having done due diligence to fetch the highest possible price for the goods. Jewish law requires the property of orphans to be sold by the court in public (Goitein, Med. Soc. 1:193; Goitein also cites a responsum of Maimonides: ואד֗ וראו אלזקנים במצאלחתהא פלא באס באן יבאע מן אלמלך ... בעד אלתקצי פי אלנדא ואלאשהאר ... שלשים יום רצופים בבקר ובערב ומתי לם יפעל ד֗לך פאלביע מפסוך֗. (Information in part from Med Soc 1:160, 439, Emily Silkaitis, Marina Rustow and Oded Zinger)

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Fustat

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Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter
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In PGP since 2017
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T-S NS J299 1r

°
1r
Motzkin, "The Arabic Correspondence of Judge Elijah and his Family" (PhD diss., n.p., 1965), 2.
  1. חצרנא נחן אלשהוד במא יאתי ביאנה פי הדא
  2. אלזכרון וכאתמנא באכרה יום אלארבעא אלסאבע
  3. עשר מן אדר משנת אלפא וחמש מאה ותלתין
  4. ושית שנין לשטרות בפסטאט מצרים דעל נילוס
  5. נהרא מותבה רשותיה דאדוננו נגידנו אברהם הרב
  6. המובהק הנגיד הגדול ירום הודו ויגדל כבודו פי
  7. סוק מצר ובידנא מכלף ומנדיל כם מטרז אביץ ונקאב
  8. כאן סלמה לנא מן אמרנ[א] אן ננאדי עליהם ונשורהם
  9. פי אלסוק ומהמא אגאבוא [נ]שאור עליה [וס]למנאהם
  10. ללמנאדי ואגתהד חק אלאגתהאד בחצרתנא
  11. באלנדא פגאב אלמכלף ארבעין דרהמא באלדלאלה
  12. ואלמנדיל אלכם אלמטרז בעד ביאן קרץ פיה
  13. סתה עשר דרהמא באלדלאלה וגאב אלנקאב [א]חד
  14. ועשרין דרהמא באלדלאלה אלגמלה סבעה וסבעין דרהמא
  15. פרדינאהם אלי אלמנאדי איצא וחרג עליהם
  16. פלם יגיבוא אכתר מן דלך ובדלך כתבנא כטוטנא
Motzkin, "The Arabic Correspondence of Judge Elijah and his Family" (PhD diss., n.p., 1965), 2.

Recto

  1. We were present, we the witnesses, when the following, explained in this

  2. record, transpired, and we signed (this record) on the bottom (of it) on Wednesday, the seven-

  3. teenth of Ada'r, One Thousand Five Hundred Thirty

  4. Six, Seleucid Era, in Fust'a't', Cairo, which is situated on the Nile

  5. River, licensed by our Master, our Prince, Abraham, the

  6. expert rabbi, the great prince, may his glory be exalted and his honor increase, in

  7. the bazaar of Cairo. In our hands were a dressing gown, a sleeved, ornate, white kerchief, and a veil

  8. which the one who told us to auction it gave us; so we showed them

  9. in the bazaar, after we consulted about what they should yield. We then gave them

  10. to the auctioneer, who really endeavored (to sell them) in our presence

  11. by crying out. The gown yielded forty dirhems in the auction,

  12. the ornate sleeved kerchief - after subtracting agent's fees -

  13. sixteen dirhems in the auction, while the veil, yieided one

  14. and twenty dirhems in the auction. Altogether seventy-seven dirhems.

  15. We returned them also to the auctioneer and he took out of them (what was coming to him).

  16. They did not yield more than that. To this we affix our signatures.

T-S NS J299 1v

1v
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