Legal document: T-S Misc.27.4.29 + T-S AS 158.365

Legal document T-S Misc.27.4.29 + T-S AS 158.365

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Input date

In PGP since 2017

Description

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Location: Fustat. Dated: Shevaṭ 1404 Seleucid, which is January 1093 CE. Release agreement following the dissolution of a partnership ("shirka") between Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Samuel al-Baghdadī and ‘Ulla ha-Levi b. Joseph. A moneychanging shop ("dukkān al-ṣarf") – which was apparently also occupied by one Abū ‘Imrān ha-Kohen – and 750 dinars split between Syria and Fustat, are mentioned. Lieberman identifies the scribe as Hillel b. Eli. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 248.) Friedman ("Jewish Polygyny", 314–19) believes the scribe to have been Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid, based on handwriting.

Transcription

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. Testimony which took place before us—we, the undersigned witnesses—on the … day of the week,
  2. days into the month of Shevaṭ of the year one thousand and four hundred and four years, according to the count to [which] we are accustomed,
  3. in Fusṭāṭ Egypt, situated on the Nile River. Thus: (his) hon(or, our) tea(cher) and (our) master Yaḥya b. Samuel ha-Kohen
  4. and (his) hon(or, our) tea(cher) and m(aster) ‘Ulla ha-Levi b. Joseph (may his) e(nd be) g(ood) came before us, and they said to us: “There was a pre-existing partnership (shirka) between us, and we separated
  5. from it, and each of us received his due in total. Each of us released his fellow in a complete and total release,
  6. orally and with in (his) heart, in this world and in the world to come, from all types of oaths, even rider oaths. After that, we renewed
  7. a partnership (shirka) between the two of us after separating from the initial partnership (shirka). I, Yaḥyā ha-Kohen, brought out from my own assets, five hundred gold dinars,
  8. of specie, good of weight, and (our) tea(cher) and m(aster) ‘Ulla b. Joseph (may his) e(nd be) g(ood) brought out from his assets two hundred and fifty //dinars,//
  9. the total of our capital amounting to seven hundred and fifty dinars, and the amount which we have in al-Shām with Bishāra, and with
  10. Abū ‘Imrān ha-Kohen, they will … in the money-changing stand. Now, testify on our behalf and perform a qinyan with us, effective immediately, with all the appropriate legal formulae …
  11. and all the expressions of certainty and all the language of claims, and write two appropriate documents and give one copy to each of us
  12. in order that he would have a title of right and proof, in accordance with our will and desire. We testify before you w[ithout]
  13. [dur]ess or compulsion but rather with a full heart, acknowledging before you that we have separated […] which […]
  14. [from the beginning of] time until now, and each of us has released his fellow in a complete and total release, since … […]
  15. […] and nothing remains for either of us with [his fellow …]