Legal document: T-S Misc.28.263

Legal document T-S Misc.28.263

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Legal document. Partnership agreement (copy). Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Tishrei 1424 Seleucid = September/October 1112 CE. Same case as T-S NS 321.50. Both fragments refer to the renewal of a trading partnership worth 3,750 dinars for which profits are divided equally, and the partners are granted an allowance for their maintenance. The parties are Berakhot b. Yaʿaqov; Abū l-Wafāʾ Tamīm b. Ḥalfon. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 260.) NB: T-S Misc.28.263 is sometimes mistakenly cited as T-S Misc.28.283.

T-S Misc.28.263 1r

1r

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. [Thus:] the Elder Abū al-Barakāt (his) h(onor,) g(reatness, and) h(oliness) Berakhot the honored Elder (may) his R(ock) pr(otect him) b. (his) h(onor,) g(reatness, and) h(oliness, our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Jacob
  2. [(who) r(ests in) E(den) and Abū] al-Wafā his sister’s son (his) h(onor,) g(reatness, and) h(oliness, our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Tam[īm the] honored [E]lder and wise one b. (his) h(onor,) g(reatness, and) h(oliness our) tea(cher) and m(aster) Ḥalfōn (may his) e(nd be) g(ood) came before us and said to us,
  3. [...] a number of years, and in th[e] year 1424 (of the Era) of Documents, each of us asked of his fellow a confirmation
  4. [...] between us, and we made all the assets into a single obligation and settled our mutual accounts concerning it. We confirmed the amount which
  5. [...] the new ... thousand seven hundred and fifty dinars, and we renewed the partnership (shirka)
  6. [...] transacting with it according to his will and preference. We sent from this (amount) to the West by means of our contractual partners (muḍāribīn) 
  7. [...] from the journey by means of the contractual partners (muḍāribīn) and from the joint enterprise (mu‘āmala) of these aforementioned assets, he did it, and from us in terms of
  8. [...] therein, and from us in terms of documents written in both of our names. We did likewise in the documents as well, according to what
  9. [...] one of us prevented his fellow from doing something done by the other. All of us agreed, our intentions being upright
  10. [...] now hoping for a good result, and we have feared the matters of the moment as none of us knows
  11. [...] each of us to his fellow with the amount of his assets, and all that which we have from receipts obtained on a journey and in local business that is written
  12. [...] nor that which was in both of our names, and that which was in the name of one of us and not the other, that it would be divided between us in halves
  13. [...] even to the value of a farthing and above, whatever it be and reaching what it reached, from all that which he has
  14. [...] and merchandise and a commenda (muḍāraba) and debts and the like, everything will be divided between us in halves, exactly. None of us has
  15. [...] not required in that which his fellow does with his workers (mu‘āmilīhi), and in all that which could cause harm
  16. [...] one of us does after the period for which we have collaborated (mukhtaliṭīn), and all that which he sends and trades
  17. [...] he sells, and all the merchandise and commodities which he buys, and all that which is in his name in a document or
  18. […]in that he looks for something for himself, since the source of that money is between us, for himself, each of us half
  19. […] our lives nor for our heirs after our deaths. I, Berakhot, have brought out in the matters
  20. […] at that time, and if God facilitiates for my nephew, the Elder this Abū al-Wafā Tamīm, in the marriage
  21. […] this in … if he bought, taking it for himself … marriage, that was for him, because he was understood
  22. […from] now on concerning what we are in at first, and each of us … […] transacts with the capital
  23. […] that which he brought out from … in our names, it will be in the name of one of us from the beginning of the month of Tishri dated
  24. […] initially for the partnership (shirka), which is to be divided between us in halves, exactly. It was established between us now that something more
  25. […] in maintenance will be upon him, he will reckon that for his own maintenance, exclusive of his fellow, and he will reckon for his fellow
  26. [… be]tween us in halves, exactly, and any danger which could befall it
  27. […] from the value of a farthing or more. Testify on our behalf—I, Berakhot, and I, [Tamī]m
  28. [and write and sign concerning us using all the appropriate legal formulae and the expres]sions of certainty and all the language [of] claims, and give it to each of us in order that he would have
  29. [proof and a legal claim from today forward that we testify before you using the most certain] and perfect [expressions of affirma]tion, in our good health and freedom of will, willingly, with neither
  30. [duress nor force nor compulsion, without negligence or error, nor defect of illness within us, nor anything of the like from the factors which] nullify testimony, that we have renewed the contract for this partnership (shirka)
  31. […halv]es, exactly, each of us (receiving) a half therein for himself …
  32. […] contracted between us from Tishri of the year 1424 …
  33. […] in the West and Yemen and the Rīf and Alexandria and Fusṭāṭ in
  34. […] exactly, and we will both be active therein, and each
  35. […] and upon his heirs after his death, and all that which they stipulated
  36. […] and upon … and from how until the time we separate
  37. […] what was lost, we now attest
  38. […] he will reckon it for his fellow upon himself
  39. […] each of us alone upon his fellow, and in the hand
  40. [… not like formularies or like proto]types of documents, rather as the most certain and perfect
  41. [of that which was outlined by our Sages, (may their) m(emory be) f(or a blessing), in the like. We have also nullified all secret dispositions and conditions, and secret dispositions concerning secret dispositions, and secret dispositions which develop from secret dispositions,] to the end of all secret dispositions which may be made
  42. [for us and which we have made concerning this document …] this [Berakhot] b. Jacob (who) r(ests in) E(den) and from his sister’s
  43. [son …]  concerning everything written and specified
  44. [above …] this [Tam]īm in order that they would have in their hands
  45. [a title of right and proof …] the count to which we are accustomed
  46. [… Everything is proper and endurin]g
  47. […]

T-S Misc.28.263 1v

1v
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