מסמך משפטי: JRL A 436

תיאור

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location: Cairo. Dating: 3 Sivan 5562 AM (1802 CE) is the latest date mentioned in the document but the actual date in the last two lines is badly effaced: final third of Shevat 55[..] AM. The earliest this document could have been recorded, then, is Shevat 5553 (1803 CE). The mention of "the wars that do not go away" (המלחמות שאין יוצא) in line 11 is probably a chronological clue that the civil war for control over Egypt was still underway following the departure of the French expeditionary forces in 1801. Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha did not consolidate control over Cairo until the summer of 1805 and it took several more years until all of Egypt fell under his administration by 1811. The legal document is an agreement regarding the sale of items that Yiṣḥaq Ḥanūn gave as collateral for an investment partnership with Shabbetay Skandarī. Yiṣḥaq drew up the partnership on 1 Nisan 555[1] AM (1791 CE) and died during or shortly after the timespan for repayment in the original document. This later agreement lists the sale dates and prices of various items that Yiṣḥaq had offered as collateral, such as: "a gold jinzīr" (probably a chain necklace), "a pair of gold djādī" (possibly earrings), and "two gold ṭ...t (set) with cut diamonds." Some of the key contextual details surrounding the agreement are lost to damage, but the purpose of the document becomes somewhat clear in line 22 where "[R]ivqa(?)" grants "possession" (reshūt) to Nissim Romano over the remaining collateral items (and/or the funds generated by their sale). If the reading "[R]ivqa" is correct, she may have been Yiṣḥaq Ḥanūn's widow (the collateral items could be jewelry from a dowry). The document was signed by Nissim Romano, Aharon Zagdun, .... Ṣion(?), and Yeḥezqel Ḥefeẓ, a communal rabbi and dayyan active around the turn of the nineteenth century. MCD