Legal query or responsum: T-S G1.20

Legal query or responsum T-S G1.20

מטא-דאטא

מספר מדף
T-S G1.20
שפה עיקרית
Judaeo-Arabic

What's in the PGP

  • 1 Transcription
  • 1 Translation

תיאור

Recto: Legal query in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Yiṣḥaq the judge (perhaps Yiṣḥaq b. Sasson from the court of Maimonides). Concerns a business partnership between a Muslim and a Jew. The Muslim took the profit from the partnership and then terminated the partnership. The Jew then drew up an Islamic legal document (hujja) and threatened to imprison the Muslim, whereupon they renegotiated the amount of money owed according to the terms of the partnership. The Jewish guy makes a new calculation of the old and new debits and credits and has these new terms drawn up in a Jewish legal document (shetar) in front of a Jewish court (beit din). The query: if the Muslim partner sues the Jew in the beit din and accuses him using the shetar as his documentation, is it permissible for one of them to deny (the validity of) the shetar, and to oblige the other to take an oath swearing that he doesn’t owe the other guy any additional money on account of the prohibition on interest (ribit), or can a punishment be imposed on him on account of the oath? (Note: this interpretation follows the text literally, and differs considerably from the interpretation in the description by עקיבא סילבצקי on FGP.) Athina Pfeiffer and Marina Rustow

Additional metadata

Collection
Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter
Historical shelfmarks
TS Box G, 1, fol. 20; TS Box G, 1, f. 20; TS G, 1, f. 20; TS G, 1, fol. 20
תאריך קלט
In PGP since 2022
תמונה
תיעתוק
תרגום

T-S G1.20 recto

°
recto
Athina Pfeiffer and Marina Rustow's digital edition.

Recto

  1. מא יקול מר׳ ור׳ יצחק הדיין הפטיש החזק דגל הרבנים יח[י ל]עד

  2. פי בר ישראל מעאמל גוי מדה סנין ואלגוי יאכד אלרבא אלי אן תגמד

  3. עלי אלעברי בקיה מעאמלה פכתב עליה חגה פאבטל מע

  4. מעאמלתה פראס אעתקאלה חתי אחוגה אלי אן אכד מנה מבלג

  5. אכר פגמל עליה אלקדים ואלחדית וכתב עליה שטר פי בית דין

  6. באלגמלה גמיעהא פחסב אלישר אלי אלרבא וגדה קד אסתגרק

  7. אלשטר יור׳ שמ׳ צו׳ רו׳ הל אדא רפע אלגוי כצמה אלי בית 

  8. דין ואדעא עליה באלשטר יגוז אלשרע אנה ינכרה ואן אחוג

  9. אלי ימין יחלף אנה לם יבק לה קבלה חק לאגל אלרבית אלדי

  10. תקדם אם עליה עונש פי ימינה אם לא ומא יגב פי דלך אלמסאלה

  11. ושכרו כפול מן השמים

Athina Pfeiffer's digital translation (2024).

  1. What does our master and teacher, rabbi Yiṣḥaq [b. Sasson] the judge, the mighty hammer and the flag of the rabbis, may he live, say 

  2. about a Jew who was in partnership with a non-Jew for some years who took the profit of the partnership (muʿāmala), keeping it 

  3. from the Jew. Then, he wrote a document (ḥujja) against him, putting an end to 

  4. his partnership. The Jew threatened to imprison him so as to force the non-Jew to give him back the amount he took.

  5. The Jew gathered against him the old and the new debits and had them drawn up in a Jewish legal document (sheṭar) in a Jewish court (beit din),

  6. mentioning the totality of the amounts. The Jew made a new complete calculation; the entirety of the partnership was thus contained in

  7. the document.         Teach us, may his rock protect him, (1) whether if the non-Jew sues the Jew in the beit 

  8. din and accuses him using the shetar as his documentation, it is permissible or not for the Jew to deny [the validity of] the shetar, (2) and [whether he can] oblige 

  9. the non-Jew to take an oath swearing that he doesn’t owe the other person any additional money on account of the prohibition on interest (ribit) that he 

  10. claims, (3) and whether a punishment (onesh) can be imposed on him or not on account of the oath, and whatever should be done on this question.

  11. May his reward be doubled from heaven.

 

Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter, T-S G1.20. Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/35703/ (accessed June 3, 2026).