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Mevasser

Metadata

Gender
Male
Dates
Active dates
8 March 1092 CE
Social roles
  • Enslaved person
  • Manumitted person
  • Merchant
Other name
Bishāra

Description / Bio

Emancipated man, also known as Bishāra, who is mentioned in a legal document from 1092 CE in which he formed a commercial partnership with Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Samuel and ‘Ulla ha-Levi b. Joseph al-Dimashqī. The terms of the partnership require Mevasser to travel to Aleppo and Antioch in order purchase goods that will be resold in Fustat. (Information from PGP and Craig Perry, Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt, Appendix 2, no. 13)

Matthew Dudley, "Mevasser," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/mevasser/, accessed February 9, 2026.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/mevasser/