Geniza Lab

Legal record (#17a). Alimony owed. Pertaining to the first record on the facing page (Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.11, recto, a). "The maintenance (mezonot) incumbent on Bū ʿImrān al-ʿAṭṭār b. Abū l-Murajjā Sālim al-Ṣayrafī for his wife. Before us, we the court."

Legal record (#18). Loan contract. Dated: Monday, 29 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. Abū l-Khayr b. Nājī owes 2.25 dinars to Abū l-Murajjā Sālim al-Ṣayrafī b. Abū Saʿd, to be repaid within 3 months. He also owes 3 dinars to Bū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm, 1 dinar to be paid each month. The record was left incomplete. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#19). Engagement contract. Dated: Monday, 29 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. Goitein notes that both fiance and fiancee must be very poor; neither has a living father and the fiancee's mother must be deceased as well. Salāma b. Ibrāhīm engages (khaṭaba) Sitt al-Kull bt. Hiba al-ʿAṭṭār. Early marriage payment: 2 dinars. Delayed marriage payment: 15 dinars. The fiance deposits with the fiancee's maternal aunt Sitt al-Nās bt. ʿAbdallāh a silver seal/ring until the time of the milāk (which can mean either engagement/shiddukhin or betrothal/erusin/qiddushin). (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#17b). Alimony owed. Dated: Thursday, 25 Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. The wife (and cousin, ibnat ʿamm) of Bū ʿImrān al-ʿAṭṭār b. Abū l-Murajjā Sālim al-Ṣayrafī complains that he is failing to support her (qaṭaʿa ʿanhā al-mezonot). The husband must have been away on travel, otherwise he would have been asked to appear before the court (Goitein). The court orders that he give her a dirham every day starting on 25 Iyyar, the same as the date of the writing of this record. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam.

Legal record (#20). Loan contract (with interest?!). Faḍā'il b. Yosef and his mother Sitt al-Banīn bt. Avraham borrow 27.5 dinars from Sitt al-Ukhuwwa bt. Ḥalfon. There is an additional note on the same page stipulating that they will repay 0.5 dinars a month for a period of 6 years—which would yield a total of 36 dinars. (Information from Goitein's notes.) NB: Goitein referred to this document as folio 11 (Firk. II NS 1700.11A, with the A indicating recto) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 12, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8). ASE.

Legal record (#21). Extension of a loan. Bū l-Murajjā Sālim attests that Abū Isḥāq b. ʿAlī agrees to an extension of the period of repayment of the 10 dinars owed to him by Bū l-Faḍl b. Yūsuf. The repayment will be 0.5 dinar a month starting from the beginning of Iyyar 1467 Seleucid. The creditor returns several of the pawns (al-khalākhil, al-muṣḥāf al-fiḍda, al-jalājil) and retains others (the hāwun, the thawb, and the mandīl). (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#22). Loan contract. Dated: Monday, 14 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. People: Bū ʿAlī b. al-Ṣalṣalī owes 9 dinars to Maḥfūẓ the Qaraite. He will repay the loan by the end of Tammuz (=1.5 months). Securities: a copper item and a promissory note (? ḥujja) worth 4 dinars. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#23). Divorce settlement. Dated: Same as previous record (Monday, 14 Sivan 1467 Seleucid). Salīm al-Munādī ('the crier') agrees that he owes his daughter-in-law 6 dinars, apparently the delayed marriage payment from her ketubba (or at least 'as a release from her rights to claim her delayed marriage payment'). He must pay her a daily installment of 3/4 (dinars?) every day until his son returns from his travel and gives her a bill of divorce. Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; and perhaps Efrayim b. Meshullam (he only wrote the א of his name).

Legal record (#24). Alimony owed. Dated: "Monday" (=14 Sivan 1467 Seleucid). Bū l-Faraj Ibn al-Shofeṭ declares that he has mortgaged his quarter-house (which is owned in partnership with Bū l-Faḍl b. al-Fuqqāʿī and is located in the alley of the synagogue) in order to pay maintenance for his sister Riḍā for the next 7.5 years. He will give her 6.5 dirhams a month during this period ("astoundingly low alimonies" -Goitein). He also gives her the qīrāṭ remaining to him of the house of al-Bahūdī that his father had willed to him. There is an addendum stating that Umm Riḍā takes on the obligation for the remaining maintenance of (her daughter) Riḍā during this period. (Information from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1156. Summary of contract terms wherein Abū al-Faraj b. Ghilāth invests 150 dinars and Tamīm al-Sukkarī, the active partner, invests 10 dinars in a trading agreement. Tamīm has total discretion over what commodities he will trade in when he travels to Upper Egypt. A “surplus of one-half dinar” is allocated, presumably to Tamīm as the active partner. This is a nominal amount allocated to the active partner above and beyond the even split of profits. The half-dinar mentioned in lines 9-10 may have been a per diem allocated to Tamīm, or it may simply have been a nominal supplemental payment "for his trouble". According to Goitein, this document is in the hand of the judge Mevorakh b. Natan, written between April and August 1156. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 89-90.) NB: Lieberman identifies this document as "Document 28: Firkovitch II 1700 12 a II".

Legal record (#26b). Loan contract, addendum. Bū l-Barakāt, the creditor, makes Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf vow that he will make his repayments in front of two witnesses, because his word is not trustworthy. Witnesses: Mevorakh {b. Natan}; Nadiv b. Seʿadya ha-Levi.

Legal record (#26a). Loan contract. Dated: Monday, 14 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf al-ʿAṭṭār ('the perfumer in the Alley of the Candles') owes 15 dirhams to Abū l-Barakāt al-Kohen. He will pay back 5 dirhams a week. The loan was granted against Yūsuf's release of Abū l-Barakāt and his nephew (the son of his younger sister) from all claims. It was first written that the payments were to be made via Munajjā b. Ḥātim the Parnas, but this clause was crossed out and replaced with an addendum stating that the payments would be made directly to the creditor (next record). Witnesses: Nadiv b. Seʿadya ha-Levi; Mevorakh {b. Natan}. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Legal record (#28). Release, outline, addendum to the previous record. Stating that a document shall be drawn up in which Abū Isḥāq al-Ḥarīrī and Yiṣḥaq b. Ṣadaqa ('and peloni b. peloni') release him (=Abū l-Makārim al-Dimashqī) from all claims (in exchange for his commitment not to compete in the silk trade).

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1156. An unsigned and undated non-compete contract between Abū al-Makārim al-Dimashqī Nadiv b. Mevaser and an unnamed party. Nadiv agrees not to be involved in the silk business in any manner whatsoever, and that he will incur a fine of 10 dinars if he breaks the agreement, which will go to "the poor". There is no information indicating Nadiv will receive any consideration for agreeing not to compete. Nadiv is “suspected” of having broken a previous agreement to this effect, which may explain the fine of 10 dinars. According to Goitein, this document is in the hand of the judge Mevorakh b. Natan, written between April and August 1156. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 90-91.) NB: Goitein referred to this document as folio 13 (Firk. II NS 1700.13AI); Lieberman refers to the document as Document 29: Firkovitch II 1700 13 a I.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Abū al-Makārim b. Bishr and Abū al-Ḥasan b. Saʿīd partner in tax collection in three towns in Upper Egypt, paying an unnamed party a total of 5.5 dinars each month for the duration of the eight-month partnership. Tax revenues from Būsh are allocated to Abū al-Makārim and those from Mīdūm are allocated to Abū al-Ḥasan. Revenues from Wanā are allocated to each of the partners for four out of the eight months, each of the partners collecting for two months, and then ceding control to the other. Profits from the tax collection are to be evenly split between the two parties. Both parties are prohibited taking on another partner during the period of their tax collection in Wanā. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 91-92) NB: Goitein refers to this document as folio 13; Lieberman refers to it as Firkovitch II 1700 13 a III.

Legal record (#30). Trousseau list. Groom: Bū l-Barakāt al-ʿAṭṭār. Bride: Sitt at-Dār bt. Yefet ha-Kohen b. Menashshe ha-Dayyan. See Goitein's notes for the items enumerated. NB: Goitein referred to this document as folio 13 (Firk. II NS 1700.13B, with the B indicating verso) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 14, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8). ASE.

Legal record (#31). Liquidation of a trust. There appears to be at least one page of the notebook missing at this point, as there are one or two lines missing from the beginning of this document. Concerning a deposit of 238 dinars, which were held by Abū l-Faraj al-Tājir known as Ibn al-Kallām, a trustee of the court, in the name of the minor orphan Sitt al-Kafā'a bt. Abū l-Faḍā'il al-Tājir known as Ibn al-Baqā. (Abū l-Faraj had originally received this deposit from Abū l-Ḥasan Nānū al-Tājir.) Sitt al-Kafā'a's brother Abū l-Majd and her grandmother request that the deposit be released so that they can furnish her with a trousseau (jihāz). Witnesses: Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq; Efrayim b. Meshullam. "Sitt al-Kafā’a’s betrothal contract, drawn up just two months later, but which no longer identifies her as a minor, includes a record of the 'precious items' that they had purchased for her with this money" (Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 155). See Yevr. Arab. I 1700.16 (#36) for a slightly revised copy of this document, and see Yevr. Arab. I 1700.26–27 (#63) for Sitt al-Kafā'a's betrothal document. NB: Goitein and Krakowski referred to this document as folio 14 (Firk. II NS 1700.14a and Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.14a respectively, with the 'a' indicating recto) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 15, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8). ASE.

Legal record (#32). Bill of sale, outline. Stating that a bill of sale (ʿuhda) shall be written for the sale of the slave wailing woman al-ʿAbīr. Seller: Abū l-Barakāt al-Thiqa. Buyer: Not named. Price: 40 dinars + qīrāṭ. She is called both al-mughanniya ("singer") and al-nā'iḥa ("professional wailer"). Information from Goitein's notes.

Legal record (#33). Bill of sale, outline. Dated: Thursday, 17 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. Stating that a bill of sale (ʿuhda) shall be written for the sale of the female slave Nadd. Seller: Bū l-Faḍl Mevorakh b. Shelomo (known as Ibn Qamḥa, according to record #56). Buyer: Bū l-Faraj b. Ghilāth. Price: 15.5 dinars (not including market and broker fees (ḥaqq al-sūq wa-juʿl al-dallāla), which the buyer has to pay). Abū l-Faraj b. al-Ghilāth also appears in #25 (Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.13, recto, b) and #56 (Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.22, verso, a), in which he sells Nadd for 17.5 dinars (fees included).

Legal record (#34). Divorce settlement(?). Dated: 20 Sivan, 1467 Seleucid. Turfa bt. Bū Saʿd b. Ṭībān, the wife of Bū Naṣr known as Ibn al-Dayyān, acknowledges to have received the qumāsh (her dowry/household furnishings) worth 30 dinars (presumably on account of an upcoming divorce) in the presence of her mother, and she releases her husband from this sum. (Information from Goitein's notes.)