Geniza Lab

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: Mamluk period (1250–1517), per Goitein. This document preserves a partnership agreement between two teachers, Raḍī b. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz b. Raḍī and Yeshu‘a Dukhān, in the manufacture and sale of cheese and other dairy products, for an unspecified fixed period. Each partner contributes both labor and capital: Raḍī is to be responsible for manufacture in the cheesemaking courtyard, bringing fifty qintār of halloumi cheese to the partnership. Yeshu‘a is to be responsible for sales, remaining in the shop and investing 1,000 silver half-dirhems, to be brought by Yeshu‘a in payments according to a schedule (see lines 10-12). Raḍī is to keep accounts. Profits and losses are to be divided equally, including rent for both the shop and the courtyard. Line 13 refers to the trustworthiness of the partners, important in this case since the two partners will not be working side by side. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 188)