Geniza Lab

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: April or May 1164. In the hand of judge Mevorakh b. Natan. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Bū Sahl al-Jubaylī (aka Shemuel b. Yehuda) accepts seven dinars from Abū l-Maʿālī Shemuel b. Yehuda which had been on deposit with the court, and absolves him from any further obligations relating to the deposit. The seven dinars were a pledge that was deposited with the court; thus the first and third clauses of this release may be related to the deposit and the last two may be related to the relationship between the two parties. If so, then shirka and mu‘āmala are clearly related partnership structures, both employed to insure that the release covers the partnership relationship, whether one would choose to describe it as a shirka or as a mu‘āmala. It is unclear exactly what sort of relationship the parties here have. The document may simply have been the disposition of assets of a partnership which was between Abū l-ʿAlāʾ and Shemuel's late father, as lines 3-4 suggest that the Shemuel’s father is dead, whereas line 6 absolves the deceased father from any further obligation. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 42-43)