Geniza Lab

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: Late 13th century CE. Location: Fustat. Moshe ha-Talmid b. Ṭahor partners with Abū Saʿd b. Abū l-ʿAlā al-Ṣabbāgh in an apothecary shop. Moshe is paid 6 dirhams a month agrees to work for a year and a half. His wage is guaranteed by Abū Sa‘d’s father Abū al-‘Alā’ (ll.7-8). Because of the guarantee of Abū al-‘Alā, three qinyanim are performed: Moshe's agreement to work, Abū Saʿd’s agreement to pay, and the guarantee of Abū al-‘Alā’. Although the parties’ relationship is described as a partnership, Moshe's wages being fixed suggests an employment agreement, though likely not an apprenticeship, both because Moshe is not a youth (line 5 alludes to his five sons) and is said to manage or set up the store. The date and signatures are missing from the document in its current state of preservation, though T-S NS J405 (PGPID 26473) reveals Abū Saʿd agreeing to repay a debt of some eight hundred dirhams from November 1275. Perhaps Abū Saʿd had come upon difficult times and needed the guarantee of his father in order to convince Moshe to manage the apothecary shop. Note: Abū al-‘Alā’'s guarantee is for fulfillment of the obligation “to the store”, suggesting a sense of corporate identity ascribed to the store and its creditors. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", 100)

Statement concerning contributions to a public appeal in Minyat Zifta, a small town in the Delta, written in summer, 1266. A special drive was arranged in the town from September 1265 through April 1266 in support of the Jewish community of Cairo. Eighteen people contributed a total of 1,024 and three/fourths dirhams. The statement begins with the words, “We the congregation of Minyat Zafta Jawad, make the following declaration: When in the month of Av 1576 [1265], the decree of the King [that is, God] came upon us because of our many sins, necessitating a collection, we extracted strength from weakness and joined Israel in its tribulation, despite our inability to do so, our poverty and indigence.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:44, 137-8, 501, 531, 532, 549, 606) EMS

Piyyuṭ; marginal note in Arabic, announcing the writer’s arrival at the funduq in Cairo on the 13th Shawwal 680 AH (= 1282 CE); beginning of an address to al-Diwān al-Maʿmūr. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document from February 1255 concerning two members of an orphans’ court who sell certain garments through the “great simsar,” referred to here as ‘munadi,’ or market crier, auctioneer, whose compensation is termed ‘dilala,’ or broker’s fee. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:160, 439) EMS