Geniza Lab

Five leaves of an account book. Mostly daily entries of a money dealer. Goitein writes, "The first two of five leaves written by a fledgling banker are translated here because they convey an idea of the book-keeping for deposit banking, for which no other examples have been found thus far. Each customer was listed on a separate sheet showing his weekly debit and credit. The second account shows a heavy overdraft. No balances from preceding weeks are indicated and presumably did not exist. The writer was a mere beginner and, as his poor handwriting shows, had little education. His capital consisted of 8 7/24 dinars, see column IId, f. 8, and on one of the pages not rendered here, p. 8 b, l. 6, he notes an expenditure of 3 dirhams on the manāqid, a chest with drawers, as the money changers used to keep. His name was Mūsā, p. 8a, l.4, and it is highly probably that he is identical with the banker bearing that name, mentioned with small sums in [T-S Ar.54.15]..., since the two lists have other names and details in common. One is surprised to find great merchants such as Nahray b. Nissim and Barhūn Tāhertī or members of the Exchange confiding their money to such a poor man. Most probably they wanted to give Mūsā, who perhaps was an orphan (which would explain his poor education), a start in life." (Information from Goitein's edition and index card.)