Geniza Lab

Recto: Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: November 1076. Manṣūr b. Khalaf al-Ṣūrī (from Tyre) will partner with Yefet b. Avraham and Shelomo b. Avraham for one year, beginning in the month of Ṭevet in 1388. Goitein suggests that the three were involved in minting, on the basis of another document which shows a relationship between Yefet and Manṣūr in the sifting of gold dust. Here, Manṣūr is prohibited from traveling or mentioning travel or even expressing a wish to see his family – perhaps his partners are afraid that he will abscond with the gold used in minting? – if he does so, he must pay 20 dinars to the poor, a standard penalty clause. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 36-37) Verso: Unidentified document in Arabic script. Mentions "al-kātib ... al-ishrāf(?) Muḥammad b. Ḥammūd al-Qāḍī." (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and attached notes.)

Account ledger in a mixture of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic (and Greek/Coptic numerals). Fol. 1r: Mentions two lumps of gold (faṣṣayn dhahab). One entry reads "the acquaintance of my brother-in-law al-Thiqa in the Fayyūm whose name is [...]. 7 1/4 dirhams." An Abū l-Faraj is also mentioned. Fol. 1v: The main text appears to be a donors/revenue list in Judaeo-Arabic. al-Thiqa: 3. Kāfūr: 1 (crossed out). Mufaḍḍal b. N[...]: 3. Ibn al-Sadīd: 2. Ibn Saʿd al-Mulk: 2. Abū l-Faraj: 1. "The delayed"(?): 14, 16. "We took from the house of the captive": 8. There are also a few lines of accounting in Arabic script. Fol. 2r: Mentions ʿAlī the neighbor of Ṣāliḥ and al-Zakiyy b. al-Nākhudhā. Fol. 2v: Mentions Ḥasan of Dār al-Raqīq (which may be the slave market); Ismāʿīl al-Qazzāz(?) al-Maghribī who lives on Darb al-Nā'ib; and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ḥadīd.

Recto, with the address on verso: Business letter addressed to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi. In Arabic script. Dating: Before the beginning of 1136 CE. Concerning business in goods such as sal ammoniac and turpeth, and mentions a public auction (ḥalqa) several times. (Information in part from Aodeh; see also Hebrew description from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV) Ḥalfon reused verso for a draft of a legal document (see separate record).

Business letter in Arabic script from Mūsā b. Dāwūd al-Levi al-Miṣrī to Mubārak/Mevorakh bar Avraham b. Sabrā about the shipment of various commodities, including gold.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Mentions people such as 'the woman' (al-sitt); Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Siqbāl al-Andalusī; Barakāt Ibn Shūʿa; "my cousin (ibn ʿammī) Yiṣḥaq; and 'the woman the daughter of al-Kharazī.' Lists both credits and debits. Concerns a wide range of commodities, from household goods to garments to foods and materia medica (e.g., sumac, chebulic myrobalan, a preserve, qāqullā, rhubarb) to gems (e.g., a ruby worth 2 dinars) and gold (e.g., unminted washed gold (dhahab maghzūl, i.e. maghsūl)). (Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalogue.)