Geniza Lab

Legal document. Partnership settlement. Dated: October 1143. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of Nathan b. Solomon ha-Kohen. The recto records the settlement of a partnership and the verso records subsequent payments. The partners, Khalaf b. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Damsīsī and Joseph b. Ḥassān al-Mahdawī, took purple dye materials to Upper Egypt and sold it there. Conflict ensued, perhaps when the partners divided up profits or losses from the sale of the dye (since the division isn't specified in the document). The mutual release was complete, except for a payment of two dinars to be made from Joseph to Khalaf according to a payment schedule described in the document. If Joseph fails to make full payment, he must make a donation to the poor in the same amount as he owes. Khalaf is to be trusted (presumably, without an oath) concerning Joseph's payments. Despite the aforementioned penalty clause, Joseph apparently took longer than expected to repay the two dinars, since the final release which appears on the verso is dated six months after the end of the loan repayment period, in 1144. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 219)

Recto: Instructions for drawing up a bill of divorce. In Judaeo-Arabic. Listing various scenarios. Of note, Qūṣ and Aswān are listed as two potential cities, suggesting likely origins for this fragment. Verso: Formulary for a bill of divorce. The margins have text in Arabic script, perhaps accounts.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Abū al-Makārim b. Bishr and Abū al-Ḥasan b. Saʿīd partner in tax collection in three towns in Upper Egypt, paying an unnamed party a total of 5.5 dinars each month for the duration of the eight-month partnership. Tax revenues from Būsh are allocated to Abū al-Makārim and those from Mīdūm are allocated to Abū al-Ḥasan. Revenues from Wanā are allocated to each of the partners for four out of the eight months, each of the partners collecting for two months, and then ceding control to the other. Profits from the tax collection are to be evenly split between the two parties. Both parties are prohibited taking on another partner during the period of their tax collection in Wanā. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 91-92) NB: Goitein refers to this document as folio 13; Lieberman refers to it as Firkovitch II 1700 13 a III.