Geniza Lab

Legal document. Court record. Dating: 1232. Record of three tannery partners, Rāḍī ha-Kohen, Mufaḍḍal ha-Kohen, and Ṭāhir, who worked in Minyat Ziftā. The total amount of the partnership was fourteen hundred dirhams. Rāḍī and Ṭāhir may have held their portion of the partnership jointly, and Rāḍī seems to have been the managing partner. Rāḍī attests to having paid out seventeen dinars’ worth of hides to Mufaḍḍal, leaving him (Rāḍī) owing three dinars. Lieberman thus infers that Mufaḍḍal’s share of twenty dinars represents roughly one-third of the total value of the partnership. Prior litigation on the same matter in an Islamic court led to a ruling requiring Rāḍī to pay Mufaḍḍal 1.5 dinars each month. Rāḍī seems not to have accepted the ruling, and while Mufaḍḍal seems to have been willing to compromise and accept only one dinar a month, Rāḍī brings "an Islamic document" to challenge him. The case then comes before the court of Abraham Maimonides (though testimony was not admissible as one of the litigants was a relative of the witness). The document does not record any final settlement. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 264)