Geniza Lab

Partnership agreement. Location: Fustat/Cairo. Dated: Sunday, 16 Shevaṭ 5567 AM, which is 25 January 1807 CE. This is a more complete copy of the same document as in AIU VII.E.116. (The following description is based on both documents.) There are three different groups of merchants. The first group is based in Alexandria, and the other two groups are based in Fustat/Cairo. (1) Shelomo Cesana, Ḥayyim Cesana, and Ḥayyim's son Avraham. They contribute 600,000 medins. (2) Merkado Karo, Avraham b. Menaḥem ha-Levi Jarbūʿa, and Ḥayyim Nuṣayrī. They contribute 900,000 medins. (3) Shimʿon Frances, Khalīfa Pinto, Yaʿaqov Bibas, and Meir ben Naʿim. They contribute 900,000 medins. The total capital is 2.4 million medins. The duration of the partnership is 12 months. It encompasses trade in goods (סחורה) and currency (sarraflık) and עמולה(?) and פאתוריה(?). The first group has another preexisting partnership with Moshe Bibas and Khalīfa Pinto in Rashīd. The profits will be distributed according to the entries in 'the great ledger' (הפנקס הגדול). It seems that 40% (400 medins out of every 1000) will be distributed in accordance with each group's original contribution. Of the remaining 60% (600 medins out of every 1000), 50 will go to the first group, 250 to the second group, and 300 to the third group. Any losses will be distributed in the same way. AIU VII.E.116 was abandoned around this point, and there are many additional stipulations in JRL SERIES L 18, which is completed and signed by one representative from each of the three groups (Merkado Karo, Shimʿon Frances, and Shelomo Cesana). There is a correction to one of the contract's clauses in the right margin, apparently in the hand of the same scribe. It is not immediately clear whether this correction is legally valid, or if the document had to be restarted and re-signed. MCD. ASE.

Fragment of a partnership document (per FGP), involving R. Shemuel, Abū l-Faraj al-Yatom, Yiṣḥaq ha-Dayyan, Abū l-Bishr. Written by Mevorakh b. Natan, during the reign of Shmuel b. Hananya ha-Nagid, so we can date it to 1150-1160 (AA).

The testimony of Arus b. Yosef about Lebdi's partnership with his brother Shelomo Lebdi. After Shelomo Lebdi drowned in the spring of 1099 on his way from Tunis to Spain, his son David had to secure his rights as heir. The first step was the testimony of Arus b. Yosef, a travel companion of Lebdi, who testified in the court of Fustat on the nature of partnership between the two Lebdi brothers. The document is dated to June 10, 1099.

Legal notes in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (Date: 1100-1138). Partnership record. Seʿadya b. Menashshe ha-Kohen has inherited funds from his father, and places 26 dinars with his maternal uncle Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Efrayim, who will travel with the funds and remit 11/24 of the profit to Seʿadya’s mother. Avraham’s report of partnership profits is not notarized. The only condition is that Avraham may not invest or lend out the funds to anyone except someone called “Barhun”. Losses are to be split evenly; as the active partner, Avraham is entitled to a larger share of the profits than that for which he would be liable in terms of losses, per Maimonidean criteria (even though the difference between Avraham’s share in the profit and his share in the loss is only 1/24 of the total profit). Per Maimonides, the partners have the flexibility to create such a profit and loss sharing agreement only if they have multiple concurrent business relationships; otherwise the percentage of profits allocated to the active partner must exceed the percentage of losses by at least 1/6 of the total profit, in which case Avraham would have been allocated no less than 2/3 of the profit (since he is to share losses equally with Seʿadya). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 102)

Verso: Draft of a legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi. Partnership agreement. In this unsigned and undated draft, an unnamed active partner receives 200 dinars from Sibāʿ, with which he is to travel to Alexandria and transact in unnamed commodities. Sibāʿ agrees to share equally in all losses to the partnership as a whole (e.g. losses due to work stoppage or broken merchandise). Lines 12-16 indicate that if commodities may end up traveling for sale in Alexandria escorted by someone other than the active partner, the active partner should inform Sibāʿ. The risk of loss is wholly carried by Sibāʿ. The active partner’s testimony concerning profits and losses does not require the support of witness testimony. The active partner seems to be entitled to all profits except for the maintenance of Sibāʿ(excluding Sibāʿ's rent and education costs for his son). Sibāʿ's share of the profits – a fixed amount unrelated to the success of partnership assets – might contravene the rabbinic prohibition of usury, but he does bear responsibility for losses. The use of the first person throughout the document suggests that it was prepared and notarized for the active partner, as with powers of attorney. The active partner could then present it as supporting documentation in the event of a dispute concerning distribution of partnership profits. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 97–98.) See also Hebrew description from India Book IV, below. On recto there is a business letter in Arabic script; see PGPID 9140.

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)

Legal fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Partnership agreement between Abū l-Riḍā Moshe and Yiṣḥaq b. Simḥa. One partner is in Alexandria and the other in Fustat. Involving very large sums of money: 300 and 600 dinars.

Legal document. Record of release. Dated: February 1172. Location: Fustat. The record, emerging from the court of Maimonides, involves Ghalīb al-Bilbaysī b. Ṣedaqa, agent of Sayyid al-Kull Moshe b. ʿAbdallāh (ʿOvadya) Ibn al-Ḥallā the ḥazzan, who releases Abū al-Makārim Nadiv ha-Levi b. Moshe ha-Levi and his son Abū ‘Imrān from a partnership. At the time of release, Nadiv paid Ghalīb some hundreds of dinars, of which 10 dinars had come from his son from a deposit which Moshe had left with him subject to the laws of partnership (torat ‘isqa). Nadiv seems to have collected a debt from Abū ‘Alī al-Qarā in Upper Egypt on behalf of Moshe; these may have been funds due the partnership. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 207)

Legal document: partnership agreement. Dated: July 18, 1107. Location: Cairo. Partnership agreement between Nethanel b. Tiqva and Eli b. Mevasser in a clothing and tailoring shop. Nethanel and Eli will both sell the clothing, which Eli will sew. Nethanel contributes 10 dinars, expecting to contribute more once the shop is in operation, and is the shop keyholder. He will receive two-thirds of the profits and losses; Eli is to receive the balance. Lines 1 and 4 mention God’s role in guiding the partnership and in bringing about profit, which is common in such documents. Four diagonal lines run through the entire text; it is unclear whether this indicates that the partnership was terminated. The document is signed by Shelomo b. Mevorakh. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 210)

Legal document. Acknowledgement of loan. Dating: February 1135, in (new) Cairo. Document recognizing a loan of 10 dinars from Yosef ha-Levi to Yefet b. Yaḥyā for the term of one year, to coincide exactly with the term of a partnership between them ("the beginning of Adar II", 1446). Per Maimonides, whenever one gives funds to another person to transact, half of the funds comprise a loan for which the active partner is fully responsible, even in the case of an unavoidable circumstance. The concurrent nature of the loan and the partnership to which the loan agreement alludes suggests the application of this principle, as does the fact that Yefet is responsible for the debt. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 211)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: August 1181. This document preserves the lower part of a partnership agreement between the brothers Abū al-Faraj and Abū al-Mufaḍḍal in a shop selling food. The partners are allocated maintenance from the shop’s stores, as well as one dirham each per day. The two are to eat and live together, though they are given the option of eating separately, in which case Abū al-Mufaḍḍal is to take two dirhams and Abū al-Faraj is to take four dirhams as maintenance. As well, they will divide profits, though the division itself is not specified but is likely an even division, as is explicit in the case of losses. Interestingly, although the two seem to work close at hand, the text includes the provisions for "trust and avoid[ance of] betrayal" that is often seen in long-distance agreements. The recto is signed by Joseph ha-Levi b. Samuel, later a member of the court of Abraham Maimonides; as well as Levi ha-Levi b. Abraham, a scholar and cantor. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", 195)

Legal document. Testimony. Dated: May-June 1149. Testimony around the engagement of Tamīm b. Abū al-Faraj and Fakhr bt. Joseph, imposing a penalty if Tamīm is found to have an impediment to the marriage. This fragment reveals a brief partnership agreement between Khalaf b. Samuel and Barakāt b. Mūsā Ibn Muska, the term of which is to be one full year. Although short on details, this would seem to have been a joint active partnership situated in a single location rather than an investment partnership, since 1.3 dinars of the profit are to be allocated for the partnership to cover joint capital expenses, the balance of which is to be split evenly between the two partners. Although the partners do not describe their relationship as a shirka, mu‘āmala, muḍāraba, or even shutafut, they do use the verb sh-r-k in Form VIII. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 203)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: Dhū l-Qaʿda 530 AH, which is August 1136 CE. A wine-making partnership, the amount of the partnership being 1,510 dinars. The manager, Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Abū l-Ḥusayn Yefet b. Benaya, is to take a third of the profit. Two of the remaining three partners, Abū Saʿd Netanel al-Zajjāj and Ṣedaqa b. Bunān, contribute 400 and 100 dinars respectively; the name of the fourth partner and the amount of his contribution is not preserved. The verso seems to record the partnership receipts of 540 dinars. Yeshuʿa apparently violated a prohibited from trading or contracting with others outside the partnership for its duration, but the partners have stated that his violation need not be notarized by witnesses. Yeshuʿa is also the party under whose name the wine-producing enterprise has been registered with the tax-collecting authorities. Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 204)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Unsigned. Dated: Middle third of Iyyar (year not preserved). Location: Fustat. Replacement document for a partnership agreement between Abū l-Ḥasan Menashshe b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen and the parnas Yosef b. Shelomo. Yosef was the original document holder, but apparently lost the document. Contains court testimony declaring the terms of the partnership to have lapsed, stating the partners to have no claims on each other following the partnership's termination and release. The duration of the partnership was specified in the earlier document but isn't recorded here. Yosef appears to have been the active partner, entrusted with the partnership document itself as well as the subsequent release. The structure of the partnership is as described by Maimonides (half of any funds given to a partner for a transaction are considered a loan). However, the upper portion of the document is missing and the first few extant lines contain lacunae. Profits and losses are to be divided in the same proportion which the Talmudic and Geonic sources permit only if the partners have other commercial relationships together. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 103)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1229. Location: Fustat. In a document written in Hebrew emerging from the court of Abraham Maimonides, Abū al-‘Alā b. Joseph and his father enter into a partnership with Mufaḍḍal in a sugar factory, splitting profits and losses evenly. Mufaḍḍal gave 50 dinars to "his Elder" (possibly his grandfather), which would act as capital to be used by the grandfather to purchase raw sugar; as well as an additional 50 dinars to his partners. The purpose of this document is to bring Mufaḍḍal into the relationship between Abū al-‘Alā and his father; no qinyan between the father and son is recorded here. Goitein points out that although the relationship is well-defined here, it may not have been canonized with a formal qinyan. The document may have been written for Mufaḍḍal and to record his investment (100 dinars) and the split of profits or losses due to him.The sole preserved signatory, the judge Yehiel b. Eliakim of Aleppo, is known to have signed other documents with Abraham Maimonides. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 106)

Letter segment concerning some legal issues with the signature of Shemarya. The first concerns Nissim al-Iskandarani who has entered into a business partnership with an unnamed woman. Mention is also made of Shemarya’s school. Greetings are sent at the end to Yosef b. Salim. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document, damaged, perhaps regarding a partnership. Protagonists include Moshe ha-Kohen known as Abū ʿImrān. and Abū Saʿd b. Abū l-ʿAlā. Witnesses include [...] ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, Moshe ha-Levi b. Ṣedaqa, and Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib al-Ḥazzan. ASE.

Contract in which a scholar known from a number of dated manuscripts gives sums of money to his two daughters. The money is destined for their trousseaus when they reach maturity, but will in the meantime be supervised by a merchant in the form of a partnership to which the merchant himself contributes a small sum. The capital is ensured as a 'deposit of the court,' for which the highest possible form of security had to be given. Dated to the last third of the 11th century. (Information Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 175-176, 442)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Written in the hand of Avraham b. Natan. Moshe ha-Levi and his father (identified as Ṣedaqa ha-Levi b. Moshe in T-S 12.464) participate in a partnership in a shop. The relationship itself resembles an apprenticeship, as Ṣedaqa explains that Moshe is to transact only with his father’s permission. Furthermore, line 16 makes it clear that the two are to work side by side. That line 17 assigns to “each of the two of them…total responsibility” suggests a corporate liability, not restricted to each partner’s share in the joint concern but instead to fulfillment of the sum total of partnership losses or debts. Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman edited both T-S 12.464 and T-S 16.168 in his dissertation, but these could not be proven to be a join until T-S NS 325.11 was identified as the missing piece by Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from "A Mediterranean Society, I," 443; "A Mediterranean Society, V," 331, 336, 597, 599; Goitein's index cards; and Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 138)

Legal document. Court ruling. Dated: July 1084. Written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Location: Fustat. Yaḥyā b. Samuel sues Amram b. Abraham for various commodities (wool, flax, and cinnamon in exchange for silk robes, silver scammony, and saffron) which represent the former’s investment with the latter. However, Amram seems to have placed the items in the care of Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Tinnīsī, who seems to have assumed responsibility for them by means of a power of attorney. Apparently, Aaron sold the items and prepared an account sheet, remitting the balance to Amram, who then settled his account with Yaḥyā. At the time the matter is to be adjudicated, Amram has left Fusṭāṭ and Yaḥyā asks for a continuance. Yefet b. Avraham, counterparty in the sale of a quantity of silver to Abū al-Ḥusayn, also appears in a number of geniza documents. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 110). Verso seems to contain another legal discussion with the same partners over similar issues.