Geniza Lab

Draft of a financial (partnership?) agreement between Nathan ha-Kohen and ʿArūs, regulating what happens if the partners die, etc. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: Mamluk period (1250–1517), per Goitein. This document preserves a partnership agreement between two teachers, Raḍī b. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz b. Raḍī and Yeshu‘a Dukhān, in the manufacture and sale of cheese and other dairy products, for an unspecified fixed period. Each partner contributes both labor and capital: Raḍī is to be responsible for manufacture in the cheesemaking courtyard, bringing fifty qintār of halloumi cheese to the partnership. Yeshu‘a is to be responsible for sales, remaining in the shop and investing 1,000 silver half-dirhems, to be brought by Yeshu‘a in payments according to a schedule (see lines 10-12). Raḍī is to keep accounts. Profits and losses are to be divided equally, including rent for both the shop and the courtyard. Line 13 refers to the trustworthiness of the partners, important in this case since the two partners will not be working side by side. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 188)

Legal document. Court record. Location: Fustat. Dated: 17 July 1162. This document is an incomplete record of proceedings of the court of Nathaniel ha-Levi (Gaon b. Moses the sixth) concerning a silk trading partnership between Samuel b. Solomon and (Abū) Manṣūr Eleazar b. Isaac al-Dimashqī. Samuel attests to the existence of a partnership agreement, which stipulated that profits were to be split 1/3 to 2/3, the bulk going to Eleazar. This roughly corresponded with their investment in the partnership capital, Samuel bringing 55 dinars and Eleazar bringing 95. Each of the partners has the right of disposal of partnership assets. The funds are invested with local workers in various towns in the Nile Delta (Sammanūd and al-Maḥalla) as well as in longer-distance investments (such as in Tyre). The record does not discuss any dispute between the partners, but is instead largely concerned with the details of sales, investments, and profits of the partnership. Each attests to transactions and deposits; apparently, the partners did not trust one another "as two proper witnesses", and they required direct testimony of the partnership accounting. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 190)

Legal document. Partnership dissolution. Dated: March 1029. Location: Fustat. This document, emerging from the court of Abraham b. Sahlān, records the dissolution of a partnership between Ibn al-Kashshāsh Isḥaq b. Elijah and Samḥūn b. Tamīm. Isḥaq is to pay six dinars at the end of roughly seven months, at the end of the month of Tishri of the next year, and Samḥūn thereby absolved Isḥaq of any further obligation. Isḥaq also agreed that if he were to travel to the West without Samḥūn, that he would pay the six dinars prior to his departure. Court record dealing with the affairs of two business partners signed by Avraham he-Ḥaver b. Sahlan, Shemuel ha-Kohen and Sadaqa b. Yahya. Dated Tishri 1341/September 1029.

Fragmentary court record, apparently settling or recording accounts between partners.Drafted in Fustat, dated Tammuz 1404/July 1093.

Verso: Letter in Arabic script. Probably related to the legal document on recto, since some of the same names appear. At the top the names Bishāra and ʿAllān b. Saʿīd appear. The letter mentions: someone's in-law Abū Isḥāq; Abū Saʿd al-Ḥalabī; collecting money from someone; Yūsuf; and various business reckonings and instructions. Concludes by mentioning a letter for Sayyidnā al-Rayyis al-Nāsī. Needs further examination.

Recto: Legal document. Partnership record. Dated: February 1092. Location: Fustat. T-S 8J4.11 and T-S NS J6 are part of a record of a trading partnership between Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Samuel and ‘Ulla ha-Levi b. Joseph al-Dimashqī, investors with Bishāra the freedman. The full document is comprised of T-S 8J4.11and T-S NS J6 (this record), and T-S 8J4.12 (PGPID 7624). Bishara is to journey to Aleppo and Antioch and to sell goods purchased there in Fusṭāṭ. Bishāra is under instructions to sell only for cash and not to accept credit. Yaḥyā and ‘Ulla are to take two-thirds of the profit, having invested 155 and 1/3 dinars together. Bishāra contributed 20 dinars, and was entitled to one-third of the profit as well as expenses related to the merchandise. Bishāra is not to receive any further daily allowance. Bishāra takes on “the faith of the Heavens”, and agrees not to cheat his partners. Lieberman speculates that T-S Misc 27.4.29 (PGPID 8366) may be a renewal of this partnership relationship. See T-S 8J4.12 (PGPID 2094) for further information about this agreement. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 172-173) Alternate description: Legal document. Partnership record. Dated: February 1092. Location: Fustat. T-S 8J4.11 is part of a record of a trading partnership between Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Samuel and ‘Ulla ha-Levi b. Joseph al-Dimashqī, investors with Bishāra the freedman. The full document is comprised of T-S 8J4.12 (this record), and T-S 8J4.11 and T-S NS J6 (PGPID 7623). Bishara is to journey to Aleppo and Antioch and to sell goods purchased there in Fusṭāṭ. Bishāra is under instructions to sell only for cash and not to accept credit. Yaḥyā and ‘Ulla are to take two-thirds of the profit, having invested 155 and 1/3 dinars together. Bishāra contributed 20 dinars, and was entitled to one-third of the profit as well as expenses related to the merchandise. Bishāra is not to receive any further daily allowance. Bishāra takes on “the faith of the Heavens”, and agrees not to cheat his partners. Lieberman speculates that T-S Misc 27.4.29 (PGPID 8366) may be a renewal of this partnership relationship. Witnessed by Ṣedaqa ha-Kohen b. David, Yakhin he-Ḥazzan b. Abraham and Yiṣḥaq b. Elʿazar. Confirmed by Abraham b. Nathan, Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver and Shelomo b. Yosef ha-Kohen. This document was written in duplicate and given to the two investors, Yaḥyā and ‘Ulla. Bishāra, the active partner, seems not to have received a copy. See also T-S 8J4.11 and T-S NS J6 (PGPID 7623). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 172-173).

Legal document. Court record (copy). This document concerns the settlement of an account between Abū al-Mufaḍḍal Netanel b. Yefet and Abū al-Ḥasan Ṭoviyya b. Avraham ha-Levi. Netanel brought a court-validated document specifying that Ṭoviyya owed him 65 dinars. Ṭoviyya claimed that he sent the amount in various commodities (15 pounds of silk worth 15 dirhams, and fragrances worth 15 dinars, in addition to kābulī murabbā (preserve of chebulic myrobalan), as well as 10 dinars in cash) by means of the agent Abū al-Faraj to be sold in Tunisia. It is unclear whether the 65 dinars is a partnership account or a debt owed Netanel by Ṭoviyya. However, that the commodities were sent to be sold in Tunisia (see T-S 8J4.9) suggests that Ṭoviyya has a financial interest in the sale. Depositing the funds with Abū al-Faraj, Netanel and Ṭoviyya have contracted a partnership of sorts for repayment of Ṭoviyya's debt. Lieberman speculates that the Abū al-Faraj al-Wakīl mentioned here may have been Abū al-Faraj Yeshu‘a b. Isma‘īl al-Maghribī, a well-known Tunisian merchant from the late 11th century (see T-S 12.566, PGPID 3181; and T-S 10J20.7, PGPID 2953). A draft copy of this document also exists; see (see T-S 8J4.9, PGPID 2128. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 177).

Legal document. Inventory of estate. Dated: August 1108. Location: Cairo. Signed by Abraham b. Ḥalfōn b. Abraham and Isaac b. Abraham. Eleazar b. Araḥ assumes management of his father’s estate (including a shop) on behalf of his widowed mother and his brother, a youth. The valuation of the store one is in total 11.5 dinars (including 169 dirhams, rose marmalade, sugar, honey, and "potions"). His brother’s share, 5.75 dinars, is to be loaned to Eleazar for his investment or other use. There is no discussion of profit or loss sharing. Eleazar is charged with sustaining the widow and boy from assets that have been set aside for the purpose and upon which he has no claim. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 179)

Court record in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli (ca. 1066–1108). Dated: Tammuz 1387 Seleucid, which is 1076 CE. Location: Fustat. Record of a partnership concerning half a qintar of opium. The participating parties are Avraham b. Elʿazar ha-Levi and Abū l-ʿAlāʾ ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards; Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 262, 582; EMS.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Legal document. Employment agreement. Dated: June 1127. This document records a qinyan between Abraham ha-Kohen b. Aaron and Isḥaq b. Sa‘īd in which Isḥaq agrees to work for Abraham to repay a debt of an unspecified amount. Isḥaq is to be compensated the fixed wage of 2 dirhams a day, with half a dirham going towards repayment of the loan. If Isḥaq leaves before the debt is fully repaid, his compensation is to be retroactively reduced to 1.5 dirhams a day, and he must still repay the debt; and if Abraham terminates him before the debt is fully repaid, his compensation is to be retroactively raised to 2.5 dirhams a day. As the two work together for a longer period, the incentive for each not to terminate the relationship increases. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 181)

Court record. Dated: 3 Av 1542 Seleucid, which is 1231 CE. Partnership contract made after one of the four partners fell sick and was unable to travel to Syria with his partners.

Deed of partnership. In Hebrew. Dating: First half of the 16th century, based on the names and the hand of the scribe (who was prolific in this period). The parties are Yehuda b. Yaʿaqov Senyor (שיניור, not שיכור) and Moshe b. Yosef Bagilyer (באגלייר). The business is tanning (bi-l-madābigh / באלמדאבג). (Information in part from CUDL)

Partnership (sharika) agreement. In Arabic script. Dated: 24 Shawwāl 450 AH, which is 14 December 1058 CE. The three partners are Wuḥaysh b. Saʿīd b. Ibrāhīm the Jew; Barakāt b. Ismāʿīl; and Futūḥ b. Nassāj b. Rajā. The partnership is for the trade of horse-cloth in the shop known as 'horse bit' in the compound (rabʿ) of Sulaymān b. Kisā. The capital is 173 dinars. Wuḥaysh is assigned 23, and the remaining money is divided equally between Barakāt and Futūḥ. Wuḥaysh attests that he has received all the money due to him. See Khan's edition for the term "compound" (rabʿ) and the other potential meanings if it is to be read rubʿ instead. (Information from Khan.)

Accounts, dated October 1230 CE, in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, referring to a cellar (maṭmūra) in his father’s house with 117 jugs of wine. Most of the wines are described as ‘crossbred’ (muwallad), and just 10 are described as ‘real wine’ (khamr). (Information from CUDL.) See also DK 201.2.

Account, day-to-day, of the income of a textile store. Location: Fustat. Dating: Jumada I and II 393 AH, which corresponds to April 1003 CE. After the lapse of 2.5 weeks or so, the junior partner or employee changed the silver received into gold and handed it over to the senior partner or employer. Exchange rate: 245 dirhams = 6.5 dinars (left column, line 16) and, two weeks later, 187.5 dirhems = 5 dinars (left column, line 32). (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 369.) Note that the scribe uses a variant of the aleph-lamed ligature (ﭏ) to represent 1/2 dirham.

Account of a partnership, ca. 1218-19. Fragment of a leaf on which the accounting for the apartment of Ibrahim b. al-Sha'ir is presereved. The apartment is in the compound named after Menashshe (b. Yosef, the judge). Ibrahim b. al-Dayyan, mentioned in our documents of this period, is perhaps the son of the judge who lives in the apartment, half of which belongs to the qodesh. The compound is elsewhere described as shirkat al-Dayyan R. Menashshe. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 422 #125)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1213. This commenda records court proceedings regarding a partnership; only one of the partners' names, Saadiah b. Nathan, is preserved. Saadiah invests 80 dinars and perhaps other currencies or commodities for trade, possibly in silk. The Torah verse cited in line 11 (from Numbers 10:32) suggests that profits are to be split evenly between Saadiah and the active partner. That the document is written in Hebrew and uses the anno mundi dating system is consistent with other documents from the court of Abraham Maimonides (e.g., TS 12.126, which also refers to the "old system" of dating and is entirely in Hebrew). The script of the two documents would seem to be different. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 256)

A fragment of a legal deed mentioning a commenda agreement between a certain Farah b. Yosef b. Bānūqa and Nissim b. Shemarya in Qayrawan. AA

Digest of a legal document. Probably in the cursive hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. For a partnership in a shop in New Cairo. One partner is Hiba b. Mevorakh. The partnership will last for 2 years beginning from Kislev 1436 Seleucid (November/December 1124 CE). AA