Geniza Lab

One bifolium of a parchment quire containing both rabbinic passages (Berakhot 24b, 13b, and others) a and the beginning of a formulary for a partership contract. Dated 17 Iyyar 4635/875 CE. The scribe has used a parchment scrap from near one of the animal's limbs.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. A deal between an investor, possibly named Ibrahim, and three unnamed indigo dyers opening a workshop in Damietta. The active partners agree to behave according to industry norms and business practices in Damietta. The active partners will receive two-thirds of profits and losses (except for the first ten dinars of losses due to ordinary business operations). The investor is responsible for the daily maintenance of the active partners and assumes responsibility for losses due to force majeure, though in such cases the active partner is required to swear an oath disclaiming negligence. Notably, the partnership structure is a hybrid of both the partnership model ("torat ʿisqa") and the commenda model. The active partners’ testament to “ward off treachery and fulfill good faith” indicates that the investor isn't present in Damietta, but he retains a modicum of control over their business activities. If the assets of the shop are found to have declined in value, the partners are to communicate with Ibrahīm and to follow his orders; if he fails to respond, they are free from liability for misconduct. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 245-246)

Recto: Partnership agreement dated Purim 5365 = 1605 CE, Fustat, between Shemuel Mosseri of Damascus and [...], which is to last for a period of 10 years. Verso: Three columns of text, probably literary, in Hebrew and Aramaic and possibly some Judaeo-Arabic; the three columns seem to be versions of each other. There is also, scribbled out, a note in Arabic: "what was received from al-Muʿallim Ibrāhīm ʿAlī. . . ." ASE.

Legal document concerning the dissolvement of a partnership at the death of one of the partners.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Location: Fustat. Dated: Shevaṭ 1404 Seleucid, which is January 1093 CE. Release agreement following the dissolution of a partnership ("shirka") between Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Samuel al-Baghdadī and ‘Ulla ha-Levi b. Joseph. A moneychanging shop ("dukkān al-ṣarf") – which was apparently also occupied by one Abū ‘Imrān ha-Kohen – and 750 dinars split between Syria and Fustat, are mentioned. Lieberman identifies the scribe as Hillel b. Eli. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 248.) Friedman ("Jewish Polygyny", 314–19) believes the scribe to have been Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid, based on handwriting.

Legal document. Partnership agreement (copy). Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Tishrei 1424 Seleucid, which is 1112 CE. Same case as T-S NS 321.50. Both fragments refer to the renewal of a trading partnership worth 3,750 dinars for which profits are divided equally, and the partners are granted an allowance for their maintenance. The parties are Berakhot b. Yaʿaqov; Abū l-Wafāʾ Tamīm b. Ḥalfon. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 260.) NB: T-S Misc.28.263 is sometimes mistakenly cited as T-S Misc.28.283.

Fragment regarding a partnership. (No other information or index card)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1108. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of the court clerk Hillel b. ʿEli. An agreement between Abū al-Faḍl Mevorakh b. Abraham Ibn Sabrī and Abū ‘Imrān Moshe b. Mordecai ha-Kohen for a yearlong partnership in a shop selling olives and food commodities. Mevorakh and Moshe invested 80 and 50 dinars, respectively. Moshe seems to be in charge of the shop, garnering two-thirds of the profit and being responsible for two-thirds of the losses. He must prepare a reckoning at the end of the year, without required notarization. However, if the partnership has decreased in value, there is to be a judgment between the partners. The partners are not allowed to quit the partnership before the end of the one-year period, after which they may either renew or terminate it. However, if they decide to terminate, Moshe has two months to return Mevorakh’s investment. Mevorakh, a Parnas, must have been involved in social welfare tasks. Moshe has much autonomy in the shop, taking on “trust in Heaven” that he will not defraud his partner in absentia. (Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 257)

Partnership/investment agreement. Location: Fustat. Dated: 13[.]4, probably 1384 Seleucid, which would be 1072/73 CE. (1334 and 1394 Seleucid are also technically possible; the decade word is very faded.) In which Avraham b. [...] acknowledges receipt of 70 dinars from a woman named Mulūk [...] bt. Yiṣḥaq. Profits and losses will be split 50/50. Avraham is connected to the mint (Dār al-Ḍarb), as that is listed as one of the places where the money could potentially be stolen.

Legal document. Partnership agreement (copy). Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: 1112 CE (based on T-S Misc.28.263). Goitein records that this fragment is from a copy of the document from which T-S Misc.28.263, also in this documentary corpus, emerged. Both fragments refer to the renewal of a trading partnership worth 3,750 dinars for which profits are divided equally, and the partners are granted an allowance for their maintenance. The parties are Berakhot b. Yaʿaqov; Abū l-Wafāʾ Tamīm b. Ḥalfon. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 260.)

Legal document. Probably a partnership agreement. Dating: Shortly before Ṭevet 1422 Seleucid, which is 1110/11 CE. The capital may be 50 dinars. Maḥfūẓ and Abū l-Munā comprise one party; Yaʿaqov and Yosef comprise the other party. Mentions several locations including Cairo, Shubrā Damsīs, al-Khandaq(?), and al-Minya. The partnership may have to do with dyeing (8 lines from the bottom).

Partnership document in Hebrew between Moshe and Me'ir & his brother. 16th century per Avraham David. The partnership is to last for two years. The top and bottom of the document are both missing. A conversion rate is given: 1 golden Venetian peraḥ for every 100 Venetian peraḥim.

Legal document. Agency agreement. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. T-S 10J4.16: agreement granting Abū l-Riḍā Shelomo b. Mevorakh power of attorney to collect from the assets of a partnership between three parties – Abū Sa‘īd Ḥalfōn b. Nissim Abū Ḥusayn al-Tinnīsī (the senior partner), Abū l-Faḍl Amram b. Abū Kathīr Efrayim, and Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Menashshe ha-Levi al-Jubaylī – once the partnership has ended. The partnership lasted three years, from January 1115 to January 1118, and its purpose was to export valuable items from Upper Egypt for resale in Yemen. The principal who retained Shelomo is eligible to collect from the entire partnership, which includes funds which Shelomo himself had placed with the partnership, acting as both principal and agent. Most of the legal form of the power of attorney is missing. The verso contains a copy of a release, in which Shelomo absolves his erstwhile partners from any further obligations, except for part of the profits which they owe him. Shelomo releases Ḥalfon and ʿAmram separately from Yeshu‘a. Here, the word ṣuḥba (T-S 10J4.16, line 4) refers to a joint investment or partnership, not a deposit. The unrelated(?) document (T-S 10J4.17) is a release document from Sitt al-Sāda, daughter of the last Palestinian Gaon Evyatar ha-Kohen to Menashshe b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen. The nature of their relationship is unclear. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 196, 261-263)

Legal record. Dated Friday, 3 Av or July 4, 1231. Scribal notes for a draft of a partnership contract. The notes state that Abū Sa‘d has 83 dinars (minus two qirāṭs) together with Manṣūr b. the great-grandson, Suleymān b. ‘Imrān and Futūḥ b. Abū al-‘Izz, with the profit to be split in two halves, half for Futūḥ b. Abū al-‘Izz (less a twenty-fourth) and half for Abū Sa‘d, with Suleymān given 19 as a commenda. The full details of these notes are delineated in the contract itself (see TS 8 J 6.9, verso). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 182-183)

Legal document. This fragment describes a partnership in a dyeing business between Efrayim b. Yaaqov al-Mawṣilī and Abraham b. Hiba al-Dimashqī. Efrayim, the owner of the shop, invests slightly more capital (nineteen dinars to Avraham’s seventeen dinars and five qirāṭs). Abraham is to manage the shop, and he is granted one dirham each day from partnership funds for his maintenance/ Efrayim seems to be granted a similar amount. Profits and losses are to be divided equally, though rental income from the shop itself goes to Efrayim, as he is the owner of the shop. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 66)

Legal record. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1156. Summary of contract terms wherein Abū al-Faraj b. Ghilāth invests 150 dinars and Tamīm al-Sukkarī, the active partner, invests 10 dinars in a trading agreement. Tamīm has total discretion over what commodities he will trade in when he travels to Upper Egypt. A “surplus of one-half dinar” is allocated, presumably to Tamīm as the active partner. This is a nominal amount allocated to the active partner above and beyond the even split of profits. The half-dinar mentioned in lines 9-10 may have been a per diem allocated to Tamīm, or it may simply have been a nominal supplemental payment "for his trouble". According to Goitein, this document is in the hand of the judge Mevorakh b. Natan, written between April and August 1156. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 89-90.) NB: Lieberman identifies this document as "Document 28: Firkovitch II 1700 12 a II".

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.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1156. An unsigned and undated non-compete contract between Abū al-Makārim al-Dimashqī Nadiv b. Mevaser and an unnamed party. Nadiv agrees not to be involved in the silk business in any manner whatsoever, and that he will incur a fine of 10 dinars if he breaks the agreement, which will go to "the poor". There is no information indicating Nadiv will receive any consideration for agreeing not to compete. Nadiv is “suspected” of having broken a previous agreement to this effect, which may explain the fine of 10 dinars. According to Goitein, this document is in the hand of the judge Mevorakh b. Natan, written between April and August 1156. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 90-91.) NB: Goitein referred to this document as folio 13 (Firk. II NS 1700.13AI); Lieberman refers to the document as Document 29: Firkovitch II 1700 13 a I.