Geniza Lab

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 18 January 1061. Location: Fustat. This document initiates a partnership in the ritual washing of corpses. Sulaymān b. Ḥusayn and his son Isḥaq take on a third partner, Daʾūd b. Ḥasan (nicknamed Abū Jaʿd, "Curly"), who will receive a quarter of all revenues. The three worked in shifts, with one on duty at any given time, but the other two partners agree to work outside of their regularly scheduled shifts if necessary. Isḥaq’s share in the profits is not stipulated. All funds are to be given to Suleyman, suggesting that Isḥaq and Dāwūd may have been his apprentices. No partnership term is given. The document states explicitly that the terms of the contract are immutable. Signed by: ʿEli b. ʿAmram ha-Levi; Shemuel b. Avraham; and Surūr b. Ḥayyim Ibn Sabra. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 95)

Letter from Barhun b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Tahirtī, in al-Mahdiyya, to a younger relative. Around 1050. Barhūn informs that a shipment of goods is on its way, mentions that a few relatives are in Sūsa, and shares his willingness to send his father's bones to Jerusalem (his father died in 1049). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 302-303, #383). VMR

Witness statement regarding the discovery of the corpse of Yūsuf b. Ibrāhīm b. Yūsuf the Jew, leader of the Jews of al-Maḥalla, who paid his capitation tax in Alexandria. The witness signatures are lost. Dated: ca. 24 Rabīʿ I 601 AH, which is 19 November 1204 CE. There is an ʿalāma at the top. (Information from Khan.)