Geniza Lab

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: 1122-1153. A one-year partnership in an apothecary between Sayyid al-Ahl and his partner Faraḥ b. Abū al-‘Alā. The relationship may have been an apprenticeship; both parties are entitled to 1.5 dirhams a day, but profits from the sale of some commodities within the shop will accrue only to Sayyid al-Ahl, who seems to be the primary partner. However, Faraḥ’s investment is significant; the pharmacy inventory was only 7 dinars, but Faraḥ brings a total of 20 dinars, 16 of which are invested immediately. This document lacks most of the formulae seen in partnership agreements (including stock qinyan phrases, which effect the contract) – it may have been simply the personal outline of a scribe who would later add in the framework from a formulary, as it also lacks signatures. Goitein identifies the handwriting as that of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver (active 1122-1153). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 38-39)

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. Partnership agreement. Dated: 1406 Seleucid, which is 1094/95 CE. Written in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. Location: Fustat. Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Mevorakh al-Maqdisī and Abū Saʿīd ʿAmram b. Yosef each bring three hundred dinars into a joint venture in an apothecary shop, and agree to split profit and loss equally. Line 11 mentions Avraham b. Yefet the Mumḥe, who traded with Avraham b. Mevorakh in the absence of ʿAmram. Goitein deduces that ʿAmram "was not supposed to contribute work regularly" as the text implies that he will not always be in Fusṭāṭ. However, it's also possible that ʿAmram traveled as part of his responsibilities to the partnership, perhaps buying commodities to be sold in the apothecary shop. The sale of certain commodities in the shop were allocated to the partnership, while the partners were also allowed to sell other commodities and credit their individual accounts with the proceeds. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 141)