Geniza Lab

Business letter or official correspondence in Arabic script. Dating: 11th or 12th century (paleographic dating). Written in a chancery hand with very large space between the lines; two lines preserved. Folded into a tight square; folds have gone both ways to judge by the ink that has bled in mirror form; the mirror-writing could yield another word or two from a third line (more dates; something else that is difficult to determine). The document concerns dates (tamr) and dye (ṣibāgh); they will be (sent?) with the people designated to take care of them (ṣuḥbat al-mandūbīn ʿalayhimā). Verso is blank except for a few Hebrew letters. (MR. ASE.)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Location: Bilbays. Dated: January 1209. This document is a partnership agreement in a perfume- and dye-manufacturing shop. The partners, Faḍā’il b. Abū al-Ḥasan and Manṣūr b. Abū Sa‘īd, contribute a total of 700 dirhams (200 and 500 dirhams respectively). The document doesn't use the formal terms shirka or mu‘āmala to describe their relationship, but the parties attest to "having partnered" in the shop. Both partners seem to work in the operation, profits and losses are generally to be split equally, and weekly maintenance is specified for each party. Manṣūr seems to be the senior partner; he brings more assets to the partnership, and the facility itself may belong to him, as he is allocated 4 dirhams of rent for the shop each month. However, income from the sale of scent sachets was allocated to Faḍā’il, who may have produced these alone without Manṣūr's assistance. Written and signed by Yehuda b. Tuvyahu he-Ḥaver ha-Kohen, Meshullam b. Mevorakh and Berakhot b. Elazar ha-Ḥazzan. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 73-74) The verso is a bifolium of a bible.

Recto: Letter fragment, probably addressed to Moshe Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Reporting on the arrival of Abū l-Mufaḍḍal and mentioning a letter to Abū l-Fakhr al-Ṣayrafī b. Saʿīd. Possibly mentioning the capitation tax (jizya) of someone's father. Verso: Letter from Moshe Maimonides. Autograph. Giving instructions to a certain judge to go to the dyehouse (maṭbakh, maṣbagh) where Abū Isḥāq works and confirm the value of its rent. Information in part from Friedman, Dictionary, p. 723.

Legal document. Partnership settlement. Dated: October 1143. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of Nathan b. Solomon ha-Kohen. The recto records the settlement of a partnership and the verso records subsequent payments. The partners, Khalaf b. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Damsīsī and Joseph b. Ḥassān al-Mahdawī, took purple dye materials to Upper Egypt and sold it there. Conflict ensued, perhaps when the partners divided up profits or losses from the sale of the dye (since the division isn't specified in the document). The mutual release was complete, except for a payment of two dinars to be made from Joseph to Khalaf according to a payment schedule described in the document. If Joseph fails to make full payment, he must make a donation to the poor in the same amount as he owes. Khalaf is to be trusted (presumably, without an oath) concerning Joseph's payments. Despite the aforementioned penalty clause, Joseph apparently took longer than expected to repay the two dinars, since the final release which appears on the verso is dated six months after the end of the loan repayment period, in 1144. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 219)

Recto: Inventory of a dyer's store. (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR Verso of T-S Ar.30.89: Arabic script, needs examination.

Legal document in which the rabbinical court in Fustat, having to evaluate a workshop for purple making left to an orphan, invites non-Jewish experts to join the inspection. Dated Sivan 1410/ June 1099. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 172, 404)