Geniza Lab

Legal document. Small fragment from a bill of sale. On parchment. In the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Drawn up under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi (dates: 1170–95). Abū l-Surūr is mentioned. AA

Legal document. Bill of attorney, written by Yosef b. Shemuʾel Halevi and approved by Maimonides, in his own hand. Published: מע"פ פרידמן, ר' משה בן מימון בתעודות משפטיות מן הגניזה, שנתון המשפט העברי, יד-טו (תשמח-תשמט), עמ' 180-181. Names mentioned: סלימאן, מוסי, אבו אלמנגא, מחאסן Signed by: Shemuʾel b. Saadya Halevi (the scribe's father), Shemuʾel b. Yosef, Moshe Hakohen b. Mordechai Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic. AA

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: August 1181. This document preserves the lower part of a partnership agreement between the brothers Abū al-Faraj and Abū al-Mufaḍḍal in a shop selling food. The partners are allocated maintenance from the shop’s stores, as well as one dirham each per day. The two are to eat and live together, though they are given the option of eating separately, in which case Abū al-Mufaḍḍal is to take two dirhams and Abū al-Faraj is to take four dirhams as maintenance. As well, they will divide profits, though the division itself is not specified but is likely an even division, as is explicit in the case of losses. Interestingly, although the two seem to work close at hand, the text includes the provisions for "trust and avoid[ance of] betrayal" that is often seen in long-distance agreements. The recto is signed by Joseph ha-Levi b. Samuel, later a member of the court of Abraham Maimonides; as well as Levi ha-Levi b. Abraham, a scholar and cantor. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", 195)