Geniza Lab

Legal document. Loan terms. Dated: September 1239. Location: Bilbays. Between Amram b. Ḥalfon and Avraham b. Efrayim. Initially described as commenda (qirāḍ) but re-negotiated into a loan with a fixed rate of interest at 20 dirhams on the 36 dinars of capital. Emerged both from Jewish and Islamic courts. The renegotiation is because of Abraham's failure as the active partner in the qirāḍ: under pressure from Amram in the Islamic courts, he deeds his house to Amram for the value of 36 dinars. This sale is confirmed in the Jewish courts with a codicil that Avraham can redeem the house by repaying the loan (which has an initial term of four years) within 12 years. Avraham had given Amram promissory notes prior to this sale, produced in Jewish and Islamic courts. Following the debt restructuring, a ban placed on Avraham (likely in some earlier document) by the judge Peraḥya is lifted. In this case, the ban was brought down on anyone who had information concerning the partnership yet had not come forward to testify. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 5-7)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: 1151. Location: Minyat Ashna (near Fustat). Following appeals by his deceased brother Binyam's widow to the court, Kathīr b. Avraham takes over the maintenance (1 dinar a month, an aboslute requirement) of his sister-in-law's orphaned children as a sort of partnership. The sources of this funding are a) rent revenue from shops in Malij left to the children by Binyam and b), the profit earned by Kathīr from 20 dinars’ worth of silk from estate of Binyam. Unusually, the "partnership" profits are not split according to a fixed percentage, but rather the children, as the "silent partner", receive a fixed amount each month. This is effectively a long-term loan or trust created under the structure of a partnership agreement. Per Goitein, Shemuel b. Yehuda ibn Asad, previous caretaker of the orphans, was apparently a regular caretaker and trustee for orphans; see PGPID 2658. Shemuel is the same Abū al-Ma‘ālī in PGPID 6581. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 7-10)

Ghāliya bt. Yiṣḥaq, widow of Furayj b. X, and Ḥusn bt. Ibrāhīm acknowledge in court that they have received two dinars from the debt transfer (ḥawāla) of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿaqov b. David through the cantor Musāfr b. Shelomo, the cantor from the debt transfer of Abū Manṣūr Ghālib b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Bu l-Khayr to the local school teacher, asking him for a loan of 400 dirhams against a security to help him out until his partner Manṣūr comes back. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Partnership record. Dating: 1096. Written in the hand of Hillel ben Eli. Describes a settlement between Yaḥyā and Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh. Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh loans 210 dinars to and places some agricultural commodities with Yaḥyā. Yaḥyā agrees to take upon himself the maintenance of the poor of Fusṭāṭ for a year in the event of nonrepayment. The repayments do not appear here because this would have been recorded only on the debtor’s copy of the loan agreement. Yaḥyā’s testimony that he paid his debt wouldn't be accepted without these records, but testimony by Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh (the creditor) is to be accepted without such condition. Verso: Court record. Dating: 1116. Part of a court record detailing a different partnership. Abū al-Surūr Simḥa ha-Kohen brings a power of attorney to pursue the claims of the brothers Abū al-Ma‘ālī and Abū al-Wafā Tamīm b. Yeshu‘a regarding a partnership held by their dead brother Mevorakh, with Yaḥyā (the same Yaḥyā from the recto) and Abū al-Ḥusayn the money-changer. The structure of the partnership is unclear, but it seems likely that Mevorakh was an investor and Abū al-Barakāt had always been the active partner. Upon Mevorakh’s death, Yaḥyā and Abū Ḥusayn claim 2/3 of the partnership assets, leaving Simḥa to collect the remaining 1/3 for Mevorakh’s heirs. The verso is written in a different hand from the recto, likely that of Nissim b. Naḥray. Signed by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq, the chief judge of Aleppo. The connection between the two documents is Abū al-Barakāt and Yaḥyā. Per Goitein, this Abū al-Barakāt is not the Mevorakh mentioned on the recto but rather Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh b. Shelomo al-Ḥalabī, and Yaḥyā is Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 56-60)

Legal document. Acknowledgement of loan. Dating: February 1135, in (new) Cairo. Document recognizing a loan of 10 dinars from Yosef ha-Levi to Yefet b. Yaḥyā for the term of one year, to coincide exactly with the term of a partnership between them ("the beginning of Adar II", 1446). Per Maimonides, whenever one gives funds to another person to transact, half of the funds comprise a loan for which the active partner is fully responsible, even in the case of an unavoidable circumstance. The concurrent nature of the loan and the partnership to which the loan agreement alludes suggests the application of this principle, as does the fact that Yefet is responsible for the debt. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 211)

Record of testimony regarding a settlement according to which a debt is to be repaid in six monthly installments, concluded under the authority of Mevorakh b. Saadya, in Alexandria. Dated by Goitein to ca. 1075. This is before Mevorakh's first term as head of the Jews, which began ca. 1078. It further evidences his ties with Alexandria well before his political exile there later on, as ousted head of the Jews and Nagid, ca. 1082 (Mark Cohen) (Information from Goitein's index cards) Nice Arabic script for few lines on verso.

Al-Asad b. Abu al-Faraj al-Sayrafi known as Ben Numan receives a loan of 1580 (the half 790) dirhams from al-Muwaffaq b. Nusayr of which 180 will be paid back after one month and then 30 dirhams every month (at its end). Mirs, November 1337. Verso: note concerning al-Muwaffaq, 1326 Nov./Dec., Tevet. (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR

Recto: Legal document. Dated: Adar 1448 Seleucid, which is 1137 CE. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and signed by himself and Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Concerning a loan of 5 dinars from Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Elʿazar/Manṣūr to his wife Turfa bt. [...] al-ʿAsqalānī. Against a security (rahn) of a golden bracelet (siwār). Every month beginning from Adar II, she will pay 1/2 dinar at the end of the month. The loan was given on the day "they reconciled and renewed their betrothal (? taqdīs), namely the date of the ketubba between them." Verso: receipt of payment, and "to Abū Saʿīd al-Zajjāj." Cf. T-S NS J468, possibly involving the same couple. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

The scholar and hazzan Shela ha-Levi gives a loan of 552 dirhams to the silk weaver Efrayim b. Sedaqa, to be paid back in three monthly installments of ten dirhams, and then in installments of twenty dirhams. Dated Sivan 1521 (sel., mid-June 1210). Dates of payments also dated according to the Muslim calendar, starting on Muḥaram 607 A.H. The verso is an addendum to the topic, dated Elul 1521 sel. (August-September 1210) (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Debt contract. No witness signatures. Bahāʾ b. Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʿAṭṭār owes 61.5 dinars to Abū ʿImrān al-Kohen al-Tifʾeret. The sum is to be paid in monthly installments of 5 dinars, beginning on the Muslim New Year = 1 Muḥarram 611 AH = 1 Sivan 1525 Seleucid, which is 13 May 1214 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Goitein's notes identify Abū ʿImrān as Mūsā b. Abū l-Bayān and Bahāʾ as his uncle, but they do not explain why. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, 1:464.) EMS. ASE.

Shelomo b. Adaya, known as Ben ‘Adi, receives a loan of 45 dirhams from Hibat Allah, the orphan of the recently deceased Abu al-Faraj, in the last third of Elul 1460 sel. (August-September 1149) to be paid back in monthly installments of two qirats. Written and signed by Avraham b. Sa‘adaya in Sunbat. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Transfer of amounts of dinars made for a loan or partnership (qirḍ) in front of witnesses. Signed by Yusuf b. Faraj al-Fasi and Dawud b. Nahum, who signs twice. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Legal document concerning money owed by Avraham ha-Levi to Meshullam (EMS). Likely also a join with T-S 8J4.10. Joins by Oded Zinger.