Geniza Lab

Verso: Letter probably from Binyām the druggist of Rashīd, in Alexandria, to Abū Saʿīd al-ʿAfṣī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 12th century. (This sender, who left us numerous letters, has a confusing habit of writing מולאי אבו סעיד בניאם at the tops of his letters, making it seem that Binyām is part of Abū Saʿīd's name.) The letter entirely consists of instructions for selling and buying pharmaceutical goods, including wormwood (afsantīn), tamarind, and antimony (rāṣakht). Abū [...] Ibn Shaʿyā is mentioned. Written on a recycled official document (PGPID 30345). ASE.

Accounts of a druggist in a medieval hand, with materia medica listed on the right together with their quantities and/or prices, and names of customers listed on the left. "What was sold from the dukkān of Abū l-Munā b. Ḥasan on the date of Tuesday, the 21st of Dhū l-Ḥijjah."

Accounts of a druggist in a medieval hand.

Account in Judaeo-Arabic listing many materia medica and foods.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic mainly for materia medica.

Document in striking red ink. Appears to have the form of a letter (opens with "that which you desire to know:") but consists of a long list of materia medica and numbers. Perhaps an inventory of a drug store?

Recto: On the right is list of surnames known from the late Genizah period along with numbers: Bibas (spelled Pipas here), Alarcon, Hapis (?), Pinto, Qarun, Yuʿbaṣ, Agi. On the left is a list of materia medica with numbers, then a small illustration. Verso: Numbers and sums.

Accounts of a druggist, giving amounts of materia medica in the column on the right and prices on the left.

Accounts of a druggist, giving amounts of materia medica in the column on the right and prices on the left.

20 small fragments. Image 4 and Image 14 and Image 17 are fragments of legal documents in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Images 5 and 15 are from a printed work on the laws of Shabbat in Ladino. Images 6 and 16 are a Judaeo-Arabic letter (right side of recto, left side of verso) regarding business in foods/drugs (pepper, wormwood) and mentinoing Abū l-Surūr, from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother (Abū Saʿīd?). Image 7 lists the names of various Nasis, Hizqiyah ha-Nasi and Shelomo ha-Nasi ben David ha-Nasi Rosh ha-Golah. Image 9 is another literary printed fragment in Ladino. Image 13 + Image 19 is a list of materia medica on one side, mentioning Abū Saʿd on the other, and preserving the remnants of an Arabic document.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: Late 13th century CE. Location: Fustat. Moshe ha-Talmid b. Ṭahor partners with Abū Saʿd b. Abū l-ʿAlā al-Ṣabbāgh in an apothecary shop. Moshe is paid 6 dirhams a month agrees to work for a year and a half. His wage is guaranteed by Abū Sa‘d’s father Abū al-‘Alā’ (ll.7-8). Because of the guarantee of Abū al-‘Alā, three qinyanim are performed: Moshe's agreement to work, Abū Saʿd’s agreement to pay, and the guarantee of Abū al-‘Alā’. Although the parties’ relationship is described as a partnership, Moshe's wages being fixed suggests an employment agreement, though likely not an apprenticeship, both because Moshe is not a youth (line 5 alludes to his five sons) and is said to manage or set up the store. The date and signatures are missing from the document in its current state of preservation, though T-S NS J405 (PGPID 26473) reveals Abū Saʿd agreeing to repay a debt of some eight hundred dirhams from November 1275. Perhaps Abū Saʿd had come upon difficult times and needed the guarantee of his father in order to convince Moshe to manage the apothecary shop. Note: Abū al-‘Alā’'s guarantee is for fulfillment of the obligation “to the store”, suggesting a sense of corporate identity ascribed to the store and its creditors. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Society", 100)

Legal document. Partnership record. Dated: July 1218. Location: Fustat. Emerging from the court of Abraham Maimonides, this document concerns the disintegration and settlement of a partnership in an apothecary which had been managed by Munajjā al-‘Aṭṭār b. Abū Sa‘d al-‘Aṭṭār and Abū al-Khayr b. Abū al-Riḍā al-Naqqād ha-Levi. There are a number of provisions concerning the assets of the concern: first, Munajjā is entitled to one dinar from Abū al-Khayr for fourteen months, a debt recorded in a separate document; second, the balance of all the shop’s merchandise is to be retained by Munajjā; third, the first 800 dirhams of the shop’s debts will be repaid by Munajjā (any excess will be repaid by the two partners jointly); fourth, both partners will share in collecting accounts receivable, with the funds divided equally between them; and, fifth, six copper basins will go to Munajjā (which previously belonged to Abū al-Khayr, as he is held responsible for anything missing from them). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 228)

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)