Cairo Genizah : Legal document

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Pages from the record book of the Fusṭāṭ Bet Din. Leaf 1 contains an agreement between Abū Yaʿqūb Yequtiʾel b. Moses al-Ḥakīm ('the doctor') and Joseph Lebdī concerning a shipment of indigo. The top of f. 1r notes that it concerns 'the Doctor against Abū Yaʿqūb Joseph the merchant, concerning the forty dinars'. It is dated 18 Adar 1409 Sel. (= 22 February 1098 CE). It concludes on f. 1v with the signatures of the scribe, Nathaniel b. Yefet, and the two witnesses, Isaac b. Samuel and Nissim b. Nahray ha-Rav. The agreement is translated in full in Goitein and Friedman (2008: 181-83). Leaf 2 contains (r-v) three statements about collateral given by and returned to Joseph Lebdī, as surety for the money he owed to Yequtiʾel. The first is written and signed again by Nathaniel b. Yefet, with Elijah ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā and Isaac b. Samuel signing as witnesses. It mentions Eli ha-Parnas and Abū ʿAmr Šela b. Yefet. The second entry is in a different hand (that of Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, according to Goitein and Friedman) and is not signed. It mentions Abū l-ʿAlāʾ and the Qāḍī (who was Qāḍī Abū l-Ṭāhir, according to Goitein and Friedman). The third entry (the last on f. 2r) was written and signed by Nathaniel b. Yefet, with Isaac b. Samuel also signing. These statements are described in Goitein and Friedman (2008: 209-10). Folio 2v contains an agreement dated 15 Iyyar 1409 Sel. (= 19 April 1098 CE), settling accounts between Joseph Lebdī and Yequtiʾel b. Moses. It is written and signed by Hillel b. Eli, with Joseph b. Isaac and Abraham b. Šemaʿya he-Ḥaver signing as witnesses. Described in Goitein and Friedman (2008: 193). In the lower half of the page there is the beginning of a court record concerning the complaint of Karīma bat ʿAmmār, known as Wuḥša, which is concluded in Add.3419.</p>