Cairo Genizah : Legal document; pen trials

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Court record in which Abū l-ʿAla ʿUlla b. Joseph ha-Levi al-Dimašqī makes a number of claims against his business partner Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā ha-Levi b. Joseph ha-Levi Ibn al-Hijaziyya, concerning shipments, partnerships and accounts, as well as about living expenses and profits made on a number of journeys including to Damietta and ‘the countries of the West’. The document notes that some of their agreements have written records to support their contractual obligations but that some have been purely verbal, and it is in these verbal agreements that misunderstandings have arisen. The disagreement between the parties is over which of their commercial endeavours were on a partnership basis (in which ʿUlla would contribute to expenses and profit would be shared equally) and which have been via commenda (in which Yaḥyā acts as an agent, being responsible for paying the expenses and receiving a third of the profit in return). Dated 1395 (= 1083-84 CE) in Fusṭāṭ. On recto the document is written around larger words in Arabic and Hebrew script.</p>