Hiring Contract for a Tutor (Fustāt, Egypt)
Testimony about what happened in our presence, we the [undersigned witnesses. There appeared before us] the elder Abu ’l-Faḍl,1 (his) h(onor), g(reatness), (and) h(oliness), (our) m(aster) and t(eacher) Zadok, the h(onored elder, son of the elder Abū . . . h(is) h(onor) etc.) our m(aster) etc. Shemarya, the honored elder, m(ay he rest) i(n) E(den) (and the elder Abū . . . , h(is) h(onor) etc.) m(aster) etc. Solomon ha-Levi, the honored elder, (may his) Ro(ck) keep him [son of the elder Abū . . . ] Ibn al-Am‘aṭ2 and his sister from father and mother called [Malīḥa, the widow of Abū Sa‘d, may he rest in peace].
This Malīḥa agreed with the elder Abu [’l-Faḍl that he would teach her boy] Hiba, the son of the afore-mentioned Abū Sa‘d, Arabic script [and arithmetic and that she would pay him] for this exactly 2 dinars of full weight and Fustat coinage.
[The condition was that the result of the study] which he undertook to teach him for 2 dinars [as mentioned above, should be that the afore-mentioned Hiba] should be able to write a letter with his own hand without blemish in spelling and [script and without] mistakes in the rendering of the content, but that he should write anything dictated to him in [correct] spelling [and pleasant script and without misunderstanding.]
As to arithmetic, he should master the use of the abacus, the decimals . . . and the accounts, not more.
It was agreed that the el[der Abu ’l-Faḍl would receive these 2 dinars] any time he applied for them and that the payment would not be deferred.
[We wrote for him] this document so that it should be a t[estimony in his favor and a proof to be produced in court].
Source: CUL T-S NS J401(L).
Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation.
In these elaborate contracts a person is first introduced by his Arabic name, preceded by the title al-shaikh, the elder, then by his Hebrew name, preceded by several titles and followed mostly by ha-zāqēn ha-nīkhbād, the esteemed elder. Words translated from Hebrew or Aramaic are italicized.
This Arabic word is connected with Hebrew me‘at, “little,” but means “one with spare hair, bald.” A family name frequent in the twelfth century.
Credits
Malīḥa and Abū l-Faḍl, Hiring Contract for a Tutor (Fustāt, Egypt), trans. S. D. Goitein, in S. D. Goitein, “Side Lights on Jewish Education from the Cairo Geniza,” from Gratz College Anniversary Volume, ed. Isidore David Passow and Samuel Tobias Lachs (Philadelphia: Gratz College, 1971), 98–99. Used with permission of the publisher.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.
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