Creator Bio
Abū Zikrī Kohen
12th Century
Little is known about the life of Abū Zikrī Kohen. He was a leading merchant in Fustāt (Old Cairo), and dozens of extant documents attest to his business transactions, including a group of twenty receipts of payments made in a single month in 1140. These documents reveal that Abū Zikrī was careful with his money, avoiding overdrafts and repaying his banker promptly. He signed his bank notes with emet (truth), an acrostic of the opening words of Psalms 85:12, emet me-erets titsmaḥ (“truth springs out from the earth”).
Content by Abū Zikrī Kohen
Primary Source
Order for Payment (Fustāt, Egypt)
In [your name, O Merciful One].Truth. 5 dinars.May the elder Abu’l-Khayr Khiyyar pay to the bearer five dinars for wax candles.The month of Av, 1451 of the Seleucid Era.Source: CUL T-S Ar.30.184, 5r.