Order for Payment (Fustāt, Egypt)
Abū Zikrī Kohen
1140
This small receipt, written in a combination of Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, provides documentation for its bearer to receive five dinars as payment for five candles. It is signed by Abū Zikrī Kohen and addressed to his banker, Abū ’l-Khayr Khiyyār. It was found in the Geniza, along with another twenty receipts issued between Abū Zikrī and his banker.
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.
Related Guide
Documents and Inscriptions in the Early Medieval World
Creator Bio
Abū Zikrī Kohen
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”).
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