Maimonides and the Merchants
JEWISH CULTURE AND CONTEXTS
Published in association with
the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
of the University of Pennsylvania
Steven Weitzman, Series Editor
A complete list of books in the series
is available from the publisher.
MAIMONIDES
AND THE MERCHANTS
Jewish Law and Society
in the Medieval Islamic World
Mark R. Cohen
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2017 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for
purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book
may be reproduced in any form by any means without written
permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cohen, Mark R., 1943– author.
Title: Maimonides and the merchants : Jewish law and society in the medieval Islamic world / Mark R. Cohen.
Other titles: Jewish culture and contexts.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017] | Series: Jewish culture and contexts
Identifiers: LCCN 2016055419 | ISBN 9780812249149 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Jewish merchants—Islamic Empire—History—To 1500. | Commercial law (Jewish law)—History—To 1500. | Partnership (Jewish law)—History—To 1500. | Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204. Mishneh Torah. | Islamic Empire—Commerce—History—To 1500. | Islamic Empire—Ethnic relations—History—To 1500.
Classification: LCC DS135.L4 C65 2017 | DDC 296.3/677—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055419
For Linda
Contents
Chapter 1. Codification and Legal Change
Chapter 2. Halakha and the Custom of the Merchants
Chapter 3. Updating the Halakha
Chapter 5. Commercial Agency (Ṣuḥba)
Chapter 6. Ṣuḥba-Agency in the Code
Conclusion. Legal Change and Originality
Notes and Abbreviations
All references to the Talmud are to the Babylonian Talmud, unless otherwise indicated. Transcriptions of Judaeo-Arabic follow classical Arabic conventions and use the system in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, except that dj and k are replaced by j and q, respectively. Hebrew transcriptions follow a simplified format, omitting the macron for long vowels. I have used the edition of the Mishneh Torah of Shabse Frankel, which is generally considered the most reliable printed edition. For the English translation of passages from the Mishneh Torah, I have consulted and generally relied upon The Code of Maimonides, 14 vols. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1949), making changes where I deemed them necessary.
| AIU | Alliance Israélite Universelle Geniza Collection, Paris |
| AJS | Association for Jewish Studies |
| APD | Arabic Papyrology Database |
| Bodl. | Bodleian Library Genizah Collection, Oxford |
| CUL | Cambridge University Library Genizah Collection |
| ENA | Elkan Nathan Adler Geniza Collection, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York |
| FGP | Friedberg Genizah Project |
| JNUL | Jewish National and University Library (now NLI National Library of Israel) |
| Mosseri | Mosseri Genizah Collection, currently undergoing conservation at Cambridge University Library |
| NS | New Series |
| PGP | Princeton Geniza Project |
| TS | Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge |
Introduction
Research for this book began unexpectedly, with my study of poverty and charity in the Jewish community of medieval Egypt.1 That work is based primarily on documentary evidence from the Cairo Geniza about the poor and those who came to their relief—whether through private charity or communal institutions. For the normative stance of Jewish law (halakha), I consulted Maimonides’ Code, the Mishneh Torah—specifically, the section “Laws of Gifts for the Poor” (Hilkhot mattenot ‘aniyyim). Maimonides’ Laws of Gifts for the Poor represented the first attempt to draw together and systematically codify all the rabbinic teachings about charity, assembled from rulings scattered throughout the Bible and the Talmudic and post-Talmudic literature.2 To my surprise, I discovered that several enigmatic rulings about charity in the Code over which some medieval commentators