From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean by Aslanian Sebouh David; Aslanian Sebouh;

Author:Aslanian, Sebouh David; Aslanian, Sebouh;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2012-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

THE ASSEMBLY OF MERCHANTS AT WORK

An examination of the petitions stored in the Julfa archives indicates that there were at least two classes of petitions. The first class dealt with strictly commercial matters, such as those arising from certain irregularities in the conduct of commerce both in the suburb and especially in Julfa’s overseas colonies. Most of the petitions belonging to this category involve disputes between parties to a commenda contract. Such petitions are formulaically addressed to the “Sahap K‘alantarin, Kherandish kadkhutek‘onts‘, yev barebashd vacharakanats‘” (To the Master Kalantar, the benevolent district heads, and pious merchants).110 These are the petitions addressed to the Assembly of Merchants proper.

A petition of such a nature begins with a summary of the dispute in question (which usually involves a commenda agent who has not abided by the customary laws concerning commerce, such as remaining overseas despite orders to return home or absconding with his master’s share of the profit, a crime warranting a draconian punishment) and concludes by beseeching the honorable body to hand down its swift judgment. A number of such petitions preserved in the archives of All Savior’s Monastery also contain the body’s decision, usually handed down within a few months of the petition. These judgments are recorded on the original petition, in the following manner. The kalantar governing at the time records the body’s decision on the left margin (horizontal inscription) followed by about twenty seals and signatures affirming the kalantar’s will at the foot of the document. An analysis of the several petitions that have the assembly’s verdict affixed to them suggests that this body consisted of about twenty to twenty-five individuals, comprising at least ten or fifteen of the twenty kadkhudas, or district heads, representing the twenty tasnaks, or districts, of the suburb, headed by the kalantar. It is noteworthy that church officials are absent from the commercial petitions that have reached us through the archives.111 Only merchants seem to have been involved in deliberating on secular issues. The kalantar’s verdict also appears to have been recorded in accordance with a formulaic convention. It usually begins with the following line: “Kalantar Ohaness Jumiatov ēspes tastegh tesing or tujari dasturn ēs ay vor nerkoy grets’i piti amal goy.”112 ([I] Kalantar Ohaness along with the community of merchants saw it fit that the following is the verdict of the merchants, which I have written below and which must be implemented.)

A second group of petitions relates to legal documents that needed official ratification and legal endorsement. Such documents included powers of attorney, wills and testaments, and legal papers concerning property deeds involving various individuals or institutions. One of the most distinctive features of such documents is their mode of addressing the assembly. Unlike the strictly commercial documents mentioned above, documents belonging to this class are addressed both to the reigning kalantar and the archbishop/primate of the time. In other words, they appealed simultaneously to the spiritual and to the secular authorities of Julfa. This is manifested in the opening lines of the

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