Geniza Lab

Legal deeds, templates from of a manual. A copy of deeds of legal interest in the hand of the scribe Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (documents of his are dated 1100-1138). Goitein (Med. Soc. 3:127) suggests that the deed was written around 1130, but does not explain the basis for this dating. The earliest identified ketubba that contain the monogamy condition as found here is from 1117, thus the deed was probably written after that year. Deed A, Ketubba: Ashur inserted this ketubba to his dissertation, which does not usually treats ketubbot, because of its proximity to the other deed and due to the unusual condition it contains. The husband vows to provide his wife with a female slave and, in case the present slave dies, to replace her with a new one. It is probable that Ḥalfon copied this condition from a real ketubba, since it is unlikely that this condition was common enough to be included in a manual of deeds. Deed B: deed complementing the Ketubba. Deed which records the dowry that was not stated in the ketubba. The deed was written on the reverse side, from line 8 onward, after the end of the ketubba in Deed A.