T-S 16.50
Legal document. Copy of a Qaraite proxy appointment for a marriage, one of only two such documents known from the geniza. Dating: ca. 1040–47 (based on the people mentioned). Bride: Amat al-ʿAzīz bt. Ḥizqiyyahu the Qaraite nasi; groom: Yefet (Ḥasan) b. Ibrāhīm al- Tustarī of Fustat, son of Abū Saʿd Ibrāhīm al-Tustarī. The bride appoints her father, the nasi, to contract the betrothal; he in turn delegates the role to ʿEzra b. Yishmaʿel (Shemuʾel) b. ʿEzra. While the original proxy deed was written in Jerusalem, this copy is from Fustat. The well-known Qaraite grammarian Abu l-Faraj Hārūn (here, Aharon b. Yehoshuaʿ) serves as witness. (Information from Olszowy- Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Documents, 213, and from Rustow, Heresy, 277–78)
Editor: Ed. and trans. Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Contracts from the Cairo Geniza (1997).
