Geniza Lab

Ketubba fragment. Location: Wardūnya, a suburb of Baghdad (ורדוניא דבגדד), on the Tigris river (דגלת). Dated: 13 Nisan 13[..] Seleucid, which corresponds to the range 889–988 CE. Groom: [...] b. Yosef. Bride: Miriam bt. Yosef. There is an extensive secondary literature on this fragment both on account of its unique location and its early date. Simon Hopkins (‘The Oldest Dated Document in the Geniza?’, pp. 92–93) thought that this ketubba might have predated Halper 331; but Olszowy-Schlanger (‘Les plus anciens documents datés de la Guenizah du Caire’) showed that this was based on a misreading of its date, which is 13th century SE, thus between 889 and 988 CE. On this document, see also N. Golb, ‘A Marriage Deed from ‘Warduniā of Baghdad,’ Journal of Near Eastern Studies 43.2 (1984), pp. 152–56. (Information from Krakowski and Stern, "The ‘oldest dated document of the Cairo Genizah’ (Halper 331)," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 31.3 (2021), 617–34.