Geniza Lab

Note from David b. Yehuda ha-Ḥaver, in Bilbays, to Avraham Maimonides, in Fustat/Cairo. Dated: 1532 Seleucid, which is 1220/21 CE. He asks to receive the 'reshut' (authority?) from Avraham to preside over this marriage between the groom Abū l-Munā and 'the girl,' who has appointed her father as her agent. He also asks if it is permissible to use the text of the ketubba drafted on the other side. ("If there is an error in the draft, instruct me to correct it.") "Whether or not the Nagid gave his approval to this ketubba is not preserved; the form, incidentally, does contain a few scribal errors." Information in part from Mordechai Akiva Friedman, "The Minimum Mohar Payment as Reflected in the Geniza Documents: Marriage Gift or Endowment Pledge?" (1976).