Geniza Lab

An engagement agreement from 1331. It looks like a registration in the court's notebook.

Engagement (shiddukhin) agreement. Since there are no betrothal (erusin/qiddushin) agreements in the Geniza before the twelfth century, this document is probably an engagement agreement despite the fact that 'amlaka' means either 'betrothed' or 'engaged,' and despite the fact that the word engagement is not mentioned directly in the document. he engagements were conducted in front of both the Babylonian and the Palestinian congregation as both Yefet b. David, the leader of the Palestinian congregation, and Avraham b. Sahlān (mentioned here as the 'Aluf he-Ḥaver) and his son Neḥemya from the Babylonian congregation are mentioned. Friedman (Jewish Marriage in Palestine, 2:447) dated the document to 1028 CE, despite its verso: Bodl. MS. Heb. c 13, fol. 22v(?). From the same ledger: ENA 4010.28, ENA NS 8.15, and Bodl. MS heb. c 13/21.

Engagement (shiddukhin) contract for a second wife. Location: Fustat. Dating: ca. 1165–66 CE, as the reshut clause invokes the Gaʾon Netanʾel ha-Levi (1160–66) and the document is written in the hand of the court scribe Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (active 1165–1203). Manṣūr b. Makārim of Bilbays, already the husband of a woman named ʿAmāʾim, came before the court (probably in Fustat or Cairo) together with Abū Naṣr b. Abū Saʿīd, the half-brother (shared mother) of a woman named Maʿālī. Together the two men agree on the conditions for Manṣūr's marriage to Maʿālī. (1) Maʿālī will have her own apartment, not shared with ʿAmāʾim. (2) Manṣūr will not take a third wife. (3) Maʿālī will live with Manṣūr's daughter Milāḥ, likely the daughter of ʿAmāʾim (Goitein speculated that ʿAmāʾim must have suffered from a physical or mental illness preventing her from taking care of her own daughter). (4) Marriage payments: 2 + 15 = 17 dinars. (Information from M. A. Friedman's edition.)

Prenuptial agreement, probably.

Court record about the settlement of various claims between Shela ha-Kohen b. ʿAyyāsh and Tiqva b. ʿAmram. Fustat, dated 1099. Describes a dispute over a debt. The defendant paid part of the debt at the time of becoming engaged to a sister of the complainant. An oath was to be given by one party declaring to have meddled with wine adjudicated to the other party by a previous decision of the court. Receipt of sums adjudicated. In the hand of Nissim b. Nahray (Goitein). In the hand of Iṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi (Ashur). Verso is blank. See also T-S NS 324.30 in relation to this document. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below, Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 2, p. 513, Ashur, Engagement and Betrothal Documents from the Cairo Geniza (PhD, Tel-Aviv, 2006). p. 14.)

The engagement contract of Abu Mansur, Semah b. Yefet, to Sitt al-Khassa in Fustat, 1146. Sitt al-Khassa was the daughter of Abu Barakat, son of Yosef Lebdi, the India trader. The groom deposited the very large early marriage gift of 40 dinars with a third party and promised the delayed marriage gift of 100 dinars. The bride received five shares (out of twenty four) of the house that used to belong to her grandfather, and half of her father's house. Moreover, 'the rent from her real estate will be in her hands, not in his hands, and she may deal with it as she sees fit.' She also is promised the right to choose the domicile. Her very large dowry amounts to 500 dinars (actually it adds up to 496 dinars), and it is stated that this sum was not exaggerated. The document begins with Bodl. MS Heb d 66 48r then continues to Bodl. MS d 66 47r and then to the latter's verso. Previous description: Engagement of Sitt al-Khāṣa bt. Abū l-Barakāt al-Lebdī and Ṣemaḥ al-ʿAṭṭār. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. 11 November 1146. Information from Goitein's note card.

Engagement agreement from 1184. The date of marriage was set for the month of Elul in the following year, almost two years after the document was composed. The bride was orphaned from her father and there is no mention of a representative on her behalf as is common in many engagement agreements. This might indicate that she represented herself and that she was mature. However, the fact that two year would elapse before the marriage can take place might indicate that she was still rather young; see Goitein, Med. Soc. Vol. 3, pp. 92. } The father of the groom vows to take care of all the bride's expenses for five years after the marriage. It is possible that the groom was too young and the bride's family was concerned that he would be unable to provide sufficiently for the bride and thus sought to place this responsibility on his father. There is no mention of any fine on either party in the event that the marriage will not take place. Most of the contract is written in Aramaic and Hebrew but the conditions prevalent at the time in Egypt were written in Arabic and perhaps this indicates that they originated in the surrounding Muslim environment (in ENA NS 21.6 there are conditions in both Arabic and Hebrew and Friedman suggests that the conditions that have not yet won wider acceptance were written in Arabic; see Friedman, Polygyny, pp. 56-59).

An engagement agreement from the 18th of Tevet. The marriage is set a month and four months afterward. The bride is represented by her father, who also receives the engagement from the groom. Here, as elsewhere, there is no mention of a fine if any of the sides would cancel the engagement or the marriage would not be conducted at the agreed upon date.

Deed of engagement (shiddukhin). In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. Dated: Monday evening, 30 Kislev 1460 Seleucid, which is 1148 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The ornate titles attached to the names of the couple may suggest that they were family members of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The manuscript is located at the Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.

Fragment of an agreement for a planned engagement from the city of Cairo in the year 1191. The fragment is faded and very difficult to decipher. The suggested reading is uncertain. From what can be salvaged, it appears that the son acts as his father's representative for the marriage. The father might have been going through the divorce procedures while the son was handling the arrangements of the wedding with the new wife. If this is the case, it is a unique situation which does not appear elsewhere.

Engagement contract, draft. The scribe repeated a number of lines of the document as well as the names of the bride and groom several times. Two different groom's names are mentioned, suggesting either that the document was intended for scribal practice, or that the scribe confused the Hebrew and Arabic names for the same individual.

Engagement Agreements. Two sides of what appears to be a page from the court notebook from the 1330s. In side A there are two engagement agreements, the first in the righthand side of the page and the second begins in the lefthand side of the paper and continues on the verso. The writing is faded and difficult to decipher.

Deed of engagement written on the bottom left part of the document (apparently from the court's legal folder) that contains also a dowry list (not present here). The handwriting is similar to that of Mevorakh bar Natan (Fustat, 1150-1181) but he probably did not write the document. Ashur dates the document to the middle of the 13th Century.

Engagement (shiddukhin) contract. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (active 1100–38). Location: Fustat. Dated: Sunday night, 25 Kislev 1444 Seleucid, which is 1133 CE. Fiancé: Abū Naṣr Elʿazar b. Yefet. Fiancée: Sitt al-Banāt Saʿīda bt. Hillel.

Legal. Engagement (shiddukhin) contract. Dating: No earlier than 1697 CE, based on the mention of the coin (zer-i) maḥbūb. Groom: Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Najjār. Bride: Ḥanna bt. Hillel אלחירקו(?), a widow. There follows a trousseau list and conditions. Currency: maḥbūb. On the facing page there is another list (also a trousseau list?) in a different hand. Several of the items are written in Ladino.

Engagement (shiddukhin) contract. In Hebrew. Dated: 1 Tamuz 5569 AM, which is 1809 CE. Groom: Yaʿaqov ha-Levi Istanbuli b. Shemuel. Bride: Sara bt. Moshe Condiote. Currency: real. Verso: Note in Arabic script.

Engagement (shiddukhin) contract. Location: Alexandria. Dating: Perhaps 16th century. Bride: Parna(?) bt. Nissim Berakha. Groom: Khalīfa. Signed: Avraham Levi (witness); Matitya b. Shelomo de Leon (witness and scribe). (Information in part from A. David's edition on FGP.)

Small fragment from an engagement deed, written under the authority of Netanel Halevi, based on the phrase נסיכנו ונשיא אלהים ב[תוכנו]. AA

Recto: Legal document, possibly a court record. Regarding an engagement (shiddukhin). Fiance: Yefet b. Binyamin b. Refa'el ha-Levi ha-Talmid. Fiancee: Fāḍila bt. Bū l-Khayr Binyamin b. Faraḥ. Verso: One line in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly connected to recto, mentioning the money due to a wife (muqaddam, mu'akhkhar, ʿaml(?), and kiswa). There are also several unidentified lines in Arabic script. Information from Amir Ashur via FGP.

Verso: Drafts of legal notes from a court. Some of the text may have been erased. The entries do not appear to be related to each other. #1: Record of the payment of an early marriage gift (muqaddam) of 15 dinars in an engagement (shiddukhin). Dated: Sunday, 4 Nisan 1552 Seleucid, which is 1241 CE. Fiancé: Surūr b. Yiṣḥaq al-Iskandarānī. Fiancée: Karam bt. Yefet. #2: Abū Manṣūr b. Faḍāʾil declares that he owes Ṣadiq b. Moshe [the entry ends here]. #3 (at 180 degrees): Something concerning Rashīda bt. Abū l-ʿIzz ha-Levi ("al-Rayyis al-Ajall") and monthly payments of 20 wariq dirhams. There follows what may be another entry, mainly in Arabic script. (Information in part from Ashur's edition of #1.)