Geniza Lab

Letter in the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya (court scribe, active ca. 1181–1209). He is describing a marital dispute: "...four sessions... in the last session, and that they... with them, and when that was said to me, I sent... with what was said to me, and I chastised him and restrained him in that, and he said... to him the duty that she should move from this place to another.... Some time later, he came to me screaming for help, saying, 'Divorce me from this woman lest I kill her and lose my life on her account,' and I said to him, 'What is the meaning of this?' ... the falsest thing that could be said about her, until I saw with my own eyes, and... divorced..."

Bill of divorce. Dated 13 Sivan 5505 AM which is 13 June 1745 CE. Location: Cairo. The husband's name is listed solely as Menaḥem b. Yosef. MCD.

Receipt for the cost of monthly participation in the association for the assistance of poor women in the costs of marriage – July 1940CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 137) – in Arabic and French. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 70). MCD.

Personal letter regarding a reconciliation between spouses – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 155) in Judeo-Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 62). MCD.

Bill of divorce formulary or draft. Location: Fustat. Dateable perhaps to the eleventh or twelfth centuries. Line one was left incomplete and undated perhaps as draft or formulary. Line two mentions a husband's name Masʿūd b. Yosef b. Nissim. The wife is named Sayyida. This document represents a rare instance in which a husband notes that he himself has drawn up the bill of divorce (ll. 12-13). MCD. ASE.

Ketubba fragment. Badly damaged yet line five confirms the document type in stating: "כתובתא דא". MCD.