Geniza Lab

Legal document: ketubba for [...ba]t Mawhūb (bride). Witnessed by Yishaq b. Saʿ[adya], [... b.] Efrayim, Yeshuʿa ha-Levi b. Aharon, Yaaqov ha-Levi b. [...]she, Amram b. Yiftah. Dating: 11th century. AA

Ketubbah of [...] b. Solomon (groom). Dated [...] Sel. in Fusṭāṭ. Written by Emmanuel b. Yeḥiel, Middle of 13th century. Probably under the reign of David b. Abraham Maimuni. AA

Ketubbah of Hillel b. Yeshuʿa (groom), dated [..] Tishri 4[... A.M.]. It is probably a ketuba de'irkasa - replacement for a lost ketubah based on the verb ונסיבנא . AA

Top right strip from a Ketubbah of Ṣedaqa [b. ...] (groom), with no further details preserved. AA

Recto: ketubbah, with a trousseau list including a short robe (jukāniyya), a mantle (ridā) and a face cover (niqāb). Verso: Bill of release of dowry from [...] to her husband Abū l-Barakāt b. Abū [al-...] b. al-muqaddasī. Signed by Hillel b. Abraham, Eleazar b. Yeshuʿa. AA

Marriage contract (ketubba), Qaraite. Bride: Sara bt. Sahl. Groom: Avraham b. Yaʿaqov. Signed by Saʿīd ha-Kohen b. Naḥum and Yosef ha-Melammed. Dating: 1089–1187 CE. Location: Egypt(?). Information from FGP.

Small strip from a Ketubbah on vellum, contains mostly trousseau list mentioning ṭabaristān probably in connection with a garment. No further details preserved. AA

Ketubba, with very little text preserved, mentioning the trousseau items. Witnessed by Shemuʾel ha-Levi b. Elʿazar. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a ketubba (שטר פרנא). Location: Likely Tyre. Dating: ca. 1090s. The handwriting of the scribe seems to be identical with T-S 16.198, T-S 16.375 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 46), T-S AS 146.83 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 60), and ENA NS 3.22 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 64). Bride: Sutūt bt. Ṣabāḥ, a virgin. Her agent is Elʿazar b. Yosef. Few other details preserved. Goitein also identified T-S 8J4.18c and UPenn E 16516 as having been written by the same scribe. (But there is some potential ambiguity since on his index card for T-S 16.198 (#8182), he writes, "No! Simply Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.") (Information from Friedman's edition and Med Soc III, pp.201–02 and 466–67 note 145.)

Dowry list. Dating: Early 12th century. The marriage is between a widow and a widower, both promising to educate the children of the other party until they would marry. Signed: Shela b. ʿAmram; Yosef b. Natan ha-Levi ha-Ḥazzan; Kawkab b. Naʿīm. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Replacement of the original contract of marriage between Abū Manṣūr Elazar and his wife Sitt al-Sāda daughter of Abū Karām Nadīv, by a new one, according to which she receive only 25 dinars as “sacred [sic] statement, and her husband will not provide her with clothing, whether she has work or not (ll. 16-20), while her earnings will be hers. Handwriting of Nathan b. Samuel. Med. Soc. III, p. 133, n. 80, and Appendices. See Goitein's index card #7960

Marriage contract (ketubba), fragment. See Goitein's note card for some details, including a reference to Med Soc III, p. 414 no. 319a.

Small fragment of a marriage document.

Fragment from a ketubbah of Joseph b. Shmuel b. Asad (groom), described as 'the esteemed notable', and the divorcee of Eleazar, called Manṣūr, known as Saʿāda (bride). Dated Thursday [...] Adar 52[...] (= 15th century CE) in Alexandria (Nā Amon), during the reign of Joseph ha-Nagid. AA Old shelfmarks: T-S 8.249 and T-S 8.88

Fragment of a marriage contract stipulating a total of 20 dinars as a marriage gift at the conclusion of the contract in the event of the termination of the marriage. Partial listing of the dowry, ca.1100.

Marriage contract (ketubba). Bride: Nājiya bt. Hiba. Fragment (upper right corner). On verso there is a rhymed poem of praise for a certain person, with the acrostic ‘... b. Isaac’, mentioning the names Isaac and Ezekiel. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a marriage contract giving details of the remarriage of a divorced couple. Tishri 1370/February-March 1058. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 391, 395, 448)

Marriage contract containing details of a dowry and written at the time of the Nagid ʿAmram (1378-1383). The name Avraham is preserved. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) The hand is very close to that of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355); see T-S 13J4.15 for another document from the time of the Nagid ʿAmram possibly written by the same scribe.

Court record. Dated: Middle decade of Ṭevet 1417 Seleucid, which is December 1105 CE. Describing a married woman—Mudallala aka Sitt Baghdād—depositing part of her jewelry as collateral for a debt incurred by her brother, written on the reverse of the woman’s ketubba (marriage contract), as clearly stated: “The court entered the deposition of these objects on the back of her ketubba.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:113, 449; 4:430.) T-S 13J2.14 and T-S 10J28.14 appear to be two copies of the same document (Goitein). EMS

Testimony in which a wife, a widow with three sons, releases her husband from from all obligations other than paying the delayed marriage gift and dowry and letting her live in his house for five years after his death as promised, and declares that her three sons would have no claims whatsoever against him and that her husband would not sue her sons, in Sanbutya/Sunbat, Adar 1427/February 1116.