Geniza Lab

Deathbed declaration of a physician who includes in his will a gift to his wife in addition to the money owed to her as written in her ketubba, Fustat, Ab 1552/July-August 1241.

Legal document in which Aharon b. Abū al-Riḍāʾ and his wife, Labwa (“Lioness”) bt. Abū Ghālib, release each other from all claims. Labwa releases Aharon from her entire ketubba payment, including her delayed marriage gift. She even goes so far as to give him her dowry as a gift. Furthermore, she commits to provide the maintenance and capitation tax for her older son, Furayj, for two years and to pay for his learning the craft of silversmithing. She will also provide maintenance for their young son, Raḍī, for ten years. Fustat, 19-28 June 1244. Verso: calendar calculation for the year 1250, a year that is peshuṭa and ke-sidran. (Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 384-7) EMS

Fragment of a ketubba (marriage contract) which stipulates that the bride would move from Tyre to Akko in twelve months, ca. 1028-1037. Text in Arabic script on verso.

Recto: part of a ketubba for [...] bat Yeshuʿa and [...] b. Shelomo. Date not preserved. Mentions Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen b. ʿA[…]. Witnesses are [Ḥal]fon ha-Levi b. Shelomo (who surround his signature with a motto), [...] b. Shelomo, Mevass[er], Abraham b. Meʾir ha-[...]. Verso: list of Arabic names and amounts (of money?). (Information from CUDL)

Ketubba for the remarriage of a couple, Ramla, 1052. This ketubba is cancelled, implying that the couple later divorced for a second time. Verso: Calculations and notations. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract of Hayyim b. Moshe and Aziza b. Shelomo. Dated July 28, 1492. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 450)

Marriage contract (ketubba) from Tyre, ca. 1079.

Marriage contract (ketubba) stating that the 200 zuz were "established by the holy college" and the dinars bear the sign "of the temporal ruler." Date, location and witnesses are not preserved, but the marriage probably took place outside of Egypt, as a gift of an ‘Egyptian sheet’ is mentioned. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 301-9) EMS

Betrothal register (53a according to Friedman) between Biqa (?) b. Moshe known as Abu Kāmīl and Mimuna bt. Ḥasan. One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 4693 AM (= 932/33 CE). This fragment contains four independent documents, nos. 53a-d. Documents 53a, 53b, and 53c are betrothal registers. Document 53d is a marriage contract, written at the time of the "nissuʾin." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 401–35) EMS

Betrothal register (53b according to Friedman) between Manṣur b. [...] b. Yiṣḥaq b. Saʿīd b. Pinḥas to Zahara bt. Yaʿaqov haKohen the scribe. One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 4693 AM (= 932/33 CE). This fragment contains four independent documents, nos. 53a-d. Documents 53a, 53b, and 53c are betrothal registers. Document 53d is a marriage contract, written at the time of the "nissuʾin." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 401–35) EMS

Marriage contract (53d according to Friedman) between ʿEli b. Wahīb and Hiba bt. Yonah. One of four fragments from the court ledger of the Babylonian congregation of Damascus (T-S 16.181, T-S AS 146.66, T-S NS 320.108, and T-S 12.592). Dated: 4693 AM (= 932/33 CE). This fragment contains four independent documents, nos. 53a-d. Documents 53a, 53b, and 53c are betrothal registers. Document 53d is a marriage contract, written at the time of the "nissuʾin." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 401–35) EMS

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 1 Ḥeshvan 12[..] Seleucid, which is 888–987 CE. Bride: Zahra bt. ʿAlī. The groom's name is missing. Witnessed by Shelomo b. [...], Ṣadoq b. Yiṣḥaq, Ḥabīb b. ʿAday, Moshe b. Shelomo, ʿEli b. Ḥasan b. Ba[bad?]. On verso there is an unidentified and difficult to read text in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment from the right part of a ketubah. The groom's name is Nethan'el. Small part of the dowry list is preserved. AA

Fragment of a marriage contract from Fustat, written in the same hand as T-S 13J12.18. Dated ca 1337. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 386, 387)

Marriage contract, small fragment, signed by Shemuel b. Ishaq and Avraham ha-Levi b. Yiṣḥaq (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 117, and from Goitein's index cards)

Marriage contract (ketubba), Palestinian-style, for the bride Dallāl bet Yefet and (the groom's name is lost), written in Tinnīs, Egypt, probably 1085 or 985.

Fragment of a Karaite marriage contract of the groom Mevorakh b. Yahya and the bride Mubaraka, containing the trousseau. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Marriage contract, fragmentary and damaged, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, in the later period of his activity as scribe (dated documents: 1100-1138), in which an Indian female slave worth 20 dinars formed part of a dowry. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 325, 326, 456)

Marriage contract, fragment. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 13 Nisan 1326 Seleucid, which is 1015 CE. Groom: Ghulayb. Bride: Mu'ammala, virgin.

Recto: Marriage contract, fragment. Groom: Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Berakhot. Bride: Milāḥ bt. Abū l-Faraj (from verso). Dating: Under the reshut of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya (1140–59). Witness: Yehuda b. Shelomo ha-Sofer. None of the monetary details are preserved, though we learn from verso that the delayed marriage gift was 5 dinars. Verso: Legal document written on the verso of the torn marriage contract. The husband and wife from recto remarry after the wife promises not to leave the house without her husband's permission. The husband still owed her one dinar which would have to be paid if they quarrelled again. Goitein's note card names Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver—is this written in his hand? Witnesses: Seʿadya b. Natan, Yehuda b. Shelomo ha-Sofer, and Mevorakh b. Natan. Information from Goitein's note card.