Geniza Lab

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (long vertical strip from the right side). Very similar to T-S 12.659 (Friedman, JMP, doc. 6). Groom: David. Date and other details are not preserved. Witnessed by Simḥa b. [A]haron ha-Kohen, Yehuda b. ʿImrān, Yaḥyā b. Nahum, Sāliḥ b. Ḥasan ha-Levi, Avraham b. Pinḥa[s] ha-Kohen, Nuʿmān b. ʿUmar. (Information from CUDL and Friedman's edition.)

Recto: Marriage document (ketubba) in Palestinian style executed in 979/980. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 226-36) Verso: The end of a halakhic treatise on clean and unclean animals, meat preparation etc. (Infromation from CUDL)

Fragment of a marriage contract (ketubba). Dating: Likely 10th century, based on handwriting. This fragment begins toward the end of the dowry list. Groom: Saʿīd. Bride: Malīhā, a virgin. The dowry amounts to 456 1/3 dinars. The items are listed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Hebrew, and the document preserves the complete text of the divorce clause. (Information from Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 53–54.) On verso there is the Hoshaʿnot liturgy for the end of Sukkot. (CUDL)

Fragment of right side of a marriage contract

Marriage contract (ketubba). Dating: ca. 1337 CE, since the same witnesses appear on T-S 13J2.18 from that year. Groom: ʿOvadya b. Avraham b. Shelomo. Bride: Ẓarīfa bt. Yehoshuaʿ. ("The men bear several pompous titles," per Goitein.) For the dowry there is a long list of jewelry, clothes, and household goods, full of late terms. The dinar is valued as being equivalent to 13 1/3 full silver dirhams, as was usual int he 13th and 14th centuries. The bride is obliged to wash herself in the ritual bath for menstrual purity (following Maimonides' enactment on this issue). The bride is entitled to keep her earnings for herself. Witnessed by Elʿazar b. Moshe ha-Kohen and Elishaʿ b. Ḥananya ha-Levi. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba fragment. Location: Fustat. Dated: 2 October 1039 CE. Groom: Faraḥ b. Raḥmūn. Bride: Sittūna bt. Naḥum, a virgin. Marriage payments: 10 + 20 = 30. Dowry = 110. Total = 140. (The total marriage gift of the husband is 30 dinars of which 10 were to be given immediately and 20 were delayed. The grand total is 140, of which the dowry is 110.) Unsigned. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 46; III, 378.)

Verso: Account of communal expenditures. Date seems to be al-Muharram. The final name is X the blind man, illustrating the integration of needy and communal officials into expenditure lists. See separate record for recto.

Levirate case in which a widow appoints an attorney to sue her brother-in-law with the demand either to marry or to free her. Dated: 20 Sivan 164. The dating clause is written clearly, but there's a key to interpreting it. Ashtor interpreted it incorrectly as (5)164 (AM) = 1404 (History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the Mamluks, vol. 3, p. 100 n. 2). Goitein corrected Ashtor's reading to 1204 because, as with many other 13th c documents in the geniza, you have to add 4800 to the stated date, so 4964 AM = 1204. To write 4964 in Hebrew, you would have to use a lot of characters, since the alef-bet only covers up until 400. So 4964 would be דתתקסד (that is, 4(000) + 400 + 400 + 100 + 60 + 4). But since in 1204, everyone knew the 4000 + 400 + 400 part, they just omitted it and wrote 164. So the document dates to 1204.

Beginning of a marriage match agreement drawn up in the presence of witnesses and written three times, the last version written in the shape of a circle.

Part of a ketubba for Abū l-Munā Ṭiqva b. Berakhot (groom), who is remarrying his divorcee. Dated 14[..] (12th century CE) in Fusṭāṭ, invoking the authority of the Nagid [Sam]uel (b. Ḥananya, 1140-59 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba for Sitt al-Ḥasab (bride). Most of the text is too badly faded to read. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba with no details preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba for Shelomo (groom), in the hand of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya (1014-57 CE). (Information from CUDL)

End of a ketubba for the bride [...] bat Hillel ha-Levi. Witnessed by Judah ha-Kohen b. Yefet, Ṣedaqa b. Baqā, Hārūn b. Judah, Aaron [...] and Isaac b. Ṣed[aqa]. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba for [...] bat Meshullam (bride). Witnessed by Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, mostly illegible. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract (ketubba) concerning a wealthy and influential family. Dated: 18 Kislev [48]41, which is 1080 CE. (Gil thinks 4741 AM and 979/80 CE.) The groom is [...] b. Shelomo from Damascus. The bride is [...] bt. […] b. [… ha-Ko]hen ha-Gizbar ("the treasurer") b. Shemuel b. Moshe ha-Kohen […] al-Qazzāz, and her agent is her uncle. Moss. VII,118.1 is in the hand of the same scribe (though probably not a join), and the Khalaf ha-Kohen ha-Gizbar mentioned there may be identical with the [...] ha-Kohen ha-Gizbar mentioned here. (Information in part from CUDL and Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 356.) EMS. ASE

Marriage contract from Tinnis, Egypt, in the late tenth century; two pieces. A long elaborate poem recited on Passover was written on both sides of one piece, and on the verso of the marriage contract. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 339) EMS

Part of a ketubba for Nathan ha-Levi (groom), referring to the dowry. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: lower part of a ketubba. Verso: writing exercises of biblical verses in various hands. (Information from CUDL)