Geniza Lab

Part of a ketubba. The surviving text contains part of the dowry list. (Information from CUDL.) See T-S 12.600, a probable join

Part of the opening of a ketubba for Meshullam ha-Levi b. Ṣedaqa (groom) dated [13]91 (= 1080 CE). In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, with only a few words preserved. Part of the shemaʿ has been written between the lines in faded ink and a different hand. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, with no names or date preserved. Between the lines, a different hand has practiced writing the Hebrew alphabet. Verso: part of a letter in Arabic (see separate entry). (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba preserving only a few lines in large characters and the name of a witness, Saʿadya b. David. Verso: letter. (Information from CUDL)

Small fragment from the end of a ketubba, referring to the bride’s immersion (טבילה). Ca. 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, written under the authority of Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen (1127-1139 CE), in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Manassah (1100-1138 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, for Shemarya ha-Kohen (groom) and Sitt al-Bayt (bride). (Information from CUDL)

Part of a ketubba, with no details preserved. Ca. beginning of the 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter by Ḥalfon to the Dayyan Yosef explaining that the Nagid told him that the daughter of the late Mufaddal b. al-Dimyati al-Kohen was otherwise engaged and should not have married Nissim Abu al-Ma‘ani, the writer’s business partner. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Response to the inquiry on the recto, in which the judge replies, “I learned that this girl was engaged several times, but it is not clear to me whether a marriage was contracted with anyone of those who proposed and became engaged to her.” There was a ‘milak’ but it’s not clear if there was a ‘qiddushin’. The judge states that the mother would know. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:80, 443) EMS

Letter from Yosef, in Tripoli, Libya, to his mother, probably in Fustat. Although the address reads "from your son Yosef," the letter is written in the voice of an older woman who defends herself against the addressee's blame for not looking after Yosef properly and for not marrying him to her own daughter. The writer describes a form of temporary marriage that Yosef contracted with an orphan girl. “He fell ill (maraḍa), and his illnss intensified (ishtadda wajʿuhu), and he had no one to attend to him. Thus he saw fit to take a young orphan girl to attend to him, and he married her on the condition that if he wished to be free to move back to his country, he would write her a bill of divorce.” The letter further reports that the wife gave birth to a boy who died. The writer adds that she herself was sick during these events (and thus could hardly be blamed for not intervening). See Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 68; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:306, 494. EMS. ASE.

Settlement after marital dispute between husband and wife, safeguarding her freedom of movement. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100–38). Agreement between Ẓāfira b. Yefet the cantor and her husband, who agree after being on the brink of divorce and following reconciliation that she will have the right of leaving the house and can move between designated places according to her will. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards)

Hebrew court testimony by Yehoshuaʿ b. Mansur saying that his wife has no debts to him.

Deed regarding alimony provided by a husband for his wife in Tyre, while he travels to Egypt. The husband will provide wheat, oil, fuel, cash and service to his wife. Tyre or Tripoli, Lebanon, September/October 1102.

Bifolium from a court register containing a copy (nuskha; naqalnāhā mila be-mila) of a marriage contract between Tahir b. Abu al-Yemen [?] and Binat bint Ḥalfon whose fathers are both deceased. The marriage gift is fifty dinars and the dowry (partially mentioned) consists of valuable items like a neckband made of jets and pearls worth seven dinars, a pear pin, a shepherd's staff, a choker (hanak) with pearls and a lazam (jewelry worn on the chest) made of gold and pearls worth nine dinars. Written in the hand of Judge Mevorakh b. Natan. August 27, 1157.

Leaf from a notebook or register of some sort. The two pages are each headed "faṣl," like other documents from the dossier of the Mosul Nasi Shelomo b. Yishay (and this document may be in the same hand). Goitein initially read the date on verso as Elul 4955 AM, but it seems more likely that it is Elul 1553 Seleucid, which is 1242 CE. On recto there is a formulary for a clause in the marriage contract in which the groom is held responsible if he has intercourse with his wife before she has counted the full seven days and immersed in the ritual bath (miqve), in which case he has to divorce her with full ketubba payments. On verso there is the beginning of a court record, mentioning Shelomo ha-Talmid ha-Mevin, with pen trials in Hebrew script and jottings of accounts in Arabic script (mentioning two commodities and their weights; one of them is ṭabāshīr/bamboo chalk). (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's notes.) ASE

(I) Document concerning claims on trousseau items between Tahir b. Abu Sa'd and his wife Fard bat Abu Isaac. (II) Payment of a debt of five dinars less twelve dirhems in monthly installments. Khalaf al-Mutasawwiq b. Abu al-Surur owes Abu al-Muna b. Barakat; October 3, 1160. (III) Legal document concerning the partnership of a house. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Rough draft of a ketubba (marriage contract), with instructions to the scribe for drawing up the final version. Possibly written by the judge Ḥayyim known from other documents as a judge in the court of David I Maimonides and a relation by marriage. Dating: late 13th century, perhaps 1291–92. Written under the authority of the Nagid David b. Avraham b. Moshe Maimonides. The groom, Avraham, redeemed a woman who had been taken captive in ʿAkko, and now wishes to marry her. His wife consents for him to take a second wife and to even take two more wives after her (for a total of 4). Friedman deduces that the year is probably 1291 or 1292, because David Maimonides was in exile in ʿAkko from his enemies in Egypt from approximately 1285–89, and the Muslim conquest of ʿAkko from the Crusaders in 1291 is a likely occasion for a Jewish woman to have been taken captive and need to be redeemed. The Nagid David, back in Cairo, could have presided over this legal case due to his connections to the remaining Jewish community in ʿAkko. This is a very unusual document, and Goitein went so far as to call it, "the most bizarre Geniza document, both in content and outer appearance, I have ever seen." (Information from Friedman Polygyny, pp. 95–106.)

Marriage contract. Dating: Probably 11th century. Groom: Ṣāfī b. ʿAbdallāh, freedman of the elder Abū l-Faḍl Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Anbārī. Bride: Dhakhīra (or Dhukhayra) bt. Jāmiʿ, from the community of Majdal Kurūm in ʿAkkā. The groom gives 15 dinars (five of which had been paid in advance) to his bride. (Information from CUDL, Khan and Rustow)