Geniza Lab

Marriage contract for two enslaved people, both born into slavery (muwallad(at) al-jins), Muwaffaq and Dhahab. In Arabic script. Excerpt: ...انه زوج مملوكه موفق المولد الجنس لمملوكته ذهب المولدة الجنس ايضا... مبلغه ربع دينار دفعه هذا المولا.... On verso reused for the Passover Haggada. Needs further examination. ASE

Probably from an Halakhic monograph relates to marriage. On verso a draft of a ketubah which contains the immersion clause, so can be dated after 1176.

List of 19 items in a marriage gift. The groom is Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, the bride is Sitt al-Banin bat Avraham. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (ca. 1100-1138). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 406.) See AIU VII.D.106 for the financial arrangmenents on the occasion of their divorce.

Minute fragment, related to marriage agreement of some kind, written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138). AA

Marriage contract (ketubba) possibly from Tyre that includes the list of goods in the dowry: a cloth, a curtain, a lamp, two dyeing vessels, two jugs, a chest, and a house. (Information from CUDL)

Poem(s) in Judaeo-Arabic containing advice for the lovesick, written as a faux medical prescription. In the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. The recto contains a marriage contract dated 1298 CE. Nāṣir made a pair of bifolios by making a horizontal cut across the ketubba and then placing a vertical crease in each of the resulting halves. Probably the upper bifolio nested inside of the lower bifolio, as the lower bifolio contains both the beginning and the end of the text. (Information in part from Cecilia Palombo and Goitein's attached notes.) ASE

An agreement between a person and his divorcee, al-Mahalla al-Kubra, 1374.

Marriage contract (ketubba) from Minyat Zifta, Egypt, 1093-4. The groom is Saadiah ha-hazzan b. Sedaqa ha-hazzan, a man known to have served as a cantor, judge, and scribe in Minyat Zifta. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 107-9) EMS

List of people to be excommunicated ('by name'/באסם). The left halves of ~7 entries are preserved. "In the bar (mashraba) with... and her children... a place with drunk people... between her and them..." With the join, we now have the right halves of 3 of the original entries and the right halves of 2 new entries. 2 of the entries are now complete (if not entirely clear): “Every woman who wraps a turban or braids her hair [….], even in her own house" and "Every man who is able to marry but does not do so because he is too busy with sinful things." ASE

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). This fragment contains part of the signatures from the foot of one deed in addition to a fragmentary marriage register. Dated: 4693 AM, which is 932/33 CE. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 435.) EMS

Recto: fragment from a Karaite ketubba for Ghāliyya bt. Yosef b. Abraham and Thābit b. Yaʿaqov. The bride’s father acts as her agent. Dating: ca. 11th century. Verso: unidentified text. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's note card.

Recto: fragment from a Karaite ketubba for Ḡāliyya bat Joseph b. Abraham and Ṯābit b. Jacob. The bride’s father acts as her agent. Ca. 11th century. Verso: unidentified text. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document: Qaraite ketubba from Ramla, part only. Yaʿaqov b. David al-Shulḥanī (groom) and Sayyida bat Wahb al-ʿArḍī (bride). Location: Ramla. Dated: Wednesday, 10 Elul 1403 after the Babylonian Exile (= 1006 CE), in Ramla. The bride’s agent is Menaḥem b. Iyyov al-Ḥalabī, and his appointment was witnessed by David b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen, the scribe, and Khalaf b. […]. The extensive trousseau list of the wealthy bride includes tunics, cushions, mattresses, boxes of ḥalanj wood, several buckets, and houses in Ramla, Ibn Ṣafar-Street, next to the house of Shelomo b. [Ḥayyim]. Witnessed by Faraj b. Mevasser ha-Levi, Ṣemaḥ b. […], Efraim b. Yehuda, Yosef b. […], and Yaʿaqov b. […]. (Information from CUDL.)

Trousseau of an orphan, nineteen items. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Two pieces of one ketubba. The dowry list includes a gold drop choker (worth 5 dinars), a gold wristband (worth 5 dinars), a pair of silver anklets, red Chinese silk, a coat, five shirts, a gown, a scarf, two kerchiefs, eight coloured pillows, a lightweight garment, a Tabari carpet, a cooler, and a cup. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract (ketubba). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: Friday, 15 Kislev 1417 Seleucid, which is 24 November 1105 CE. Groom: Yefet b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi. Bride: Badra bt. Aharon, a widow. Signed by: Elʿazar b. Avraham ha-Kohen. Marriage payments: 1 + 2 = 3. No dowry. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) AA

Part of the heading for a highly decorated ketubba (in Hebrew, although the ketubba text would likely have been in Aramaic). All of the main text has been lost but the heading refers to Sar Shalom ha-Levi, leader of the Jewish community in 1170 and 1177-1195 CE (brother of Gaʾon Nathaniel ha-Levi). (Information from CUDL)

Palestinian-style marriage contract. Late tenth or early eleventh century. VMR

Fragment from legal deeds written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138). On recto a reverence is made to 'al-wakil al-goy' = the gentile representative. On verso few words from an agreement between Sitt al-Dar and her husband Yosef. AA

Tyrian marriage contract with a peculiar proposal formula borrowed from Malachi 2:14 (‘my companion and wife in covenant’). Mid eleventh century. (Information from CUDL)