Geniza Lab

Marriage document. Damaged and creased document. Contains list of items, commonly found in dowry lists included or attached to a ketubah. Here, not as usual, we find them with no prices for each item, so the actual value was combined into one sum. The additional mohar (marriage gift) was 40 dinars. 11 Century. Judeo-Arabic. AA

Marriage document. Two small fragments from a dowry list, probably from a ketubah. 11th century. Judeo-Arabic, Aramaic. AA

Dowry list for the marriage of Jamila bt. Meir and Netanel b. Moshe. The early marriage gift is 10 dinars. Dated: 1169 CE.

Legal document in which a daughter called Mawlat gives her mother Yumn b. Shemuel known as Ismai'l the gift of her entire. Her husband is taking it upon himself to support her daughter in case the mother dies. Written by Hillel b. Eli

.Marriage document. Minute fragment, damaged and creased from a ketubah. Only a few words from the dowry list are preserved. Judeo-Arabic. AA. Needs preservation.

Fragment of a ketubba of the groom Yefet b. Avraham from Alexandria signed by Avraham b. Yaʿaqov. Dated ca. 1100. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 399)

List of valuable goods. Possibly an enormous dowry list from a ketubba—the word הנזכר in the penultimate line indicates that this is part of a legal document. Dating: Looks ca. 11th century. On verso there are a few Greek/Coptic numerals.

Letter in Hebrew, late and beautifully written, to a communal leader. The writer seems to be a woman (although the letter has מתנפל and not מתנפלת). She has a daughter for whom she cannot provide a dowry. She asks the recipent for help. The response should be sent to Shemuel Virgash (שמואל וירגאש ) who is "the father of widows and orphans and is like a brother to me." The writer is a widow named Simha, and her duaghter is Rahel. יוסף טורישאקס is also mentioned.

Late Judaeo-Arabic dowry list, probably, since it is headed "be-siman tov ve-ʿosher ve-banim be-mazal ẓomeaḥ ve-ʿoleh." There follows a list of numerous items, mostly garments, along with their numbers.

This copy of a marriage contract from a record book from the Palestinian synagogue of Fustat is written on four pages of two folios consisting of page 1: Mosseri A 37 (=Moss. VII,37.2) and page 2: Mosseri A 76 (=Moss. VII,76.1). The marriage between Yefet b. Yaʿaqov and Ḥanna bt. Avraham mentions a dowry of 690 dinars which seems to be an exaggerated amount. The first page is in the hand of Yefet b. David, the second page by another scribe. Dated: September 7, 1043 CE (on New Year's eve). (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 94, 446)

Document (trousseau list) enumerating items of a dowry which amounts to 30 dinars and part of a house. Dated ca. 1090. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 128, 402, 454)

Ketubba (marriage contract) fragment that begins with the clause setting forth the wife’s obligations (to serve, etc.) and concludes with a dowry list. A minimum marriage gift of twenty-five gold dinars is stipulated, and the document contains a Hebrew clause stating that the husband will not be obligated to pay the marriage gift unless he divorces his wife willfully and she is not guilty of misconduct. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 347-49) EMS

Ketubba (marriage contract) fragment describing that one-third of a house is given to a daughter upon marriage, on the condition that it would become her property only after her mother’s death; the boundaries of the house are precisely delimited. The document begins with the clause detailing the sums of the marriage payment, and the trousseau list contains three types of skullcaps, a bed cover and four cushions, a pair of earrings and a gold pin, two garments with borders of another color, and a shawl, amongst other items. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 332-8) EMS

Trousseau list from the Egyptian town of al-Mahalla. Ca. 1155

Fragment containing the lower section of a ketubba (marriage contract) beginning towards the end of the dowry list, which contains a chest and a case, a drinking cup and a water container. A gift to the bride includes an apartment in a compound known as Daniel the Perfumer. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 327-31) EMS

A fragment from the top of a ketubah from the year 1038. The bride is the daughter of Efrayim. Part of the dowry list is preserved. AA

Contract in which a scholar known from a number of dated manuscripts gives sums of money to his two daughters. The money is destined for their trousseaus when they reach maturity, but will in the meantime be supervised by a merchant in the form of a partnership to which the merchant himself contributes a small sum. The capital is ensured as a 'deposit of the court,' for which the highest possible form of security had to be given. Dated to the last third of the 11th century. (Information Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 175-176, 442)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (lower left corner). Dating: Likely early 11th century, per Goitein. Groom: Moshe b. Yaʿaqov. Bride: Raḥma (רחמה), not a virgin. The dowry list includes a female slave named Saraf (סרף) valued at 40 dinars. One of the totals (of the dowry?) comes out to 58 dinars. Signed by Yaʿaqov b. Moshe ha-Kohen, Mevorakh b. Avraham, Ḥayyim b. Moshe and Shelomo b. Seʿadya. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) 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

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