Geniza Lab

First part of an engagement document. Names mentioned in the document: Ibn Mahfuz. Dated Thursday in the month of Tammuz. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal document. Testimony. Dated: May-June 1149. Testimony around the engagement of Tamīm b. Abū al-Faraj and Fakhr bt. Joseph, imposing a penalty if Tamīm is found to have an impediment to the marriage. This fragment reveals a brief partnership agreement between Khalaf b. Samuel and Barakāt b. Mūsā Ibn Muska, the term of which is to be one full year. Although short on details, this would seem to have been a joint active partnership situated in a single location rather than an investment partnership, since 1.3 dinars of the profit are to be allocated for the partnership to cover joint capital expenses, the balance of which is to be split evenly between the two partners. Although the partners do not describe their relationship as a shirka, mu‘āmala, muḍāraba, or even shutafut, they do use the verb sh-r-k in Form VIII. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 203)

F. 1r: Betrothal contract between Moses b. Shelomo and Muwaffaqa bint Shemuʾel b. Moses. Location: Cairo. Dated: Kislev 1691 of the Seleucid Era (= 1379 CE), and signed by Joseph b. ʿOvadya and Joseph b. Moses. Information from CUDL.

Copy of an engagement deed dated 1202 in Alexandria, sent to Maimonides with a query over whether the contract was legally binding, and the reply in Maimonides’ handwriting. The query itself did not survive, but Maimonides’ reply makes its subject matter clear. The halakhic validity of this type of contract was in doubt, and Maimonides ruled that engagement deeds were in fact permissible according to halakha. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Engagement (shiddukhin) contract in the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan (wrote documents 1150–81). Dated: Sunday, 27 Sivan 1470 Seleucid = 1159 CE. The document is torn and only partially legible. In addition to many familiar clauses, this document contains an unusual stipulation apparently obligating the husband to live with his wife in the Jewish neighborhood. (Information from A. Ashur's MA Thesis, '"Engagement Documents from the Cairo Geniza.")

Engagement contract in which Ṭahor ha-Kohen b. Yehuda b. Seʿadya pledges his minor daughter after 5 years to Muhadhdhab b. Shemuel. Muqaddam: 51 dinars. Mu'akhkhar: 60 dinars. Fine: 280 nuqra (~20 dinars). See Med Soc IX B 2, n. 32. Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Recto: Legal declaration in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe involving a bridegroom and his fiancee, Sitt al-Ahl. After a temporary dissolution of the engagement, the prospective groom agrees that all future income from his fiancee, Sitt al-Ahl, would be considered her property. Verso: Short document in Arabic script. Needs further examination. (Information from Goitein's note card and CUDL)

Fragment of an engagement contract concerning an esteemed family; five generations headed by a “grand mufti,” the highest juridical authority. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:103, 447.) EMS. Document consisting of the genealogy (to five generations) of Yeshuʿa ‘the honored bridegroom, the discerning student’ b. Daniel ‘the honored Sar’, and was presumably to be attached to a betrothal deed or to be copied into it. Possibly Qaraite, as it is in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL.)

Engagement (‘shiddukhin’) contract drafted in Bilbays, 1218, for a nine-year-old orphan girl named Sutayt, noting that she will “enter the huppa in the year 1523 (= 1221 CE), three years from today.” (Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 84, 251). Recto and verso relate to the same case; see also T-S 8J9.13 recto. EMS Written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who serves as the muqaddam of Bilbays. Published by Ashur, Engagement documents, p. 116-120. See also Mosseri VII.124.1, probably another contract related to the same couple.

A late engagement deed between Ishaq Halevi b. Ovadia and Simha d. Menahem Zarfati. The Marriage gift items are in Judeo Arabic while the deed itself in Hebrew. On verso two other legal deed not connected to recto.

Engagement agreement. Fiancé: Ṭāhir b. ʿIwaḍ al-Jazzār. Fiancée: Mudallala bt. Ḥalfon b. Elʿazar. Dated: Wednesday night, 28 Sivan 1581 Seleucid, which is 1270 CE. The name Abū ʿImrān b. al-Tifʾeret appears in the margin. On verso there is a Judaeo-Arabic literary text. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Agreement regarding a marital match, Malij, 1492 CE (1803 Seleucid). Corrected in comparison with Goitein's notes and with microfilm copy (Z.F.)

Fragment of an engagement contract in the handwriting of Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Menashshe. The bride is a widow, but there are no details about her or her future husband. Contains a number of clauses that appear only after 1119. (Information from A. Ashur, "Engagement Documents from the Cairo Geniza,"Thesis submitted for the MA degree, Tal-Aviv University, under the Supervision of Prof. M.A. Friedman)

Small fragment from an engagement deed from 1438 Era of documents (1127) written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi and signed by him together with Halfon b. Eli and Avraham b. [...]. The parties are Abu al-Faraj and the son of Zedaqa Halevi. AA

Minute fragment from engagement deed written by Halfon b. Menashsh Halevi. The groom's name is Shelomo. The bride is a widow, daughter of Munaja. AA

An engagement contract, consisting of T-S 8J5 f.3 and T-S NS 259 f.37, in the handwriting of Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Menashshe (active 1100-1138). Dated 1124. (Information from A. Ashur 'Engagement Documents from the Cairo Geniza,' Thesis submitted for the MA degree, Tal-Aviv University, under the Supervision of Prof. M.A. Friedman)

Document concerning a shiddukh (matchmaking) for a first-time bride in Dammuh, Egypt. Written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and records a fine for the benefit of Dammuh. Early thirteenth century. (Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 90, 260; and Moshe Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations from the Cairo Geniza, Brill, 1976, 102) EMS

Legal record (#43 and #44). Engagement contract, outline. Dated: Thursday, 14 Sivan 1467 Seleucid. In the hand of Meovrakh b. Natan (like the rest of the notebook). Engagement agreement between a Qaraite man (Abū Saʿīd) and a Rabbanite woman (Sitt al-Naṣr bt. Netan'el ha-Kohen). Goitein suggests that it is an agreement between a husband and wife that was composed after a quarrel (Med. Soc. 3:152–53). But Ashur judges the document to be an engagement agreement because the early marriage payment (muqaddam) is mentioned and there is a condition that the muqaddam will be considered 'a gift', alongside many other conditions common in agreements before the marriage. These conditions include: not to bring into the house anything forbidden by the Rabbanites (ṭā'ifat al-rabbānīn), that the early marriage payment is a gift, that he will not marry a second wife nor take a concubine if she disapproves, on pain of having to pay the delayed marriage payment and giving her a divorce, etc. NB: Goitein and Ashur referred to this document as folio 17 (Firk. II NS 1700.17) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 18, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8). ASE.

Legal record (#63). Trousseau list (taqwīm). Groom: Yosef b. Netan'el ha-Kohen. Bride: Sitt al-Kafā'a bt. Bū l-Faḍā'il ʿOvadya b. Shemuel. "Another marriage agreement composed in Fustat thirty years later reads very differently. The agreement does not survive in full, but its contents are summarized above a partial inventory of the bride’s dowry (taqwīm) copied into a court notebook. Here the pledges all extend the other way, strengthening the bride’s legal position rather than eroding it. The groom, Yosef b. Netan’el ha-Kohen, promises his future wife, Sitt al-Kafā’a bt. Abū l-Faḍā’il, that he will trust her financially; that he will neither marry a second wife without her permission nor keep a female slave against her wishes; that if she dies before bearing children, he will claim only half her dowry as inheritance and return the rest to her birth relatives; that she may continue to live in Fustat rather than Cairo; and that he will not object if she sells off any of her dowry items and buys other property with the proceeds" (Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 241). NB: Goitein and Krakowski referred to this document as folio 25b–26b (Firk. II NS 1700.25b–26b and Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.25b–26b respectively, with the 'b' indicating verso) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folios are 26–27, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8).