Geniza Lab

Fragment of a ketubba of a second marriage (or at least for a non-virgin bride, based on the ʿiqqar ketubba payment of 12(.5) silver coins). The groom is named Moshe. Part of the dowry list is preserved and a mention of Dār al-Wazīr, likely as a landmark for a property description. EMS

Minute fragment from a ketubah written by Yosef b. Shelomo Halevi (date: ca. 1170-1210)

Ketubba (marriage contract). Location: Rashīd. Dating: Late, perhaps 18th or 19th century. Very damaged. With an ornate, colorful border. Witnesses include Aharon Ṭawīl, whose name, perplexingly, appears twice. Perhaps there are two documents in two columns? Needs further examination. NB: There may be a Goitein index card that has been misplaced.

Ketubba formulary. Dating: Unknown. Catalogued as 15th–17th century.

Ketubba formulary or draft. Sample date: Shevat [1]971 Seleucid, which is 1660 CE. Sample groom: Naḥum ha-Kohen.

Ketubbas or copies of ketubbas, Qaraite. There seem to be two different fragmentary documents, preserved on separate pages of a codex or ledger. Some of the names survive, but neither of the documents survives in full. Dating: Unknown; catalogued as 18th century.

Marriage contract, Qaraite. Location: Cairo. Dated: 7 Shevat 5480 AM, which is 1720 CE. Groom: Nissim b. ʿAmram b. Shemuel. Bride: ʿAzīza bt. Yeshuʿa b. Avraham.

Marriage contract, Qaraite. Location: Cairo. Dated: Wednesday, 24 Shevat 549[2] AM = 2043 Seleucid, which is 1732 CE. Groom: Shelomo b. Aharon b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Bride: Neḥama bt. Shemuel b. Eliyyahu ha-Levi, virgin. Basic marriage payment: 50 silver pieces. Early marriage payment: 200 large medins. Delayed marriage payment: 800 large medins. Witnesses (named in the document): Nissim b. ʿAmram b. Shemuel ha-Rofe; Naḥum b. Aharon b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen. Bride's agent: her father. Among the conditions is the stipulation that if the wife is childless, all her property will revert to her blood-relatives and she will not have a right to the delayed marriage payment. Witness signatures: Yehuda; Yaʿaqov Levi; Aharon Kohen; Yeshuʿa Ḥazzan (called "al-ʿāqid"; "in the house of the groom").

Marriage contract, Qaraite. Location: Cairo. Dated: Adar 1810 Seleucid, which is 1499 CE. Groom: Elazar. Bride: Esther Sutayta bt. Yosef ha-Levi. Quite faded and damaged, but should be mostly legible.

Marriage contract, Qaraite. Location: Cairo. Dated: Sivan 5500 AM = 2051 Seleucid, which is 1740 CE. Groom: Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo b. Yiṣḥaq. Bride: Raḥel bt. Yiṣḥaq.

A Rabbanite ketubah from Cairo. The groom is Avraham Ashkenazi b. Yoesf and the bride is Esther d. Shmuel Romano

A ketubah. Image not availabe.

Marriage contract. Location: Calcutta, India ('on the river Ganga' (=Hooghly)). Dated: Sunday, 12 Adar II 5611 AM, which is 1851 CE. Groom: Yeḥezqel b. ʿEzra Gabbay. Bride: Miryam bt. Moshe b. Yeḥezqel. Currency used: 'Company rupees' (רפייה כומפני), perhaps referring to the official coinage of the East India Company.

Fragment of a Palestinian-style ketubba. Location: Possibly Tyre. Dating: First half of the 11th century. Groom: ʿEli b. Sahlān (possibly identical with ʿEli b. Sahlawayh). Bride: Dhakhīra bt. Avraham. See M. A. Friedman's edition for further information.

Ketubba fragment. In Hebrew and Aramaic. Groom: Faraj. Bride: [...] bt. Farjūn, virgin. Witnesses: Tamīm ha-Kohen b. Shemuel, Ṣadaqa b. [...], Hiba b. Aharon, Hillel ha-Levi b. [...], Shelomo b. Moshe, among others.

Ketubba fragment (marriage contract). Location: Damascus. Dated: [.]101 Seleucid = [10]89/90 or [11]89/9 CE.

Marriage contract between the groom, Yaʿaqov b. Natan, and the bride, Darra bat Nisan. Dated Nisan 1376/1065.

Ketubba. Entirely in Hebrew and Aramaic (Qaraite?). Groom: Aharon b. Sameaḥ. Bride: Rayyisa bt. Yehuda b. Yiṣḥaq. Groom's agent: Yeshaʿya ha-Zaqen ha-Ḥaver b. Namir. Sums of 100 and 200 dinars (דרכמונים) are named in connection to the portions of the dower. The beginning of the dowry list is preserved, in smaller letters. Needs further examination.

Marriage contract (ketubba). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: Tuesday, 5 Adar II 1437 Seleucid, which is 1126 CE. Groom: Elʿazar b. Shemarya. Bride: Ḥasana bt. Seʿadya ha-Levi the cantor, a divorcee or widow. There is a special clause stipulating that Elʿazar will not remarry his divorcee. Should he violate this condition, he will have to give her a bill of divorce and pay her delayed marriage settlement. ("Note that under the conditions of the contract there was no bar to Elʿazar taking a second wife other than his divorcee. Shortly after this ketubba had been issued a standard monogamy clause whereby the husband undertook not to marry a second wife or to keep a slave girl of whom his wife disapproved was routinely written in Fustat ketubbot.") This marriage contract was torn into 5 pieces apparently upon the divorce of Elʿazar and Ḥasana, of which M. A. Friedman located 3 pieces, and Yiftach Eitan and Oded Zinger located the upper right corner. (Information in part from Friedman, "A Case of Polygyny with David, Abigail, and Ḥasana," Dine Israel X–XI (1981–83). Also discussed in Friedman, "Polygyny in Jewish Tradition and Practice," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 49 (1982), 33–68.) Moshe Yagur has discovered that Elʿāzar and Ḥasana subsequently remarried; Bodl. MS heb. b 12/18 is the upper right corner of their new ketubba.

Marriage contract from Tyre, dated Tuesday, 19 Av, fifth year the sabbatical cycle (ca. 1054). The town of 'Ibillin is mentioned, and the document notes the bride is a divorcee. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 280) EMS