Geniza Lab

Remarriage contract of a bride who had been both widowed and divorced in which she receives a house, but no trousseau. Dated 1180-1191. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 101, 409)

Fragment of a marriage contract concerning the remarriage of Moshe b. Yiṣḥaq and his wife Sittat, containing details about the dowry. Dated 1378/ 1066-1067. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 391, and from Goitein's index cards)

Fragment of a marriage contract. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Verso: Legal record that Abū l-Surūr b. Ghanya(?) remarried his divorced wife Maʿānī bt. Karīm al-Aqraʿ ha-Levi. Dated: Wednesday night, 29 Tishrei 1541 Seleucid, which is 18 September 1229 CE. There is documentation of the payments returned to her as originally set down in her ketubba. Witnessed by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. On the margin a notation: the remarriage took place without immersion (ṭevila) for menstrual purity. Goitein speculates that she might have been post-menopausal. Moss. VII,56 is her bill of divorce from 8 months earlier. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Ketubba (marriage contract) by proxy form from the siddur of Shelomo b. Natan of Sijilmasa, 12th century. NB: The shelfmark has changed, and it will take some work to find the current one.

Letter addressed to a woman. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter contains instructions about money to be received and/or paid; mentions the army (al-ʿaskar); mentions Abū l-Maḥāsin and Abū Isḥāq. Toward the end of verso, the writer explains that he (or she?) will travel with another man and the little girl (al-ṣughayyira), while the addressee(s) should remain in Egypt. Then: "If you wish to marry your daughter to al-Raḍiyy and stay in Egypt--then stay! And if you do not wish, do not marry her to anyone." This reading is not certain, as the letter is quite damaged. ASE.

Letter from an unknown man to his niece (bint al-akh). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 13th century. He opens, "How long will you remain a widow?" The writer has found her a promising suitor who recently visited Bilbays, a learned man who works as a teacher, the son of the sister of the teacher Bū l-Ḥasan Hillel al-Shanshāwī. The writer urges the addressee to send the suitor a letter (? תדפעי לה מן ענדך) and go along with this plan. He continues to urge her to cease wasting her youth in spinsterhood ("for I am a man and I was older(?) than you and I did not sit (i.e. as a widower)."). Cairo is also mentioned. The letter ends very abruptly with none of the formulaic regards, so this was probably a draft.

Copy of a ketubba. This is the second page. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Groom: Shela. Bride: Sitt al-Ḥusn.

Deed of restitution written in Jerusalem regarding alimony, in the hand of Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen Gaon, May or June 1071.

Ketubba. Only some signatures are preserved together with the validation (qiyyum) of the ketubba. The witnesses of the main document are: ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi; Moshe b. Yehuda; the teacher Yiṣḥaq b. Nissim Nafūsī (עולה הלוי ביר יוסף משה בר יהודה יצחק המלמד[ביר ניסי]ם נפוסי). The witnesses of the qiyyum are: Avraham b. Shemaʿya ha-Ḥaver; Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi; Moshe b. Ṣadoq; and at least two additional names, one including "Yoshiyyahu" and the other "ʿEli ha-Levi." (אברהם בר שמעיה החבר נין שמעיהו יצחק ביר שמואל הספרדי משה ברבי צדוק ועוד שם אחד).

Ketubba. Dated: 12 Ni[san] 1571 Seleucid, which is 1260 CE, under the authority of David I Maimonides. This was not the first marriage of the bride. The husband name was Yaaqov and the delayed marriage gift was 7 dinars. The earnings of the bride is exchanged for her cover, and there is a immersion condition. There is a trustworthiness clause and also a condition regarding the children of the husband from a previous marriage - probably they will be living in their home until they marry. The hand is almost certainly that of ʿImmanuel b. Yeḥiel. Another interesting feature is that the ketubba is not signed and then someone attached a piece of parchment with two signatures: Elʿazar b. Shelomo ha-Levi and Avraham b. Seʿadya.

Detailed trousseau of Bint Menahem (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, 403, and from Goitein's index cards)

Verso: Legal agreement. Probably in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Avigayil bt. Eliyya ha-Kohen gives her husband David b. Eliyya the right to remarry his divorcee Ḥasana bt. Yehuda. The bottom of the document is not preserved, so we do not know if there are signatures or not. This document may be the notes of the scribe or the court rather than the legal agreement itself. On recto (see separate record) there is a fragment from a letter by an untrained hand.

Marriage contract between Arye b. Yehudah and Karima bat `Ammar. The latter refused to leave Cairo and live with her husband in Palermo, Sicily, resulting in legal arrangements and restoration of gifts; includes a detailed trousseau. Dated ca. 1080. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 402; 177 and 464 note 85) EMS. (Written bu Hillel b. Eli. AA)

Marriage agreement between a Rabbanite husband and a Qaraite wife, with a 30 dinar fine to the poor if one transgresses the religious practices of the other. The groom is called al-Rayyis Abu Ali Yefet ha-Kohen, and the bride is called [Sitt?] Yaman, known as Najiya. On the other side is a legal record in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe involving a marriage or inheritance dispute. Another entry is a list of names and titles of the prominent Bundar family ca. 1120: Bundar prince of the congregations b. yefet, his uncle Avraham prince of the congregations, his broth Yishaq the generous [of the congregations?] and his son Khalaf the precious of the congregations. This list is published in India Book IIb.

Marriage agreement of Perahya b. Natan and Sitt al-Ghiyār, daughter of Mevorakh. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 405, and IV, p. 342, and from Marina Rustow [reading the second half of the bride's name])

Marriage contract (ketubba) appearing to be between two relatively poor families, as evident by the small marriage gift of 14 dinars. Dowry provided by the groom. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol.2, 249-54) EMS

Marriage document. A beautiful ornamented ketubah, probably on vellum, from Rashid, Egypt 1780-1789 (according to Lieberman catalogue). The complete date is hard to decipher. The groom’s name is Avraham, the bride’s name is not preserved. The text is faded, and can be partially deciphered. The marriage gift is 60 thousand Mayidish - a common currency at this period. The witnesses are Aharon Tawil and Moshe Fatah (?). Connected with ENA 3306.2 - this is the ‘bill of conditions’ – שטר תנאים of the same couple, by the same hand and layout, probably written at the same time of the ketubah itself. Among the conditions we can find the groom’s promise not to take another wife. Hebrew and Aramaic. AA

See PGP 12852

Marriage document. A badly torn fragment from the top part of an ornamented ketubah, written on vellum, contains only Biblical verses. There are several ketubahs of the same layout, all from the beginning of the 12th century (e.g T-S 16.52; T-S 16.224, most of them by the hand of Halfon b. Menashshe (1100-1139) Hebrew. AA