Geniza Lab

Marriage document in Hebrew. Late. Possibly just a formulary, as it is introduced with the header "זהו טופס." Currencies: Venetian peraḥim and muayyadis/medins.

Small piece of a ketubba. (Information from CUDL)

Qaraite ketubba. Dated: [13]52 of the Seleucid era, which is 1040/41 CE). Mentions the names Ṣemaḥ, Ḥizqiyya, Mevorakh b. Barhūn, and Ṣedaqa b. ʿAllūn. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage contract, tiny fragment. Includes part of three lines from a dowry list.

Marriage contract. Five lines from the middle are preserved.

Marriage contract. The groom may be the son of Avraham ha-Zaqen. There is one line of a dowry list. On verso there is a note mentioning 'the Geonim' and Barukh ha-Rav (ZL) and Rabbenu Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav (ZL).

Marriage contract (ketubba). Large and almost completely preserved. Location: Tyre. Dated: Thursday, 12 Kislev 4784 AM, which is 28 November 1023 CE. The scribe is probably Yosef b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen (active in Tyre, 1011–37). Groom: Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen of Safed. Bride: Raḥel bt. [...] b. Avraham, a virgin. (Information from Friedman's edition.)

Ketubba, Aleppo, 1026/1027/1028. The document omits the divorce clause, and the groom notably refers to himself and his bride as the "Jew" and the "Jewess." (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 2, 88-95) EMS

Dowry deed from Fustat, 1171 CE. It was customary to bring together all the objects of the dowry and to record them publicly in a trousseau list, as can be seen, for example, in document T-S Ar.54.78. Each object was recorded with its value in a special list and such lists were called taqwīm. The deed at hand is not a taqwīm, but rather a 'dowry deed'. Such deeds were composed at times of political unrest, when the two sides were cautious of making financial commitmants in public. This is why one often finds in such deeds the expression 'due to the time (ʿawāqib al-zamān)' seen here in lines 3 and 20. The deed, scribed by Mevorakh b. Natan (1150-1181), contains the trousseau list and the testimony of the groom that he accepts the dowry and its stated value. The manuscript is cut in the shape of a circle and is missing some of the text in the sides. There are a few lines in Arabic script on verso.

Marriage contract (ketubba) from Damsis, Egypt, 1083.

Legal agreement between spouses on the question of a second wife. Written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1130–38 CE.

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)

Fragment of a marriage contract.

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. In Judaeo-Arabic. Groom: Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Shelomo. Bride: Khalīfa bt. Avraham. Dating: Probably no later than 1032 CE, because Ḥalfon's father is not marked as dead in this document, and there is a signature from a Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Shelomo (ZL) in T-S 16.45 from 1032 CE. The total value of the trousseau amounts to 865 dinars. Goitein's note card suggests that some of the prices, especiallly of household goods, are exaggerated.

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

Marriage contract mentioning in the dowry list, among other garments, a 'jukaniyya,' a garment covering body and head, made of 'white dabiqi'' and worth two dinars. Dated between 1184-1186. (Information from Ashtor, Prix et salaires, pp. 153, 155, 160)

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

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (lower left corner). Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Bride: Ḥasana bt. Shelomo. Groom: Avraham b. Simḥa. This portion preserves the formulae describing the husband's obligations toward his wife.