Geniza Lab

Marriage contract. Location: Barqa (Libya). Dated: Thursday 5 Elul 4750 AM, which is 28 August 990 CE. The contract explicitly states that it follows the local custom of Tripoli, Libya, and has some peculiar traits which set it apart from similar documents from other countries. The bride, Ḥasana bt. Yosef al-Ṣarfī, was an heiress. This may account for the fact that she was not provided with a trousseau by her father but received a payment from her future husband, Aharon b. Yeshuʿa, to buy herself an outfit. The settlement is signed by 36 persons, possibly all guests present, only two of whom were witnesses. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Trousseau list to accompany a marriage contract. Groom: Abū Naṣr Elʿazar ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā. Bride: Sitt al-Maʿālī bt. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Simsār. Real value: 57 dinars. Including a female slave (unnamed) worth 20 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Trousseau list (taqwīm). Groom: Tamīm b. Netanel. Bride: Sitt al-Khafar bt. Elʿazar. 42 + 83 + 55 + 30 = 210 dinars. Dating: ca. 1182 CE, as this folio seems to belong to the same legal register as the preceding sheflmarks. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

(c) Trousseau list. Dated: Sivan 1185 CE. Bride: Nasab bt. Abū l-Khayr al-Zayyāt. Groom: Munajjā Abū Saʿd al-Labbān. 10 + 25. Total value: 90 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

(b) Trousseau list. Bride: Sitt al-Furs bt. Abū l-Bayān al-Jābī (cf. Bodl. MS heb. f 56/43). Groom: Al-Munajjā b. Yosef. 10 + 25. Total value: 95 dinars. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Recto: Letter of recommendation addressed to Aharon ha-Ḥazzan. In Hebrew, calligraphically written. Headed with the title 'Rosh ha-Seder.' Requesting that Aharon look after a blind man named Shabbat who claimed to have been cheated of his allocation. Verso: A woman pawns pieces of her trousseau against loans. The date 26 May 1050 CE appears in lines 4–5. Information from Goitein's note cards. Old description: Fragments of responsum by a Gaon, dealing with children of female slaves.

Beginning of the draft of a legal query to the judge Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim) concerning the trousseau of a woman in levirate status, most of which had been lost. It was local custom to return to such a woman the trousseau in full. Dating: Early 13th century. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Trousseau list. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe? Fiancé: Seʿadya b. [Avraham]. Fiancée: Jawhara bt. Seʿ[adya known as Abū l-Yumn Ibn al-Baṣal]. This is the same couple whose divorce proceedings are detailed in CUL Or.1080 J141. Jawhara’s marriage register totals an impressive sum of more than 500 dinars, and her delayed payment was seventy dinars. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Trousseau list. Bride: Sitt al-ʿAshīr bt. Netanel ha-Zaqen. In Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Notebook of a marriage broker. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew with Coptic numerals. Dating: 1511 CE (1823 Seleucid). Enumerates the circumstances attending the marriage of certain persons named, chiefly concerned with invoicing the brides' trousseaus. Gottheil suggests that these are Qaraite documents. Information from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 179.

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.

Three leaves, all of which belong together. One side of each fragment contains an elaborate trousseau list, with values given in both Hebrew numerals and Greek/Coptic numerals. (It is not immediately clear if all this is for the same marriage vs. distinct marriages.) The versos contain different documents. Verso of fol. 1 contains notes for the drawing up of.a marriage document between the groom [...] b. Yefet ha-Levi and the bride Sitt al-[...]. A note at 90 degrees reads, "The wedding of the son of the Rayyis, Monday 10 Nisan 145[6?]." If the date is read correctly, that is 1145 CE. Verso of fol. 2 contains the beginning of a draft of a ketubba drawn up under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel. b. Ḥananya. There are also some large, ornate red letters and a few words in Arabic script. Verso of fol. 3 contains more of the draft of an ornate ketubba header as well as part of a legal document (perhaps the ketubba itself). The scribe is probably well-known from other legal documents of this period. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Trousseau list. Entries include a copper vessel, a bath tub, and a female slave named Warda born into slavery (muwalladat al-jins). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Trousseau list. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Dating: ca. 1140 CE. Includes a silver drinking vessel (qiḥf), a vessel with a lid (marfaʿ), and a mirror with a silver decoration (mirʾā bi-ḥilyat fiḍḍa). (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Trousseau list. Groom: Ghālib b. Faraj. Bride: Sara bt. Avraham.

Trousseau list, small fragment. Jottings in Arabic script between the lines.

Trousseau list. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Jerusalem. Dated: Goitein's notes and the NLI catalogue both give 1459 CE. The tens digit is very faded, but the date appears to read 23 Ṣafar 853 AH, which is April 1449 CE.