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.)

Witness statement given on 25 April 1028. Mubārak b. Hiba, a beadle of the Babylonian community in Fustat, declares that he had caught a man on the last day of Passover and confined him in his house. Yaʿaqov Levi b. Yosef testifies that he saw the imprisoned man escape through a window of the beadle’s house. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.) Another court record from the same date is found in Bodl. MS heb. c 13/21 recto.

Document containing mostly signatures, above a few lines of faded text. Signed by Ezekiel b. Avraham, Shemarya b. Shelomo, Shelomo b. Thabit, Avraham b. Farrah, Sedaqa b. Yosef, Yehuda b. Yiṣḥaq, She’erit b. Avraham b. Habib, Shalom b. Daniel al-Kohen, Ezra b. Aharon, Yosef b. Farrah, Nahman b. Sedaqa, 'Ammar b. Yeshu'a, Yaʿaqov b. Shalom, Mattan ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen, Yaʿaqov b. Ezra, Yaʿaqov b. Da'ud and Menuha ha-Kohen b. Yosef. EMS