Geniza Lab

(c) Continuation/ending of a record of marriage provisions (on verso, 90 degrees). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

(d) Legal testimony. Crossed out. Dated: Tuesday, 15 Sivan 1494 Seleucid, which is 1183 CE, under the reshut of Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Ghulayb b. Ṣadaqa al-Bilbaysī claims that Abū ʿImrān b. Abū Saʿīd al-Kohen still owes him 105 dinars out of the 345 dinars that he had deposited with him. Abū ʿImrān claims that he already gave all the money back. Signed: Shemuel ha-Levi b. Menashshe; Elʿazar. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

4 entries in a court register. (a) Record of marriage conditions. Groom: Abū Zikrī al-Kattanānī b. Aharon. Bride: Sitt al-Nās bt. Isḥāq. Delayed marriage payment: 10 dinars. Trousseau: total value 75 dinars (and Goitein checked the math!). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

4 legal records. (1) Taqwīm for the marriage between Avraham b. Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-Maghāzilī and Niʿam bt. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ḥazzan. Dated: Nisan 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 5 + 20 = 25. Dowry = 44. See also T-S NS J287, a petition from the same woman to the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi (1170–95 CE), written on her behalf by her father. (2) Taqwīm for the marriage between Abū al-Mufaddal b. al-Rayyis Abū l-Najm and Sitt al-Nasib bt. Eliyyahu. Dated: Nisan 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. The objects are evaluated by ½, ⅓ and ¼. Marriage payments: 0 + 30 = 30. Dowry = 55 (which includes a female slave named Shams valued at 15 dinars). Total = 85. (3) Taqwīm for the marriage between Abū l-Ḥasan b. al-Shammāʿ and Sitt al-Thanā' bt. Abū l-Makārim אלתווזי. Dated: Av 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 0 + 15 = 15. Dowry = 33. Total = 48. (4) Taqwīm for the marriage between Munajjā b. Hiba al-Ṭabīb and Ḥasab bt. Abū ʿUmar. Dated: Tishrei 1498 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Marriage payments: 5 + 20 = 25. Dowry = 15. Total = 40. (Information from Goitein’s index cards.)

Four dowry lists. (1) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Hiba b. Faḍā'il al-Ḥazzān and Riḍā bt. Tamīm al-Parnas. The dowry total is 66 dinars plus one-half of a house. Marheshvan, 1186. (2) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Maʿālī b. Naṭīrā and Sitt al-Bayt bt. Makārim al-Parnas. The dowry total is 23 dinars. Marheshvan, 1186. (3) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Abū Manṣūr b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn al-Dhahabī and Sitt al-Karam bt. Abū l-Barakāt. The dowry total is 180 dinars (includes jewelry, clothing, bedding, and copper), plus 7/24th of a house in Cairo. Kislev, 1186. (4) Taqwīm (dowry list) for the marriage between Abū l-Maḥāsin and Sitt al-Naba' bt. Menashshe. The dowry total is 140 dinars and includes clothing, jewelry, bedding, and copper. Tevet, 1186. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Engagement agreement from 1184. The date of marriage was set for the month of Elul in the following year, almost two years after the document was composed. The bride was orphaned from her father and there is no mention of a representative on her behalf as is common in many engagement agreements. This might indicate that she represented herself and that she was mature. However, the fact that two year would elapse before the marriage can take place might indicate that she was still rather young; see Goitein, Med. Soc. Vol. 3, pp. 92. } The father of the groom vows to take care of all the bride's expenses for five years after the marriage. It is possible that the groom was too young and the bride's family was concerned that he would be unable to provide sufficiently for the bride and thus sought to place this responsibility on his father. There is no mention of any fine on either party in the event that the marriage will not take place. Most of the contract is written in Aramaic and Hebrew but the conditions prevalent at the time in Egypt were written in Arabic and perhaps this indicates that they originated in the surrounding Muslim environment (in ENA NS 21.6 there are conditions in both Arabic and Hebrew and Friedman suggests that the conditions that have not yet won wider acceptance were written in Arabic; see Friedman, Polygyny, pp. 56-59).

An engagement agreement from the 18th of Tevet. The marriage is set a month and four months afterward. The bride is represented by her father, who also receives the engagement from the groom. Here, as elsewhere, there is no mention of a fine if any of the sides would cancel the engagement or the marriage would not be conducted at the agreed upon date.

Folio from a court ledger. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 4 Shevaṭ 1496 Seleucid, which is January 1185 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Abū Naṣr b. Abū l-Khayr claims to have given to the female broker Sitt al-Dalāl bt. Abū ʿUmar two books belonging to his father, one of the Torah and one of Ketuvim, in order to offer them for sale. She claimed to him that they would fetch only 7.5 dinars and obtained permission to sell them to her own son Abū l-Maḥāsin b. Yefet for this price, taking 1/3 dinar as brokerage. Six years later, he learned the Torah alone was worth 20 dinars. Abū l-Maḥāsin is questioned about this. The story continues at length on verso (mentioning at one point the two witnesses Abū l-Bayān Ibn al-Ahuv (ZL) and Saʿīd al-Mawṣilī). This portion still needs examination. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

The main document is a liturgy. On the margin a strip from another document- a ketuba written by Mevorakh b. Natan (1150-1181 CE) was bound together. AA

Bill of divorce (get). Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday 5 Tamuz 1369 Seleucid, which is 1058 CE. Husband: Khalaf b. Shelomo. Wife: Nasāba bt. ʿAmmār. Scribed and signed by Aharon ha-Mumḥe b. Efrayim. Also signed by Ṭoviyya b. Hillel.

Legal document. Ending only. The substance of the matter is unclear. There is a Shemuel and a Mufaḍḍal and a curse. Possibly a reconciliation agreement. Signed: Yefet b. Araḥ and Elʿazar b. Nissim. The qiyyum/validation is signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Seʿadya and Binyamin b. Yefet.

Legal document. Perhaps a partnership agreement (an najlis jamīʿan fī dukkān... wa-yataṣarraf fī l-dukkān bi-maḥḍar...). Names mentioned are Natan and Ṣadaqa ha-Zaqen ha-Ḥasid [b.?] Daniel ha-Levi.

Bill of divorce (get). Location: Fustat. Date missing. Husband: [...] b. Ṣadaqa. Wife: Nasāba bt. [...].

Bill of divorce (get). Location: Fustat. Dated: Probably Av 1[48]5 Seleucid, which is 1174 CE, based on the presence of signatures of both Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (active 1165–1203) and Mevorakh. b. Natan (active 1150–81) Husband: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Salāma. Wife: Ḥusn bt. Abū l-Yumn. Signed: Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen b. Yosef; Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya. The attestation on verso that the wife received the get is signed by Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya and Mevorakh b. Natan.

Deed of engagement (shiddukhin). In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver. Dated: Monday evening, 30 Kislev 1460 Seleucid, which is 1148 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The ornate titles attached to the names of the couple may suggest that they were family members of Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The manuscript is located at the Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.

Legal deed: release or quittance in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, from Mikhaʾel b. Avraham to Yosef b. Abbā Mārī. Dated 1426 Sel. (1114). Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya, Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuʾel ha-Sefaradi, Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and Shemaʿya Gaʾon. Not in Weiss's dissertation on Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Marina Rustow) Cod.Heid.Or.78–80 were purchased from a dealer in Cairo by Adalbert Merx, who published them in 1894 and donated them to the University of Heidelberg Library on his death.

Legal document. Deed of sale for a house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ that Levi b. Namer sells to Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣayrafī Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Menashshe ha-Kohen for 20 dinars, first 10 days of Sivan 1438, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Witnesses: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuʾel ha-Safaradi, Netanʿel b. ʿAmram. Cod.Heid.Or.78–80 were purchased from a dealer in Cairo by Adalbert Merx, who published them in 1894 and donated them to the University of Heidelberg Library after his death. (Marina Rustow)

Marriage contract (ketubba) between Yaḥyā ha-Kohen the blind b. Shela ha-Kohen and (?), dated 23 Adar I 1475 Sel. The images on FGP and the University of Heidelberg Library website are difficult to read and might seem like photostats, but I'm told they are digital images of the originals. Cod.Heid.Or.78–80 were purchased from a dealer in Cairo by Adalbert Merx, who published them in 1894 and donated them to the University of Heidelberg Library after his death. (Marina Rustow)

Deed of sale in which a father sells to his son a quarter of the apartment belonging to him in a house in the al- Mu'tamid passage of the Tujib quarter for seventeen dinars. Dated 1233. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 281)

Ketubba according to the Egyptian rite. Location: Fustat. Dated: 13 Nisan 1606 Seleucid, which is 1295 CE. Groom: Elʿazar b. Avraham. Bride: Sara bt. Elʿazar. Information from the Reif catalog via FGP.