Babylonian Betrothal Agreement (Damascus)

This legal record, preserved in the Cairo Geniza, records the betrothal (‘erusin) of Baqa ben Moses and Maymūna bat Ḥasan, which took place in the synagogue of the Babylonian Jewish community (those who followed the legal tradition of the talmudic academies in Iraq) in Damascus. As it makes clear, the Babylonian community there was considered small, likely relative to the Palestinian Jewish community (those who followed the legal tradition of the Palestinian academy). Baqa grants his betrothed both the fixed mohar (bridal gift) for virgins and a living area in the compound of houses that he owns. This document, dated from the creation of the world (A.M., or Anno Mundi), was preserved along with several other betrothal agreements, suggesting that the Damascene community meant to produce a communal record, perhaps in case disputes later arose. The betrothed couple did not yet live together. Here, the father agrees to maintain his daughter until her marriage (nisu’in, which involved the standing under the huppah and the writing of the ketubah), when she would begin to live with her husband.