Babylonian Betrothal Agreement (Damascus)

933

About This Entry

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.

[On] the fifth [day] of the week, 9 days in the month Adar I, year 3 of the sabbatical cycle, an intercalated year, which is year 4,693 A.M. in Damascus, Baqa b. Moses, known as Abū Kāmil, gave the ring of security for Maymūna, the virgin, daughter of Ḥasan, known as Ḥushim, according to the custom of the small synagogue, of the Babylonians. They fixed the mohar between them as thirty-five pieces of gold [dinars]: twenty-five, the mohar for virgins, and the rest an addition for mohar. He has already written for her [a writ granting] one of four portions of the house which he owns in the compound known as the compound of Ze‘ora, in the street of the sons of Jere[miah] all of these[?]‌, inside of the eastern gate. In this house there are ground-level and second-story apartments [rooms]. Its boundaries are: to the south, the rooms of the sons of Jeremiah; to the east, the public thoroughfare; to the north, its gate opens to the compound of Ze‘ora; and to the west, the trash pile of the courtyard. This part, one fourth of the compound, is [conveyed] with all its needs, exposed and concealed, [en]tering and exiting. This Baqa gave [wrote] it to Maymūna, his betrothed, at [a value of] thirty-five pieces of gold. And it is the security for her mohar. Ḥasan, [her] father, accepted for her this ring of security. [And h]e will provide for her needs until the time of her marriage to her husband. Valid is this writ of betrothal. May they build and prosper.

Elkanah[?]‌ b. Moses b. Benjamin ha-Kohen. El[ish]a b. Moses ha-Kohen, witness. Isaac b. Abraham. [?] b. Isaac, witness. Ḥasan b. Manṣur, witness.

Source: CUL T-S 16.181a.

Translated by Mordechai A. Friedman.

We’re sorry. The Posen Library’s licensing agreements prevent this text from being printed or downloaded.

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Baqa ben Moses and Maymūna bat Ḥasan, Babylonian Betrothal Agreement (Damascus), trans. Mordechai A. Friedman, from Mordechai A. Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine: A Geniza Study, vol. 2 (Tel Aviv and New York: Tel Aviv University, Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies and Jewish Theological Seminary, 1980–1981), 402–3. Courtesy of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Tel Aviv University.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.