Betrothal Agreement (Fustāt, Egypt)

The following testimony was given before us, the undersigned witnesses of the document:

On the first day of the week—which is the 19th of the month Kislev, in the year 1405 [1093 CE] according to our calendar in Fustāt-Misr, which lies on the banks of the Nile—the following happened: Moses ben Ḥalfon betrothed Turfa bat Yeshu‘a ha-Kohen. The addition [to the prescribed sum] of the ketubah was fifty golden dinars and also five golden dinars. He shall pay from that ten dinars, and forty-five golden dinars shall remain with him, [according to the] custom of the city. [He betrothed her] with a complete betrothal after she appointed her father over her marriage to Moses, and over what he shall make conditional for her and upon her, in the court of law, which is appointed from the house of the exilarch. After that, Moses, the groom, made conditional upon himself that the ten dinars given in advance should be considered as a gift to this Turfa, a kohenet [daughter of a kohen], from that moment, in case he cancels the marriage before entering under the wedding canopy, instead of the [usual] four dinars and the sixth [of the value of the gift?], and that he should not demand anything from her, ever.

And if Turfa, this fiancée, or her father, should cancel this marriage before she enters under the wedding canopy, she must return the ten dinars given in advance, and ten other dinars from what is with her. Yeshu‘a ha-Kohen accepted this upon himself as a complete acquisition from this moment. Moreover, Moses, the groom, and Yeshu‘a ha-Kohen, the father of the bride, agreed that they would live in the upper floor of the house which he has in Fustāt, in Qasr al-Sham‘, which was known as belonging to Joseph ben Abraham the druggist, and it [the right of staying in the house] was transferred to Yeshu‘a for all the days of her [Turfa’s] life. And [they agreed that] if Turfa did not choose to live in this floor that has been mentioned before, she could rent this floor and could take its rent all the days of her life, without contributing to the quitrent or to the [expenses of] guarding [the floor]. This Yeshu‘a ha-Kohen ben Tuviah, the father of the bride, assumed as a duty from this moment, for himself and his heirs, that they would pay the quitrent and the [expenses of] guarding this floor throughout the entire lifetime of this Turfa.

And we, the witnesses, performed the qinyan [binding agreement] ceremony, [obligating] each one of them regarding the other to comply with everything that is written and detailed above, by means of an object that is suitable for performing the qinyan, in a fit and sound manner, and we have written it down and have signed it, and we have transferred it into the hands of Moses, the groom, so that it may be in his hands, in order to entitle him and as a legal proof, not as a [mere] scriptural text used as a support, and not as the forms of documents, but as a document that has the legal force of the documents signed in the courts of law that enact ordinances of the rabbis, which are universally valid from this day forever, with the cancellation of every [possible] declaration of protest, and [the cancellation of] every stipulation, with the exception of what has been mentioned above. We have written down what was before us and signed it so that it may be an entitlement and proof for him from this day onward.

Eli ha-Kohen ibn Yaḥyā

Ezekiel ha-Kohen he-ḥaver [the fellow] ben Eli he-ḥaver

Abraham ben Isaac ha-talmid.

Source: CUL T-S 13J2.3.