Marital Agreement (Fayyūm, Egypt)

What happened before us, we, the witnesses who have signed below, on Thursday the 20th of the month of Iyyar of the year four thousand and s[even hundred and six]ty and eight of the Creation of the World [1008 CE], in the city of Pithom [i.e., Fayyūm], which is situated on the Nile, Egypt . . . [in] the court of our master, the av bet din [a high-ranking member of a talmudic academy]—may the Merciful One protect him—concerning the deed that we wrote . . . for Ibrahīm bar Salām, he and his wife, and for the ketubah that she tore up. She came before us and said, “I have committed a sin: make peace between us,” and she wept, she and her son, in front of the people of Israel. And they stood before Abraham her husband and said to him, “Why will you not accept her back?” And he said to them, “She is humiliating me and the people of my household, and my brother and my sister and their children and all my relatives.” So, we made inquiries about these matters and we found them to be true. And we made a complete qinyan [binding agreement] with her, and she undertook upon herself, Salma bat Nathan, toward Ibrahīm bar Salām her husband, that she will stand up in his presence whenever he enters or leaves [the room]. She will serve and treat him with respect, and, as long as she is in a state of purity, she will not refuse to do any of the household chores. Whenever she sees him in a sorrowful mood, she will not argue with him. And if she requires clothing or expensive garments, she will only ask him for what he can afford. And she will not demean him with contemptuous words, reproach, and scorn—he and his relatives. And she will not mention him and his relatives except with the appropriate respect. She will not improperly disobey him, by word or deed, and she is only to leave the house with his permission. She will not demand from him that they go to Fustāt or any other place, unless he himself wishes it. She should honor, respect, and serve him, and never sit in his house idle, but instead she should occupy herself with flax or wool, or her household chores, such as baking and cooking. Salma bint Nathan undertook on herself all these obligations with a qinyan. And whenever she rebels or disobeys one of these obligations, he [her husband] can divorce her, and she should leave with a divorce deed [geṭ] without any delay by the courts. Abraham bar Salam undertook upon himself to be with her with all his heart, giving her his undivided attention, as is the way of virtuous men of Israel, to honor, respect, and provide for her as much as he is able. And we made an undertaking with Abraham bar Salam with a complete qinyan, and they both undertook upon themselves what we have written for them. And they have no right [to withdraw] from what is written. Strong and valid.

Moses ha-Kohen ben Joseph ha-Kohen

Sar Shalom ha-Levi ben Nisin

Salāma ibn Sha‘ya—may he attain the building of Ariel [the Temple]

Shubayb ibn Shekhanya

Joseph ben Sa‘dāl

Ṭayyib ibn Ḥabashi

Source: Papyrus-sammlung Erzherzog Rainer, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Austria H 82.