Babylonian Betrothal Agreement (Damascus)
[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.
Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation.
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.