Betrothal Agreement (Fustāt, Egypt)

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About This Entry

This betrothal agreement includes a relatively high dowry. Some obligations commence at the kidushin (betrothal) stage, while marital obligations begin only after the second stage, known as nisu’in. The text was written in Fustāt (Old Cairo) for a couple from the Palestinian community (those who followed the legal tradition of the Palestinian academy) there. It is dated from the creation of the world (A.M., Anno Mundi), not the more common counting of the Era of Documents (the Seleucid era). Most ketubot (marriage contracts) from the Cairo Geniza follow the Babylonian rite (established by the geonic academies in Iraq). Among the signatories at the bottom is the scribe, Mu‘ammar ben Isaac.

[Verso:] A marriage contract for betrothal

[Recto:] On the first day of the week, which is the eleventh day of the month Tamuz, year four thousand, seven hundred and sixty-seven A.M., which is year one thousand, three hundred and eighteen, of the era by which we are accustomed to count in Fustat, Egypt, which is situated on the Nile river, Israel b. Daniel betrothed Sittūna, the virgin, who is of age, daughter of David, represented by her father David b. Abraham, after his agency had been verified by two witnesses—namely David b. R. Shema‘ya the elder and Khalaf b. Abraham—with a qinyan [to affirm] that she had consented to his agency to give her in marriage to this Israel. And the witnesses were acquainted with her. The betrothal is for qiddush with a marriage gift of 250 good, fully weighed dinars. At the time of her betrothal [qiddush], he gave her 100 dinars, which is the total advanced payment. There remain [as a debt] incumbent upon him 150 good, fully weighed dinars, which is the total delayed payment. And this Israel b. Daniel undertook to nourish her, to maintain and esteem [her], when she enters his home. And she undertook, this Sittūna daughter of David, to attend him in purity and cleanness, after she enters the marriage chamber. With this understanding, the two sides agreed, Israel, the betrothed, b. Daniel and David, the agent, b. Abraham. And this Israel gave to David, his father-in-law, the agent, in our presence, 100 dinars, the advanced mohar, and the rings with which he effected the qiddushin. This David, the agent, b. Abraham, received them in our presence. And the two of them instructed the scribe to write and the witnesses to testify.

We performed a complete and strict qinyan with them, with the consent of both of them, with a proper implement for performing it. Strong and valid.

Jepthah ha-Kohen b. Toviah.

Samuel b. Ḥanokh [whose] s[oul is at] r[est].

Neḥuma b. Wahb.

Mu‘ammar, the scribe, b. Isaac [whose] s[oul is at] r[est].

Source: CUL T-S 18J1.3.

Translated by Mordechai A. Friedman.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Israel ben Daniel and Sittūna bat David, Betrothal Agreement (Fustāt, Egypt), 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), 378–80. Courtesy of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Tel Aviv University, The Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology.

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