Legal document: Bodl. MS heb. a 3/42

Recto

1. … [He shall rebuild His temple] and His altar steps. He shall establish His palace and His hall. And He shall send Eliya according to His words […] in His power. He shall gather together the dispersed ones
2. [of His people], to plant them on their soil and make them inherit their inheritance. He shall hasten their good news and consolation hidden from their remnants. In the lifetime of his Glory, Highness, Holiness, our Lord and Master, our Lord the Great nāsī Ḥasdai, the nāsī of all the exiled com- munities of Israel, He shall exalt
3. [his Glory, son of his Glory, Highness, Holiness, our Lord Ḥizkiyahu, the great nāsī, chief of the exile, may his rest be glory with his pious forefathers the kings in the Garden of Eden, the Garden of God; and in the lifetime of all Israel the pure and God-fearing ones
4. … [on the day] … [of the mon]th Elūl, of the year one thousand four hundred twenty eight years of the era of the Greeks, in Fusṭāṭ which is situated on the river Nile. On this day came before us
5. [the elder Yeḥya son of his Glory, the esteemed physician] Abraham, the elder, his end is good, and before the elders who give their testimony below in this document, and said to them the meaning of these words: Be my witnesses and perform [with me now] the qinyan
6. [and write and sign that, with full ri]ghts, I am declaring before you a real, valid and lasting declaration. And I am not coerced, not mistaken, not in error, not led astray, not drunk and under no compulsion, but
7. [according to my will and wish and with full resolve, I have returned to] my wife the glorious and dear Rayyisa, the widow, daughter of his Glory our Lord and Master, the esteemed and respected elder, when he was still alive, Saᶜadya, son of the respected elder David son of
8. … [and I married], performed the qinyan and betrothed her by mohar, writ, sexual intercourse, witnesses and the qiddushim, according to the law of Moses, man of God, may the peace of God be upon him, and according to the custom of Israel
9. [the pure and the holy ones. And I shall dress, clothe and] support her. I shall fulfil all her legitimate needs and desires to the best of my strength and possibilities, and I shall be with her in truth, justice, love, pity,
10. [honesty and faithfulness. And I shall not diminish her] rights: her food, clothes and sexual intercourse in the manner of the children of Israel who feed, support and dress their pure wives and fulfil all they owe them in faithfulness
11. [and honesty. And the mohar that I stipulated and allocated for her is], twenty five coins of silver, mohar of her non-virginity. And I added for her seventy dinars, good, full, round, minted in the currency of the kingdom, in the weight of ten,
12. [seven. I have advanced her from them twenty] dinars. The twenty five (of silver) which are the mohar of her non-virginity, I shall give them to her on this day, at the time of her wedding, and fifty dinars will remain incumbent upon me and on my estate after me
13. [as a true and binding debt. And this Lady Rayyi]sa accepted the words of our dear Yeḥya and wished to return to him and to be his wife and companion in purity and holiness, to obey, esteem
14. [respect and help him, and to do in his house all that the pure daughters] of Israel do in the house of their husbands; to behave towards him in love, compassion, honesty and faithfulness; to be under his rule, and to have her desire directed towards him.
15. [And she wished to appoint as her agent the esteemed elder] Yehoshuᶜa ha-K[ohen son of] his Glory, Highness, Holiness, our Lord and Master, the pious and powerful prince Şedaqa ha-Kohen ben Yehoshuᶜa ha-Kohen, the esteemed prince, may his rest be in Eden, to take care of the affairs of her marriage
16. [to our Master Yeḥya ben Abraham. Two trustworthy witnesses testified] about her, and they are: our Lord and Master, our cherished Nathan ben Joseph ben Nahorai, may his soul rest in peace, and our Lord and Master, our beloved and dear Isaac ha-Parnas son of our Lord Şedaqa
17. [And the elder, our Master Yehoshuᶜa ha-Kohen came] on this day before us and willingly [testified] about himself that he acted as agent to this Lady Rayyisa, and gave her into marriage to our esteemed elder Yeḥya ben Abraham, by the mohar established
18. [above, and that he received the payment of the mohar which] is twenty dinars. These are the belongings that this Rayyisa brought with her to the house of her husband, the aforementioned Yehya. From the gold: a headband with filigree decoration adorned with pearls fifty din.;
19. … fifty din.; a plain bracelet, 15 dinars; a bracelet decorated with niello work in black, 15 din.; a single piece of amber, 6 din.; two golden rings and another decorated with pearls, 5 din.; an amber maymūn 'amulet', 3 din.;
20. … [di]n.; a silver jewel box, 8 din.; a deep bowl, a cover and a spoon, 10 din. From the clothes: a farajiyya of Dabīqī linen with gold thread, white wimple with gold thread and a headband, 50 din.; a white cloud-coloured tunic of silk and its head cover …
21. … 15; a tunic of Dabīqī linen, two washed [tunics] of silk, a silk Darī wimple, a silk Darī veil, 10 din.; a plain red dress with emblem with golden thread, a silk dress with emblem, a green goat-wool veil [?], 15; silk dress with emblem;
22. … of Dabīqī linen with silk, ten dinars; a half-coat of amīrī muslin and a kerchief of Dabīqī linen, 10 din.; a washed Dabīqī cloak, a washed half-coat, a light green shawl with golden thread, 6 din.; a half-coat and a goat-wool veil …
23. a Sūsā coat, a silk cloth, 5 din.; an ᶜAttābī dress with ḥamāilī ornaments, black head cover, a Dabīqī kerchief, 15; two kerchiefs for the face, nine pieces of skullcaps worth together 10 din.; a red Maghrebi cloth and another one
24. … a piece of silk, 20 din.; seven kerchiefs 'for the wardrobe' and another one, 5 din. From the bedding: a brocade sofa in five pieces, 40 dinars; two borax coloured day-beds, 15; a Siqlāṭūn bed cover, 7 din.; a silk mattress and four pillows,
25. another Ṭabarī [mattress] and a pair of sūsanjird cushions, five pillows for the cheek', two pairs of sūsanjird cushions, twenty din.; white bed, a wrap for sleep, a coat, 6 din.; a Wāsiṭī curtain for the front wall, 8 din.; a curtain of qalamūnī stuff, 6 din.; a curtain,
26. … eight new Bahnasī curtains, 40 din. From the copper: a big chandelier for wax candles, an oil jug and an oil lamp, a small secondhand chandelier, a big basin and ewer, a small basin, a Damascene bucket and a dipper, a bucket,
27. … also a small bucket, a set for washing ashes, a big box and its contents, two candlesticks, two cups for the candle [?], two boxes for washing ashes, 4 whitened cups, a jug, a cover for a cup, a marble [?] and a marble mortar, a big bathrobe,
28. … a small bathrobe, a blood-coloured cloth from Kazirūn, sixty dinars and a half, a big bridal trunk inlaid with tortoise shell and ivory with a silver mirror and aloes wood, 5 pieces of silver of total value of fifty din.; a dark blue zanfalīja chest inlaid with mother-of-pearl …
29. The total value of everything is seven hundred and nineteen dinars. And our esteemed Yeḥya ben Abraham declared that all these belongings were brought to his house, into his po[wer] and will be
30. [under his jurisdiction], with him and in his possession, and he took upon himself to keep them as all that belongs to him, and not to change anything from them without the knowledge of his wife, and without her consent. He also took upon himself the responsibility for this ketubba and upon his heirs
31. [after him, except for what] is lost. And if this Rayyisa leaves this world from her husband, this Yeḥya, all she possesses will return to her daughter orphaned from her father, or to this Rayyisa's heir from her father's family if …
32. … and our dear Yeḥya will [not] owe anything from the delayed mohar. And our elder, dear Yeḥya stipulated according to his will and resolve that he shall come into the convenant of the Lord, blessed be His name, and that he shall not profane against his aforementioned wife
33. [the festivals of the Lord] according to the sighting of the Moon, and that he shall not light the Sabbath candles against her, and not force her in her food and drink, and that he shall not take all the time she is with him another wife or concubine and shall not …
34. except with her wish and agreement. And that her daughter will remain with her in her house on his expense and be supported by him until she is married. If he breaks one of these conditions he shall have to pay one hundred dinars to the poor of the Karaites and
35. the poor of the Rabbani[tes] in equal shares. And this Rayyisa accepted in favour of her aforementioned husband that she shall not profane against him the festivals of our brethren the Rabbanites all the time she is with him, that she will take care of his food and drink and that she shall not take
36. from him the rent of the house in which they presently dwell. They both took upon themselves to be together with full resolve, willingness and honesty, and to behave according to the custom of the Karaites who observe the holy festivals
37. according to the sighting of the Moon and the finding of the aviv in the Land of Israel, and not to appeal to the Gentile courts to change the laws of the Torah. And we performed the qinyan with our Great Prince Yehoshu'a ha-Kohen the agent, and with our esteemed, beloved and dear
38. [Y]eḥya concerning all what is written and made clear above, and what happened before us we wrote, signed and gave to this glorious Rayyisa to be with her as a proof, right and [testimo]ny, which is not like an asmakhta nor like mere
39. formularies but like the power and validity of certified, clear, binding and legally valid documents, according to the law of Moses and Israel. May they build and prosper, rejoice and be merry. O Lord save, O Lord make prosper (Ps. 118: 25).
40. … and we gave and they are valid and binding
41. David ha-Kohen ben Şedaqa ha-[Kohen]
42. Şedaqa ha-Levi ben Efraim, his end is good; Mevorakh ben Elᶜazar ben […] Yehoshuᶜa