Legal document: T-S 12.121

Description

Engagement (shiddukhin) and betrothal (qiddushin) contract. Location: Fustat. Dated: 10 Nisan 1554 Seleucid, which is 1243 CE. Groom: Yosef b. Avraham. Bride: Rivqa bt. Avraham ha-Parnas, virgin. The marriage proper (dukhūl) will take place in the upcoming Tishrei. Early marriage payment: 10 dinars ("with the well-known conditions concerning henna and strings &c."). Delayed marriage payment: 50 dinars. Witnesses: ʿImmanuel b. Yeḥiel; Yehuda b. Sar Shalom ha-Kohen. An engagement agreement of an upper-class couple from 1243 in the hand of Emmanuel b. Yechiel (who also signed as the first witness). The father of the bride (who reached the age of majority) was alive but neither him nor anyone else is mentioned as representing her. The sum of the delayed marriage gift, 10 dinars, was divided into two: five dinars were given during the engagement and the other five dinars were kept as a guarantee, and would be given to the bride if the husband would delay the marriage beyond the set date. The sum of the delayed marriage gift is large: 50 dinars. The agreement was written around Passover and the marriage was set for the coming month of Tishrei (Around September). The document was partly translated in Goitein, Med. Soc. 3:71. (Information from Amir Ashur's 2006 dissertation and in part from Goitein notes and index card linked below.)