Legal document: T-S Misc.27.4.29 + T-S Misc.27.4.23

Description

Legal document. Scribe: Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid (based on handwriting). Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 2[7] Kislev 1405 Seleucid, which is 1093 CE. ʿEli b. Yefet Ibn al-Wāsiṭī was summoned to the court of David b. Daniel b. ʿAzarya ha-Nasi (served 1082–94) to clarify the legal status of his daughter Milāḥ. ʿEli, who traveled between Fustat and Ashqelon, affirms that he bought a Nubian female slave named אכתרי (Aktharī? Ukthurī? Akthirī? Ikhtarī?) along with her daughter, in Ashqelon, for domestic service. After the daughter died, ʿEli freed the Nubian woman and married her, under the supervision of the Gaon Eliyya ha-Kohen (who served 1062–83). She subsequently gave birth to Milāḥ, who has now reached puberty. There was concern in Fustat that Milāḥ was actually identical with the original daughter whom ʿEli purchased and who died. ʿEli presents two witnesses from Ashqelon who confirm that the woman had no child when she married ʿEli. They were then asked about the interval of time between the marriage and the birth of Milāḥ, but they did not know. In any case, because Milāḥ was clearly born after the manumission of her mother, the court here acknowledges her as a legitimate Jew and grants her permission to marry whomever she pleases. This is one of the later documents known from David b. Daniel's tenure, and it is one of the handful of documents in which he is titled "Exilarch" (Rosh ha-Gola), none of which are earlier than 1092 CE. NB: T-S Misc.27.4.29 + T-S Misc.27.4.23 consists of two legal documents, both in the hand of Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid, which have been glued together at 180 degrees to each other. (Information from Friedman, Jewish Polygyny, 314–19.) It seems that T-S AS 158.365 was originally connected to the main part of T-S Misc.27.4.29, or at least it relates to the same case; see separate record (PGPID 8366).