Legal document: BL OR 5536.2

Legal document BL OR 5536.2

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In PGP since 2017

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Engagement (shiddukhin) contract. Probably a leaf from a court ledger. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan? Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 27 Nisan 1468 Seleucid = 9 April 1157 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Groom: Abū l-Wafāʾ b. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ. Bride: Sitt al-Thanāʾ bt. Yosef the cantor. It contains, in addition to the usual conditions (not to marry a second wife, etc.) the stipulation that the wife's earnings would belong to her. The mohar (dower) is fixed at an early payment of 10 dinars and a delayed payment of 30 dinars. Signed by Saʿadya b. Avraham and Elʿazar b. ʿAṭiyya ha-Kohen. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.) Published in Amir Ashur's MA thesis.

BL OR 5536.2 recto

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Amir Ashur, "The India Trade and the Emergence of the Engagement Contract: A Cairo Geniza Study," The Medieval Globe 3, no. 1 (n.p.: Arc Humanities Press, 2017), 27-46.

On Tuesday, 27th of Nisan 1468 Era of Documents [1157 CE] in Fustat, Egypt, situated on the Nile river, under the jurisdiction of our Master Samuel, the great Nagid, the Nagid of the Diaspora, may his name be established forever, Abu al-Wafā, the  young man, son of Abu al-ʿAlā, concluded a match with Sitt al-Thanā, daughter of Rabbi Joseph the cantor, may his end be good. And they both agreed that the mohar will be forty gold dinars, of which he will pay in advance ten gold dinars at the time of marriage, which is set to take place by the month of Nisan 1469 Era  of Documents. And there will remain incumbent on her thirty gold dinars, good, excellent. And [here are] the well-known conditions imposed by the daughters  of Israel: she will be regarded by him as trustworthy in all matters concerning food and drink and any claim. And that he will not marry another woman as long as he is with her and will not keep a slave girl disliked by her, and if he will do any of the above he has to pay her late installment. And her earnings will remain in her possession. And if the month of Nisan 1469 [1158 CE] arrives and he will not marry her, the aforementioned Abu al-Wafa, the fiancé, testifies upon his oath, in  our presence, when he is in the soundness of his mind and freedom of his will, that he has in his possession ten Egyptian dinars as a complete debt for the aforementioned Sitt al-Thanā, the fiancée, [to be paid] if he will change his mind and will not marry her on Nisan 1469. We performed a qinyan with Abu al-Wafā on the above mentioned conditions, a complete and weighty qinyan with a legal instrument fit  for doing so, effective immediately, in accordance with his will, without any sort of compulsion, nullifying all secret dispositions and conditions. Afterwards, we performed a qinyan with Sitthum, Sitt al-Thanā’s mother, [who testifies] that she has  in her possession ten dinars as a complete debt, [to be given,] effective immediately, to Abu al-Wafā the fiancé, if her daughter Sitt al-Thanā will change her mind and refuse to marry the aforementioned Abu al-Wafā on the date agreed upon. We performed a qinyan with Sitthum regarding the above, after we approved her identity, a complete and weighty qinyan effective immediately, in accordance with his will, without any sort of compulsion, nullifying all secret dispositions and conditions. And everything is valid. ‘b. R. Abu al-ʿAlā’ is written between the lines. And everything is valid. (Signatures) Saadya b. Abraham, may he rest in Eden. Elazar Hakohen b. ʿAtiyya Hakohen, may he rest in Eden.