{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Condition", "value": "Torn, holes" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Fusṭāṭ" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "Purchased by Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson in 1896. Donated subsequently to Westminster College, Cambridge, from whom it was purchased jointly by Cambridge University Library and the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, in 2013." }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "2 leaves (bifolium). Leaf height: 16.8 cm, width: 24.5 (12.5) cm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "The purchase, conservation and digitisation of the Lewis-Gibson Collection at Cambridge University Library has been made possible with the assistance of grants from the Polonsky Foundation, the Parasol Foundation, and a generous donation made through the assistance of the late Robert (Roby) Littman, a Director of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilisation, as well as with the support of other individuals and charitable institutions." }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "
Legal document for the engagement of Ṭoviyya b. Tiqva and Sitt al-Kull bat Peraḥya, witnessed by Abraham b. Šemaʿya he-Ḥaver, Isaac b. Samuel ha-Sefardi and Ḥalfon b. Manasseh. Dated Kislev 1431 of the Seleucid Era (= 1119 CE). It is in fact the earliest known example of such a deed, since formalising a couple\u2019s engagement with a legal document appears to have been an innovation of the 12th century. Jewish marriage is a three-stage process: engagement, betrothal and marriage. Betrothal, at which the couple are declared married but do not move in together, and marriage, when the woman leaves her father\u2019s house and lives with her husband, are both formal events requiring a written document. Engagement, however, was an oral agreement of a more informal nature. In 12th-century Fustat, Egypt, however, the Jewish community began to formalise engagements through a written deed, in order to better protect the rights of women in the partnership. The deeds mostly consist of prenuptial conditions to be imposed on the husband: where the couple would live (and who has the right to choose), the right of the woman to ask for a divorce, various restrictions on the husband\u2019s movements, etc, and testify to the relative power that Jewish women had in the marriage agreement.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "1119 CE" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Legal document: engagement deed" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "CUL. Translation by Amir Ashur and Ben Outhwaite." }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Paper" }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "L-G Misc. 42" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Cairo Genizah" }, { "label": "Associated Name(s)", "value": "Lewis, Agnes Smith, 1843-1926; Gibson, Margaret Dunlop, 1843-1920; Ṭoviyya b. Tiqva; Sitt al-Kull bat Peraḥya; Abraham b. Šemaʿya he-Ḥaver; Isaac b. Samuel ha-Sefardi" }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "Judaeo-Arabic; Hebrew; Aramaic" }, { "label": "Layout", "value": "13-17 lines (f. 2r and 2v are blank)" }, { "label": "Scribe(s)", "value": "Ḥalfon b. Manasseh" } ], "@type": "sc:Manifest", "attribution": "Provided by Cambridge University Library. Zooming image © Cambridge University Library, All rights reserved. Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0) This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.", "structures": [{ "canvases": [ "https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-LG-MISC-00042/canvas/1", "https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-LG-MISC-00042/canvas/2" ], "@type": "sc:Range", "@id": "https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-LG-MISC-00042/range/DOCUMENT", "label": "Legal document: engagement deed" }], "description": "
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