Oxford, Bodleian MS. Heb. a. 3.42

Bodleian Library (Oxford, United Kingdom)

One leaf document

Parchment

Brown (iron-gall)

Calamus

There is ruling

Grid of single vertical and horizontal lines

42

375

520

1117

12th Century CE

Elul 1428 Seleucid (1 August 1117–29 August 1117 CE)

Egypt, Fusṭāṭ

Hebrew

(Other)

Marriage contract (ketubba)

Bride: Rayyisa bt. Saʿadya, the Karaite. Groom: Yaḥya b. Avraham, the Rabbanite. Dated: 1117 CE. Written in Fustat in the Karaite style. Early: 25 dinars. Late: 50 dinars. Dowry: claimed worth 719 dinars. Conditions include allowing Rayyisa to celebrate holidays/observances according to the Karaite tradition; if he breaks the condiitinos, he will have to pay "100 dinars to the poor of the Karaites and the Rabbinites in equal shares. Rayyisa likewise promises to allow her husband to observe as he wants and "not to take from him the rent of the house in which they presently dwell.

No vowels or accents

From the Genizah, 1896.

990053386530205171

https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/manuscripts/hebrew-manuscripts/itempage?vid=KTIV&scope=KTIV&docId=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS990053386530205171&SearchTxt=Heb.%20a.%203.42,AND (Date accessed: 2026-01-22)

https://genizah.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/volume_5 (Date accessed: 2026-01-22)

M. A. Friedman, Jewish Polygyny‎ (in Hebrew) (Bialik, 1986), pp. 67-69.

J. Olszowy-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Contracts from the Cairo Geniza (Brill, 1997).

Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/506/ (accessed January 22, 2026).