Karaite Marriage Contracts from the Cairo Geniza: Legal Traditions and Community Life in Mediaeval Egypt and Palestine

This is a comprehensive study of legal, historical and economic aspects of marriage as practised during the Middle Ages, in Egypt and Palestine, by members of a distinct Jewish movement known as Karaism. This study is based on original Hebrew medieval manuscripts recovered from the Cairo Geniza. Edited translations of 65 manuscripts, most of them previously unpublished, are included in the second part of the book. A detailed and accessible analysis of their content, language, formulation and palaeography is provided, seeking to shed new light on Karaite legal and linguistic tradition, and providing a source for the understanding of early Karaism, and of medieval Jewish history in general.