But the contents of the cairo genizah show that jews were allowed a far. Cairo genizah cambridge digital library university of cambridge. Discarded history exhibition lifts the lid on 1,000 years of medieval history treasures from the worlds largest and most important collection of medieval jewish manuscripts chronicling 1,000 years of history in old cairo have gone on display in cambridge today for a sixmonthlong exhibition at cambridge university library. Kleins article on targumic studies and the cairo genizah sheds lightfrom the. The cairo genizah collections at the university of pennsylvania and at the library of the jewish theological seminary is the subject of a citizenscience project on the website zooniverse. A catalogue of cairo genizah fragments at the bodleian libraries. Eye witness account from the cairo genizah testifying to. Schechter sent back to cambridge about 193,000 manuscripts from the genizah. Later, president of the jewish theological seminary charles taylor 18401908.
Ernest james, two book lists from the cambridge genizah fragments, jqr 20. Rabbi solomon schechter of cambridge university stepped into the attic of the ben ezra synagogue in cairo, egypt, and there found the largest treasure trove of medieval and early manuscripts ever discovered. The importance of the cairo genizah became apparant in 1896, when two christians brought some leaves to solomon schechter, who at the time was a professor of talmudic and rabbinical literature at englands cambridge university. They showed the parchment leaves to a fellow cambridge university scholar.
The oldest extensive and extant document written in yiddish, the cambridge yiddish codex, found in the cairo genizah storeroom in 1896, was dated november 9, 82. The history of cambridge universitys genizah collection abstract one of the most spectacular yet quiet revolutions in the modern study of the history of the mediterranean world has resulted from the recovery just over a hundred years ago of the contents of an attic storehold in the. Taylorschechter genizah collection cambridge university library. In ancient times, religious jewish scholarship was based in babylon and the land of israel. His book, the cairo geniza was published by blackwell in 1958, with a. Arabic and judaeoarabic manuscripts in the cambridge. The cambridge collection is the largest in the world of the medieval jewish manuscripts. The yigdal is part of the ceremonial section of the liturgical order of shabbat and. This volume is a continuation of the catalogue compiled by colin f. Jacques mosseri genizah collection cambridge university. First dead sea scroll found in egypt fifty years before qumran discoveries there isnt an area of jewish learning that the cairo genizah material hasnt revolutionizedand i mean revolutionized. Documentary unravels history and digital future of.
Paradigms of arabic musical modes in the genizah fragment cambridge t. The taylorschechter cairo genizah collection at cambridge university library is the. Browse the genizah fragments university of pennsylvania. The cairo genizah, the largest and most diverse collection. New testament translations from the cairo genizah 203 syriac edited by agnes lewis and margaret gibson, 2 or jewish antichristian polemical writings with quotations of nt texts, such as qi at muj adalat alusquf the account of the disputation of the priest, a christian convert to judaism 9th. This fragment of yannais works, can be joined with other leaves in the genizah collection to make a complete quire. For many centuries, cairo played an important role as one of the most prominent middle eastern economic, political and cultural centers. The cairo geniza, alternatively spelled genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 jewish. The cairo geniza is an accumulation of almost 200,000 jewish manuscripts that were found in the genizah of the ben ezra synagogue built 882 of fustat, egypt now old cairo, the basatin cemetery east of old cairo, and a number of old documents that were bought in.
U penn libraries cajs library taylorschechter genizah research unit cambridge library. In the 1970s cambridge university library established the genizah research unit to carry out a comprehensive program of conservation, cataloguing and research on the manuscripts, which is leading to all manner of important discoveries about jewish religious, communal and personal life. The taylorschechter cairo genizah collection at cambridge university library is the worlds largest and most important single collection of medieval jewish manuscripts. Help about home a catalogue of cairo genizah fragments at the bodleian libraries. Project volunteers are enlisted to sort digitized fragments of the cairo genizah, in order to facilitate research on the fragments. The history of cambridge universitys genizah collection culture and civilization in the middle east by stefan reif.
Worman, ernest james, two book lists from the cambridge genizah fragments, jqr 20, 1908, 450 63. The manuscripts of the cairo genizah are a unique source for medieval medical history. Readers of genizah fragments will be interested to learn of two recently published books that give close attention to important sections of the cambridge genizah collections the first volume is a handsomely produced and carefully annotated edition of maimonidess commentary on the tractate shabbat in the mishnah. Consequently, the jews of cairo held a leading position among jewish communities in the region. Paradigms of arabic modes in the genizah fragment cambridge t. It has occupied a place of honour among the literary treasures of the university of cambridge for more than a century and is housed at cambridge university library. Frequently asked questions cambridge university library. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets.
Readers, authors, and libraries in europe between the fourteenth and. His most recent two volumes are hebrew manuscripts at cambridge university library cambridge, 1997 and a jewish archive from old cairolondon, 2000. He was the first to catalog and attempt to identify each manuscript. The taylorschechter collection at cambridge is the largest, by far, single. The taylorschechter cairo genizah collection in cambridge university library, the largest single grouping of genizah collection documents by an order of magnitude, boasts an inventory in the form of an excel spreadsheet enumerating only the class marks of the manuscripts that itself is a whopping 32 megabytes big. The cambridge collections of genizah materials may be the most overlooked items in the study of ancient fragments and scrolls. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading a jewish archive from old cairo.
The document is one of 200,000 drawn from the genizah, the store room at the 11thcentury ben ezra synagogue in old cairo. Cairo genizah jewish studies guides at johns hopkins. The cairo genizah yielded a wide variety of mate rials and an exhaustive investigation of them has yet to take place. Discarded history exhibition lifts the lid on 1,000 years. The library was given the collection in 2006 as part of a longterm loan agreement with the mosseri family. The incomplete manuscript contains a yiddish version of the medieval germanic epic dukus horant, as well as a retelling of the binding of isaac story from the bible. I have arranged this in the form of a table in order to assist readers in locating documents. Baker and meira polliack, arabic and judaeoarabic manuscripts in the cambridge genizah collections. Published material from the cambridge genizah collections. In medical prescriptions in the cambridge genizah collections, lev and chipman offer an insight into the everyday practical medicine of medieval egypt, which reflects medical practice in the eastern mediterranean as a whole, by analysing thirty selected prescriptions from the taylorschechter genizah. Oxford and cambridge are longtime rivals, but in february, the two universities launched their firstever joint fundraising campaign in order to save the lewisgibson genizah collectionnamed. Medical prescriptions in the cambridge genizah collections. Documentary unravels history and digital future of mysterious cairo geniza film includes interviews with 40 experts who chart the strange. Alternatively, you may like to receive an electronic copy emailed as a.
Genizah collection at cambridge university preserves 2000. In 1896, rabbi solomon schechter of cambridge university stepped into the attic of the ben ezra synagogue in. Genizah collection at cambridge university preserves 2000 years of history. Once in cairo, having established contacts within the local community, schechter was taken to see the genizah of the yearold ben ezra synagogue, into which wornout jewish books, documents and other writings had continually been placed since the middle ages in fulfilment of a rabbinic prohibition against the destruction of sacred texts. These became the taylorschechter genizah collection at cambridge university library. Cairo genizah and he is the author of seven books and of over 200 scholarly articles. Many of these were stored in the loft of the ancient ben ezra synagogue in fustat medieval cairo.
Jewish prayer texts from the cairo genizah a selection of. The taylorschechter genizah collection is a priceless accumulation of centuriesold hebrew manuscript material and judaica, recovered from the cairo genizah in 189697. Its counterpart in late biblical hebrew is genez pl. For a thousand years, the jewish community of fustat old cairo, placed their wornout books and other writings in a storeroom genizah of the ben ezra synagogue, and in 189697 the cambridge scholar, dr solomon schechter, with financial help from the master of st johns college, charles taylor, arrived to examine it. Schechter recognized them as the hebrew original book of wisdom, ascribed to ben sira. In order to keep track of the diverse published sources relating to an important and unique collection, the compilation of a bibliography was. Medieval jewish papers tell vivid stories in cambridge. New testament translations from the cairo genizah uco.
To be sure, the whole medieval world opens up as one pores over these texts, and the digital images available through the cambridge taylorschecter website are nice supplements. This is the second volume of a guide to every book, article and reference dealing with the 140,000 genizah fragments at cambridge. The ben ezra synagogue today the ben ezra synagogue, fostat old cairo before. The history of cambridge universitys genizah collection culture and civilization in the middle east. Medieval jewish papers tell vivid stories in cambridge exhibition this article is more than 2 years old 11thcentury documents from genizah store in. The importance of the cairo genizah for the history of medicine. During this period, the mosseri manuscripts will be conserved, digitised and described, and the resulting catalogue will be. One hundred years ago, a cambridge scholar, solomon schechter, visited the ben ezra synagogue in fustat, old cairo, and was astounded to. Professor reif may be contacted at the genizah research unit, cambridge university library. Cambridge core economic history trade and institutions in the medieval mediterranean by jessica l. From a sacred source genizah studies in honour of professor. Stateoftheart artificial intelligence utilized in this extraordinary digitization process is even helping rejoin fragment manuscripts found within the cairo genizah or separated amongst genizah holdings at different institutions. Send your name and postal address to the taylorschechter genizah research unit, cambridge university library, west road, cambridge, cb3 9dr, england. Cambridge university library genizah series book 1.
Language, gender and law in the judaeoislamic milieu. Cambridge university library has been given an exciting opportunity to make the hitherto unseen jacques mosseri collection available to the world. In 2012 this entire collection was in the process of being digitized and placed online as part of the cambridge digital library. For a thousand years, the jewish community of fustat old cairo, placed their wornout books and other writings in a storeroom genizah of the ben ezra synagogue, and in 1896.
Genizah, cairointroductionthe term genizah is a word shortened from the rabbinical hebrew phrase bet genizah see also genizah. The bestknown genizah, the cairo genizah, is located in the ezra synagogue in fustat old cairo, egypt. Stefan reif of the university of cambridge, who exposed cairo genizah and its discoveries to the world, tells ynet about the revolution it created in the perception of judaism. The single largest and most important collection of medieval jewish manuscripts in the world, and one of the greatest literary treasures of cambridge university library, was recovered from the dusty storeroom, known as a genizah, of an ancient egyptian synagogue.
The discovery of the cairo genizah and the subsequent transfer of the greater part of it to cambridge university library is one of the more dramatic events in the history of semitic scholarship. Search the genizah bibliography by author, keyword or classmark. The history of cambridge universitys genizah collection culture and civilization in the middle east kindle edition by stefan reif. Genizah book lists attest that at least the jewish warraqs copied books themselves. Although each sheet of vellum used in the quire is a palimpsest, they are not from the same original manuscript. Is the cairo genizah a proper name or a generic noun. In medical prescriptions in the cambridge genizah collections, lev and chipman offer an insight into the everyday practical medicine of medieval egypt, which reflects medical practice in the eastern mediterranean as a whole, by analysing thirty selected prescriptions from the taylorschechter.