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The Fragment of the Month takes a close look at an interesting fragment – or fragments – from the Cairo Genizah. The series has been running since 2007.

We are always keen to receive submissions, so if you'd like to contribute, please send us an email (genizah@lib.cam.ac.uk). All submissions are peer-reviewed by members of the Genizah Research Unit or one of our colleagues worldwide.

February 2024: Bad calculations: another missing link in the history of the rabbinic calendar (Sacha Stern)

January 2024: More about less: A New Shorthand Targum Manuscript: Oxford MS Heb. f.56/1-12 (Kim Phillips)

December 2023: An Aramaic Antiochus Chanukah poem: T-S A45.14 (Marc Michaels)

October 2023: The Long Road to Samarqand: Reverse-Engineering the Travels of a 12th-Century Andalusi Muslim (T-S Ar.53.39) (Nick Posegay)

September 2023: Greco-Coptic exercises in Hebrew script: T-S Ar.35.109 (Julia G. Krivoruchko)

August 2023: A lost work or a lost title? Iqāma al-ʿIbbur: T-S 10G5.7 (Nadia Vidro)

July 2023: A Tale of Two Cities: From Singora to Shingly (Amir Ashur, Elizabeth Lambourn, Alan Elbaum)

June 2023: The oldest Hebrew manuscript dated by its colophon: a leaf of a Mishna manuscript with Babylonian vocalization in Toronto (Judith Olszowy-Schlanger)

May 2023: A Maldivian boat and cowrie shells in a letter from Nahray b. ʿAllān to his son (Nazim Sattar)

April 2023: New Pages of Sefer Tagin: JTS ENA 2753.16 and National Library of Russia (NLR) Box N.91 (Joseph Ginsberg)

March 2023: The Book of Joshua in a Christian Palestinian Aramaic Palimpsest Fragment (T-S 12.758) (Christa Müller-Kessler)

February 2023, Andalusi masters of Hebrew language, scholars who avoid buying expensive books and gossipy travelling cousins: on the manuscript transmission of the book of Ḥayyūj (T-S K7.56), (Prof. José Martínez Delgado)

January 2023, Solving European Writer’s Block in Jewish Cairo (T-S 20.188), (Nick Posegay)

November 2022, “At Least Like a Dog Treat me”, Says Not the Sufi: The Use of Animals in Poetry as Didactic Tools, T-S Ar.40.204 (Muhammad Imran Khan)

October 2022, Genizah Fragments of Saadiah’s tafsīr by Samuel ben Jacob: T-S AS 72.79 and T-S Ar.1a.38 Revisited (Vince Beiler)

September 2022, A Story of Scribal Collaboration: the Targum of T-S 6H5.1 (Estara Arrant)

August 2022, The Greek background of the grammatical fragments attributed to Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq (ENA 3173.1, T-S Ar.31.30, Rylands B 3652-3653, AIU IX.A.6) (Julia G. Krivoruchko)

July 2022, T-S Misc.22.264 - a trope trainer from the Cairo Genizah (Marc Michaels)

June 2022, Moses b. Abraham the Nagid – New evidence: T-S AS 147.93 (Dotan Arad, Amir Ashur)

May 2022, Saadya Gaon’s Refutation of Anan or a Qaraite Book of Commandments? T-S Ar.21.156, T-S Ar.48.216 and T-S NS 303.1 (Nadia Vidro)

April 2022, An eighth-century Easter cycle in Hebrew (T-S NS 98.51) (Sacha Stern)

March 2022, Ripe apples with bread? T-S Ar.43.225 (Ani Avetisyan)

February 2022, A New Judaeo-Syriac Fragment from the Genizah: ENA 3846.2 (Alan Elbaum)

January 2022, A Tale of a Torn Title Page: T-S AS 191.716 (Julia G. Krivoruchko)

December 2021, Relaxing the Tiberian Standard: T-S A11.1 (Samuel Blapp)

November 2021, Kalah in the lands of Java: T-S Ar.30.42 (Marina Rustow)

October 2021, Nāṣir, the Hebrew littérateur (Alan Elbaum)

September 2021, The Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts of the ‘Arabian Nights’ found in the Cairo Genizot: T-S NS 183.18+23+35+37+38 (Rachel Hasson)

August 2021, More on Moshe’s Laments: T-S NS 324.1 (Julia G. Krivoruchko)

July 2021, New Tiqqunei Soferim: T-S A4.10 and T-S D1.37 (Joseph Ginsberg)

June 2021, Jewish Parchment, Muslim Prayer – Uncovering an Early Abbasid Palimpsest: T-S Ar.51.73 (Nick Posegay)

May 2021, Bilingualism in Genizah Arabic poetry: T-S NS 108.60 (Mohamed Ahmed, Ben Outhwaite)

April 2021, Five Greek Glosses to Bava Metzia 93b: T-S F2(1).164 (Julia G. Krivoruchko)

March 2021, Muslim and Christian calendars in Jewish calendar booklets: T-S K2.33 (Nadia Vidro)

February 2021, Kalila wa-Dimna: T-S Ar.6.32, part of the Arabic book Kalila wa Dimna, story nine – ʾIlāḏ, Balāḏ and Iirāḵt (Mohamed Ahmed) 

January 2021, A Sixteenth-Century Trilingual Dictionary of Hebrew (Julia G. Krivoruchko)

December 2020, A  Memorial list of Elijah b. Zechariah’s family: T-S 10J18.2 (Amir Ashur)

November 2020, Al-Qaṣīda al-Fiyyāšiyya – an old-new poem found in Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts: T-S NS 224.4 and RNL Yevr.-Arab. II:1741 (Rachel Hasson)

October 2020, Saʿadya's Hermeneutical Principles? T-S Ar. 50.159 (Zvi Stampfer)

September 2020, Yā Nafs – A Judaeo-Arabic Reproof for Yom Kippur (?): RNL Yevr.-Arab. II:2682 and T-S Ar.36.134 (Rachel Hasson)

August 2020, Masoretic lists: what crowns on letters have to do with paragraph-breaks in the Torah (Jen Taylor Friedman)

July 2020, The letter of the Convert: T-S 16.100 (Ben Outhwaite)

June 2020, A Fustat Summer Wedding: Pictures and Poetry in T-S NS 266.113 (Nick Posegay)

May 2020, A Shorthand Psalter: T-S A43.8 (Kim Phillips)

April 2020, Assembling a Life: Several Dozen New Fragments on Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, T-S 12.377 et al. (Alan Elbaum)

March 2020, Addressing the Rambam: ENA 4020.56 (Amir Ashur & Ben Outhwaite)

February 2020, Trouble with Adultery in the Cairo Genizah Biblical Manuscripts: T-S NS 67.34, T-S A40.77 et al. (Gary Martin)

January 2020, Following the Links in T-S NS 192.11: A Qur’anic Exercise from a Cairene Public School (Nick Posegay)

December 2019, The letter for a man from somewhere: T-S 10J10.9 (Ben Outhwaite)

November 2019, From a lost book of Egyptian proverbs: T-S Ar.13.13 (Mohamed A H Ahmed)

October 2019. A hitherto unknown poem by Shelomoh ibn Gabirol: T-S NS 143.46 (José Martínez Delgado)

September 2019, The Book against the People of the Equinox: T-S K6.63 (Nadia Vidro)

August 2019, Saʿāda the enslaved woman: immersion and oblivion: T-S 12.872 (Moshe Yagur)

July 2019, Reciting Hebrew with an Arabic Accent: A Partial List of Ṭeʿamim from T-S K9.11 (Nick Posegay)

June 2019, T-S Ar.38.64: A Maġribī-Script Qurʾān Fragment (Magdalen Connolly)

May 2019, On Rashi, Maimonides and a lost Talmudic commentator - Joseph ben Yahaboy: T-S Ar. 49.163 (Amir Ashur)

April 2019. Standard Tiberian Pronunciation in a Non-Standard Form: T-S AS 64.206 (Estara Arrant)

March 2019, The Oldest Fragment of Origen's Hexapla: T-S 12.182 (Ben Kantor)

February 2019, The Latin Iliad in the Cairo Genizah (T-S Misc. 27.2 c-e) (Gideon Bohak, Serena Ammirati)

January 2019, The Uncommon Bible: T-S AS 44.35 (Ben Outhwaite)

November 2018, Reconstructing folios from text editions: Lévi (1900) + T-S NS 98.18 and Bodl. MS Heb d.74.27 (Sacha Stern)

October 2018, The strange Hebrew of a blessing for the Prophets: T-S K6.113 (Nadia Vidro)

September 2018, Six Centuries of Arab Poets Transmitted in a Booklet of Judaeo-Arabic Poetry: T-S NS 265.29 (Gretchen Belnap)

August 2018, A Young Syriac Pupil in the Cairo Genizah: Or.1081 2.75.30 (George Kiraz)

July 2018, Reunited At Last: T-S K10.4 and Bodl. MS. Heb. c. 13/25 (Noam Sienna)

June 2018, A Muslim Genizah in Damascus (Ronny Vollandt)

May 2018, Mishnah with Judeo-Arabic Translation: T-S E1.124 (David Wasserstein)

April 2018, Mourning in Late Antiquity: T-S NS 148.58 (Laura Lieber)

March 2018, Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the Cairo Genizah: T-S Ar.37.127 (Mohamed A H Ahmed)

February 2018, What happens on pilgrimage .... : T-S8J22.25 (Melonie Schmierer-Lee)

January 2018, On autographs of Saadya Gaon attested in the Genizah: CUL Or.1080 1.85 and T-S 8D.1 (Amir Ashur)

December 2017, T-S Ar. 51.86a: Shi‘ite and Karaite – a Fatimid melange (Esther-Miriam Wagner, Mohamed Ahmed)

November 2017, The first owners of the Leningrad Codex: T-S 10J30.7 (Ben Outhwaite)

October 2017, Early Karaite Halakha according to Karaite Commentaries to the Bible (T-S 16.316) (Yoram Erder)

September 2017, A popular calendar (Nadia Vidro)

August 2017, T-S 18J3.9 the Ramla Earthquake: for this relief much thanks (Ben Outhwaite)

July 2017, The rotuli corpus of the medieval midrash Pirqa de-Rabbenu ha-Qadosh, T-S K21.85 (Anna Busa)  

March 2017, Writing Lines: T-S D1.108 and the Song of Moses (Kim Phillips)

January 2017, Plants on Maimonides' bookshelf: T-S Ar.41.41 (Gabriele Ferrario)

December 2016, The Long Art: T-S AS 144.331 (Katelyn Mesler)

November 2016, On the identification and biography of the ‘poet for all seasons’ and his contact with Maimonides: T-S 10K8.3, T-S 8K13.8 and T-S NS 264.98 (Amir Ashur)

October 2016, Learning Torah and what is connected to it: T-S Ar.18(1).16 (Noam Sienna)

September 2016, The pursuit of happiness: T-S Ar.44.201 (Alan Elbaum)

August 2016, Who wrote the Bible? (Kim Phillips)

June 2016, Moses ben Judah - a 15th century bibliophile and gourmand (Dotan Arad, Esther-Miriam Wagner)

May 2016, What women want (most)? A feminist reading of the Talmud from the Middle Ages: T-S Ar.18(2).20 (Zvi Stampfer)

April 2016, Reuniting a Tax-farmer's Archive (Marina Rustow)

January 2016, Samuel ben Jacob: the Leningrad Codex B19a and T-S 10J5.15 (Ben Outhwaite)

September 2015, The earliest known fragment of Qusṭā ibn Lūqāʾs Book on Numbness: T-S K6.194 (Gabriele Ferrario) 

August 2015, 'Protect me for (the tie of) blood and milk that is between us': T-S 10J9.13 and Or. 1080 3.46 (Oded Zinger)

June 2015, A petition against an anti-social child: T-S Ar.40.3 (Melonie Schmierer-Lee)

April 2015, A cautionary tale concerning the shipment of ‘sanitary napkins’ from 11th-century Tunis: T-S K3.36 (Nancy Spies)

March 2015, Did the Jewish academies of Sura and Pumbedita hold original commentaries to the Talmud? T-S F9.41 (Zvi Stampfer)

February 2015, Medieval Chapbooks – Early collecting Of Rabbi Judah ha-Levi’s poetry: T-S 13J24.13 and T-S K25.138 (Dalia Wolfson)

January 2015, The language of women: L-G Arabic 2.129 (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

December 2014, A Dream Request for Ṣedaqah ben Maqmalyah: Mosseri VI.5 (Alessia Bellusci)

November 2014, Eli ben Yehoshua al-Lāḏiqī: a newly identified copyist of liturgical manuscripts (Michael Rand)

October 2014, Breathing the 'dust of centuries': Add.6463(e)3416 (Melonie Schmierer-Lee)

September 2014, A day in the life of a court scribe: T-S 12.530 (Melonie Schmierer-Lee)

May 2014, 'Go to the house of the English': 19th century Genizah merchants (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

March 2014, A newly discovered medical recipe written by Maimonides: Mosseri I.115.1 (Amir Ashur)

September 2013, A medieval Karaite pedagogical grammar of Hebrew: T-S Ar.31.71 etc (Nadia Vidro)

August 2013, The first discovery of Judaeo-Syriac: T-S K14.22 (Siam Bhayro, Ben Outhwaite)

January 2013, The preacher who speaks like a parrot: two versions of a letter by R. Joshua ha-Nagid: T-S 12.608 (Dotan Arad, Esther-Miriam Wagner)

November 2012, A Genizah manuscript of the Mishnah (Hayim Lapin)

July 2012, Karamanli – a new language variety in the Genizah: T-S AS 215.255 (Julia G. Krivoruchko)

May 2012, A newly-discovered autograph responsum of Maimonides, lower script of a pseudo-palimpsest colophon: T-S AS 221.306–307 (Mordechai Friedman, Amir Ashur)

April 2012, A Judaeo-Arabic grammar of Classical Arabic: T-S Ar.31.254 and T-S 24.31 (Nadia Vidro)

March 2012, T-S 13J24.22: Goitein and girlish prose (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

A response to the FOTM of March 2012 by M. A. Friedman

November 2011, T-S 13H3.11 and T-S NS 325.69: additional fragments belonging to the First Order of Fustat (Michael Rand)

Addendum to November 2011's Fragment of the Month

October 2011, T-S F13.1: the She’iltot, recycling manuscripts and Efrayim b. Shemarya (Roni Shweka, Marina Rustow)

September 2011, T-S NS 284.120: a new autograph of Hilkhot ha-Yerushalmi by Maimonides (Zvi Stampfer)

May 2011, T-S 10J7.4: ‘Only death remains for him’ (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

April 2011, T-S Misc.25.24 and T-S Misc.8.90: a poet for all seasons (Amir Ashur)

March 2011, T-S Misc.22.310: the affair of the purloined cows (Gabriele Ferrario)

February 2011, Or.1081 J39: rhubarb and dodder and absinth (Efraim Lev, Leigh Chipman)

January 2011, T-S AS 118.78: a new fragment of the book of Ben Sira (Shulamit Elizur, Michael Rand)

December 2010, T-S Ar.30.221: geography in the Genizah (Yossi Ben-Artzi, Esther-Miriam Wagner)

November 2010, T-S NS 3.21: the oldest Hebrew fragment in the Collection? (Ben Outhwaite)

October 2010, T-S Misc.28.98: a new letter to Maimonides (Amir Ashur)

September 2010, T-S K6.181: a Judaeo-Arabic version of Ibn Bahrīz’s treatise on logic (Gabriele Ferrario, Ronny Vollandt)

August 2010, Mosseri III.258.1: recovering the Kuzari (Daniel Davies, Lucy Cheng)

July 2010, T-S K12.89: ‘Like Esther in front of Ahasuerus’ (Ortal-Paz Saar)

December 2009, a ketubba in palimpsest (T-S K23.3) (Mila Ginsburskaya)

November 2009, two fragments (T-S AS 72.79 and T-S Ar.1a.38) of Saadiah’s tafsīr by Samuel ben Jacob (Ronny Vollandt)

October 2009, Vis, liber zun, ikh hob dir vil brif geshribn: Yiddish letters in the Genizah (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

September 2009, T-S Misc.7.140: an early copy of the Guide (Daniel Davies)

August 2009, T-S NS 264.56 and T-S NS 324.118, Syria’s links with the Jews of Cairo in the 15th and 16th centuries (Dotan Arad)

July 2009, T-S 6H9-21, the papyrus codex rebound (Rebecca Jefferson)

October 2008, T-S AS 149.178: a legal query in Judaeo-Arabic concerning a Bashful Bride (Amir Ashur)

September 2008, T-S AS 145.333: keeping it in the family: the handwriting of Hillel and Ḥalfon (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

April 2008, T-S AS 157.50, a twitch divination text in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Manasseh (Esther-Miriam Wagner, Gideon Bohak)

March 2008, T-S AS 159.248, T-S AS 159.247: an unidentified Indian language (Gideon Bohak)

February 2008, a hitherto unknown dictionary of Solomon b. Mubarrak, the Karaite: T-S NS 302.42, T-S NS 302.4 (José Martínez Delgado, Friedrich Niessen)

November 2007, an Arabic translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch: T-S Ar.1a.136 (Friedrich Niessen)

October 2007, a newly-discovered fragment of a letter written by Maimonides: T-S AS 152.86 (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

September 2007, ‘Destroy the life of N.N.!’, a magical recipe: T-S AS 162.51 (Friedrich Niessen, Gideon Bohak)

August 2007, Moses ben Solomon of Salerno: T-S AS 143.242 (Daniel Davies)

July 2007, Halfon's wife, Mosseri Ia.29 (Esther-Miriam Wagner)

June 2007, redating a leaf from a medieval Hebrew book of Tobit: T-S A45.25 (Siam Bhayro, Mila Ginsbursky, Ben Outhwaite, Esther-Miriam Wagner)

May 2007, St Augustine in the Genizah (Ben Outhwaite)

April 2007, two new responsa of Moses Maimonides (Ben Outhwaite)

Contact the Unit

Dr Ben Outhwaite
Genizah Research Unit
Cambridge University Library
West Road
Cambridge CB3 9DR

Tel: +44 (0)1223 333129

E-mail: genizah@lib.cam.ac.uk

 


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