The Jewish calendar that is in almost universal use today, and in the Middle Ages was associated with the Rabbanites, was instituted at some point in the ninth century (its attribution to a Hillel in the mid-fourth century is a medieval tradition that has long been disproved in modern scholarship).1 It is a fixed calendar, based on a calculation. Its origins are yet to be fully understood, although some of its elements can be traced back to Talmudic sources. The fragment I present here reveals new ‘missing... Read More
calendar
Nadia Vidro
on Thu 13 Jul 2023
Most Genizah fragments are damaged – “torn”, “stained”, “rubbed”, “faded” occur frequently in Genizah catalogues – but some fragments are more damaged than others. Ink corrosion can destroy a text almost completely. A page torn vertically is harder to make sense of than one torn horizontally. It is especially frustrating but also tantalising when writing is preserved but earlier conservation work has, through error or a misunderstanding, obscured it. In such cases, working today with the UL’s Conservation... Read More
Has tags: calendar, conservation, Genizah Fragments, polemic, Saadiah Gaon
Ben Outhwaite
on Fri 10 Jun 2022
A timeline of medieval calendar booklets from the Taylor-Schechter Genizah collection is now available on the website of the Genizah Research Unit, put together by Nadia Vidro. It is hoped that this timeline will serve as a tool for palaeographic analysis of manuscripts in the collection.
Composite image... Read More
Has tags: calendar, Genizah Fragments, palaeography, resource
Melonie Schmierer-Lee and Sacha Stern
on Wed 19 Jan 2022
Sacha, what are you working on at the moment?
I’ve been looking at a fragment in T-S NS 98 – it's full of calendar texts. This one is T-S NS 98.51. It’s extremely damaged and fragmentary. We’ll probably never find the rest of it, and the missing bits are almost certainly lost.
It’s a parchment fragment and looks quite old. How old is it?
I’m not an expert, but palaeographically speaking it looks to be from around the year 1000.
What is... Read More
Has tags: calendar, Christian, Genizah Fragments, Q&A
Melonie Schmierer-Lee
on Thu 30 Sep 2021
Our Throwback Thursday this week is taken from issue 31 of the printed edition of Genizah Fragments, published in April 1996, by Judith Olszowy (now Olszowy-Schlanger)
As is well known, the Karaites have existed as an independent Jewish sect since their establishment in Babylonia around the eighth century. They have distinguished themselves from Rabbanite mainstream Judaism by rejecting the oral tradition, as recorded in the Talmud, and by considering the Bible as their exclusive source of legal authority.... Read MoreHas tags: calendar, Genizah Fragments, Hebrew, Karaite, ketubba, legal, marriage
Melonie Schmierer-Lee and Nadia Vidro
on Wed 22 Sep 2021
Nadia, you’re starting a new project today. Can you tell us about it?
This new project, entitled “Saadya Gaon’s works on the Jewish calendar: Near Eastern sources and transmission to the West”, is a collaboration between UCL, London and LMU, Munich, and is funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. The project is led by Professors Sacha Stern and Ronny Vollandt, with me as the research associate.
Saadiah b. Joseph al-Fayyūmī, better known as Saadiah Gaon (882–942 CE), was the most important and influential scholar of Judaeo-Arabic culture in the 10th century.... Read More
Has tags: calendar, Firkovich, Genizah Fragments, Karaite, Q&A, Saadiah Gaon
Melonie Schmierer-Lee and Nadia Vidro
on Wed 16 Jun 2021
Nadia, which fragment are you working on today?
I am working on T-S AS 158.147. It’s a fragment of a Karaite calendar chronicle for the end of 410–418 AH (1020–1028 CE). I’m looking at it as part of the project ‘Qaraite and Rabbanite calendars: origins, interaction, and polemic’, funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. It is a joint project between UCL and LMU (Munich).
What are the key things... Read More
Has tags: calendar, chronicle, Firkovich, Genizah Fragments, Karaite, Q&A