Cambridge University Library
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
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
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
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
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
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