The term ‘silk road’ likely conjures up images of a well-trodden track, somewhere in central Eurasia, walked by merchants and camels carrying exotic cargo. From the outset, the British Museum’s new major exhibition, Silk Roads, challenges this image with the addition of a single letter – this fabled route was no single road. It also involved much more than silk. Entering the exhibition gallery, the journey begins with cases of objects from Japan, the Korean peninsula, and Tang China, illustrating... Read More
exhibition
Melonie Schmierer-Lee
on Fri 13 Dec 2024
Has tags: British Museum, exhibition, Genizah Fragments, trade
Melonie Schmierer-Lee
on Mon 20 May 2024
From 15 September 2023 to 31 March 2024, the Centro Sefarad-Israel in Madrid hosted a new bilingual Spanish-English exhibition ‘La Edad de Oro de los Judíos de Alandalús’ (The Golden Age of the Jews of Al-Andalus). In its 6-month run in the atmospheric brick-lined basement of the Centre, the exhibition received 15,000 visitors. For those who were not able to visit, a video tour (in Spanish) of the exhibition is... Read More
Has tags: al-Andalus, exhibition, Genizah Fragments, Moses Maimonides
Melonie Schmierer-Lee
on Sun 29 Oct 2023
Food represents culture without boundaries with flavors, changing fashions, and personal preference all gaining expression in our plates. Celebrating the food culture of the Middle East, a new temporary exhibition 'Tastes of Heaven: Tales of the Arab Kitchen' – curated by Limor Yungman and Adi Namia-Cohen at the Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem – brings together cookbooks, artworks, travelers' literature, cooking, eating and drinking utensils, archaeological discoveries, historical... Read More
Has tags: exhibition, food, Genizah Fragments
Ben Outhwaite
on Wed 22 Mar 2023
The Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah project (APCG) recently embarked on a tour of the United Arab Emirates, showcasing its collection of poetry manuscripts to scholars and the public in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Dr Mohamed Ahmed, head of the project, organized the tour in the Gulf with the aim of highlighting the significance of the Cairo Genizah as a repository of Arabic literature and an important – but little known – resource for Arabic textual history.
... Read More
Has tags: Arabic, exhibition, Genizah Fragments, poetry
Melonie Schmierer-Lee
on Thu 16 Feb 2023
A new online exhibition ‘Coins of the Cairo Geniza’, curated by Matthew Dudley and Alan Elbaum of the Princeton Geniza Lab, brings together data on the many coins and currencies that crop up in Genizah manuscripts. The exhibition presents coins from the Princeton Numismatic Collection and images of Genizah documents, according to state authority, regnal years, production thresholds, alternative names, and etymology.
In the 12th century fragment T-S AS... Read More
Has tags: coins, currency, exhibition, Genizah Fragments
Melonie Schmierer-Lee
on Wed 17 Nov 2021
The Israel Museum’s new exhibition, Hear, O Israel, The Magic of the Shema, explores the complex relationship between ‘religion’ and ‘magic’ in the story of the Shema – a text recited by Jews since time immemorial. The exhibition brings together artefacts from Qumran tefillin to Babylonian magic bowls, with protective incantations covering all eventualities and amulets of all descriptions. The exhibition is accompanied by a handsome, hardcover exhibition guide that is both scholarly and... Read More
Has tags: exhibition, Genizah Fragments, magic
Sarah Sykes
on Wed 26 May 2021
Scattered through the many Genizah manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah are doodles and page decorations, drawings and designs. When studying and cataloguing thousands of pages of text you will only come across these pictures on occasion, and often, if you are busy deciphering the handwriting and identifying the author, the pictures can be an interesting sideline, a bit of light-hearted amusement or only given a brief glance.
Now, however, Pinar Zararsiz, during her internship (2019-2020) at the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, has gathered together many, and a wide variety of, examples... Read More
Has tags: drawing, exhibition, Genizah Fragments
Ben Outhwaite
on Wed 12 May 2021
With the relaxing of Covid restrictions on museums and galleries from the middle of May, I’m pleased to report that ‘Ghost Words’ will finally be open to visitors, six days a week from 24th May. Booking is essential, however, as restrictions have been relaxed but not entirely removed. For more information on what to expect and how to book go to:
https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ghostwords
‘Ghost Words’ brings together a plethora of CUL’s most important palimpsest manuscripts, and, as you might expect, this includes a... Read More
Has tags: exhibition, Genizah Fragments, Ghost Words, Hexapla, Origen, palimpsest, Yannai