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 Moreketubba
Has tags: calendar, Genizah Fragments, Hebrew, Karaite, ketubba, legal, marriage
Zina, you have a new book coming out soon about inks in Genizah manuscripts. How did your interest in the fragments come about?
I have a Masters in archaeology, but have always been interested in science. I came to be interested in archaeometry – science applied to archaeology. During my Masters degree I worked on an Islamic complex in Morocco dating to the 14th century, analysing the mortar to try to understand if there were strategies involved in preparing the mortar. My main subject of interest, though, was manuscripts and pigments, and I planned to continue my... Read More
Has tags: Genizah Fragments, ink, ketubba, Moses Maimonides, paper, Q&A, scribe
Q&A Wednesday gives a short interview with a Genizah researcher: what are they working on today? And why?
Nick, what are you working on this week?
Lately I’ve been working on late-dated manuscripts in Genizah collections. Looking at fragments dated after 1864, trying to work out how they ended up in genizot, and thinking about what that means for “Cairo Genizah” collections as we typically understand them.
Have you found many fragments that are dated that late?
I’ve found about 25 that are explicitly dated, but I suspect... Read More
Has tags: Agnes Lewis, Genizah Fragments, Greville Chester, ketubba, Margaret Gibson, printed, Q&A, Solomon Schechter, Yemen