Pepe, what are you working on at the moment?
As always, I’m dealing with grammatical issues, working with the book of Hayyuj, on the study of the transmission of Biblical Hebrew in al-Andalus. But not just that, these days! I started working on grammatical texts in the Genizah back in 2007, but I came to recognise an impediment to many Genizah researchers – we only work on our ‘own’ topics. After I met Nadia Vidro, she introduced me to the world of the Karaites, and Amir Ashur opened up the world of al-Andalus. I realised that, although I deal with grammarians... Read More
Has tags: al-Andalus, Genizah Fragments, grammar, Hayyuj, Judah ha-Levi, Q&A, slave
Our Throwback Thursday this week is taken from issue 32 of the printed edition of Genizah Fragments, published in October 1996, by Jack R. Lundbom, while he was a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall:
What induced me to consult the Taylor-Schechter Genizah fragments in the Cambridge University Library was an interest in section markings in ancient biblical manuscripts. Modern critical editions of the Hebrew Bible, e.g. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, designate these sections open or closed, the former by a... Read More
Has tags: Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Genizah Fragments, scroll, sigla
So, Ben what are you working on today?
Well, life’s pretty varied at the moment. The GRU has a number of projects on the go, and so I’m spending quite a lot of time happily immersed in manuscripts (or, at least, their digital surrogates, since I am still working from home) in a way that I haven’t had the opportunity to for about the last 15 years, since I was a full-time researcher myself. At any one time, I may be describing documentary fragments from the T-S New Series, checking descriptions produced by other GRU researchers, enriching the TEI of descriptions with... Read More
Has tags: Genizah Fragments, liturgy, Moses Maimonides, Q&A, Saadiah Gaon, Solomon of Sijilmassa
Our Throwback Thursday this week is a photo of the Genizah Unit's staff as it once was in 2010 (with the exception of me - I must have been away that day). The team, from left to right: Blazej Mikula (photography), Mark Scudder (photography), Amir Ashur, Nancy Buck (photography), Ben Outhwaite, Sarah Sykes, Esther-Miriam Wagner, Lucy Cheng (conservation), Julia Krivoruchko, Gabriele Ferrario, Maciej Pawlikowski (photography), Samuel Blapp, Daniel Davies, and Ronny Vollandt. The team was particularly large at that point, as we had taken on additional researchers for an AHRC cataloguing... Read More
Has tags: Genizah Fragments, staff
Hi Zvi, which manuscript are you working on today?
I’m looking at a couple of Genizah manuscripts. In general, I’m now dealing with witches.
Are these magical texts or responsa about witches?
They’re theological texts, on the relations between witches and theologians – not personal relations but of an academic nature. Witchcraft and witches were challenging topics for Jewish rational theologians and they addressed it in their writings. The most challenging case was the biblical story of the Witch of Endor and King Saul.
... Read More
Has tags: Genizah Fragments, mu'tazila, Q&A, Saadiah Gaon, Samuel ben Hofni, theology, witches
When you have lived such a busy and varied life as Stefan Reif, it behoves you to record it for future posterity! From humble beginnings in Edinburgh to Professor and College Fellow at Cambridge University, Stefan’s life journey has been one full of industry and determination. The book, originally... Read More
Has tags: Book, Genizah Fragments, Stefan Reif
To mark Refugee Week (14–20 June 2021), here’s a letter from Alexandria, Egypt from September 1212 CE, reporting the arrival of a large number of French refugees at the port. As Europe became less and less hospitable to its Jewish population – Phillip II of France had been enacting policies to confiscate Jewish property since 1180 – refugees began to flee across the Mediterranean to safety in Egypt. Their arrival is mentioned towards the end of a letter (T-S 12.299) sent to the cantor Meʾir ben Yakhin in... Read More
Has tags: charity, France, Genizah Fragments, Goitein, refugees
Our Throwback Thursday this week is taken from issue 21 of the printed edition of Genizah Fragments, published in April 1991, by Moshe Gil, Professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University:
In 1968, I started my research on the history of the Jews in Muslim lands in the early mediaeval period (frequently called the “geonic period”) with my late teacher, Professor S. D. Goitein. Since then, the main source of documentation for my work has been the Cairo Genizah manuscripts. I have made many visits to... Read More
Has tags: Babylonian, Genizah Fragments, Hai Gaon, Moshe Gil, yeshiva
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
Nick Posegay's article 'Sticking to the Script: How an incredible journey of Hebrew letters helps us recall the Arabic language' has just appeared in The Scholar, an annual magazine for Gates Cambridge scholars and alumni. Nick's article tells the Genizah story to a general audience through the lens of T-S Ar.5.58, a leaf from a Bible glossary with the vocabulary for a portion of 1 Samuel:
"The scribe’s booklet was... Read More
Has tags: article, Bible, Genizah Fragments, glossary