The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000[1] Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Egypt.[2] These manuscripts span the entire period of Middle-Eastern, North African, and Andalusian Jewish history between the 6th[3] and 19th[4] centuries CE, and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world.
The Genizah texts are written in various languages, especially Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic, mainly on vellum and paper, but also on papyrus and cloth. In addition to containing Jewish religious texts such as Biblical, Talmudic, and later Rabbinic works (some in the original hands of the authors), the Genizah gives a detailed picture of the economic and cultural life of the Mediterranean region, especially during the 10th to 13th centuries.[5][6]
Manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza are now dispersed among a number of libraries, including the Cambridge University Library,[2] the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the John Rylands Library,[7] the Bodleian Library, the University of Pennsylvania's Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, the British Library, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the National Library of Russia, Alliance Israélite Universelle, the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library at the University of Haifa and multiple private collections around the world.[8] Most fragments come from the geniza chamber of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, but additional fragments were found at excavation sites near the synagogue and in the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo.[9][10][11] Modern Cairo Geniza manuscript collections include some old documents that collectors bought in Egypt in the latter half of the nineteenth century.[12]
^Rustow 2020, p. 451. "There is no universally agreed-on methodology for counting Cairo Geniza fragments....Nonetheless, four hundred thousand is the best count we currently have."
^ abDospel, Marek (June 1, 2022). "Text Treasures: Cairo Geniza". Biblical Archaeology Society. Archived from the original on June 1, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
^Burkitt, Francis Crawford (1897). Fragments of the Books of Kings, According to the Translation of Aquila from a MS formerly in the Geniza at Cairo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 10. From the style of the writing the MS must be dated in the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century AD.
^Posegay, Nick (2022). "Searching for the Last Genizah Fragment in Late Ottoman Cairo: A Material Survey of Egyptian Jewish Literary Culture". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 54 (FirstView): 6. doi:10.1017/S0020743822000356. The following is a survey of fifty-seven manuscripts and printed texts dated after 1864, comprising more than one hundred discrete classmarks (i.e., individual fragments or small groups of fragments with a single cataloguing number) from Genizah collections.
^Goitein, Shelomo Dov (1967–1993). A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-5202-2158-3.
^Cite error: The named reference virtual was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference diverse was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Jefferson, Rebecca J. W. (2022). The Cairo Genizah and the Age of Discovery in Egypt. London: I.B. tauris. pp. 191–207.
^Schechter, Solomon (1908). Studies in Judaism: Second Series. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. pp. 1–12.
^Hoffman, Adina; Cole, Peter (2011). Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza. New York: Nextbook, Schocken. p. 39.
^Jefferson, Rebecca J. W. (2018). "Deconstructing "the Cairo Genizah": A Fresh Look at Genizah Manuscript Discoveries in Cairo before 1897". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 108 (4): 422–448. doi:10.1353/jqr.2018.0028.
^Goitein, Shelomo Dov. A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza. 6 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967–1993. ISBN 0-5202-2158-3.
30°00′21″N 31°13′52″E / 30.0058°N 31.2310°E / 30.0058; 31.2310 The CairoGeniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish...
press is known solely from two fragments discovered in the CairoGeniza. Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel...
The Damascus Document is an ancient Hebrew text known from both the CairoGeniza and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is considered one of the foundational documents...
as the El-Geniza Synagogue (בית כנסת אל גניזה) or the Synagogue of the Levantines (al-Shamiyin), is situated in the Fustat part of Old Cairo, Egypt. According...
Synagogue in Cairo Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo Tomb of rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in Damanhur CairoGeniza "Jews...
research on Jewish life in the Islamic Middle Ages, and particularly on the CairoGeniza. Shelomo Dov (Fritz) Goitein was born in the town of Burgkunstadt in...
generally not accepted at face value by modern scholars. Documents in the CairoGeniza provide evidence of a possible Jewish presence as early as the 6th century...
Correspondence, together with the Schechter Letter discovered in the CairoGeniza and the famous plato nizing dialogue by Judah Halevi, Sefer ha-Kuzari...
the CairoGeniza, as well as the first to publicize the existence of the Midrash ha-Gadol. Schechter was alerted to the existence of the Geniza's papers...
A genizah (/ɡɛˈniːzə/; Hebrew: גניזה, lit. 'storage', also geniza; plural: genizot[h] or genizahs) is a storage area in a Jewish synagogue or cemetery...
many more manuscripts have become available, in particular from the CairoGeniza. The Academy of the Hebrew Language has prepared a text on CD-ROM for...
Retrieved 2023-11-12. Nirenberg, David (2011-06-01). "From Cairo to Córdoba: The Story of the CairoGeniza". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2023-11-12. Rustow, Marina...
fragment of a manuscript written in Karamanlı was also found in the CairoGeniza. Kamayim vurdum yere is a folk dance belonging to the Karamanlides &...
Jewish survivors. The Aleppo Codex website cites two letters in the CairoGeniza that describe how the inhabitants of Ashkelon borrowed money from Egypt...
Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the CairoGeniza, Volume 1 Archived 22 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine p. 357. University...
expulsion of Gabinus). The community of Gaza is also mentioned in the CairoGeniza documents. The area of Gaza including the city of Rafah had a thriving...
sociocultural backgrounds. The oldest Modern Greek text was found in the CairoGeniza and is actually a Jewish translation of the Book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet)...
Maimonides to become sick with grief. In a letter discovered in the CairoGeniza, he wrote: The greatest misfortune that has befallen me during my entire...
oldest and best-known synagogue in Cairo, where the important collection of historic documents known as the CairoGeniza were discovered in the 19th century...
thanks to the thousands of piyyuts that have been discovered in the CairoGeniza. It is assumed that the principle of rhyme was transferred from Hebrew...
important finding of documentary sources since the discovery of the CairoGeniza more than 100 years prior. In 2013, the National Library of Israel announced...
Her work focuses on the study of Judeo-Arabic documents found in the Cairogeniza and the history of Jews in the Fatimid Caliphate. A New York native,...
Chayim, 10-11 Agudah, p. 115 col. 2 Maharsha to Talmud Nedarim 20a of the Cairogeniza: https://www.hebrewbooks.org/21179 vol. 1, p. 229 "Ria"z", Jerusalem...
Daniel." The Book of Sirach, whose Hebrew text was already known from the CairoGeniza, has been found in two of the Dead Sea Scrolls (2QSir or 2Q18, 11QPs_a...
invalids and the old were no longer observed in the milieu reflected by the CairoGeniza and were discarded even in theory by the Shāfi'ī jurists who were influential...
Abraham Ben Yiju, and his slaves Ashu and Bomma, using documents from the CairoGeniza. In an Antique Land begins in the small Egyptian village of Lataifa in...
[failed verification] In the mid-11th century, flax traders known as the CairoGeniza Merchants from Fustat, Egypt wrote about using a postal service known...
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