Jewish history

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The Cairo Geniza

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Interior of the Ben Ezra Synagogue

Today’s episode is not the story of an individual but rather of a collected body of sacred and secular writings, or rather bodies of writings. It’s a story of scripture, court records, correspondence, literature, scholarly studies, and more, of human life as it has left its echoes in writing.

This is the story of the Cairo Geniza, an incredible collection of historical documents, from medieval manuscripts to modern divorces. It's about how that collection, brought from the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, Egypt, has reached us, and some of the figures involved.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

3 Things:

  1. The photography of the Scottish twins, Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson

  2. A short Cambridge University Library video on the conservation of Geniza fragments and the painstaking work involved

  3. "From Cairo to Kolkata, Traces of a Vibrant Jewish Past" by Michael David Lukas

Sources:

  • Goitein, S. D. A Mediterranean Society, Volume III: The Family. University of California Press, 1978. 

  • Hoffman, Adina & Cole, Peter. Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza. Shocken Books, 2011. 

  • Jefferson, Rebecca. The Cairo Genizah and the Age of Discovery in Egypt: The History and Provenance of a Jewish Archive. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.

  • Jefferson, Rebecca. "Deconstructing ‘the Cairo Genizah’: A Fresh Look at Genizah Manuscript Discoveries in Cairo before 1897." The Jewish Quarterly Review 108, no. 4 (2018): 422–48.

  • Lewis, Agnes Smith. Eastern Pilgrims: The Travels of Three Ladies. Hurst and Blackett, 1870.

  • Outhwaite, Ben. "A Hoard of Hebrew MSS," Limn issue 6, The Total Archive.

  • Reif, Stefan. A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo: The History of Cambridge University's Genizah Collection. Routledge, 2013.

  • Princeton Geniza Project. https://geniza.princeton.edu/en/

The Sons of Maimon 1: Exile

Maimonides

This is my first episode on Maimonides/Moses and his little brother David, on their exile from their homeland in Al-Andalus, and on their winding way to Egypt, which would be their long-term home. (MP3) 

Sources:

  • The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, translated by Marcus Nathan Adler.  Philipp Feldheim, inc.

  • Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages Through the Early Modern Period, edited by Lawrence Fine. Princeton University Press, 2001.

  • Davidson, Herbert, A. Moses Maimonides: The Man and His Works. Oxford University Press, 2004.

  • Fromherz, Allen J. The Almohads: The Rise of an Islamic Empire. I.B. Tuaris, 2012.

  • Jacobs, Martin. Reorienting the East: Jewish Travelers to the Medieval Muslim World. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

  • Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. Routledge, 2014. 

  • Kraemer, Joel L. Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds. Doubleday, 2010.