Add.6463(e)3416: Breathing the 'dust of centuries

Jewish Quarterly Review, 2003

One of the most spectacular yet quiet revolutions in the modern study of the history of the Mediterranean world has resulted from the recovery just over a hundred years ago of the contents of an attic storehold in the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Old Cairo. The Cairo "genizah" (the technical, religious term applied to a storage area for consigning, or "hiding away" the worn remains of texts considered narrowly or generally sacred, or even heretical, but in either case unfit for ritual use), has yielded an unprecedented cache of more than 200,000 fragmentary documents, most of which date from the 9th through the 15th centuries CE. The story of a major part of this treasure trove, its origins, rediscovery and relocation from Cairo to Cambridge University, and the significance of its contents is the subject of this much needed survey by Stefan C. Reif.

Journal of the History of Collections, 2009

The discovery of the Cairo Genizah manuscripts (over 200,000 fragmentary texts, mainly written in Hebrew and Arabic) in the late-nineteenth century is an enigmatic tale. The early collectors of this material, unaware of its exact provenance or keen to safeguard their access to it, did not divulge their sources. However, a selection of unpublished letters preserved in the Bodleian Library, in the archives of the Egypt Exploration Society and in the National Archives help piece together more of the story which will be revealed here for the first time. The letters concern the unacknowledged role of the mysterious Count d'Hulst in the recovery of sections of the Oxford Genizah collection; the race between two eminent scholars, Adolf Neubauer and Solomon Schechter, to discover the missing manuscript leaves of the original Hebrew Ecclesiasticus and the unspoken competition between the Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge to expand their Oriental collections.

This is an unedited draft copy of the paper that was presented at the Association of Jewish Libraries Annual Conference.

Judaica Librarianship, 2017

When Solomon Schechter published his opus magnum, the co-edited volume of The Wisdom of Ben Sira, in 1899, he took the trouble to express his gratitude towards one Reginald Q. Henriques for his help in the past and still ongoing. This article attempts to answer the question: who was this Mr. Henriques and what was the nature of his connection to Schechter? Using previously unpublished archival evidence, this question is explored in depth, as well as the question of why Schechter chose to acknowledge this individual precisely at that point. It also provides an in-depth account, together with transcriptions of original letters, of the activities of the various genizah manuscript collectors operating in Cairo during the late 1890s and the unspoken race to recover the original Hebrew version of the Book of Ben Sira. These activities are viewed against the backdrop of an all-pervasive scholarly culture that was critical of post-biblical Judaism, as well as prevailing Cairene attitudes and behaviors towards those engaged in the recovery and export of antiquities, and the varying (often arbitrary) authorizations and restrictions exercised by Cairo’s European and Egyptian administrators. Finally, it takes a closer look at the contents of today’s Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library in an attempt to discover greater details about its exact provenance. Link to article: https://ajlpublishing.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1212&context=jl

"From a Sacred Source" Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif. , 2010

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2022

The Cairo Genizah is well known as a repository for hundreds of thousands of manuscripts that the Jewish residents of Fustat (Old Cairo) produced and consumed in the premodern period. Foreign "collectors" acquired most of these manuscripts for European libraries in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the majority arriving at the Cambridge University Library in 1897 under the auspices of Solomon Schechter. Less well known is the fact that hundreds of Genizah fragments were produced in the late nineteenth century, even as European collectors were scouring Cairo for ancient texts. This later corpus includes witnesses to the social and economic history of late Ottoman Cairo and provides copious evidence for the material history of Egyptian Jewish literary activity at that time. Despite this, it remains understudied for both Ottoman and Jewish history. Late Genizah material also raises questions about the integrity of "Cairo Genizah" manuscript collections around the world, as some fragments postdate Schechter's Genizah "discovery," and others were never in Egypt at all.

Jewish Quarterly Review, 2018

The discovery and relocation of genizah material is a multi-layered and complex story. This article re-examines, to the extent possible given the current available evidence, the discovery and distribution of Cairo genizah manuscripts in the late nineteenth century by taking a closer look at known historical accounts in conjunction with some lesser-known contemporary reports. Much provenance and provenience history was lost or destroyed during the course of multiple relocations and reorganizations of these materials; thus, this article emphasizes the need to pay greater attention to the multifaceted history of the Cairo manuscripts, and the need to be more circumspect when using an "across-the-board" term like "the Cairo Genizah." Such a label can prevent us from truly appreciating the breadth of Jewish material culture in Cairo in all its varied manifestations over time. More detailed provenance history for the genizah manuscripts will increase our knowledge about how culture is transmitted and how attitudes towards the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage have evolved.

Journal of the History of Collections, 2019

The following article examines the Revd Greville John Chester’s activities in the Egyptian antiquities trade from 1889 to 1892, specifically his involvement in discovering and distributing Hebrew manuscripts from the now famous Cairo Genizah. Based on letters written by Chester to the Bodleian Librarian, E.W.B. Nicholson, as well as other supporting documentary evidence, this investigation provides insights into the early history of the Cairo Genizah manuscripts before Solomon Schechter’s celebrated ‘discovery’ of them in 1896/97. Overall, this article shows that the provenance story of ‘the Cairo Genizah’ is multi-faceted and needs to be subjected to much greater scrutiny. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhy023