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Regular expressions
The Princeton Geniza Project database allows for search expressions containing certain 'regular expressions'. Regular expressions are codes that can be inserted in search queries to match patterns of text.
| ^string | Matches the text at the beginning of the string |
| string$ | Matches the text at the end of the string |
| . | Matches any single character (including special characters) |
| a* | Matches the sequence of zero or more of the specified character |
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| a? | Matches zero or one occurrence of the specified character |
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| [abc] | Matches any one of the specified characters |
Boolean Search
The Princeton Geniza Project database uses a boolean full-text search. This type of search allows users to combine keywords with operators to refine searches. Possible operators and examples of their use:
| מולאנא מולאי | Search for rows that contain either of two words by simply typing them consecutively. In this case, the search will find documents that contain either מולאי or מולאנא. |
| כתאבי +מולאי+ | Use a + sign before word to search for rows that contain all of them (in this case the words כתאבי and מולאי) |
| כתאבי AND מולאי כתאבי OR מולאי | The keyword AND indicates that both search terms must be present in the results. OR matches either search term. |
| כתאב –כתאבה | Use a - sign to exclude a term from your results (in this case, the search will include כתאב but exclude כתאבה) |
| *כתאב ?כתאב |
Use an asterisk or a question mark as a wildcard. An asterix matches any number of characters. A question mark matches any single character |
Join: AIU VII.C.16 + BL OR 5565G.27
AIU VII.C.16
Recto/verso:
Section:
Dialogue between the Misri (the man from Old Cairo) and the Rifi (the man from the countryside). Literary, probably late, very colloquial. The writer is consistent with diacritics, not replicated in this transcription. Full of interesting stereotypes and vocabulary of city versus country life: prices, foods, clothes, bathing habits, goods available in the market, sewage ("your bowel movements remain with you, their stench is blinding"). Also names Bayn al-Qasrayn and the glorious fruit and paper markets at Bab Zuwaylah. In the third and final leaf of the story (recto of BL OR 5565G.27), the Misri and the Rifi declare a truce. Then the narrator chimes in with a prayer and an announcement of who he is and how great his stories are, for the benefit of the gathered audience: "I am the מחסווך (??) the Jew... my name is Sulayman... my speech is well-balanced, my meanings divine... my trade in Misr is cantor, as a poet I am known in the Rif...." The verso of BL OR 5565G.27 then begins a comic tale about someone whose pack was seized by a greedy man; they go to court, and the judge says he will award it to whomever can say what's in the pack. ASE.
Type: Literary text
Tags:
popular literature
