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 |
| a+ | Matches the sequence of one or more of the specified character |
| a? | Matches zero or one occurrence of the specified character |
| abc|def | | Matches either one of the specified strings
| [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 |
Halper 403
Letter addressed to Yosef ha-Sar. In Judaeo-Arabic with an Arabic address. The writer requests that the addressee give the five dirhams nuqra that al-Rayyis Abū l-Ḥasan b. al-Rayyis Abū l-Najm had deposited with him to to the bearer of the letter. Abū l-Ḥasan had already sent to the writer all the dinars owed him and in the accompanying letter mentioned that he had given five dirhams nuqra to the addressee of the present letter. There is then an instruction regarding what to do with the remaining money from the pesiqa. There are a few surviving words in Arabic script, probably the address; the first two appear to read 'bayt al-qāḍī.' Information in part from FGP.
