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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 |
| 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 |
Yevr.-Arab. II 1744
Letter from Avraham Ẓaʿir, Jerusalem, to the Qaraite community of Fustat/Cairo. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer greets a great many people by name, including the ḥakhams Yeshuʿa Rofe and Avraham Rofe b. Aharon Rofe, and Eliyya Levi. It seems some or all of these people had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The remainder of the letter is a sharp rebuke for the addressees' failure to fulfill their vow to raise money and sent it to the Jerusalem community upon their return. The letter also contains the cryptic line, "We are Jews like you. Do not think us of the party of the wicked man from Istanbul." (Could this refer to Shabbetay Zevi? Gershom Scholem writes that he did have a number of Qaraite followers. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, p. 776.) Needs examination.
Library: NLR
Type: Letter
