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 |
T-S G1.20
Recto/verso: recto
Recto: Legal query in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Yiṣḥaq the judge (perhaps Yiṣḥaq b. Sason from the court of Maimonides). Concerns a business partnership between a Muslim and a Jew. The Muslim collected interest from the Jew on the Muslim's money which the Jew was doing business with. The interest amounted to the entire sum that the Jew would have earned as his salary. The Muslim drew up a document against the Jew for collecting this debt. The question is if the Jew may deny the validity of the document in front of the Muslim court (here called "Beit Din") and even to swear falsely to prevent the Muslim from getting the money. (Information from עקיבא סילבצקי via FGP.)
