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 |
Bodl. MS heb. b 13/51
Letter from Seʿadya ha-Kohen b. Hillel (aka Saʿd b. Hilāl) Rosh ha-Qahal to Ṭoviyya b. ʿEli ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver, the muqaddam of Bilbays (here called "muqaddam al-yahūd"). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, often rhymed, with the address in both Hebrew and Arabic. Seʿadya praises Ṭoviyya in the warmest tones and asks what he has done wrong for Ṭoviyya (and Ṭoviyya's wife?) to cut off their letters to him. He was pained when a letter from Ḥalfon b. Sasson to his brother arrived in Toviyya's handwriting (reading חט as כט). The right margin deals with the logistics of correspondence. The upper margin mentions some debts and the dangers of travel (שיבוש הדרכים) preventing the sending of something or someone. Verso is mainly copious regards to and from family members and friends ("I can no longer burden people by carrying letters to each of you"—hence he includes all the greetings in one letter.) (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)
