Geniza Lab

"A fragment of vellum containing a Latin text of a sermon by Saint Augustine — an unquestionably Christian text — is probably one of the last things you’d expect to find in the Cairo Genizah. Christian texts do find their way into the Collection, however, often as the undertext of palimpsests, as here, where a piece of vellum containing Book 2 Chapter 24 of St. Augustine’s De Sermone Domini in Monte (the Sermon on the Mount) has been reused by a Jewish scribe to write masoretic lists. The manuscript was barely scraped, or perhaps only washed, before being reused, and the Latin text, which is in a hand probably dating from the sixth century CE, is still clearly legible where it is exposed in the clear space between the columns of Hebrew text. The masoretic lists are in an early hand too, probably of the 9–10th century, and preserve notes to 1 Samuel 9, including a list of the occurrences of the plene spelling of ‘Benjamin’. As would be expected, there are a number of differences between the lists and the standard critical edition of the Masoretic Text in use today (which is based on Codex Leningrad B19a)." Information from Outhwaite, B. (2007). St Augustine in the Genizah. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, May 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.40134.

Palimpsest. The earlier text is extremely faded; it is in Judaeo-Arabic and at least partially deals with recipes or prescriptions. The later text is also Judaeo-Arabic, in a late hand. It is an elaborate recipe/prescription followed by a magical invocation ("I bind you, O Maymūn. . . Ehyeh bar Ehyeh. . .") ASE.

Palimpsest. Hebrew Midrash with Greek undertext.

Palimpsest. Undertext: Unidentified text in Greek. Identification may be possible even without multispectral imaging. Some phrases may include: εν τω ιερω (in the Temple) and (β?)ασανω(ν?) (sufferings?) (suggestions kindly provided by Sergey Kim). Overtext: Three letters in Hebrew. Sent from Crete to Egypt. Dating: Perhaps 15th century. Edited by Avraham David.

Legal deed, draft, regarding the estate of Avraham ha-Levi the teacher b. Yosef b. ʿAnan, which had been deposited by the Beit Din with ʿEli b. Efrayim b. ʿEli al-Tinnīsī. Mentions Yehuda b. Meshullam b. Zekharya the scribe b. ʿAnan and Jāliyya bt. Zekharya the scribe b. ʿAnan. The traces of writing between the lines and in the margins appear to be additions to the text and, perhaps, traces of an earlier text. On Yosef b. ʿAnan, a scribe whose copy of a codex of ketuvim still survives in Cairo, see Meital in JQR 2020. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Verso contains rhymed Hebrew verses.

Palimpsest consisting of the Palestinian Talmud (including Peʾa 18d and 20b-c and Šeqalim, 44a-b; 46b), written over a Syriac text, The Life of St Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria. Edited in Lewis (1902: 146–49) as text XXXV. (Information from CUDL)

Palimpsest, the upper script consisting of a collection of qerovot by Yannai from a 10th-century (?) maḥzor of his work. The under script is the New Testament (John 14:25-15:16) in Christian Palestinian Aramaic. (Information from CUDL)

Palimpsest containing the Latin text of a sermon by St. Augustine. See CUL Add.4320a-d and Outhwaite, B. (2007). St Augustine in the Genizah. [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, May 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.40134.

Ketubba, Palestinian, dated to the 10th or early 11th century. Reused for a magical text in Hebrew. Unusually, the later scribe also wrote over the text of the original ketubba. See Ginsburskaya, M. (2009). A Ketubba in Palimpsest (T-S K23.3). [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, December 2009]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55272

Palimpsest. Undertext: Bohairic Coptic, probably liturgical. Overtext: Writing practice of the Hebrew alphabet, and a Judaeo-Arabic list of birds, perhaps a translation of the unkosher birds from Leviticus/Deuteronomy. Information in part from GRU catalog via FGP.

Palimpsest. Original text: Leaf from an Arabic diwan on vellum in elegant calligraphy. Poets named include Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. [...] and Ibrāhīm al-Shāmī (neither seems readily identifiable, unless someone can decipher the poems or the name of Muḥammad's father). The text is faded and damaged but merits further examination. The most legible (but unattributed) poem includes two lines that continue to circulate in anthologies of zuhdiyyāt (sometimes credited to the mourners of ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAmr al-ʿĀṣ): لِلْمَوْتِ فَاعْمَلْ بِجِدٍ أَيُّهَا الرَّجُلُ ... واعْلَمْ بِأنَّكَ مِنْ دُنْيَاكَ مُرْتَحِلُكَأَنَّنِي بِكَ يَاذَا الشَّيْبِ فِي كُرَبٍ ... بَيْنَ الأحِبَّةِ قَدْ أوْدَى بِكَ الأَجَلُ