Jewish Perceptions of the Al-Hakim Era: The Letters of Samuel the Third (original) (raw)
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Johannes den Heijer & Joachim J.M.S. Yeshaya « Solomon ben Joseph ha-Kohen on Fāṭimid Victory: A Hebrew ode to al-Mustanṣir Billāh and Badr al-Jamālī Reconsidered », in Al-Masāq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 25 (2013), p. 155-183. This article presents a vocalised edition (on the basis of MS T.-S. Misc. 36.174, Cambridge University Library) and a revised translation of a Hebrew ode written on the occasion of the Fāṭimid victory over the invading Saljūq army in Cairo in 469/1077. Elaborating on earlier research on the Cairo Genizah treasures starting with Julius H. Greenstone's 1906 paper, the article first of all aims to present whatever historical data can be obtained about the poet, Solomon ben Joseph ha-Kohen, and about the time period and the circumstances in which he must have written his poem, which is addressed to the Fāṭimid caliph al-Mustanṣir Billāh and his vizier Badr al-Jamālī. Other major objectives of the article are the identification of other historical persons and events alluded to in the praise poem, a literary analysis of the ode within the conceptual framework of “martial poetry”, and an examination of its laudatory or propagandistic aspects. Research Interests: Fatimids, Medieval Jewish History, Arabic Historiography (History), Cairo Genizah, Fatimid Studies, and medieval Hebrew poetry
The Jews of Hijaz and their Inscriptions
Jews are mentioned numerous times in the Qur n, whether via the root hwd (23 times), as Children of Israel (43 times), or subsumed under the category of People of the Book (32 times). This ensured that their history and place in Mu ammads Arabia would receive substantial attention in biographies of the Prophet and in commentaries on the Qur n. And this in turn has ltered through into a steady stream of secondary scholarship on the subject of Mu ammad and the Jews. Yet outside of the blazing limelight of the Prophets lifetime we know almost nothing about the Jewish communities of northwest Arabia. The question of how the Jews came to be in this region did interest early Muslim historians to some extent, and many of them took the time to sketch out some ideas on this subject. Usually they speak of waves of Jewish refugees coming from the Levant or the Persian realm in the wake of Babylonian, Roman and Iranian conquests or persecutions. Sometimes they even attribute a priestly pedigree to the Jews of the Hijaz, going back to Aaron, brother of Moses, though more often they are said to descend from ancient Arab clans who converted to Judaism a long time ago. However, one has a sense that they are mostly speculating and do not have any real information about the Jews of those distant times, and they are certainly not able to bridge the gap between the Hijazi Jews putative origins and their sudden rise to prominence in the early seventh century. 2 1 I am immensely grateful to Michael Macdonald, who, with characteristic generosity, allowed me the full use of his wonderful library and patiently answered my numerous queries. In the transliteration system of the present article and (which correspond to sh and kh elsewhere in this volume) are used for the sake of the precision necessary for discussing inscriptions. 2 There is quite a large literature on Muslim writings on the Jews of Muhammads Arabia, as one would expect given their prominence in the Qur n. For older material see the references cited in D.S. Margoliouth, The Relations between Arabs and Israelites prior to the Rise of Islam , London:
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The Cairo Genizah collections provide scholars with a profound insight into Jewish culture, history, and the deeply intertwined relationships between Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Among these treasures are often overlooked Arabic poetic fragments from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, which illuminate the shared Abrahamic legacy. This paper explores mainly two unpublished poetic fragments written in Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic in Hebrew script), analyzing how they reflect a shared Jewish–Muslim cultural memory and history, particularly through the reverence for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other key figures central to both traditions across the medieval Mediterranean and Middle East. By situating these poetic voices within broader historical and cultural contexts, this study underscores the role of poetry in reflecting sociocultural and historical dimensions while fostering cross-cultural and religious coexistence. It demonstrates how poetry acts as a bridge between religion, history, and culture by revealing the shared Abrahamic heritage of Jews and Muslims within two Arabic poetic fragments from the Cairo Genizah.
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John of Sedrē (r. 631-648) was the leader of the Syrian Miaphysite church during the turmoiled transition between the Sasanian occupation and the Medinese conquests. Among his important heritage, he is said to have sent an epistle about his meeting with an anonymous amīrō, dealing with theological as well as legal issues. Since François Nau’s edition, it has been regarded as the first Christian-Muslim controversy of history, until recent scholarship tends to rather consider it as reflecting later concerns of the eighth cent. However, the unusual features of this letter (inheritance focus, mhaggrō as “islam”, unanswered questions…) as well as the very identity of ʿAmrū bar Saʿd, as the “emir” is called in early Syriac historiography, suggest this dossier might have been more historical – if not authentic – than many of the documents in the volume (penqītō) where it was later copied. Indeed, Arab-Muslim material allows a reconstruction of the history of this pre-Umayyad governor of Northern Syria and Mesopotamia, the jund of Homs (ca. 640-657). The most striking coincidence is the letter’s underlined mention of (ps)-tribal Christian (ʿammē) of Iraqi origin when Muslim historiography also associates “Little ʿAmr the son of Saʿd, the Medinese (al-anṣārī)” with the management of Christian Arab tribes. Thus, as ʿUmayr is almost entirely forgotten in (post)-Umayyad Arab literature, the attachment of these three successive Syriac testimonies about both this figure and this event suggest they are the remnant of seventh cent. memories.
Reading and Writing the Book of Samuel in Spoken Egyptian Arabic – Biblia Arabica
Biblia Arabic blog
Home › Blog › Reading and Writing the Book o ... Reading and Writing the Book of Samuel in Spoken Egyptian Arabic 0 by Nick Posegay ome of the most important tools for medieval Bible translators were translation glossaries. These texts are short lexicographical works, more specialised than complete lexica, that give translations for individual words in a particular Biblical text. Many are extant in Cairo Genizah manuscripts, including Hebrew-Aramaic and Hebrew-Arabic glossaries. Medieval readers could reference these glossaries while studying the Bible, allowing them to quickly identify specific Arabic glosses for uncommon Hebrew words or check which words a particular translator rendered with their Arabic vocabulary. Some of these glossaries correspond to wellknown translations produced by professional translators, but others are more personal notes produced by individuals while reading the Bible. Some were probably also used in pedagogical settings to teach young readers. These glossaries are valuable evidence for analysing how medieval Jewish translators understood the Hebrew of their source texts. The individual personal usage of translation glossaries sometimes preserves dialectal details that are not normally present in standard written Arabic. One glossary in which this occurs is the manuscript fragment known as T-S Ar.5.58, held at the Cambridge University Library.[1] This fragment comes from the Cairo Genizah, a repository of tens of thousands of medieval manuscripts that the Jewish community of Cairoʼs Ben Ezra Synagogue stored away when they were no longer fit for use. European scholars procured most of these manuscripts in the late nineteenth century, and the majority now reside in Cambridge.[2] ABOUT US BOOK SERIES BIBLIOGRAPHY RESEARCHERS CONTACT US COLLABORATORS Reading and Writing the Book of Samuel in Spoken Egyptian Arabic-... https://biblia-arabica.com/reading-and-writing-the-book-of-samuel-in-s...