̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Ben Outhwaite

Discarded history: Cairo Genizah treasures

zs332 — Tue, 31 May 2022 08:00:00 +0000

How the discovery and study of ancient deeds, fables, letters, magical amulets, contracts and lists in a sacred storeroom created unparalleled engagement with a forgotten chapter of Jewish history.

Ghost Words: Reading the past

zs332 — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 11:04:19 +0000

A new exhibition from Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library is set to bring to life the hidden words buried in some of our oldest manuscripts - known as palimpsests.

Discarded History exhibition lifts the lid on 1,000 years of medieval history

sjr81 — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 06:07:10 +0000

Discarded History: ̽��ֱ��Genizah of Medieval Cairo opens to the public on April 27 and provides a unique and unparalleled window into the daily life of men, women and children at the centre of a thriving city over the course of a millennium.

From the 9th to the 19th century, the Jewish community of Fustat (Old Cairo) deposited more than 200,000 unwanted writings in a purpose-built storeroom in the Ben Ezra synagogue. This sacred storeroom was called the Genizah. A Genizah was a safe place to store away any old or unusable text that, because it contained the name of God, was considered too holy to simply throw out.

But when the room was opened in the late 19th century, alongside the expected Bibles, prayer books and works of Jewish law – scholars discovered the documents and detritus of everyday life: shopping lists, marriage contracts, divorce deeds, a 1,000-year-old page of child’s doodles and alphabets, Arabic fables, works of Muslim philosophy, medical books, magical amulets, business letters and accounts. Practically every kind of written text produced by the Jewish communities of the Near East throughout the Middle Ages had been preserved in that sacred storeroom.

Dr Ben Outhwaite, Head of the Genizah Research Unit and co-curator of the exhibition, said: “This colossal haul of writings reveals an intimate portrait of life in a Jewish community that was international in outlook, multicultural in make-up and devout to its core; a community concerned with the very things to which humanity has looked for much of its existence: love, sex and marriage, money and business, and ultimately death.

“ ̽��ֱ��Genizah collection is undeniably one of the greatest treasures among the world-class collections at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library. We have translated most of these texts into English for the first time – and most are also going on display for the first time, too. With Discarded History we hope to make this medieval society accessible and recognisable to a modern audience.”

Among the highlights going on display in Cambridge are the earliest known example of a Jewish engagement deed (Shtar Shiddukhin, from 1119), showing the complex legal relations that existed around marriage, the oldest-dated medieval Hebrew manuscript (a Bible from 9th century Iran) and an 11th century pre-nuptial agreement where the groom, Toviyya – who clearly had a bad reputation – was forced to make a series of promises about his future behaviour.

In the presence of witnesses, he declares that he will avoid mixing with the wrong sort, for the purposes of ‘eating, drinking or anything else’. He also states that he will not spend one night away from Faiza, unless she wants him to, and that he will not buy himself a slave girl, unless Faiza agrees.

̽��ֱ��existence of the Cairo Genizah was first brought to the attention of Western scholars by the fearless and intrepid travellers Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson in 1896. ̽��ֱ��twin sisters, devout Presbyterians who had inherited a great fortune, returned to Cambridge from a research trip to Egypt and Palestine. They brought with them a treasure lost for a thousand years: a page from the original Hebrew book of Ben Sira, accumulated along with thousands of other documents in the Ben Ezra Synagogue.

Cambridge lecturer Solomon Schechter was so excited by the sisters’ remarkable discovery that he raised the money to travel to Old Cairo to see for himself what the Genizah held – although not before swearing the twins to secrecy about the nature of their discovery, lest a rival scholar from Oxford be alerted to their existence.

Upon arrival in Cairo, the Chief Rabbi of Egypt gave Schechter permission to take whatever he liked. Schechter declared that he ‘liked all’, and shipped almost 200,000 manuscripts back to Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��material that arrived in Cambridge, packed in wooden crates, dates from a period when 90 per cent of the world’s Jews lived in Islamic lands. ̽��ֱ��broadly tolerant regime under which they lived contrasted with the usually harsher treatment meted out to Jews in Western Europe. ̽��ֱ��documents paint a picture of economic stability and social growth. Cheques for goods ranging from wax candles to lemon sherbet pay testament to the variety and richness of the 200,000 documents in Cambridge’s possession – almost all of which have been conserved to avoid any further damage to the priceless collection.

“Women and children are invisible in most archives – especially those from medieval times,” added Outhwaite. “But through our collections, myriad individual voices can be heard through children’s copy books, prenuptial agreements and books of magic spells.

“A broad brush picture of the medieval Middle East as a crucible of cruel oppression or, conversely, an interfaith utopia does not do justice to the eye-level history recorded in these sources. Life, for the culturally rich and socially conscious citizens of the medieval Middle East, was more complicated, sophisticated and interesting than that.

“ ̽��ֱ��Cairo Genizah speaks vividly of the community’s links to other lands and other faiths. Its fragile contents, brown with age when Schechter acquired them, give us a picture of life that includes piracy and human trafficking to the intimate drama of domestic life. We can read about ancient cures for headaches and see school teachers complain bitterly about children’s unruly behaviour, just as they do today. It’s this richness that makes the Genizah unique.”

Discarded History: ̽��ֱ��Genizah of Medieval Cairo opens to the public on April 27, 2017 and runs until October 28, 2017. Entry is free.

Treasures from the world’s largest and most important collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts – chronicling 1,000 years of history in Old Cairo – have gone on display in Cambridge today for a six-month-long exhibition at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library.

Myriad individual voices can be heard through children’s copy books, prenuptial agreements and books of magic spells.

Ben Outhwaite

A Brush With History

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library

Cambridge lecturer Solomon Schechter among thousands of Genizah fragments in his office after their transportation from the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo.

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Languages are fighting back

ta385 — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 12:20:12 +0000

Only five per cent of the world’s population speak English as a first language. Three quarters of humanity cannot speak English at all. And the UK economy is losing billions of pounds every year through a lack of language skills.

Despite this, the proportion of UK students taking GCSE languages fell from 78 per cent in 2001 to just 40 per cent in 2011. Meanwhile, A-Level language entries have declined by 28 per cent (1996 to 2014). Take-up of languages is particularly low in state schools which accounted for only half of A-level entries in 2014.

As a global ̽��ֱ�� which provides teaching and resources in more than 170 languages, Cambridge is committed to inspiring young people, particularly those studying in state schools, to embrace languages.

Every year, around 200,000 individuals take part in access initiatives run by the ̽��ֱ�� and its Colleges. This programme includes an increasing number of events organised by and with the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages (MML), the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) and the Language Centre, which supports the teaching and learning of languages throughout the ̽��ֱ��.

Recent events have included

Girton College’s first MML inspiration day for GCSE students

Languages may be suffering at many schools but Girton received an overwhelming response from teachers when it proposed a packed programme of multilingual talks and workshops.

Supported by the Faculty, Girton was able to welcome seventy Years 10 and 11 students from non-selective state schools from across the country. Teachers were asked to nominate up to two students based on who they thought would benefit most from the experience.

̽��ֱ��event was the brainchild of two Girton Fellows, Dr Claudia Domenici (Dept. of Italian) and Dr Stuart Davis (Dept. of Spanish & Portuguese).

Claudia commented

“When the pace of globalization is continually accelerating it is more important than ever for students to be aware of the advantages that the study of other languages and cultures offer. For me, learning Italian is about tapping into the very heart of Western identity, and what a wonderful privilege that is.”

Stuart added

“I’ve been delighted to see interest in Spanish, my specialist language, growing in recent years. But it has been so disheartening to see a general decline in take-up for GCSE and A-level languages.

“ ̽��ֱ��intellectual challenge of studying languages is in itself hugely enjoyable but our graduates are also highly employable. Modern language degrees open so many doors to so many wonderful places but they also allow you to reflect on your own culture and to understand its place in the world.”

̽��ֱ��event began with an inspiring welcome from Jocelyn Wyburd, Director of the Language Centre. Jocelyn combined sobering warnings about the risks of monolingualism – “In a global job market, your competitors include people from all over the world who speak two or more languages” – with examples of the exciting careers which languages can lead to.

“Mastering languages and studying abroad can change who you are in wonderful ways. Research has shown that learning languages strengthens cognitive skills, including problem solving and mental flexibility, while studying abroad also builds independence and confidence.”

̽��ֱ��next speaker, Dr Hannah Scott, provided a case in point. Hannah studied languages as an undergraduate at Cambridge and is now a Fellow and Teaching Officer in French at Girton. As part of her degree, Hannah learnt Spanish from scratch and said “Cambridge can take you from zero knowledge of a language to AS Level standard in three months.” This prompted gasps of amazement from the audience.

Hannah enthused about the variety and flexibility of Cambridge’s language courses as well as their culturally immersive nature. At Cambridge, students master languages by exploring the societies and cultures which they serve. A crucial part of this process is the Year Abroad, a life-changing opportunity in the penultimate (third) year of degree courses in both MML and AMES, to study, work and/or volunteer in another country (and language).

Hannah provided a few tantalising examples of what current students are doing "right now"-

“Jess is learning Swedish through German at Humboldt ̽��ֱ�� in Berlin … Iona is volunteering in Nicaragua, teaching English and music at a children’s centre next to the city rubbish dump … Oli is working for a leading financial advisory firm in Paris … And Verity is studying Arabic in Morocco before volunteering for a child protection charity.”

̽��ֱ��Faculty’s portfolio of Years Abroad undertaken by its students would turn Phileas Fogg green with envy.

At this point, Girton invited its visitors to join one of four culture workshops, each led by a specialist at Cambridge. Stuart Davis spoke about the Spanish Civil War, Hannah Scott about hidden secrets in French Impressionist Art; J D Rhodes on Neo-Realism in Italian cinema and Giuseppina Siverstri on linguistics.

This was followed by an opportunity to take part in one of four language workshops: Italian with Claudia Domenici, French with Christopher Gagne; Spanish with Alicia Pena-Calvo, Portuguese with Felipe Schuery or Hebrew with Ben Outhwaite. Ben explained the fascinating mechanics of Hebrew, an unfamiliar language to most of his group. Christopher gave his students a crash course in French slang and invited them to discuss the diverse use of language by different generations. Despite most of his students being new to Portuguese, Filipe spoke entirely in the language, using hand gestures to help translate.

At the end of the day, Girton’s Schools Liaison Officer, Erin Charles, provided advice about A-Level choices and aiming for university. This was followed by an opportunity to quiz current students about A-Levels, starting at Cambridge, Years Abroad, what they intend to do when they leave Cambridge and how they think a language degree will help them.

̽��ֱ��MML Faculty and Cambridge Colleges offer regular language-inspired access events to schools and sixth form colleges throughout the year.

Student-led MML access event

On 5 November, undergraduate contributors to the MML magazine Polyglossia welcomed 37 sixth formers from the London Academy of Excellence in Newham.

Supported by the Faculty and Trinity Hall, Onkar Singh, an LAE alumnus, initiated the event to “give current students the confidence to apply to a top university and pursue their passion for languages in a really supportive environment.”

Onkar, a Second Year at Downing College, gave a talk on Hispanic linguistics and sociolinguistics and was impressed by how “enthused and engaged everyone was in the discussion”.

Other sessions included an overview of MML at Cambridge, talks on German and French, and advice on applying to university.

̽��ֱ��number of young people studying languages in the UK is falling. Determined to change this, the ̽��ֱ�� is running an increasing number of events to highlight the life-changing power of languages.

Modern language degrees open so many doors to so many wonderful places

Dr Stuart Davis, Department of Spanish & Portuguese

Talking in Languages 2.0. Image courtesy of Markus Koljonen

Talking in Languages 2.0

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Historic rivals join forces to save 1,000 years of Jewish history

ljm67 — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:02:58 +0000

̽��ֱ��campaign was officially launched this week at the British Academy in London.

̽��ֱ��collection comprises more than 1,700 fragments of Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts, originating from the Cairo Genizah, dating from the 9th–19th century. They represent an invaluable record of a thousand years of the religious, social, economic and cultural life of the Mediterranean world.

̽��ֱ��fragments were brought back from Cairo by the intrepid twin sisters Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson in 1896 and deposited at Westminster College. Treasures of the collection include the earliest known example of a Jewish engagement deed (dating from 1119), an eyewitness account of Crusader atrocities, and letters by leading Jewish traders of the 11th and 12th centuries.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Librarian Anne Jarvis said: “In the late 19th century, Oxford’s Bodleian Library and Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library were rivals in trying to acquire materials from the Cairo Genizah. Today we are taking a different stance, seeking to build on our collections while recognising that there would be a greater benefit to scholarship if we joined together to save the Lewis-Gibson Collection from division and dispersal.”

Both libraries are already holders of substantial Genizah collections in their own right. Cambridge is home to the largest collection in the world with some 200,000 fragments out of the estimated 350,000 to be found in public collections worldwide. Meanwhile, the Bodleian holds 25,000 world-class Genizah folios, the size and quality of which rank it among the most important global collections.

A genizah is a sacred storeroom, a room set aside inside a synagogue for the interment of old religious writings, which, because they contain names of God or use the sacred Hebrew alphabet, cannot be simply discarded. For more than 1,000 years the Jewish community of Fustat (now a suburb of Cairo) deposited all manner of writings (not just sacred texts) into the sacred storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue.

̽��ֱ��significance of the manuscripts haphazardly stored in the synagogue was recognised towards the end of the 19th century, and the Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection represents some of the earliest fragments to emerge from it. Given its status as a ‘hand-picked’ collection, the Lewis-Gibson Collection contains perhaps more than its share of rare or unique items compared to its modest size.

Other treasures are a large leaf of Moses Maimonides’ (d. 1204) famous Commentary on the Mishnah in his own hand, an autograph poem by the medieval Spanish Hebrew poet Joseph ibn Abitur, the earliest known example of a Jewish engagement deed (Shtar Shiddukhin, from 1119), showing the complex legal relations that existed around marriage, and a rare, very early (10th-century), copy on vellum of the great Jewish sage Saadya Gaon’s translation of the Bible into Arabic.

̽��ֱ��libraries’ fundraising campaign has received an early, significant and much-welcomed boost with the promise of a £500,000 lead gift from the Polonsky Foundation which in 2010 also gifted £1.5m to Cambridge’s Digital Library Project and £2m to the Bodleian Libraries’ initiative with the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Both libraries are now appealing for donors to come forward and secure the remaining £700,000 necessary to buy the collection outright.

Dr Polonsky, Trustee of the Foundation, said: “I strongly support collaboration and am delighted to give momentum to the joint venture of these two great Universities in acquiring such an important manuscript collection.”

Bodley’s Librarian Dr Sarah Thomas said: “This is a rare and special opportunity to jointly acquire the Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection by Cambridge and Oxford, which combined hold almost 70 per cent of the fragments in public collections. Together, we will share the work of curating, conserving, digitising and presenting the manuscripts, making the best use of the strengths of each institution.”

̽��ֱ��Lewis-Gibson Collection holds a special place in the modern history of the Cairo Genizah. When the twin sisters showed a selection of their fragments to their friend, Cambridge scholar Solomon Schechter, he set off to Egypt to find the source. What followed was the discovery of the Cairo Genizah, changing the study of Judaism – and of the study of the wider history of the Middle East – forever.

Professor David Abulafia, author of the acclaimed ̽��ֱ��Great Sea: a human history of the Mediterranean believes that the Genizah is a unique historical archive. He said: “ ̽��ֱ��Cairo Genizah documents are like a searchlight, illuminating dark corners of the history of the Mediterranean and shedding a bright light on the social, economic and religious life of the Jews not just of medieval Egypt but of lands far away. There is nothing to compare with them as source for the history of the tenth to twelfth centuries, anywhere in Europe or the Islamic world.”

For those who would like to make a donation to the appeal to purchase this fascinating collection of medieval manuscripts, please visit our online giving page.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library and the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries have today announced their first ever joint fundraising campaign to purchase the £1.2 million ‘Lewis-Gibson Genizah Collection’, currently owned by the United Reformed Church’s Westminster College.

Governors of Westminster College, Cambridge

Mrs Gibson on a camel in the Sinai, 1893.

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