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Copyright

Judith Olszowy-Schlanger;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 147–176

Language

  • English

Print Length

30 pages

Hebrew Script Terminology in Cairo Geniza Book Lists

  • Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 2: The Medieval World, Judaeo-Arabic, and Neo-Aramaic(pp. 147–176)
The article explores the terminology used to describe Hebrew script in book lists found in the Cairo Geniza, focusing on the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. It highlights how scribes, bibliophiles, and booksellers categorised scripts based on type, quality, and geographical origin, reflecting influences from Arabic writing traditions. Terms like mujlas ‘square script’, muʿallaq ‘non-square cursive’, and muḥaqqaq ‘calligraphic’ were used alongside indicators of quality such as raqīq ‘thin writing’ or mujarrad ‘simple script’. Some lists also mention specific scribes or describe the handwriting of notable figures, indicating the value placed on manuscript provenance. The study underscores the interplay between Hebrew and Arabic palaeographic practices and the cultural significance of script in medieval Jewish book culture.

Contributors

Judith Olszowy-Schlanger

(author)
Professor in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Director, President, and Fellow at University of Oxford

Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Professor in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford as well as Director of the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Her research activities include diplomatic study of legal documents in Hebrew characters from different parts of the medieval Jewish world, from the Eastern documents discovered in the Cairo Geniza to the contracts in Hebrew from medieval England, Jewish book culture and its contacts with non-Jewish intellectual environments and Hebrew palaeography. Her most recent monographs are Des juifs, des chrétiens et des livres: Manuscrits hébreux médiévaux de la France du Nord (Editions BnF, 2023) and Learning Hebrew in Medieval England: Christian Scholars and the Longleat House Grammar (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2023).