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Princeton Geniza Lab

@genizalab.bsky.social
213 followers 22 following 25 posts

Digitizing Cairo Geniza documents since 1985. genizalab.princeton.edu, geniza.princeton.edu

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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Again for the evening crowd: July's Fragment of the Month is a document that mentions Ashū, the local woman whom Jewish trader Avraham Ibn Yijū manumitted and married in Mangalore. On the recto, Ibn Yijū (an Arabic speaker) writes a calendar... in Judaeo-Persian. Elbaum considers what it all means.
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
On 17 Oct 1132, Avraham Ibn Yijū manumitted a Tuḷuva woman Ashū, who converted to Judaism. We know he married and had children with her, but her name never appears again. Or so we thought. PGL researcher Alan Elbaum writes about the second-ever reference to Ashū www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...
lib.cam.ac.uk
Fragment of the Month: July 2026
In July 2026's Fragment of the Month, Alan Elbaum turns to the Indian Ocean trade and focuses on Ashū, the wife of Ibn Yijū.
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Announcing From the Field, interviews with scholars about recent publications related to the Cairo Geniza. In this video, Paul Cobb, Alan Elbaum and Marina Rustow discuss a Fatimid report from 1109 on the Crusader siege of Tripoli, published in Crusades in 2025. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfpP...
youtube.com
Princeton Geniza Lab's From the Field: A Geniza document from 1109 about Fatimids and Crusaders
YouTube video by Princeton Geniza Lab
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Cute amulet doggy spotted 🧙🐶 Can anyone figure out what the spell is for? geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
Hebrew magical manuscript with a sketch of a dog-like creature
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Spotted in an early modern Judaeo-Arabic accounting fragment: sanbūsak (samosa)! geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
Manuscript with Hebrew writing, one word boxed
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Great to see the actual color of lac! This pigment was a major commodity traded from India to Yemen and Egypt. One of the Geniza merchants who dealt in dyes and dyed cloth was known as al-Urjuwānī, "the purple dealer" Some of the Geniza documents about lac --> geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
geniza.princeton.edu
Documents
Search and browse Geniza documents.
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
A poetic lawsuit brought by animals against humans: "How great is man's haughtiness! He rules over the lion with his spear, he strikes fleas and lice in his wrath, and he tramples ants as he walks." The ox bellowed and cried. . . 🔱 🦁 👊 🪰 👣 🐜 geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
small fragment of a manuscript with Hebrew writing on it
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
"For humans and jinns sleep, but your father does not sleep—he stays up and prays for you all night and day, weeping so much over his separation from you that he has lost his vision in one eye." (12th-century letter sent from Alexandria to a brother in Yemen) geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
geniza.princeton.edu
Letter: T-S 13J28.15
Letter from a certain Yosef, in Alexandria, to his brother, an India trader. Mentions Aden (verso, right margin, l. 15)…
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Elaborate medieval medical prescriptions in Judaeo-Arabic including one for "tremor, palpitation, and desolation/loneliness" (الرجف والخفقان والوحشة). "Take mastic, cinnamon, clove, spikenard, nutmeg, cubeb, cardamom, galingale. . . ." Read more here: geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
Image of a medieval manuscript with Hebrew text; two fragments joinedImage of a medieval manuscript with Hebrew text; two fragments joined
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Reposted by Princeton Geniza Lab
Rebecca Sutton Koeser @suttonkoeser.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Yesterday with @genizalab.bsky.social team & @jerielizabeth.bsky.social in @princeton.edu Commons Visualization Lab to see how the "CURVE" could enable new research on Princeton Geniza Project materials. Shown: mosaic of "join" fragments arranged by similarity; prototype PGP image search/browse.
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
For the first time since the Princeton Geniza Project began in 1986, we have published our metadata collated from over 30,000 Geniza documents and the People, Places, and histories of the Middle East and premodern Jewish communities found therein! zenodo.org/records/1583...
zenodo.org
Princeton Geniza Project Dataset
Since 1986, the Princeton Geniza Lab has been studying and digitizing historical documents from the Cairo Geniza, a cache of roughly 400,000 fragments of paper and parchment preserved in a medieval Eg...
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Given the expanded capabilities of the new PGP site (v4), we're finally retiring PGPv3. We chose April 3, 2025 as its final date, S. D. Goitein's 125th birthday. Many thanks to Ben Johnston of @mcgrawect for building the site & running it. You can find the archived content here:
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
A gorgeous prayerbook (maḥzor) for the high holidays copied in Mallorca(!) in 1332 CE, recently spotted by PGP researcher Tani Robinson. geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
page from a Hebrew manuscript with beautiful capitals ornamented with red and blue designs screenshot from a Hebrew manuscript with the word מיורקא
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
"He disdains me because I have little pomposity" (وقد حقرني لحال انني قليل البهرجة) - a humble teacher writing about his rich, apparently pompous uncle (Avraham Ibn Yiju) Document record: geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents... Published edition: princetongenizalab.github.io/goitein-indi...
screenshot of a medieval manuscript with Hebrew script
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
"When I parted from you, I intended to sail to the island of Cyprus, but a strong storm diverted the boat to Tarsus. I was very much afraid that the king would take hold of me and detain me. . . ." Letter from Alexandria to Cairo, ~1212 CE geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
medieval manuscript covered with Hebrew script (letter in Judaeo-Arabic)
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
A very sweet letter reminiscing on a visit to the house of Maimonides, who is depicted here enjoying lemon drops and playing with a cute toddler. "I kissed his noble hand, and he received us with a most cordial welcome. He said to me, 'Come and sit...'" geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
geniza.princeton.edu
Letter: T-S 8J14.18
Letter from a member of the nasi family of Mosul addressed to Shelomo b. Yishay. Dating: the events described in…
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Not to be missed! A landmark new book in Arabic documentary legal studies by Mathieu Tillier and Naïm Vanthieghem. Includes many previously unidentified Cairo Geniza fragments. Pictured: geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
The cover of the new book "Mariages et séparations en Égypte au Moyen Âge"two fragments of a medieval Arabic manuscript joined together
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Princeton Geniza Lab @genizalab.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
A Judaeo-Arabic text about Alexander the Great, with the text of a letter from the Persian king Darius ("king of kings and master of the nations of the world"), commands Alexander to submit to him: geniza.princeton.edu/en/documents...
geniza.princeton.edu
Literary text: T-S K25.262
Literary text in Judaeo-Arabic in two columns about Alexander the Great. Narrating how when Alexander went east to wage war…
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