Abstracts

Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 67,
No. 2 (2004), pp. v-vi
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies
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 Abstracts
Institutions and events of the eleventh century mirrored in Geniza letters
(Part I)
MOSHE GIL
This article is based on letters from the Geniza. The writers were merchants who dealt
in imports and exports between Egypt and other countries of the Mediterranean
basin. These merchants were part of the Jewish elite and maintained close ties with the
Muslim authorities. They enjoyed considerable status with these authorities, who
co-operated with the merchants, especially in the transport of goods; some of the high
officials were, in fact, ship-owners. The administration of the time took a great interest
in imports and exports, and would at times confiscate goods required by the army. The
article reviews a series of citations from letters thus examining the relationship between
the merchants and the authorities. The second part deals with the evidence of the
droughts found in the merchants' letters; it is interesting to compare the details on
droughts with the information in the Arabic sources. The third part discusses the
information contained in the Geniza documents on the conquest of Jerusalem (638).
This is followed by a discussion of two figures who are also known from Arabic
sources: Manasseh b. Abraham Ibn al-Qazzaz, and Barjawan. The letters also reflect
the restrictive measures against Jews and Christians in the days of Caliph al-Hakim.

Institutions and events of the eleventh century mirrored in Geniza letters

(Part II)
MOSHEGIL
This article deals with a further series of events reflected in the Geniza letters, as listed
below. In 1016, Jerusalem was afflicted by a severe earthquake; the letters help to deter-
mine the exact date of the event. Between 970 and 1030, Palestine was beset by battles;
I have referred to this period as the 'Sixty Years War'. In the Geniza letters, we find
information on these events, beginning in 1021 and continuing to the Fatimid victory
at Uqhuwana in 1029. The letters provide information on the heavy taxes imposed on
the Jewish population in Jerusalem. Because the liveliest trade took place between
Egypt and the Maghrib, a great many letters were sent from the Maghrib, containing
information on the incessant struggles there, especially between 1010 and 1027. The
letters supply information on the struggle in Spain between the 'slaves' and the Berbers.
We find an extremely detailed description of the events related to the earthquake
of 1033, which is also described by the Persian traveller Nasir Khusraw. Also contained
in the letters is information on the mutinies in the Maghrib under al-Mu'izz; the
separation of Ifriqiya from Fatimid supremacy (1048/49); events during the rule of the
vizier al-Yazuiri;and the destruction of the city of Qayrawan (1059). The article ends
with a discussion of the great rebellion which took place in Safaqus in 1062/63.

The head of the Jews (ra'is al-yahud) in Fatimid Egypt: a re-evaluation

ELINOARBAREKET
The debate concerning the Head of the Jews (ra'is al-yahud) in the Fatimid kingdom,
which has interested researchers since the late nineteenth century, has yet to reach a
final conclusion. Today's researchers usually argue that this position was established in
Egypt at the end of the eleventh century with the final fall of the Palestinian Yeshiva;
prior to this the Head of the Jews was the gaon of Palestine, appointed by the Fatimid
Imam. More recently a new argument has emerged, re-embracing the approach of
J. Mann, who argued that the position of the Head of the Jews was established at the
beginning of Fatimid rule (late tenth century), and the person to hold the position was
a Jewish courtier from the field of finance or medicine, appointed by the Imam to be
the supreme leader for all Jews in the Fatimid kingdom: Rabbanites, Karaites and
Samaritans. This old-new notion is yet to be clearly proven. Such views are mainly

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vi ABSTRACTS
supported by circumstantial analysis of logical arguments that arise from the Geniza
documents, without real written proof, but the Geniza is known for surprises and it is
possible that we will soon find unequivocal proof to show that the Head of the Jews in
the Fatimid kingdom was indeed a Jewish courtier appointed by the Imam, since the
beginning of the Fatimid rule over Egypt, Palestine and Syria at the end of the tenth
century.

Abraham Tal: A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic-a review article

MOSHE FLORENTIN
This article presents a detailed review of A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (Leiden:
Brill, 2000). Samaritan Aramaic (SA) is a Palestinian Aramaic dialect similar to Jewish
Aramaic and Christian Aramaic, the two other dialects in use during the first millen-
nium CEin Palestine. Based on the best critical editions of Samaritan texts (for each of
them the author initially prepared a comprehensive concordance), it presents the entire
vocabulary of SA literature as it is known at present; namely the Samaritan Targum,
liturgical poems, midrashic literature and SA material attested in Samaritan texts
written in Late Samaritan Hebrew. The article deals with lexicographical issues, such as
the method of introducing entries and the scope of the dictionary (e.g. its being a sort
of mini-encyclopedia). It focuses mainly on matters relating to SA, such as differences
between ancient and late layers of the dialect, lexical loans (from Hebrew, Arabic,
Greek and Latin) and influences of Jewish texts (e.g. Onkelos). The scope of the dic-
tionary, its method and, above all, the way its author deals with the vast lexical
problems of SA, make it one of the most important contributions to the research into
this dialect. It is therefore unsurprising that DSA has already gained an important place
on the bookshelves of scholars of other dialects of Aramaic, Hebrew and biblical
studies.

Geography, empire and sainthood in the eighteenth-century Muslim Deccan

NILE GREEN
This article examines the relationship between the Mughal colonization of the Deccan
during the twelfth/eighteenth century and the development of the Sufi traditions of
Awrangabad. Concurrent with the defeat of the Deccan sultanates was a process of
re-ordering the sacred Muslim landscape of the Deccan into harmony with the cultural
and political values of the region's new elites by the importation of Sufi traditions from
the north. As a reflection of the wider cultural make-up of the Mughal world, questions
of regional, political and ethnic affiliation were articulated by writers whose own
remembered homelands lay far from the Deccan. Placing Sufi commemorative texts
written in Awrangabad into a wider social and literary context, the article discusses
the place of the city's Sufis in the social, political and intellectual life of a short-lived
imperial centre. The city's saints are in this way seen as the most semantically rich of all
the cultural products of the period.

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