The remarkable treasure trove of manuscripts preserved by the Jewish community of medieval Cairo continues to astound researchers with the detailed picture it paints of life in the Middle Ages. Far from being ‘nasty, brutish and short’, life for the Jews of the Genizah world encompassed a period of prosperity, relative political power and a great flowering of intellectual endeavour. For the last hundred years, discoveries made among the nearly quarter of a million Genizah manuscripts have given us unparalleled access into the hearts and minds of a cultured, urbane and sophisticated society.
Meeting opening the 5772 session: 16 October 2011, ‘The Cairo Genizah: A not-so-horrible history of the Jewish Middle Ages’, Dr Ben Outhwaite, Cambridge
Marian Oppenheim Hall,
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Edinburgh Jewish Literary Society 