Genizah Fragment (Or.1080 J23): a late 12th century love letter.

Perahya is in Cairo and misses his wife, Umm Thana: “Of late my yearning has become so strong that I am not able to bear it anymore." He invites her to join him, promising she can choose her own carpets. 🤔

https://loom.ly/h2W1pMI

Sometime in the 1130s, Yosef b. Avraham ordered a super bowl from his associate Avraham b. Peraḥyā Ibn Yijū who operated a super bronze (superb ronze) workshop on the Malabar coast.

The curator Benjamin Outhwaite stands at the end of a long table that is covered in manuscripts. He holds up a letter of Jewish merchants from India.

Bible from Iran Two leaves from a small codex of the Hebrew Bible, written in an Abbasid style horizontal format. It was written in 903-4 in Gunbad-i-Mallgān. It is the earliest dated copy of the Hebrew Bible. TS NS 246.26.2

Yesterday I arranged a trip to the Cairo Geniza unit with students. The earliest dated copy of the Hebrew bible, next to a shopping list of the Chief Rabbi (lemon chicken and molokhia), and at the other end of the table a letter from merchants in India. Such wonderful collection! @theul.bsky.social

Collection items:
The Terezín collection. All of the composers featured in this collection, except for Domazlicky, died in either Terezín or Auschwitz. The works were premiered in Terezín.

Studie by Pavel Haas, which premiered in Terezín. Haas was gassed on arrival to Auschwitz in 1944.

Are you interested or do you know someone who's interested in doing a PhD on Arabic translations of the Bible? The new #BibliaArabica long-term project is looking for candidates! (tbh, that would have been my dream position a few years back) Spread the word!

We've got some HUGE news! We've DOUBLED in size overnight! Not only have we added "some" more Cairo Genizah fragments, but "ALL" of them @theul.bsky.social !!!
This now brings the total number of items in Cambridge Digital Library to OVER 160,000!
cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/...

A honey bee fossil (Hymenoptera, Apidae) from the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene Teragi Group, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan: Bridging a gap in Apis evolutionary history A new fossil honey bee Apis (Apis) aibai sp. nov. was discovered in the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene lacustrine deposit in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Fossil species are identified based on their dist...

The discovery of a new fossil species, A. (A.) aibai sp. nov., has clarified the gap between fossils and recent honey bees.

zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1623...

Details of a fragment from an Abbasid Qur’an 📚

Iron gall ink on perfect parchment 🐑

@theul.bsky.social MS Add.1118, 3/4th century AH/ 9/10th century CE

#IslamicManuscript #CambridgeUniversityLibraries #Parchment #JummahMubarak

YouTube video by Near East by Midwest Podcast Concerning Mandaeans, Mandaic, and other matters | A conversation with Professor Charles Häberl

A chance to learn about Mandaic from someone who knows 😎

"To render the scribe unable to write from the inkwell: Squeeze the juice of a tamarind and transfer it to the inkwell. No scribe will manage to write from it."

Fantastic practical joke for medieval scribes.
(from §22 of this book payhip.com/b/BoYj4 by @majnouna.com)

A pleasure to welcome the new postgrads at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies for a @theul.bsky.social induction! We showcased UL's services & our world-class Middle Eastern collection, from ancient manuscripts to modern works, all ready to support their research.
#CambridgeUniversity

Dr. Krisztina Szilágyi is teaching a short course on Christian Arabic texts & manuscripts, January 6-15, 2026 (Westminster College, Cambridge)

A bee-themed (but unidentified) #bookplate, in a five-volume edition of the letters of Zacharias Konrad von Uffenbach (1683-1734), printed at Ulm in 1753-56. A great collector of books, he visited Cambridge and its libraries in the early eighteenth century. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social XVII.11.33-37.

Poster advertisement for a course at Cambridge called "Explore Syriac."

Sharing this on behalf of George Kiraz: There will be an introductory Syriac course at Cambridge in the winter term (January 2026). Please share with anyone who might be interested!

Conserved c.20 years ago, and holding up pretty well 📚🧿

@theul.bsky.social Add. 1116, fragments of a Qur’an, 9th century

#CULconservation #ParchmentConservation

Happy to see this old queen (Doris) was still going strong today. She is 4 years old. Her bees take their cue from her, very calm and quiet.

The Illustrated Cairo Genizah A thematic, illustrated guide to the Cairo Genizah collections at Cambridge University Library.

I think it might be a bit in the weeds, but if you want a cool intro to the world of Cairene Jews (and its discovery), there are a few greats: @nposegay.bsky.social

www.gorgiaspress.com/the-illustra...

A decent size onion!

🐝Did you know we keep bees at the UL? Dr Melonie Schmierer-Lee explains how she cares for our colony of bees, including queen bee, Brontë!

#CambridgeUniversityLibrary #UrbanBeekeeping #Beekeeping #Cambridge
@meloniesch.bsky.social‬

Video by Blazej Mikula

I first learned about the cairo genizah during a teacher workshop in cambridge back in 2017 (still the best PD I've experienced) and as a world history teacher the possibilities for the classroom blew my mind. since then I've been keen to have teachable resources so I'm really pleased to see this.

Here, our colleague Nadia Vidro reads a translation of the #letter — offering a rare glimpse into the everyday life of Jewish communities in medieval Afghanistan:

#medievalsky #digitalhumanities