Join us for our new podcast episode on the Ego and Morals in Medieval Arabic Poetry from the Cairo Genizah by our team member Dr Imran Khan.

APCG Project Keynote talk "A Mamluk Sultan in Genoa. How the Sīrat Baybars shaped the Egyptian Mental Map towards Europe and the Mediterranean" was part of the international conference between the 19 and the 20 June 2023 at Trinity College Dublin. The conference is part of the ERC funded project Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah. Our speaker was Prof. Albrecht Fuess, Professor of History and Islamic Studies, Center for Near and Middle East Studies (CNMS) Philipps University of Marburg, Germany Abstract: The Sīrat Baybars represents a very important Arab folktale pretending to describe the life Mamluk sultan Baybars (r. 1260-77). However the content varies between fact and fiction but it proved to be highly entertaining and popular among the Egyptian population until the 19th century when we still hear of public recitals. As such it has shaped the image of Europeans and Christians as outer and inner foes of the Muslim realm and as constant possible threat. The planned presentation will focus in this context on the Genoa Episode of the Sīrat Baybars when the sultan is taken as captive to Genoa but rescued by victorious Ismāʿīlī allies. The episode allows on one hand to see how real historical events like the Fatimid attack on Genoa in the tenth century and the Mamluk conquest of Cyprus in the fifteenth merge into one narratives but will also show how the relationship between Europeans, Christian Dhimmis and Europeans are interwoven in networks of alliances and deceit. It will then discuss how these narratives managed to stay popular for so long. Bio Albrecht Fuess has been a History and Islamic Studies Professor at the University of Marburg since 2010. His main research interests are the history of the Middle East (13th – 17th centuries), the cultural and social history of the Mamluks, Islam in Europe and contemporary Islamic youth cultures. He is a member of several scientific associations and editorial boards in Germany, Egypt, Belgium, France and Egypt. He is a member and principal investigator of many research projects, the most recent are: - The Clash of Muslim Empires. Ottomans, Safavids and Mamluks in the Sixteenth Century” (Individual research project), Transottomanica: Eastern European-Ottoman-Persian Mobility Dynamics [DFG- SPP 1981] (team project), EGYLandscape Project: Exploring Egypt’s Landscapes during the 13th-18th Centuries [ANR-DFG], Mediating Islam in the Digital Age [Horizon2020] ( team project). - Some of his recent publications: - Ṣihr and Muṣāhara in Mamluk Royal Relations. Transmitting Power and Enlarging Networks Through In-Law Ties in Pre-Modern Egypt (2021) - Co-editor with Christoph Werner, Maria Szuppe und Nicolas Michel, Dynamics of Transmission: Families, Authority and Knowledge in the Early Modern Middle East (15th-17th centuries), Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. - Together with Volker Leppin and Stefan Schreiner, Jerusalem – Ziel, Vision, Vorbild FünfGeschichten eines Erinnerungsortes in Judentum, Christentum, Islam und Baha'i ( English: Jerusalem - goal, vision, role model Five stories of a place of remembrance in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Baha'i), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2021. Among many other publications in the field. @EuropeanResearchCouncil @TRINITYCOLLEGEDUBLIN @cambridgeuniversity

Music

Yah RibonE's Jammy JamsYah Ribon, YouTube Audio Library

APCG Project Keynote talk "Losing time in nonsense: Arabic Epic literature and Reading and Writing for Fun among Jews in the Egypt and the Levant" was part of the international conference between the 19 and the 20 June 2023 at Trinity College Dublin. The conference is part of the ERC funded project Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah. Our speaker was Prof. Dr. Alexandra Cuffel, Professor of Jewish Religion in Past and Present Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr Universität Bochum Germany Abstract: In his commentary on the Mishnah, the Jewish community leader, physician, and philosopher, Moses ben Maimon famously derided the reading of the “books found among the Arabs” which recounted the behavior of kings, genealogies, and songs as “a loss of time in nonsense.” In this paper I propose to explore both indications of Jewish interest in Arabic epic literature, such as Sirat al-Antar, or Sirat Dhat al-Himma, and why such narratives, usually Muslim in origin, would have attracted a Jewish readership. I will argue that in part, Jews were drawn to these tales because these epics contained tales of distant Jewish lands and warriors. Miriam Goldstein has noted in her studies of Judeo-Arabic versions of the Toledot Yeshu, the Jewish retelling of the life of Jesus, found in the Cairo Geniza, that this text was sometimes found with retellings of biblical and extra-biblical accounts of the Jewish past, such as the martyrdom narratives in Maccabees. These fragments in the Cairo Geniza will be examined in the light of Jewish, Muslim and Christian reading habits and as potential forays into Jews writing their own “adventure literature.” Bio Alexandra Cuffel is Professor of Jewish Religion and History at Ruhr Universität Bochum (Germany). She received her PhD from New York University. She is the author of two monographs, the first, Gendering Disgust in Medieval Religious Polemic, was published by University of Notre Dame Press, the second is forthcoming this year from ARC Humanities Press, and is entitled Shared Saints and Festivals among Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Medieval Mediterranean. She is also the co-author of a variety of edited volumes, and author of numerous articles. Her specialization is Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in medieval Europe and the Islamicate World.

Music credit: Desert Caravan · Aaron Kenny Desert Caravan ℗ YouTube Audio Library
@EuropeanResearchCouncil @TRINITYCOLLEGEDUBLIN @cambridgeuniversity

Welcome, esteemed listeners, to the newest installment of 'Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah Project'! Today, we are privileged to embark on a captivating odyssey through the annals of medieval Egypt, led by the astute insights of our distinguished guide, Ahmed Sheir. Together, we shall traverse the labyrinthine corridors of time and culture, peering through the lens of Ahmed's discerning analysis. Prepare to be spellbound as we unravel the intricate tapestry of poetic fragments meticulously preserved within the sacred confines of the Cairo Genizah. Here, amidst the whispers of antiquity, we shall unearth the echoes of a profound Abrahamic legacy—each verse a testament to the enduring spirit of faith and wisdom that permeated the hearts of poets of old. So, dear listeners, fasten your seatbelts and open your minds as we embark on this enthralling expedition. Let the melodic cadence of Arabic poetry and the scholarly prowess of Ahmed Sheir be our guiding lights through the corridors of time.

Welcome to APCG podcast, the podcast that unlocks the poetic treasures buried within the Cairo Genizah, providing a captivating journey into the world of Arabic poetry written in Hebrew script. In the following episodes, we'll delve into the fascinating realm of verses, rhythms, and hidden narratives waiting to be unearthed.

ثنائية اللغة في وثائق الجنيزا القاهرية

لحا الله قوماً إذا جئتهم 

بصدق الأحاديث قالوا: كفر

رقم المخطوط T-S NS 108.60 

Cambridge University Library

عنده الفقر والفاقه والسراج على الطاقه.

T-S Ar.13.13

على الحرّة تكشفه للصره.

Cambridge University Library: T-S Ar.13.13

الشاعر العباسي خالد الكاتب وقصيدة مكتوبة بالخط العبري:

كلما اشتد خضوعي  الذي بين ضلوعي

في دِمْنة الخد خيول من دموعي

لا تلمنا إذ بكينا وهممنا بالرجوع

كلما أبصرت ربعاً دارساً فاضت دموعي

مكتبة جامعة كامبريدج، وثيقة رقم T-S Ar.37.127 

إني ليعصمني هواك عن الهوى      حـتـى كـأن عـلي مـنـك رقـيـبا

وأجـول فـي غمرات حبك جاهداً      طوْراً فيحسبني الجليسُ رهيبا

مـا إن هـممتُ بشمّ نحركِ ساعةً      إلا مـلأتُ مـن الدموع جيوبا

Cambridge University Library: Fragment (T-S Ar.30.6)

بقدر الصعود يكون الهبوط  فإياك والرتب العالية

وكن في مكان إذا ما سقطت  تقوم ورجلاك في عافية

استمعوا إلى أشعار الحب والغزل من الجنيزا القاهرية : 

آه من

هذي البلايا

آه من فعل الخطايا

أوقعتنا في الرزايا

يعدّ شعر الغزل من بين أكثر الموضوعات الشعرية التي وُجِدت في مخطوطات الجنيزا القاهرية.  وأشعار الحبّ والغزل جاءت من فترات متعددة.  مثل هذه القصيدة المنسوبة للشاعر العباسي المشهور والمعروف بلقبه الخبزُ أَرزي ونصّها:

بيني وبينك يا ظلوم الموقفُ  الحاكِم العدل الجواد المنصفُ

ولقد خشيت بأن أموت صبابةً أسف عليك وأنت لا تتعطفُ

ما هي قصة الشعر العربي الذي عُثر عليه في وثائق الجنيزا القاهرية؟ وما هي الجنيزا وعلاقتها بيهود مصر؟ كيف وصل الشعر العربي إلى الوثائق اليهودية؟ ما هي أهم الموضوعات الأدبية التي اهتمّ اليهود بحفظها وتخزينها منذ القرن التاسع وحتى فترة الدولة العثمانية في بدايات القرن التاسع عشر؟ لمعرفة المزيد تابعوا حلقات بودكاست الشعر العربي في وثائق الجنيزا