The Cairo Genizah: A Glimpse into the Medieval Interfaith World

Since ancient times, Jews have maintained the practice of keeping a genizah, a holding place where sacred texts that are no longer usable can be kept until they can be burned or buried according to Jewish law. In a stunning archeological discovery, a genizah was found in Cairo, containing over 200,000 manuscript fragments that had been preserved for a thousand years. The Cairo Genizah gives us a window into the past that is unparalleled in human history. While elsewhere, we have descriptions of the lives of kings and the conquests of empires going back to antiquity, no other accounting of the workings of everyday life and society exists until modernity. These documents also included letters between husbands and wives, arrest records, dowry contents, minutes of board meetings, favorite recipes of noted scholars, and documents detailing interfaith symbiosis and cooperation. Together, we explore some texts that show that the work that we’re doing today has origins in the ancient world!