Wasserstein, David J.

English

Apollo (Cambridge)

Fragment of the Month: May 2018Mishnah with Judeo-Arabic Translation: T-S E1.124David J. WassersteinTranslations of the Bible into the vernacular language of the Jews of the Genizahworld, Arabic, are widely known and preserved in hundreds, if not thousands, ofmanuscript copies. Less well-known, and less frequently found, are translationsof important rabbinic texts. T.-S. E1.124 (one page of it pictured below) is part ofthe Mishnaic tractate Kelim, with a translation in Judeo-Arabic interspersed everyfew lines. Jacob N. Epstein published this and another related fragment in 1950.As he pointed out, the translation demonstrates that the Mishnah was beingstudied by people who needed a version in their daily language. The formatreminds us of modern-day Loeb editions of Greek and Latin texts, with Greek orLatin on the left-hand pages facing English versions on the right. Epstein arguedthat the presence here of passages from two tractates, Eduyot and Kelim, showsthat in all likelihood the entire Mishnah was translated in the manuscript fromwhich these pages come.Epstein was not able to give the fragments the full study they demanded“because of the state of emergency” of the Israeli War of Independence raginground him in Jerusalem at the time. He never returned to the subject. Sincethen, however, several more fragments from what seems to be the samemanuscript have turned up in the Genizah, all in Cambridge. They includepassages from Gittin, Sanhedrin, Avodah Zarah and Avot. The spread ofpassages, from six tractates in all, across three of the six orders in the Mishnahprovides additional support for Epstein’s belief that the entire Mishnah wasincluded in this manuscript.These are not the only fragments of Judeo-Arabic versions of Mishnaic tractates,but they all come from a single manuscript and for that reason may have muchmore to tell us than we might learn from isolated fragments of othermanuscripts. On the basis of the pages we have, we can do much to re-constructthe shape and appearance of the original manuscript. We can also compute thatthe entire Mishnah, with its translation, in this single manuscript must have fillednearly 6,000 pages, making for an enormous and, in view of the thickness of thepaper, unwieldy, multi-volume copy of the text.Given the costs of manuscript production, even this fairly elementary study aidmust have been an expensive item. Was it made for an individual or for ayeshiva or a community? Its creation testifies to the interest and devotion tolearning of the Jews at that time, as well as to the generosity of the patron whoprobably paid for it.When and where was the manuscript produced? Epstein assigned it to the tenthor eleventh century, suggesting that it was copied in north Africa or Spain, withwhat looked like a preference for Spain reflecting the magnificence of the GoldenAge. More recently, however, Edna Engel, of the Hebrew Palaeography Project atthe National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, has suggested a later date, and thatin its turn may hint rather at a north African provenance.Epstein also connected the translation in this manuscript with the report, foundin the Sefer ha-Qabbalah of Abraham ibn Daud, that Rabbi Joseph Ibn Abitur“interpreted the whole of the Talmud in Arabic for the Muslim King al-Hakam”(reigned 961-976) in Cordoba. Years ago, I was able to tie that report to aMuslim acquaintance also in Cordoba with the tractate Avot in that same tenthcentury. These testimonies, however, suggest a distinct version, in Arabic, not inJudeo-Arabic. Whether and if so how these two sets of translation, into Judeo-Arabic for a study audience of Jews and into Arabic for a Muslim audience, arerelated needs further investigation.Thanks to Melonie Schmierer-Lee, Curator – Discarded History: The Genizah ofMedieval Cairo and Research Associate at the Genizah Research Unit, whoalerted me to some of the other fragments, I have been able to begin preparingall these fragments for combined publication. I am looking at their possiblecontributions to our knowledge of the Mishnaic text, at the language of thetranslation and at the musical notation that they, like a number of othermedieval, especially Mishnaic, manuscripts, carry. However, I am also interestedin the larger context that called forth this and other manuscripts like it. I hopethat publication of these fragments will make it possible to identify furtherfragments, both from this manuscript and from other such translations incollections of Genizah materials around the world. David J. Wasserstein is professor of history and holds the Eugene Greener, Jr.Chair in Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. If you enjoyed this Fragment of the Month, you can find others here.Contact us: genizah@lib.cam.ac.uk The zoomable images are produced using Cloud Zoom, a jQueryimage zoomplugin:Cloud Zoom, Copyright (c) 2010, R Cecco, www.professorcloud.comLicensed under the MIT License

Mishnah with Judeo-Arabic Translation: T-S E1.124

https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/286745/fragment_of_the_month_may_2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Mishnah with Judeo-Arabic Translation: T-S E1.124

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