A Supplementary List of Judaeo-Persian Manuscripts

A SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF JUDAEO-PERSIAN MANUSCRIPTS

VERA BASCH MOREEN

THE field of Judaeo-Persian studies is still underdeveloped, as most Judaeo-Persian texts continue to lie buried in uncatalogued collections of manuscripts scattered throughout the world. Although their importance was already recognized at the end of the nineteenth century,^ and despite the fact that they constitute one of the largest untapped groups of Jewish vernacular texts in Hebrew characters, Judaeo-Persian texts continue to be little known and studied. Significant numbers of Judaeo-Persian manuscripts can be found in major European libraries, such as the British Library (formerly the British Museum Library), the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the library of the Institute of Oriental Studies and the Russian National Library (formerly the Saltykov-Shchedrin Library), both at St Petersburg. The largest collections are those of the Jewish National and University Library and the library of the Ben Zvi Institute, both in Jerusalem, the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, and the Klau Library of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati. It is also known that many Judaeo-Persian manuscripts are still privately owned in and outside Iran; some of these continue to trickle into the libraries just mentioned.^ The British Library's manuscripts in Judaeo-Persian, or containing some text in this language, acquired from various sources, were first described in several catalogues and studies by G. Margoliouth and others at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Special mention must be made of the Judaeo-Persian fragment, a mercantile document, discovered at the turn of the century by Sir Aurel Stein at Dandan-Uilik, in East Turkestan, in the region of Khotan (Sinkiang). This fragment. Or. MS. 8212, has been the subject of some scholarly attention; dated by D. S. Margoliouth as circa A. D. 718, it is the earliest Judaeo-Persian manuscript in existence. A few more Judaeo-Persian manuscripts were added to the Museum's collection in the first decades of the century, including a very early manuscript. Or. MS. 8659, perhaps from the twelfth century or earlier, acquired in 1920 from the orientalist A. S. Yahuda. Some Judaeo-Persian Genizah fragments. Or. MS. 5557(z), of much later date, were also acquired by the Museum early in the century. The holdings of Judaeo- Persian were considerably enriched in 1925 by the addition of no less than twenty manuscripts from the collection of Moses Gaster. In 1966, the late curator of Hebrew manuscripts, Dr Joseph Rosenwasser, published a short but comprehensive catalogue,

71 jfudaeo-Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, providing brief descriptive notes on torty-five items containing more than seventy-five different texts, previously inaccessible in a single bibliographic tool.^ On a recent visit to the British Library, I had occasion to examine ten manuscripts not described by Rosenwasser, acquired after his time, and to prepare the following supplement to his compilation.* As can be seen, most of these manuscripts are of late date, from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Pride of place among them belongs to Or. MS. 13704, a fine illuminated copy of 'Imranl's epic, Fath-namah, or 'The Book of Conquest'. Formerly a Sassoon manuscript, it is one of the loveliest examples of Judaeo-Persian manuscript illumination. The contents of most of the other manuscripts, some of them donated by the Valmadonna Trust in London, can be found in many other copies. It may be noted that two of the manuscripts. Or. MSS. 13189 and i4595> are on blue and greenish paper, respectively, such as is often to be encountered in Judaeo-Persian manuscripts, especially from Bukhara.^ It remains only to mention two other British Library manuscripts, not listed below, to which attention has otherwise not yet been drawn in the context of Judaeo-Persian.^ The first is a Hebrew manuscript in which a single Judaeo-Persian gloss has been identified: the famous manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, perhaps the most ancient of the early codices. Or. MS. 4445. Although the manuscript itself is said to be of the early tenth century, the gloss in Judaeo-Persian, written in the space between Exodus 7:22 and 8:1, is in a later hand.^ The second item, not related directly to the subject of Judaeo-Persian, but of some marginal interest on account of its script, is a leather fragment containing Pahlavi text in Aramaic characters. Or. MS. 8115. It is the only Pahlavi text in Aramaic script preserved in the collections of the British Library.^

SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF JUDAEO-PERSIAN MSS. •0- Or. 13189 Ma'asiyot ['tales'] in Judaeo-Persian prose.^ The manuscript is imperfect, lacking the beginning, and many pages are stained and damaged. Blue paper. Probably XlXth century. 209 f. 17.4 x 10.3 cm. Or. 13190 A section of the fourteenth-century epic by Shahm of ShTraz, based on the Pentateuch.^** Containing the story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar, this section is based on the weekly reading [parashah]' Va-yeshev\ and can often be found copied separately in Judaeo-Persian manuscripts" bearing the title Yilsuf 0 Zulaykhd, the title of Muslim epics on this theme.^^ (Cf Rosenwasser, Or. 10773.) Colophon on f io8r: copied by Babaib. ha-MuUa Rahamim...LarI,^^ on 7 Tevet 5672 [1912].^'* io8 f 21 x 17cm. Or. 13191 (i) Shdhzddah 0 5«/r['The Prince and the Mystic'], by Elisha b. Samuel (nom de plume 'Raghib'), written in the second half of the seventeenth century. This work is based on Abraham b. Hasdai's Ben ha-melekh ve-ha- nazir, a thirteenth-century Hebrew version of the Barlaam and Josaphat 72 (ff. ir-6iv). (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. MSS. 4731, 4732, 4744, 10196, 10711.) Imperfect. (2) An incomplete text of Hikdyat-i an seh Yahudiydn-i tdjir ['The story of Solomon and the Three Merchants']^^ (ff. 62r-62v). (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. MSS. 4731, 4744, 10196, 10711). Embossed leather binding with clasps. Probably late XVIIIth or early XlXth century. 62 f. 21 X 17.4 cm. Or. 13704 Fath-ndmah ['The Book of Conquest'] by the Judaeo-Persian poet 'ImranT (d. after 1536), a poetic rendering of the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, . Samuel I and part of Samuel IL One of the most beautiful illuminated Judaeo-Persian manuscripts known, it contains seven large illuminated pages and numerous smaller page designs. Fine calligraphy throughout; the hands of several copyists are discernible. Ff. 145V, i46r, 159V list names of various owners. There is no colophon, but the owner on f. 159V notes that he received the manuscript on i Nisan 5499, corresponding to 9 March 1739. (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. MSS. 2453, 4731, 10774.) First two leaves badly damaged; restored and bound by the British Library. [Isfahan], probably from the end of the XVIIth or beginning of the XVIIIth century. 334 f. 28.8 X 20 cm. (see plate II). This manuscript was acquired by the British Library from the Sassoon collection, at the Sotheby's sale in Zurich, November 1975. See D. S. Sassoon, Ohel David (Ohel Dawid): Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London (Oxford, 1932), vol. i, pp. 473-6, no. 614 [Kitab Shahin]; the catalogue of the Sotheby's sale prepared by Ch. Abramsky, Catalogue of Thirty-eight Highly Important Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts from the collection formed by the late David Solomon Sassoon (Zurich, 1975), lot no. 34; [David Goldstein], Hebrew Manuscripts from the Sassoon Collection [British Library exhibition notes] (London, 1982), no. 8 (with reproduction off. 31V). The manuscript and its illuminations are discussed in V. B. Moreen, Miniature Paintings in Judaeo-Persian Manuscripts (Cincinnati, 1985), pp. 49-50;-^' see also M. I. Waley, Supplementary Catalogue of Persian Miniatures (in preparation). Or. 13872 (i) Sefer ha-Agron by Moses b. Aaron b. She'erith of Shirwan, a Hebrew- Persian dictionary covering the Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary of the Bible, compiled in 1459^^ (ff. 1-269V). (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. 10482, which may be an autograph.) Colophon on f. 269V: copied by Samuel b. Isaac b. Nisan b. Abraham b. Joseph at Merv (Central Asia) in 1784 according to the Seleucid date [A. D. 1473]. (2) Miscellaneous fragments of Hebrew texts (ff. 269V-272V). 272 f. (missing one leaf after f. 266). 17 x 13 cm. This manuscript was acquired by the British Library from the Sassoon collection, at the Sotheby's sale in Zurich, November 1978. See D. S. Sassoon, Ohel David, vol. i, p. 500, no. 710; the catalogue of the Sotheby's 73 sale prepared by Ch. Abramsky, Catalogue of [A Further] Thirty-three Highly Important Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts from the collection formed by the late David Solomon Sassoon (Zurich, 1978), lot no. 30; and [David Goldstein], Hebrew Manuscripts from the Sassoon Collection [exhibition notes], no. 16. 13913 (i) Alfa Beta de-Ben Sira ['The Alphabet of Ben Sira'] in Judaeo-Persian prose (ff. ir-2ov). (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. 4731.) Imperfect at beginning but complete at end. Colophon on f. 2ov: copied by Jacob Kohen Sa*ir Joseph...on Friday, 23 Tevet 5649 [1889]. (2) Parashat ' Va-yeshev' by Shahin of Shiraz (ff. 2ir-94r). (Cf Or. 13190, above.) In the same hand as the previous text in this manuscript. Colophon indicates 1889 as the year of the copy. (3) Shdhzddah 0 Suflhy Elisha b. Samuel (ff. 96r~i68v). (Cf Or. 13191, above.) In excellent condition up to f 164V; ff. i65r-i68v damaged but still legible, restored. Colophon on f i68v: copied by Jacob b. Mulla Bakhshi Sa'ir Joseph for Babai b. ha-MuUa Imam LarT, on Tuesday, in the month of Sivan 5648 [1888]. (3^) An owner's statement {}), or a colophon (?), beginning 'Kitab Rahamim Hayim Shim*on', and dated 1892; seemingly misbound (?), possibly prior to acquisition of the manuscript by the British Library.^** (4) Kitab Haidar Beg (ff. I7ir-i9ov). Imperfect at end. Copied by Rahamim Jacob Kohen, possibly in Allahabad, in 1888-9. 168 f. (ff. 95r-95v blank). 19 x 15 cm. Or. 13914 (i) Mundjdt-ndmah Jumjumah ['Book of Devotions', on Jumjumah], i.e. the story of Jumjumah in Judaeo-Persian verse^^ (ff. ir-9v). (2) Mundjdt-ndmah Musah ['Book of Devotions', on Moses], in Judaeo-Persian verse by 'Attar"^ (ff. 9v-i5r). (3) Tafstr in Judaeo-Persian of verse beginning ''Dodi yarad [le-ganoY (ff. I5v-24r). Colophon on f 24r: copied by Rahamim Jacob on 25 Adar 5661 [1901]. (4) Text in Malay {}) in Hebrew diaracters (f 24V). (5) Continuation of tafstr that began on f 15V (ff. 25r-28r). (6) Wedding poems in Judaeo-Persian (ff. 29v-32v).^^ Copyist: Rahamim Jacob Kohen. (7) Persian-Malay vocabulary (list of numbers: satu, du'ah, tigah, hampah, nimah, etc.) in Hebrew characters (ff, 33r-48r). This is the only known text in Malay in Hebrew characters.^^ On f 39V, in English: 'Rahamim Yacoob Cohen Esqr. Finish Dressing. Closed all Sterday [sic]. Address Near Peer Mussa Miyasaheb's House No. 3189, Ahmedabad'. On f. 4or a shopkeeper's advertisement for tailoring and women's hat-making in Gujarati, and at bottom of the leaf the two words Tstrt topt {y^ovatTih hat) in Gujarati in Hebrew characters.^^ It must be said that this manuscript is a remarkable linguistic melange, containing text in five languages and in three scripts, including Judaeo-Persian, Malay in Hebrew characters, Hebrew, English, and Gujarati. ^^ 48 f. Very small bloc-notes format, 13.9 X 8.4 cm.

74 h^'iTsjjirV

l^af fi-nm -Arahir Finlnlat nl-H/V PLATE II

Scene of Joshua, on a white horse, fighting before the walls of Jericho, from the Judaeo-Persian epic by 'ImranT, Fath-ndmah, copied circa 1700. Or. MS. 13704, f. Or. 14594 (i) Hebrew poem by Moses b. Isaac, beginning *'Masveh natan ^al panav ...^^ (ff. 4r-ior). (2) Bakashah (poem) with alternating Hebrew and Judaeo- Persian strophes (ff. 11V-25V). (3) A bakashah in Hebrew (ff. 26r-37v). (4) A piyyut in Aramaic (ff. 38r-39v). (5) Bakashot in Hebrew (ff. 4ov-5or). (6) Judaeo-Persian poems by Joseph b. Siman Zarganl^^ (ff. 5iv-7or). (7) Kitab-i Antiokhus ['The Book of Antiochus']. Apparently a copy of" the Judaeo-Persian version of the Hasmonean story, better known as Antiokhus- namah, by the eighteenth-century poet Joseph b. Isaac b. Musa^^ (ff. 77v-ii5r). (8) Piyyut in honour of Purim in alternating Hebrew and Judaeo-Persian strophes (ff. i i6r-i32r). Colophon on f. i32r pertains to the last two items: copied by Raphael Melamed ha-Kohen for Elijah b. ha- Mulla 'Usa [.>], on 22 Nisan 5663 [1903]. 132 f (ff. ir-3v, iov-iir, 4or, 5ov-5ir, and -joy-j^v all blanks). Very small bloc-notes format, 8.9 x 11 cm. Or. 14595 (i) Zemirot (poems/songs) of Israel Najara(?)^^ in Judaeo-Persian (ff. ir-2v). (2) Tafstr (translation/commentary) of Solomon Ibn Gabirol's azharah, 'Shemor libi...'^^ (ff. 2v-iiv). (3) Tafsir-i azharot by Benjamin b. Misha'el (nom de plume AmTna), a Judaeo-Persian translation/commentary based on Solomon Ibn Gabirol's azharah, 'Shemor libi...' (ff. I2v-i5r). Calligraphy changes on f 13V. (4) ' Re shut azharot' of R. David b. Eleazar Bakudah, a poem in Hebrew; Azharot of Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Hebrew strophes alternating with Judaeo-Persian (ff. i5r-25v). 'Mitsvot 'aseh' (f. 26r), and 'Tafsir-i mitsvot lo ta'aseh'^'^ (ff. 26v-4rv). (Cf Rosenwasser, Or. 4729.) Imperfect, damaged at end, and lacking colophon. Greenish paper. XVIIIth or XlXth century. 41 f 17.4 x 13 cm. Or. 14596 (i) Tafsir, in Judaeo-Persian prose, of anonymous authorship, of ''Dodi yarad le-gano\ a mystical messianic dialogue between God and Israel based on the Song of Songs (ff. ir-ior). (Cf Or. 13914, above.) (2) Two Judaeo- Persian quatrains (unclear whether original, or Judaeo-Persian copies of Persian quatrains), of unknown authorship (f ior). (3) Tafsir oVYigdaV (ff. iov-riv). (4) Judaeo-Persian translation of a poem, from Zemirot Yisra'el by Israel Najara (ff. iiv-i2r). (5) Mundjdt-ndmah ['Book of Prayers'], containing a famous mukhammas by Amlna^^ (ff. I2r-i8r). (6) Another Mundjdt-ndmah in Judaeo-Persian (of unknown authorship?) (ff. i8r-2ir). (7) More poems from Zemirot Yisra'*el by Israel Najara, some in Judaeo- Persian and some in Hebrew (ff. 2iv-26v). (8) Judaeo-Persian poems of 'Tufayl' (?) with messianic themes. Very damaged at the edges; incomplete (ff. 26V-29V). XVIIIth or early XlXth century. 29 f Bloc-notes format, 10 X 15 cm.

, Persische Studien, Abhand- isch-persisches Worterbuch aus dem 15. Jahr- lungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, xxxi, hundert', Zeitschrift fur die alt testament lie he (Gottingen, 1884); Wilhelm Bacher, 'Ein hebra- Wissenschaft, xvi (1896), pp. 201-47, xvii (1897), 75 pp. 199-203, and his numerous subsequent Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, oif- pubhcations on the subject; and the pioneering printed (with additional indexes of persons and bibliographic survey by the English bibliophile titles) from G. M. Meredith-Owens, Handlist of E. N. Adler, Ginze Paras u-Madai: The Persian Persian Manuscripts, i8g5-ig66 (London, 1968), Jews, Their Liturgy and Ritual (London, 1899 pp. 38-44; and A. Netzer, Otsar kitve ha-yad [offprinted from Jewish Quarterly Review, \]), shel yehude paras be-makhon Ben Tsevi [Manu- reflecting the contents of Adler's private col- scripts of the Jews of Persia in the Ben Zvi lection, which passed to the library of the Jewish Institute] Jerusalem, 1985). (In the present Theological Seminary, New York. supplementary list that follows here, these The body of research on Judaeo-Persian three standard catalogues are cited as Spice- language and literature has grown considerably handler, Rosenwasser, and Netzer.) Dr E. Wust in this century. For general surveys and biblio- is currently preparing a catalogue of the graphies, see W. Bacher's entries on 'Judaeo- Judaeo-Persian manuscripts held in the JNUL Persian' and 'Judaeo-Persian Literature' in The itself, and the present writer has been engaged Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. vii (New York and to catalogue those housed at the library of London, 1904), pp. 313-24 (based in large part the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. on the Adler collection), and more recently The core of this latter collection, to which W. J. Fischel,' Israel in Iran (A Survey of Judeo- other manuscripts have been added over the Persian Literature)', in L. Finkelstein (ed.). The years, consists of those purchased by E. N. Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion (New Adler; see Adler's Catalogue of Hebrew Manu- York, 1949), pp. 1149-90; idem, 'Judeo-Persian scripts in the Collection of Elk an Nathan Adler Literature', Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. x (Jeru- (Cambridge, 1921), as well as his earlier Ginze salem, 1972), cols. 432-9 (the bibliography lists, Paras. inter alia, catalogues recording Judaeo-Persian 3 Eight manuscripts containing Judaeo-Persian manuscripts); and idem, 'Judaeo-Persian- text, acquired from the antiquarian Shapira, Literature', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. iv were first listed briefly by H. Derenbourg in (1974), pp. 308-13. A classified bibliography of 'Les Manuscrits judaiques entres au British secondary literature on Judaeo-Persian remains a Museum de 1867 a 1890 [nos. Or. 11 to Or. desideratum. 4117]', Revue des e'tudes juives, xxiii (Paris, 1891), 2 There is still no detailed union catalogue of pp. 279-80 (Judaeo-Persian MSS. Or. 2451- Judaeo-Persian manuscripts. Manuscripts in this 2456, 2459—2460). These manuscripts were also language have usually been recorded together included in the catalogue by G. Margoliouth, with Hebrew manuscripts in the catalogues of Descriptive List of the Hebrew and Samaritan Hebrew libraries or collections, and are often Manuscripts in the British Museum "fLondon, found scattered, sometimes virtually hidden, 1893), pp. II, 21, 42, 69, 72, and 85. A further within these catalogues. There is, however, a eight manuscripts acquired from S. A. J. separate section on 'Judaeo-Persian', bringing Churchill, a diplomat in Teheran, were de- together brief records for manuscripts in this scribed by the same Margoliouth in 'Persian language held in libraries around the world, in Hebrew Manuscripts in the British Museum', the Collective Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts Jewish Quarterly Review, vii (1894/5), pp. (Paris, 1989, on microfiche). The Collective 119-20 (Or. MSS. 4729-4732 and 4742-4745). Catalogue records the extensive, if still incom- Two of these. Or. 4743 and Or. 4745, being plete, holdings of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew-character transcriptions of Muslim Hebrew Manuscripts at the Jewish National and works, were included by C. Rieu in his University Library (JNUL), Jerusalem. Supplement to the Catalogue of the Persian The most important recent single-library Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, catalogues of Judaeo-Persian manuscripts per se 1895; reprinted 1977), p. 156, no. 230, and pp. are those by E. Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive 179-80, no. 272 (cf also the preface, p. vi). One List of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts at the Klau of the Churchill manuscripts. Or. 4742, and a Library of the Hebrew Union College', Studies later acquisition. Or. 5446, were described in in Bibliography and Booklore, viii (Cincinnati, some detail by M. Seligsohn in the first 1968), pp. 114-36; J. Rosenwasser, Judaeo- instalment of his 'The Hebrew Persian Manu- scripts of the British Museum', J^BJI^A Quarterly The manuscript acquired from A. S. Yahuda, Review, xv (1903), pp. 278-301. Or. 8659 (not recorded in Margoliouth-Leveen) On the ancient fragment Or. 8212, see D. S. - it is one of the earliest Judaeo-Persian manu- Margoliouth, 'An Early Judaeo-Persian Docu- scripts, apparently older than Or. 5446, the ment from Khotan, in the Stein Collection, with Pentateuch translation dated A.D. 1319-has other early Persian Documents', with an in- been edited and studied by D. N. MacKenzie, troductory note by M. A. Stein, and communi- 'An Early Jewish-Persian Argument', Bulletin of' cations from W. Bacher, A. E. Cowley, and J. the School of Oriental and African Studies, xxxi Wiesner, iu Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1968), pp. 249-69; see also J. P. Asmussen, (1903), pp. 735~6o; K. Salemann, 'Po povodu Jewish-Persian Texts: Introduction, Selection, and yevreisko-persidskago otrivka iz Khotana', Glossary (Wiesbaden, 1968), pp. 6-7 (also Zapiski vostochnago otdeleniia, xvi (St Petersburg, providing specimens and notes on two other 1904-5), pp. 046-057; M. A. Stein, 'A Judaeo- British Library manuscripts. Or. 4742 and Or. Persian Document', in his Ancient Khotan: 8695)- Detailed Report of Archaeological Explorations in The Gaster manuscripts were described in Ghinese Turkestan (Oxford, 1907), vol. i, pp. Gaster's own handlist (nos. 69, 75, 77, 94, 306-9, and in the same volume a reprint of 774-82, 936-7, 1081-2, 1084, and 1281), and in Margoliouth's article, here entitled ' The Judaeo- the typescript catalogue of the British Library's Persian Document from Dandan-Uilik', pp. Gaster Collection prepared by N. Allony and 570-4, and a facsimile of the fragment in vol. ii, D. S. Loewinger for the Institute of Microfilmed plate cxix; B. Utas, 'The Jewish-Persian Frag- Hebrew Manuscripts, Reshimat tatslume kitve ment from Dandan-Uilik \ Orientalia Suecana, ha-yad ha-ivriyim be-makhon: K.h.y. be-sifriyat xvii (1968), pp. 123-6 (with reference also to ha-Muzey'um ha-briti, osef Gaster Jerusalem, further publications by W. B. Henning and M. i960) (see under 'Judaeo-Persian' in the 'Index Kashgari); and most recently G. Lazard, 'Rem- of Languages'). All of the Judaeo-Persian arques sur le fragment judeo-persan de Dandan- manuscripts in the British Library (formerly Uiliq', Acta Iranica, xxviii (Leiden, 1988), pp. British Museum) are recorded in the Institute's 205-9. D- S. Margoliouth's dating of A.D. 7r8 is Gollective Gatalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts no longer accepted, but it is agreed that the (Paris, 1989), in various sequences ('London, fragment is eighth-century. A reproduction of Gaster Collection', 'Judaeo-Persian', etc). the fragment also appears in the Encyclopaedia RosenwusseT's Judaeo-Persian Manuscripts in the Judaica (Jerusalem, 1972), vol. xi, col. 905. British Museum is the most concise guide to all of All of the Judaeo-Persian manuscripts these manuscripts, including those in the Gaster acquired by the British Museum during the first collection, up to Or. MS. 12191. third of the present century, with the exception 4 I am indebted to Brad Sabin Hill for bringing of those in the Gaster Collection, were described these manuscripts to my attention and for his in much greater detail by G. Margoliouth in the assistance in the redaction of this article, and to Gatalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manu- Mrs Devora Coutts for kindly providing dimen- scripts in the British Museum (London, 1899- sions of these manuscripts for inclusion in the 1935; reprinted 1965-77), with indexes and supplementary list. 'Supplementary List of Manuscripts' by J. 5 Cf. the colour reproductions of very similar Leveen in vol. iv, esp. pp. 119-20 under tinted papers of Judaeo-Persian manuscripts 'Liturgy: Yemenite and Persian Rites', and p. held in the National Library of Canada, in B. S. 133 under 'Poetry: Persian (in the Hebrew Hill, Incunabula, Hebraica & Judaica (Ottawa, character)'; see Leveen's introduction in the 1981), p. 135, nos. 130 and 150. same volume, p. ix, and supplementary nos. Or. 6 [EDITOR'S NOTE: One should also mention here 8695 and Or. 9804. On the palaeography of four two manuscripts once thought to contain Judaeo- of the Judaeo-Persian manuscripts, with fac- Persian, which have been excluded from the lists simile plates, see the two volumes of of Judaeo-Persian manuscripts. Or. 10254 S. Birnbaum, The Hebrew Scripts (London and (Codex Gaster no. 1400), incorrectly identified Leiden, 1954-71), nos. 208 (Add. 7701), 211 by Allony and Loewinger (op. cit., no. 345, and (Or. 8212), 212 (Or. 5446), and 214 (Or. 4729). in the 'Index of Languages') as Judaeo-Persian,

77 is entirely in Hebrew. Or. 12352 (Codex Gaster 'Cardenal Cisneros' de la Biblia Poliglota Matri- no. 388), comprised of pizmonim or piyutim by tense, Iv], pp. 49-50. Margoliouth, vol. i, p. 39, *Asahel bar Hanukah of Daghestan, includes on had already remarked that the owner's note in ff. 7r-7v a bilmgual hymn with strophes alternat- Judaeo-Persian on f. i86v is no longer legible. ing between Hebrew and a vernacular in Hebrew 8 On this fragment, see A. Cowley, *The Pahlavi characters. Although Allony and Loewinger (op. document from k\xom^n\ Journal of the Royal cit., no. 1070, and in the 'Index of Languages') Asiatic Society (1919), pp. 147-54, ^^^ also Le describe the language as 'perhaps Persian(?)' or Monde oriental, xvii (1923), p. 182. The papyrus 'Dagestani' [sic], it has been correctly identified collection of the British Museum also holds a few as a Turkic dialect close to Azeri; the first Pahlavi fragments in Aramaic script. On the vernacular strophe reads: 'gelun gidakh t daklar Pahlavi script, deriving from the official Aramaic usde goz alakh i yollar usde belki gele David bize of the Achaemenian empire, see D. N. Mac- belki gele Farnas bize.' The manuscript (iof, Kenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary (London, 22.6 X 18.6 cm.) was probably copied in the 1971), pp. x-xii. eighteenth century somewhere in the Caucasus. 9 Individual and collected tales are common in Cf. Meredith-Owens's typescript. Temporary Judaeo-Persian manuscript collections. See, for Handlist of Turkish MSS. i888~igs8, p. 46 (a example, Netzer, Otsar, index, under sipurim u- single entry under 'Judaeo-Turkish', listing this ma'asiyot, and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive manuscript). There are a few other instances of List', index, under Sefer ma'asiyot. Judaeo-Turkic texts, or Turkish in Hebrew 10 This epic is frequently referred to as Sefer characters, among the Hebrew manuscripts in Sharh-i Shahtn 'at ha-Torah ['The Book of the British Library; see for example Margo- Shahin's commentaries on the Torah'], a title liouth, vol. iii, p. 367, no. 1037 (describing Add. bestowed upon it by Simon Hakham, who i5455i containing two short pieces on the plague prepared an uncritical edition of the work in Turkish, and a Hebrew-Turkish vocabulary). published in Jerusalem, 1902-5. In this context, one may call attention to one 11 Cf. Netzer, Otsar, index, under Yusuf ve- other British Library manuscript in an Islamic Zulaykhd, and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive language, Urdu - a language very influenced by List', index, under Shdhln. Persian - likewise written in Hebrew characters. 12 The most famous Muslim treatment of this This is Or. 13287, fully illustrated in Indian subject is that of the Persian poet 'Abd-ur- style, containing the text of the popular nine- Rahman Jam! (d. 1492). teenth-century drama by Agha Hasan Amanat 13 Intimating that either he or his family came from known as Indra Sabha ('The Court of Indra'). the city of Lar, one of the major centres for the The entire manuscript is in Urdu (written in copying and transmission of JudaeO-Persian Hebrew characters), except for the abbreviated manuscripts; see Fischel, 'Israel in Iran', p. Hebrew invocation, and the colophon in Judaeo- Arabic indicating its completion in Calcutta in II59- 1887. (A Hebrew-character lithograph of the 14 I am indebted to Gilad Gevaryahu's help for the Urdu drama, printed in Calcutta in 1880, has accurate reading of the dates in this and survived in two incomplete copies, one held in subsequent colophons. the Sassoon collection, Jerusalem, and the other 15 Cf. the edition by A. M. Habermann, Ben ha- in the Valmadonna Trust, London.) melekh ve-ha-nazir (Tel Aviv, 1950). There are numerous copies of this epic in all Judaeo- A unique instance of another Islamic langu- Persian manuscript collections; see Netzer, age, Malay, written in Hebrew characters, is Otsar, index, under Shdhzddah 0 Sufi, and described in the supplementary list of Judaeo- Spicehandler,' A Descriptive List', index, under Persian manuscripts, under Or. 13914.] Shd[h]zdda Sufi [sic]. 7 On this gloss, see now A. Dotan, 'Reflections 16 Explicitly written in the metre of Firdausl's (d. towards a critical edition of Pentateuch Codex c. 1020-5) Shdh-ndmah, the national epic of Iran. Or. 4445', in E. Fernandez Tejero and M. T. This popular tale can be found in numerous Ortega Monasterio (eds.), Estudios Masoreticos: Judaeo-Persian manuscripts. X Congreso de la lOMS [en Memoria de Harry 17 Since the publication of this book another M. Orlinsky] (Madrid, 1993) [Textos y estudios illuminated Fath-ndmah was found at the Ben Zvi Institute, Jerusalem (see Netzer, Otsar, Studies in Judeo-Persian Literature (Leiden, p. 175, MS. no. 4602, and plates 3-12), 1973), PP- 76-87. which seems to date from the seventeenth 22 This munajdt genre, comparable to the Hebrew century, and appears to be the iconographic bakashah, is frequently used by Persian and precursor of Or. 13704. There exist quite a few Judaeo-Persian authors. Cf. Netzer, Otsar, copies of Fath-ndmah; see Netzer, Otsar, and p. 185, MSS. under bet 50, and Spicehandler, Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive List', index, under 'A Descriptive List', index, under Munajdt- Fath-ndmah. ndmah. 18 See Bacher's articles, cited in n. i. According to 23 Several such poems are in Spicehandler, 'A Sassoon (then followed by Goldstein) the lexical Descriptive List', e.g. p. 127, MS. 2171. work contained in this manuscript is to be 24 This unique manuscript, described as 'Malay ascribed to Solomon b. Samuel of Urgenj vocabulary in Hebrew characters', has also been (Central Asia), manuscripts of whose fourteenth- filmed in the series of Microfilms of Alalay century Sefer ha-melitsah are also held in the Manuscripts from The British Library, Oriental Firkovich and Adler collections. On these two and India Office Collections, presented by the lexicographical works, the Agron and the Sefer British Council, Brunei Darussalam, 1992, film ha-melitsah, see Bacher, 'Judaeo-Persian Litera- no. 0/C Pos. 310/A. ture' in The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. vii (1904), 25 I am indebted to Mrs Dipali Ghosh for her p. 319; Fischel, 'Judisch-Persisch-Literatur', assistance in reading the text on this leaf. in Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. ix (Berlin, 1932), 26 As such it reflects the very cosmopolitan cols. 562-3; and idem, 'Israel in Iran', p. 1160. experience of Jewish merchants in South-East On Solomon b. Samuel, see Fischel's entry in Asia at the turn of this century. On Jews in Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1972), vol. xv, Malay-speaking territory, see E. Nathan, The col. 125. History of the Jews in Singapore, i8jo-ig45 19 See Netzer, Otsar, index, under Ben Sir a, (Singapore, 1986), and the review by D. Lom- and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive List', index, bard, with further references, in Archipel, xxxviii under Alfa Beta de-Ben Sira. See also Jes P. (Paris, 1989), pp. 143-4. Asmussen, 'Eine judisch-persische Ubersetzung 27 See other copies of the poem listed in Netzer, des Ben Sira-Alphabets', in J. Bergman et al. Otsar, MS. 1023, ff. 9r-iov; MS. 1049, ff. (eds.), Ex orbe religionum: Studia Geo Widengren 42v-45r; MS. 4550, ff. r2v-i4v; and MS. 4592, ...oblata (Leiden, 1972), vol. i, pp. 144-55. ^^ ff. ir—4r. Or. 4731, see A. E. Cowley and A. Neubauer, 28 For more poems by this poet, see Netzer, Otsar, The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus Index of Poets, p. 214, and Spicehandler, 'A {xxxix. 15-xUx. Il) (Oxford, 1897), pp. xv and Descriptive List', p. 124, MS. 2153. xxix. 29 See Netzer, Otsar, MS. 967, ff. ir-i07v; MS. 20 Most curiously, it is followed on f. 170V by a 994, ff. 52v-95r; MS. 1003, ff. 7ir-98v; and 'colour transfer' of a North American Indian Spicehandler,' A Descriptive List', index, under chief in full head-dress (!); this leaf may, too, 'Joseph b. Isaac b. Musa'. have come from the beginning or end of (part of) 30 Najara's poems were particularly loved by the volume. Iranian Jewry. All manuscript collections 21 This is another tale frequently found in Judaeo- abound in Hebrew texts of the poems and Persian manuscripts and is to be attributed, Judaeo-Persian translations/commentaries. It according to Jes P. Asmussen, to the great may well be that these manuscripts contain Persian poet Farldudin *At:tar (d. 1220). See hitherto unknown poems by Najara. See Netzer, Netzer, Otsar, p. 194, manuscript listed under Otsar, and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive List', nun 3, and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive List', index, under ' Najara \ index, under [Hikdyat-i] Sultdn Jumjume. A 31 This is a much loved poem among Iranian Jews; short fragment of the tale is transliterated by cf. the numerous manuscripts of it listed in Asmussen in his Jewish-Persian Texts (Wies- Netzer, Otsar, p. 213, shin, 20. baden, 1968), pp. 27-8. He translates the entire 32 Cf Netzer, Otsar, p. 201, alef 49. text, basing his translations on manuscripts 33 Cf. above, n. 22. Some of the best Judaeo- additional to those mentioned above, in his Persian poets, such as 'ImranT and Benjamin b.

79 Misha'el('Amm5')(d. mid-eighteenth century) yahudiydn-i Iran ['An Anthology of Persian have written similar books of devotion. See A. Poetry of the Jews of Iran'] (Tehran, 1973). PP- Netzer, Montahhab-i ash'dr-i fdrisf az dsdr-i 44 and 50, and also his Otsar, p. 32.