The Cairo Genizah is a most fertile resource for historical Jewish studies in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean. Through its religious materials, the Genizah is invaluable to the study of, for example, the Bible, Talmud and Midrash and, with its wealth of documents, it is the most abundant documentary source for medieval Middle Eastern history. An area that has hitherto received extremely little attention is the Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic written in Hebrew characters) literature, especially poetry, contained in the Genizah. Holding fragmentary works and numerous pieces of otherwise lost Arabic literary texts, the Cairo Genizah should be considered a plentiful source for the study of Arabic literature. This presentation aims to shed light on the importance of the study of Arabic literature in the Cairo Genizah. To give a practical example, the presentation focuses on the recently identified Genizah fragment, T-S Ar.6.32, which preserves text from the story of ʾIlāḏ, Balāḏ and Iirāḵt, story nine in the Arabic Kalila wa-Dimna.

Dr Mohamed A. H. Ahmed is Associate Professor in Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies & Al Maktoum Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, at the Trinity College Dublin. He is also the Principal Investigator for the European Research Council-funded project ‘Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah’ (2020–25). Dr Mohamed studied Semitic languages and Modern Hebrew languages and literature at Mansoura University, Egypt, where he graduated with a Master's degree in Modern Hebrew Studies in 2010. He then went on to complete a DAAD funded PhD at Leipzig University, Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Germany, in 2015. His dissertation focused on Arabic use in nine Hebrew novels written between the 1950s and 2010s by three Iraqi Jewish authors.
Mohamed's research interests lie in the areas of Arabic poetry, Judaeo-Arabic, bilingualism, the typology of written code-switching, code-switching in Modern Hebrew and medieval Judaeo-Arabic texts and sociolinguistic variation between Arabic and Hebrew.

The AnonymClassic research colloquium is being held ‘hybrid’ in the winter term of 2021/2022. Sessions are both in held in person and remotely accessible for students and guests.

Team, students and guests meet virtually every Thursday from 12:15 to 1:45 pm (CET).

The winter term promotes a number of international guest speakers in alternation with close reading sessions on manuscript editing and presentations of the team’s research topics. Discussion of methodological approaches and digital humanities issues remain key interests of the AnonymClassic research colloquium.

Colleagues, visiting scholars, and students (Arabic studies or related disciplines) are cordially invited to participate. We especially welcome researchers based elsewhere than Freie Universität Berlin to join us for any one (or more) sessions. Please just send a quick note anonymclassic@geschkult.fu-berlin.de for registration and to get the relevant information such as the link to our Cisco WebEx meeting.

About options of students’ credits and registration in blackboard, please see here and contact the relevant academic advisor of your study program. 

N.B: Presentations may be recorded, please notify our technical host ahead of sessions in case you object to your image and/or contributions to be archived.