A Glimpse into Egyptian/Syrian Elite Book Culture During the Seventh/Thirteenth Century: Booklist T-S Misc. 24.28 from the Cairo Geniza Corpus

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the fragment of an Arabic-script book list with a Cairo Geniza provenance that includes 33 identifiable titles. On the basis of the list’s provenance, its organization, and its content, we argue that it was part of a larger Cairene library catalogue dating to the seventh/thirteenth century. All titles in this catalogue refer to Arabic poetry ranging from pre-Islamic jāhilīʾ poets to poets living in the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century. A comparison with the poetry section of the Damascene Ashrafīya Library from the same period shows a distinct overlap in terms of titles and textual format. We thus suggest that this Cairene catalogue should not primarily be seen as witness of a “Jewish” library but rather as part of Egyptian/Syrian Arabic elite book culture that cut across religious communities. While it is likely that this shared book culture went beyond Egypt and Syria and encompassed wider regions in North Africa and West Asia, further comparative material is needed to substantiate this assumption.