Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah

Project Information

APCG

Grant agreement ID: 851411

DOI

10.3030/851411

Project closed

EC signature date 3 December 2019

Start date 1 July 2020

End date 30 June 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 456 246,00

EU contribution

€ 1 456 246,00

Coordinated by

THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - APCG (Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah)

Reporting period: 2023-07-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Poetry enjoys a special place in Arabic culture and literature. For centuries, Arabs of all faiths have been considering poetry a key source for knowledge, intellectuality and wisdom. In the pre-Islamic era, poetry was considered as ‘the Arab knowledge’ and ‘the Arab cultural archive’, in which the social and cultural history, language, arts, music, religious and Arab’s human experience were stored and preserved. Being a part of Arabic culture, Jews of Arab lands equally enjoyed writing and reading poetry. APCG will investigate for the first time a hitherto neglected collection of Arabic poetry fragments written in Hebrew script (in Judaeo-Arabic), which has been preserved in a synagogue in old Cairo. The APCG investigates a neglected collection of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic fragments held at arguably the most important Jewish treasure trove: the Cairo Genizah. The fragments, numbered in the hundreds, constitute a unique source for understanding mediaeval and Early Modern Egypt from three main perspectives: Arabic studies, Jewish social and cultural studies, and anthropological studies.

The core aims of the project are:
• to make the entirety of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the Cairo Genizah accessible to both academic scholars and to the public in a comprehensive database and in critical editions;
• to reveal, through the study of poetry, hitherto hidden aspects of social and cultural history of the Jews in the Middle East with regard to literacy, education and intercommunal relations;
• to explore hierarchies, interpersonal relationships and the social function of poetry in medieval and early modern Egypt through the study of Genizah poetry.

To achieve the planned main objectives, APCG carries out a thorough interdisciplinary study of Genizah’s Arabic poetry. This approach involves research from philological, linguistic, literary, historical and anthropological perspectives.

The importance of Genizah sources for Arabic studies is now increasingly appreciated by scholars, and the investigation of Arabic poetry fragments will reveal most illuminating examples of Arabic literature, including Abbasid, Fatimid and Ottoman Arabic poetry preserved in the Collections. The APCG will add a further milestone in the discovery of the Cairo Genizah as an equally important source to Arabic and Islamic studies. The groundbreaking APCG investigates a neglected collection of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic fragments held within arguably the most important Jewish treasure trove: the Cairo Genizah. The innovative approach of this project is to investigate Arabic poetry fragments beyond the traditional methodology through a variety of interdisciplinary avenues of investigation, such as philological, linguistic, literary, historical and anthropological perspectives.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Within the first 18 months of the project, we accomplished several objectives in our dissemination plan, these include: The design and launch of the APCG website ( www.apcairogenizah.com); Creating a social media presence; Establishing a research page on the Trinity College Dublin website (www.tcd.ie/nmes/research/apcg); and a mailing list.

In the second 18 months of the project, Over 250 poetry fragments have been meticulously identified, categorized, and thoughtfully organized into four main Working Packages. The research outputs have been widely disseminated through various channels, including publications, presentations at national and international conferences/workshops, and engaging invited talks. A dynamic seminar series has been initiated to continually promote project-relevant research, hosting two informative public seminars. Additionally, the project has facilitated a productive Seed workshop on July 15, 2022, and a stimulating international conference on June 19-20, 2023. APCG also achieved numerous milestones as part of our comprehensive dissemination plan. Notably, we successfully organized three exhibitions in prominent locations: Dundee, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. Additionally, we made our events accessible to a wider audience through live streams. To expand our outreach further, we launched the APCG podcast in both Arabic and English languages.

In October 2023, Ahmed Sheir and Muhammad Imran Khan submitted a proposal for a special issue focusing on the social and cultural aspects of Arabic poetry from the Cairo Genizah. The proposal was accepted, and the special issue was published online under the title “Entangled Histories and Cultures: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Premodern Mediterranean through Literary and Folk Sources”, in the journal Entangled Religions Vol. 15 No. 3. Several articles from this issue were published in an open-access journal.

In December 2024, almost all poetry fragments planned for the project have been translated into English, and a book proposal for an edited volume is being prepared for submission to Brill. The plan includes publishing the Arabic poetry fragments in a critical edition volume, co-authored by the Principal Investigator (PI) and the project’s senior researcher, Prof. Ben Outhwaite.

In collaboration with Ahmed Sheir, the PI has signed a contract with the journal Ostour for Historical Studies, Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, Doha Institute, Qatar, to serve as guest editors for a special issue, titled: “Between the Marginalized of History and the Forgotten of Literature in the Arabic Fragments of the Cairo Genizah”. This issue will focus on the Cairo Genizah, with particular emphasis on the Arabic poetry found within it, exploring its literary, historical, and folklore dimensions. The planned publication date is set for the first half of 2026.

Additionally, the PI and Sally Abed have proposed a special issue featuring papers from the August 2024 conference, Anthropology of Texts: Crossroads and Connections in Medieval and Early Modern Societies and Cultures, highlighting anthropological aspects in Arabic poetry fragments.

In the past 18 months, major dissemination milestones included exhibitions in Madrid (Sept 2023–March 2024), Washington, D.C. (Nov 4–6, 2023), and Dublin (Aug 1–2, 2024), alongside continued podcast episodes and social media updates.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Publications: the PI will publish one monograph on the Arabic poetry in the Cairo Genizah from a literary perspective. The PI will also produce two volumes of the edition of the Cairo Genizah Arabic poetry, in which Dr Benjamin Outhwaite will be a co-author. The series will introduce the collection of the poetry fragments with transcriptions and English translation.

Postdocs A and B will produce an edited volume monograph based on selected papers given at an international conference about the historical study of the Arabic poetry collection in the Cairo Genizah in Year 3.

With the help of the PI, postdoc C will edit a Special Issue based on selected papers given at an international conference, organized as part of the project in Year 4. The Special Issue will include papers that deal with anthropological analysis of Arabic literary texts found in Jewish sources more widely.

A series of at least ten articles (2 articles by each academic team member) will be published during the period of the project. These articles will cover various areas of research: linguistic and literary studies, Semitic and Jewish studies, history and anthropology.

Twitter page

APCG Website

Publication

Webpage

Index

Facebook page