A SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF JUDAEO-PERSIANMANUSCRIPTS

VERA BASCH MOREEN

T H E field of Judaeo-Persian studies is still underdeveloped, as most Judaeo-Persian textscontinue to lie buried in uncatalogued collections of manuscripts scattered throughoutthe world. Although their importance was already recognized at the end of the nineteenthcentury,^ and despite the fact that they constitute one of the largest untapped groups ofJewish vernacular texts in Hebrew characters, Judaeo-Persian texts continue to be littleknown and studied. Significant numbers of Judaeo-Persian manuscripts can be found inmajor European libraries, such as the British Library (formerly the British MuseumLibrary), the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the library of the Institute of OrientalStudies and the Russian National Library (formerly the Saltykov-Shchedrin Library),both at St Petersburg. The largest collections are those of the Jewish National andUniversity Library and the library of the Ben Zvi Institute, both in Jerusalem, thelibrary of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, and the Klau Libraryof Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati. It is also known that many Judaeo-Persianmanuscripts are still privately owned in and outside Iran; some of these continue totrickle into the libraries just mentioned.^

The British Library's manuscripts in Judaeo-Persian, or containing some text in thislanguage, acquired from various sources, were first described in several catalogues andstudies by G. Margoliouth and others at the end of the nineteenth century and thebeginning of the twentieth. Special mention must be made of the Judaeo-Persianfragment, a mercantile document, discovered at the turn of the century by Sir AurelStein at Dandan-Uilik, in East Turkestan, in the region of Khotan (Sinkiang). Thisfragment. Or. MS. 8212, has been the subject of some scholarly attention; dated byD. S. Margoliouth as circa A. D. 718, it is the earliest Judaeo-Persian manuscript inexistence. A few more Judaeo-Persian manuscripts were added to the Museum'scollection 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 orientalistA. S. Yahuda. Some Judaeo-Persian Genizah fragments. Or. MS. 5557(z), of much laterdate, 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 twentymanuscripts from the collection of Moses Gaster. In 1966, the late curator of Hebrewmanuscripts, Dr Joseph Rosenwasser, published a short but comprehensive catalogue,

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jfudaeo-Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, providing brief descriptive notes ontorty-five items containing more than seventy-five different texts, previously inaccessiblein a single bibliographic tool.^

On a recent visit to the British Library, I had occasion to examine ten manuscripts notdescribed by Rosenwasser, acquired after his time, and to prepare the followingsupplement to his compilation.* As can be seen, most of these manuscripts are of latedate, from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Pride of place among thembelongs 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 loveliestexamples of Judaeo-Persian manuscript illumination. The contents of most of the othermanuscripts, some of them donated by the Valmadonna Trust in London, can be foundin many other copies. It may be noted that two of the manuscripts. Or. MSS. 13189 andi4595> are on blue and greenish paper, respectively, such as is often to be encounteredin 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 beenidentified: the famous manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, perhaps the most ancient of theearly codices. Or. MS. 4445. Although the manuscript itself is said to be of the earlytenth century, the gloss in Judaeo-Persian, written in the space between Exodus 7:22and 8:1, is in a later hand.^ The second item, not related directly to the subject ofJudaeo-Persian, but of some marginal interest on account of its script, is a leatherfragment containing Pahlavi text in Aramaic characters. Or. MS. 8115. It is the onlyPahlavi 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. Bluepaper. 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 thePentateuch.^** Containing the story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar, thissection is based on the weekly reading [parashah]' Va-yeshev\ and can oftenbe found copied separately in Judaeo-Persian manuscripts" bearing the titleYilsuf 0 Zulaykhd, the title of Muslim epics on this theme.^ ^ (CfRosenwasser, Or. 10773.) Colophon on f io8r: copied by Babaib. ha-MuUaRahamim...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 seventeenthcentury. 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

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(ff. ir-6iv). (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. MSS. 4731, 4732, 4744, 10196,10711.) Imperfect. (2) An incomplete text of Hikdyat-i an seh Yahudiydn-itdjir ['The story of Solomon and the Three Merchants']^^ (ff. 62r-62v).(Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. MSS. 4731, 4744, 10196, 10711). Embossed leatherbinding 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 illuminatedJudaeo-Persian manuscripts known, it contains seven large illuminatedpages and numerous smaller page designs. Fine calligraphy throughout; thehands of several copyists are discernible. Ff. 145V, i46r, 159V list names ofvarious owners. There is no colophon, but the owner on f. 159V notes thathe received the manuscript on i Nisan 5499, corresponding to 9 March1739. (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. MSS. 2453, 4731, 10774.) First two leavesbadly 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 Sassooncollection, at the Sotheby's sale in Zurich, November 1975. See D. S.Sassoon, Ohel David (Ohel Dawid): Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew andSamaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London (Oxford, 1932), vol.i, pp. 473-6, no. 614 [Kitab Shahin]; the catalogue of the Sotheby's saleprepared by Ch. Abramsky, Catalogue of Thirty-eight Highly ImportantHebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts from the collection formed by the lateDavid Solomon Sassoon (Zurich, 1975), lot no. 34; [David Goldstein],Hebrew Manuscripts from the Sassoon Collection [British Library exhibitionnotes] (London, 1982), no. 8 (with reproduction off. 31V). The manuscriptand its illuminations are discussed in V. B. Moreen, Miniature Paintings inJudaeo-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 theBible, compiled in 1459^^ (ff. 1-269V). (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. 10482, whichmay 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 theSeleucid 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 Sassooncollection, 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

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sale prepared by Ch. Abramsky, Catalogue of [A Further] Thirty-threeHighly Important Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts from the collectionformed 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-Persianprose (ff. ir-2ov). (Cf. Rosenwasser, Or. 4731.) Imperfect at beginningbut complete at end. Colophon on f. 2ov: copied by Jacob Kohen Sa*irJoseph...on Friday, 23 Tevet 5649 [1889]. (2) Parashat ' Va-yeshev' byShahin of Shiraz (ff. 2ir-94r). (Cf Or. 13190, above.) In the same hand asthe previous text in this manuscript. Colophon indicates 1889 as the year ofthe 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 damagedbut still legible, restored. Colophon on f i68v: copied by Jacob b. MullaBakhshi Sa'ir Joseph for Babai b. ha-MuUa Imam LarT, on Tuesday, in themonth 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 bythe British Library.^ ** (4) Kitab Haidar Beg (ff. I7ir-i9ov). Imperfect atend. 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. thestory of Jumjumah in Judaeo-Persian verse^^ (ff. ir-9v). (2) Mundjdt-ndmahMusah ['Book of Devotions', on Moses], in Judaeo-Persian verse by'Attar"^ (ff. 9v-i5r). (3) Tafstr in Judaeo-Persian of verse beginning ''Dodiyarad [le-ganoY (ff. I5v-24r). Colophon on f 24r: copied by RahamimJacob 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: RahamimJacob Kohen. (7) Persian-Malay vocabulary (list of numbers: satu, du'ah,tigah, hampah, nimah, etc.) in Hebrew characters (ff, 33r-48r). This is theonly 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'. Onf. 4or a shopkeeper's advertisement for tailoring and women's hat-makingin 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 isa remarkable linguistic melange, containing text in five languages and inthree 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.

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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-Persianepic 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" theJudaeo-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 andJudaeo-Persian strophes (ff. i i6r-i32r). Colophon on f. i32r pertains to thelast 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'sazharah, 'Shemor libi...'^^ (ff. 2v-i iv) . (3) Tafsir-i azharot by Benjamin b.Misha'el (nom de plume AmTna), a Judaeo-Persian translation/commentarybased on Solomon Ibn Gabirol's azharah, 'Shemor libi...' (ff. I2v-i5r).Calligraphy changes on f 13V. (4) ' Re shut azharot' of R. David b. EleazarBakudah, a poem in Hebrew; Azharot of Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Hebrewstrophes 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 ''Dodiyarad le-gano\ a mystical messianic dialogue between God and Israel basedon the Song of Songs (ff. ir-ior). (Cf Or. 13914, above.) (2) Two Judaeo-Persian quatrains (unclear whether original, or Judaeo-Persian copies ofPersian quatrains), of unknown authorship (f ior). (3) Tafsir oVYigdaV (ff.iov-riv). (4) Judaeo-Persian translation of a poem, from Zemirot Yisra'elby Israel Najara (ff. iiv-i2r). (5) Mundjdt-ndmah ['Book of Prayers'],containing a famous mukhammas by Amlna^^ (ff. I2r-i8r). (6) AnotherMundjdt-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),

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pp. 199-203, and his numerous subsequentpubhcations on the subject; and the pioneeringbibliographic survey by the English bibliophileE. N. Adler, Ginze Paras u-Madai: The PersianJews, Their Liturgy and Ritual (London, 1899[offprinted from Jewish Quarterly Review, \]),reflecting the contents of Adler's private col-lection, which passed to the library of the JewishTheological Seminary, New York.

The body of research on Judaeo-Persianlanguage and literature has grown considerablyin this century. For general surveys and biblio-graphies, see W. Bacher's entries on 'Judaeo-Persian' and 'Judaeo-Persian Literature' in TheJewish Encyclopedia, vol. vii (New York andLondon, 1904), pp. 313-24 (based in large parton the Adler collection), and more recentlyW. J. Fischel,' Israel in Iran (A Survey of Judeo-Persian Literature)', in L. Finkelstein (ed.). TheJews: Their History, Culture, and Religion (NewYork, 1949), pp. 1149-90; idem, 'Judeo-PersianLiterature', Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. x (Jeru-salem, 1972), cols. 432-9 (the bibliography lists,inter alia, catalogues recording Judaeo-Persianmanuscripts); and idem, 'Judaeo-Persian-Literature', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. iv(1974), pp. 308-13. A classified bibliography ofsecondary literature on Judaeo-Persian remains adesideratum.

2 There is still no detailed union catalogue ofJudaeo-Persian manuscripts. Manuscripts in thislanguage have usually been recorded togetherwith Hebrew manuscripts in the catalogues ofHebrew libraries or collections, and are oftenfound scattered, sometimes virtually hidden,within these catalogues. There is, however, aseparate section on 'Judaeo-Persian', bringingtogether brief records for manuscripts in thislanguage held in libraries around the world, inthe Collective Catalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts(Paris, 1989, on microfiche). The CollectiveCatalogue records the extensive, if still incom-plete, holdings of the Institute of MicrofilmedHebrew Manuscripts at the Jewish National andUniversity Library (JNUL), Jerusalem.

The most important recent single-librarycatalogues of Judaeo-Persian manuscripts per seare those by E. Spicehandler, 'A DescriptiveList of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts at the KlauLibrary of the Hebrew Union College', Studiesin Bibliography and Booklore, viii (Cincinnati,1968), pp. 114-36; J. Rosenwasser, Judaeo-

Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum, oif-printed (with additional indexes of persons andtitles) from G. M. Meredith-Owens, Handlist ofPersian Manuscripts, i8g5-ig66 (London, 1968),pp. 38-44; and A. Netzer, Otsar kitve ha-yadshel yehude paras be-makhon Ben Tsevi [Manu-scripts of the Jews of Persia in the Ben ZviInstitute] Jerusalem, 1985). (In the presentsupplementary list that follows here, thesethree standard catalogues are cited as Spice-handler, Rosenwasser, and Netzer.) Dr E. Wustis currently preparing a catalogue of theJudaeo-Persian manuscripts held in the JNULitself, and the present writer has been engagedto catalogue those housed at the library ofthe Jewish Theological Seminary, New York.The core of this latter collection, to whichother manuscripts have been added over theyears, consists of those purchased by E. N.Adler; see Adler's Catalogue of Hebrew Manu-scripts in the Collection of Elk an Nathan Adler(Cambridge, 1921), as well as his earlier GinzeParas.

3 Eight manuscripts containing Judaeo-Persiantext, acquired from the antiquarian Shapira,were first listed briefly by H. Derenbourg in'Les Manuscrits judaiques entres au BritishMuseum de 1867 a 1890 [nos. Or. 11 to Or.4117]', Revue des e'tudes juives, xxiii (Paris, 1891),pp. 279-80 (Judaeo-Persian MSS. Or. 2451-2456, 24592460). These manuscripts were alsoincluded in the catalogue by G. Margoliouth,Descriptive List of the Hebrew and SamaritanManuscripts in the British Museum "fLondon,1893), pp. II , 21, 42, 69, 72, and 85. A furthereight manuscripts acquired from S. A. J.Churchill, a diplomat in Teheran, were de-scribed by the same Margoliouth in 'PersianHebrew Manuscripts in the British Museum',Jewish Quarterly Review, vii (1894/5), pp.119-20 (Or. MSS. 4729-4732 and 4742-4745).Two of these. Or. 4743 and Or. 4745, beingHebrew-character transcriptions of Muslimworks, were included by C. Rieu in hisSupplement to the Catalogue of the PersianManuscripts in the British Museum (London,1895; reprinted 1977), p. 156, no. 230, and pp.179-80, no. 272 (cf also the preface, p. vi). Oneof the Churchill manuscripts. Or. 4742, and alater acquisition. Or. 5446, were described insome detail by M. Seligsohn in the firstinstalment of his 'The Hebrew Persian Manu-

scripts of the British Museum', J^BJI^A QuarterlyReview, xv (1903), pp. 278-301.

On the ancient fragment Or. 8212, see D. S.Margoliouth, 'An Early Judaeo-Persian Docu-ment from Khotan, in the Stein Collection, withother early Persian Documents', with an in-troductory note by M. A. Stein, and communi-cations from W. Bacher, A. E. Cowley, and J.Wiesner, iu Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society(1903), pp. 735~6o; K. Salemann, 'Po povoduyevreisko-persidskago otrivka iz Khotana',Zapiski vostochnago otdeleniia, xvi (St Petersburg,1904-5), pp. 046-057; M. A. Stein, 'A Judaeo-Persian Document', in his Ancient Khotan:Detailed Report of Archaeological Explorations inGhinese Turkestan (Oxford, 1907), vol. i, pp.306-9, and in the same volume a reprint ofMargoliouth's article, here entitled ' The Judaeo-Persian Document from Dandan-Uilik', pp.570-4, and a facsimile of the fragment in vol. ii,plate cxix; B. Utas, 'The Jewish-Persian Frag-ment from Dandan-Uilik \ Orientalia Suecana,xvii (1968), pp. 123-6 (with reference also tofurther publications by W. B. Henning and M.Kashgari); and most recently G. Lazard, 'Rem-arques sur le fragment judeo-persan de Dandan-Uiliq', Acta Iranica, xxviii (Leiden, 1988), pp.205-9. D- S. Margoliouth's dating of A.D. 7r8 isno longer accepted, but it is agreed that thefragment is eighth-century. A reproduction ofthe fragment also appears in the EncyclopaediaJudaica (Jerusalem, 1972), vol. xi, col. 905.

All of the Judaeo-Persian manuscriptsacquired by the British Museum during the firstthird of the present century, with the exceptionof those in the Gaster Collection, were describedin much greater detail by G. Margoliouth in theGatalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manu-scripts in the British Museum (London, 1899-1935; reprinted 1965-77), with indexes and'Supplementary List of Manuscripts' by J.Leveen in vol. iv, esp. pp. 119-20 under'Liturgy: Yemenite and Persian Rites', and p.133 under 'Poetry: Persian (in the Hebrewcharacter)'; see Leveen's introduction in thesame volume, p. ix, and supplementary nos. Or.8695 and Or. 9804. On the palaeography of fourof the Judaeo-Persian manuscripts, with fac-simile plates, see the two volumes ofS. Birnbaum, The Hebrew Scripts (London andLeiden, 1954-71), nos. 208 (Add. 7701), 211(Or. 8212), 212 (Or. 5446), and 214 (Or. 4729).

The manuscript acquired from A. S. Yahuda,Or. 8659 (not recorded in Margoliouth-Leveen)- it is one of the earliest Judaeo-Persian manu-scripts, apparently older than Or. 5446, thePentateuch translation dated A.D. 1319-hasbeen edited and studied by D. N. MacKenzie,'An Early Jewish-Persian Argument', Bulletin of'the School of Oriental and African Studies, xxxi(1968), pp. 249-69; see also J. P. Asmussen,Jewish-Persian Texts: Introduction, Selection, andGlossary (Wiesbaden, 1968), pp. 6-7 (alsoproviding specimens and notes on two otherBritish Library manuscripts. Or. 4742 and Or.8695)-

The Gaster manuscripts were described inGaster's own handlist (nos. 69, 75, 77, 94,774-82, 936-7, 1081-2, 1084, and 1281), and inthe typescript catalogue of the British Library'sGaster Collection prepared by N. Allony andD. S. Loewinger for the Institute of MicrofilmedHebrew Manuscripts, Reshimat tatslume kitveha-yad ha-ivriyim be-makhon: K.h.y. be-sifriyatha-Muzey'um ha-briti, osef Gaster Jerusalem,i960) (see under 'Judaeo-Persian' in the 'Indexof Languages'). All of the Judaeo-Persianmanuscripts in the British Library (formerlyBritish Museum) are recorded in the Institute'sGollective Gatalogue of Hebrew Manuscripts(Paris, 1989), in various sequences ('London,Gaster Collection', 'Judaeo-Persian', etc).RosenwusseT's Judaeo-Persian Manuscripts in theBritish Museum is the most concise guide to all ofthese manuscripts, including those in the Gastercollection, up to Or. MS. 12191.

4 I am indebted to Brad Sabin Hill for bringingthese manuscripts to my attention and for hisassistance in the redaction of this article, and toMrs Devora Coutts for kindly providing dimen-sions of these manuscripts for inclusion in thesupplementary list.

5 Cf. the colour reproductions of very similartinted papers of Judaeo-Persian manuscriptsheld in the National Library of Canada, in B. S.Hill, Incunabula, Hebraica & Judaica (Ottawa,1981), p. 135, nos. 130 and 150.

6 [EDITOR'S NOTE: One should also mention heretwo manuscripts once thought to contain Judaeo-Persian, which have been excluded from the listsof Judaeo-Persian manuscripts. Or. 10254(Codex Gaster no. 1400), incorrectly identifiedby Allony and Loewinger (op. cit., no. 345, andin the 'Index of Languages') as Judaeo-Persian,

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is entirely in Hebrew. Or. 12352 (Codex Gasterno. 388), comprised of pizmonim or piyutim by*Asahel bar Hanukah of Daghestan, includes onff. 7r-7v a bilmgual hymn with strophes alternat-ing between Hebrew and a vernacular in Hebrewcharacters. Although Allony and Loewinger (op.cit., no. 1070, and in the 'Index of Languages')describe the language as 'perhaps Persian(?)' or'Dagestani' [sic], it has been correctly identifiedas a Turkic dialect close to Azeri; the firstvernacular strophe reads: 'gelun gidakh t daklarusde goz alakh i yollar usde belki gele David bizebelki gele Farnas bize.' The manuscript (iof,22.6 X 18.6 cm.) was probably copied in theeighteenth century somewhere in the Caucasus.Cf. Meredith-Owens's typescript. TemporaryHandlist of Turkish MSS. i888~igs8, p. 46 (asingle entry under 'Judaeo-Turkish', listing thismanuscript). There are a few other instances ofJudaeo-Turkic texts, or Turkish in Hebrewcharacters, among the Hebrew manuscripts inthe British Library; see for example Margo-liouth, vol. iii, p. 367, no. 1037 (describing Add.i5455i containing two short pieces on the plaguein Turkish, and a Hebrew-Turkish vocabulary).

In this context, one may call attention to oneother British Library manuscript in an Islamiclanguage, Urdu - a language very influenced byPersian - likewise written in Hebrew characters.This is Or. 13287, fully illustrated in Indianstyle, containing the text of the popular nine-teenth-century drama by Agha Hasan Amanatknown as Indra Sabha ( 'The Court of Indra').The entire manuscript is in Urdu (written inHebrew characters), except for the abbreviatedHebrew invocation, and the colophon in Judaeo-Arabic indicating its completion in Calcutta in1887. (A Hebrew-character lithograph of theUrdu drama, printed in Calcutta in 1880, hassurvived in two incomplete copies, one held inthe Sassoon collection, Jerusalem, and the otherin the Valmadonna Trust, London.)

A unique instance of another Islamic langu-age, Malay, written in Hebrew characters, isdescribed in the supplementary list of Judaeo-Persian manuscripts, under Or. 13914.]

7 On this gloss, see now A. Dotan, 'Reflectionstowards a critical edition of Pentateuch CodexOr. 4445', in E. Fernandez Tejero and M. T.Ortega Monasterio (eds.), Estudios Masoreticos:X Congreso de la lOMS [en Memoria de HarryM. Orlinsky] (Madrid, 1993) [Textos y estudios

'Cardenal Cisneros' de la Biblia Poliglota Matri-tense, Iv], pp. 49-50. Margoliouth, vol. i, p. 39,had already remarked that the owner's note inJudaeo-Persian on f. i86v is no longer legible.

8 On this fragment, see A. Cowley, *The Pahlavidocument from k\xom^n\ Journal of the RoyalAsiatic Society (1919), pp. 147-54, ^^^ also LeMonde oriental, xvii (1923), p. 182. The papyruscollection of the British Museum also holds a fewPahlavi fragments in Aramaic script. On thePahlavi script, deriving from the official Aramaicof the Achaemenian empire, see D. N. Mac-Kenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary (London,1971), pp. x-xii.

9 Individual and collected tales are common inJudaeo-Persian manuscript collections. See, forexample, Netzer, Otsar, index, under sipurim u-ma'asiyot, and Spicehandler, 'A DescriptiveList', index, under Sefer ma'asiyot.

10 This epic is frequently referred to as SeferSharh-i Shahtn 'at ha-Torah ['The Book ofShahin's commentaries on the Torah'], a titlebestowed upon it by Simon Hakham, whoprepared an uncritical edition of the workpublished in Jerusalem, 1902-5.

11 Cf. Netzer, Otsar, index, under Yusuf ve-Zulaykhd, and Spicehandler, 'A DescriptiveList', index, under Shdhln.

12 The most famous Muslim treatment of thissubject is that of the Persian poet 'Abd-ur-Rahman Jam! (d. 1492).

13 Intimating that either he or his family came fromthe city of Lar, one of the major centres for thecopying and transmission of JudaeO-Persianmanuscripts; see Fischel, 'Israel in Iran', p.II59-

14 I am indebted to Gilad Gevaryahu's help for theaccurate reading of the dates in this andsubsequent colophons.

15 Cf. the edition by A. M. Habermann, Ben ha-melekh ve-ha-nazir (Tel Aviv, 1950). There arenumerous copies of this epic in all Judaeo-Persian manuscript collections; see Netzer,Otsar, index, under Shdhzddah 0 Sufi, andSpicehandler,' A Descriptive List', index, underShd[h]zdda Sufi [sic].

16 Explicitly written in the metre of Firdausl's (d.c. 1020-5) Shdh-ndmah, the national epic of Iran.This popular tale can be found in numerousJudaeo-Persian manuscripts.

17 Since the publication of this book anotherilluminated Fath-ndmah was found at the Ben

Zvi Institute, Jerusalem (see Netzer, Otsar,p. 175, MS. no. 4602, and plates 3-12),which seems to date from the seventeenthcentury, and appears to be the iconographicprecursor of Or. 13704. There exist quite a fewcopies of Fath-ndmah; see Netzer, Otsar, andSpicehandler, 'A Descriptive List', index, underFath-ndmah.

18 See Bacher's articles, cited in n. i. According toSassoon (then followed by Goldstein) the lexicalwork contained in this manuscript is to beascribed to Solomon b. Samuel of Urgenj(Central Asia), manuscripts of whose fourteenth-century Sefer ha-melitsah are also held in theFirkovich and Adler collections. On these twolexicographical works, the Agron and the Seferha-melitsah, see Bacher, 'Judaeo-Persian Litera-ture' in The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. vii (1904),p. 319; Fischel, 'Judisch-Persisch-Literatur',in Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. ix (Berlin, 1932),cols. 562-3; and idem, 'Israel in Iran', p. 1160.On Solomon b. Samuel, see Fischel's entry inEncyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1972), vol. xv,col. 125.

19 See Netzer, Otsar, index, under Ben Sir a,and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive List', index,under Alfa Beta de-Ben Sira. See also Jes P.Asmussen, 'Eine judisch-persische Ubersetzungdes Ben Sira-Alphabets', in J. Bergman et al.(eds.), Ex orbe religionum: Studia Geo Widengren...oblata (Leiden, 1972), vol. i, pp. 144-55. ^^Or. 4731, see A. E. Cowley and A. Neubauer,The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus{xxxix. 15-xUx. Il) (Oxford, 1897), pp. xv andxxix.

20 Most curiously, it is followed on f. 170V by a'colour transfer' of a North American Indianchief in full head-dress (!); this leaf may, too,have come from the beginning or end of (part of)the volume.

21 This is another tale frequently found in Judaeo-Persian manuscripts and is to be attributed,according to Jes P. Asmussen, to the greatPersian poet Farldudin *At:tar (d. 1220). SeeNetzer, Otsar, p. 194, manuscript listed undernun 3, and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive List',index, under [Hikdyat-i] Sultdn Jumjume. Ashort fragment of the tale is transliterated byAsmussen in his Jewish-Persian Texts (Wies-baden, 1968), pp. 27-8. He translates the entiretext, basing his translations on manuscriptsadditional to those mentioned above, in his

Studies in Judeo-Persian Literature (Leiden,1973), PP- 76-87.

22 This munajdt genre, comparable to the Hebrewbakashah, is frequently used by Persian andJudaeo-Persian authors. Cf. Netzer, Otsar,p. 185, MSS. under bet 50, and Spicehandler,'A Descriptive List', index, under Munajdt-ndmah.

23 Several such poems are in Spicehandler, 'ADescriptive List', e.g. p. 127, MS. 2171.

24 This unique manuscript, described as 'Malayvocabulary in Hebrew characters', has also beenfilmed in the series of Microfilms of AlalayManuscripts from The British Library, Orientaland India Office Collections, presented by theBritish Council, Brunei Darussalam, 1992, filmno. 0 / C Pos. 310/A.

25 I am indebted to Mrs Dipali Ghosh for herassistance in reading the text on this leaf.

26 As such it reflects the very cosmopolitanexperience of Jewish merchants in South-EastAsia at the turn of this century. On Jews inMalay-speaking territory, see E. Nathan, TheHistory of the Jews in Singapore, i8jo-ig45(Singapore, 1986), and the review by D. Lom-bard, with further references, in Archipel, xxxviii(Paris, 1989), pp. 143-4.

27 See other copies of the poem listed in Netzer,Otsar, MS. 1023, ff. 9r-iov; MS. 1049, ff.42v-45r; MS. 4550, ff. r2v-i4v; and MS. 4592,ff. ir4r.

28 For more poems by this poet, see Netzer, Otsar,Index of Poets, p. 214, and Spicehandler, 'ADescriptive List', p. 124, MS. 2153.

29 See Netzer, Otsar, MS. 967, ff. ir-i07v; MS.994, ff. 52v-95r; MS. 1003, ff. 7ir-98v; andSpicehandler,' A Descriptive List', index, under'Joseph b. Isaac b. Musa'.

30 Najara's poems were particularly loved byIranian Jewry. All manuscript collectionsabound in Hebrew texts of the poems andJudaeo-Persian translations/commentaries. Itmay well be that these manuscripts containhitherto unknown poems by Najara. See Netzer,Otsar, and Spicehandler, 'A Descriptive List',index, under ' Najara \

31 This is a much loved poem among Iranian Jews;cf. the numerous manuscripts of it listed inNetzer, Otsar, p. 213, shin, 20.

32 Cf Netzer, Otsar, p. 201, alef 49.33 Cf. above, n. 22. Some of the best Judaeo-

Persian poets, such as 'ImranT and Benjamin b.

79

Misha'el('Amm5')(d. mid-eighteenth century) yahudiydn-i Iran ['An Anthology of Persianhave 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.

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