Additional Astrological Almanacs from the Cairo Geniza

The present group of astrological almanacs from the Cairo Geniza supplements the group that we previously published, and suggests or confirms certain conclusions concerning this genre. Among thousands of documents from the Geniza that have been examined there are found almanacs of this type only for the period from 1132 to 1158; they seem, then, to have been produced, in accordance with the statement of al-MaqrizT concerning the founding of the Cairo Observatory in 1120, by the scholars of that institution on the basis of Ibn Yfinus' ZTj al-IHjkimT. While presumably originally published in Arabic script, Hebrew transcriptions were made and used by the Jewish community. The religious festivals referred to in these almanacs are Christian or Muslim, but never Jewish; and the correlations of the Muslim calendar recorded in them are to the Coptic, Persian, Syrian, and Roman calendars, but not to the Jewish. These facts support the hypothesis that the almanacs were produced outside the Jewish community. The lack of any duplicates among the documents suggests that just one individual in the Jewish community obtained these almanacs for his own use between 1130 and 1160. They may be as informative, therefore, about the interest of the general population of Cairo in the form of catarchic astrology represented in these almanacs as they are about the interests of the Jewish community

Archaeology · Genizah · Historical and Architectural Studies · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History

• Astronomy and the Jewish Community in Early Islam

  Bernard R Goldstein•Aleph•2001

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• Saadia's Introduction to Daniel

  Haggai Ben-Shammai•Aleph•2004

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