Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Medieval Jewish manuscripts discovered in Afghanistan

Over 150 medieval Jewish documents have been discovered in Afghanistan. The works were found, purportedly by shepherds looking for sheep, in the mountains of Samangan province, which lies along the Silk Road trade route.

The manuscripts were written in the eleventh century and written in Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian. They included an unknown history of the Kingdom of Judea, passages from the Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah; hitherto unknown works by the tenth-century sage Rabbi Sa’adia Gaon; personal poems of loss and mourning and even bookkeeping records by a Jewish merchant.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net