Madad: Cataloging Collections from the Cairo Geniza

Research Challenge

With this project, we are exploring how the many-to-many data model for fragments that supports the Princeton Geniza Project can be extended for a larger collection of fragments, and generalized to support varying amounts of detail.

Collaborative Origins

The Princeton Geniza Project software and data model enabled scholars in Geniza studies to organize, transcribe, search, and connect across the vast collection of documentary fragments from the Cairo Geniza. That project focused on the approximately 40,000 “letters, legal deeds, lists, accounts, state documents and other everyday writings and ephemera” found within the geniza. Those documents, however, are only the tip of the iceberg of the geniza collection. 90% of the 400,000 documents and fragments are long-form literary works, focused on “liturgy, Hebrew Bible, rabbinic literature, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, astrology, Jewish law, lexicography, poetry and theology.” These documents are spread across libraries and collections around the world and cataloged with varying degrees of completeness and consistency.

In support of the Madad Project, led by the Princeton Geniza Lab Co-Director Eve Krakowski, the CDH will be expanding the PGP software to support the team in the work of collecting and standardizing metadata for the larger collection of geniza documents.