What the Genizah holds and what the book lists name
The diagram uses the 22 top-level fields of the Friedberg Genizah Project and the same colours as the tables. The left side counts surviving fragments. The right side counts how often works of each field are named in the 114 book lists, using the suggested classes.
Friedberg measure shelf numbers units
Share of each field: Genizah fragments on the left, book-list mentions on the right A band that widens to the right is a field the lists name more than the Genizah preserves; one that narrows is preserved more than it is named.
Talmud and halakha: fragments in the Genizah against works named in the lists
This view keeps only two Friedberg fields, rabbinic literature and halakhic literature with Talmud commentary, and breaks them into their sub-fields. Halakha is split one level further, so that Alfasi, the Geonim and the Mishneh Torah show separately. Percentages are shares within these two fields, not of the whole Genizah or of all mentions.
Friedberg measure shelf numbers units
Share of each field: Genizah fragments on the left, book-list mentions on the right A band that widens to the right is a field the lists name more than the Genizah preserves; one that narrows is preserved more than it is named. Sub-field Friedberg Book lists
No. Index entry Type Field Sub-field Sub-sub-field Conf. Lists Refs Attributed to References (list: lines)
Cross-references
Note
No. Shelfmark Type of list Description in the book's contents
Page Date: book contents Date: Princeton Geniza Project Date: inferred Place: book contents
Place: Princeton Geniza Project
Place: inferred
Entries Refs Princeton Geniza Project description
Close
How entries were classed
Every class here is a suggestion made from general knowledge of medieval Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic literature. Nothing was checked against the book lists themselves.
Procedure
Each index line was read whole: headword, Hebrew gloss, attributed author, the notes inside the references, and any cross-reference.
The 3,365 lines were classed in six batches under one written set of conventions, then merged and harmonised.
Two decisions per line: what kind of thing it is, and, for works, which FGP category fits.
Type of entry
work A title, a genre, or a text: a biblical book, a tractate, "commentary on X", "responsa". Always classed.
author A name that stands for an author with no specific work. Classed only when the author's output falls in one field (Galen, Hayyuj); left blank for authors who span several (Saadia, Maimonides, Ibn Ghiyyat).
person Owner, buyer, seller, scribe, official, relative, biblical figure. Not classed.
object/term Binding, quire, volume, copy, paper, script, Torah ornaments, measures. Not classed.
place/group Not classed.
other Unclear lines, and three wrapped lines that continue the entry above them.
Choosing the category
The deepest category that can be justified is used, never a parent when a child fits.
When the sub-class is simply unknown, the entry goes to that level's "not defined" residue (לא הוגדר ), as FGP itself does.
A parent with no sub-field is used only when one entry spans several children, for example a tractate whose references mix Mishnah, Bavli and Yerushalmi copies.
תחום לא נקבע is kept for works whose subject is opaque (58 entries).Non-Jewish scientific and philosophical works are classed by subject, not as דתות אחרות . That field holds only religious texts such as the Quran.
Confidence
H Title or author well known and the class unambiguous (1,463).
M Probable (812).
L A guess: unidentified title, or two fields equally defensible (332).
Conventions by field
Bible. A book or parasha name alone, codices and targum are מקרא ותרגומים . A תפסיר , שרח or פירוש of a biblical book is פרשנות מקרא . Saadia's Tafsir on a book is commentary at confidence M, since translation and commentary travel together.Rabbinic literature. A tractate name alone has no sub-field, unless a note says Mishnah or Talmud. Classical midrash (Rabbah, Tanhuma, Mekhilta, Sifra) is מדרש ; later midrash, sermons and homilies are מדרש מאוחר ודרשות .Commentary. On a tractate: פירושי תלמוד בבלי . On the Mishnah: פירושי משנה .Halakha by author. Saadia; Shmuel ben Hofni; Alfasi and his commentators; other Geonim and geonic codes (Hai, Sherira, Halakhot Gedolot, Halakhot Pesukot, She'iltot); Mishneh Torah; Rishonim (Ibn Ghiyyat, Hananel, Nissim); Karaite law. Unknown authorship goes to the residue.Commandments and responsa. Books of commandments are ספרי מצות whoever wrote them. Responsa are split Geonim, Rishonim, Karaite, unknown. Introductions to the Talmud and works of method are מבואות לתלמוד .Thought. Kalam (Saadia's Amanat, al-Muqammis, Yusuf al-Basir); philosophy, Aristotelian or Neoplatonic where known; logic; ethics; Sufi; theology.Sciences and occult. Medicine, pharmacology, astronomy, mathematics and the calendar are מדעים . Astrology, magic, dream interpretation and geomancy are חכמת הנסתר .Language. Grammar, lexicography, masorah, vocalisation, and all glossaries (אלפאט' ) whatever text they gloss.Liturgy and poetry. Prayer books and the Haggadah are תפילה וברכות ; piyyut, selihot, kinot and azharot are פיוט ; diwans are שירת חול ; tales, maqamat and adab are סיפורת וספרות יפה .Other. Polemics; chronicles and geography; Sefer Yetzira and its commentaries under קבלה ; letters and lists as genres under מסמכים .
Cross-references
A "see" entry is classed as what its own headword denotes.
When a pure "see" entry points to exactly one work and the two classes differed, the target's class was taken (32 entries). The note column records the earlier class.
Harmonised after merging
Glossaries moved to חכמת הלשון (33 entries).
Books of commandments by Saadia and Shmuel ben Hofni moved from halakha to ספרי מצות (2 entries).
One tractate (גיטין ) aligned with the tractate rule.
Known inconsistencies
Ibn Ghiyyat's Siraj is halakha under its title but tractate commentary under פירוש headwords.
Polemical halakha (the fat-tail, the Sabbath lamp, Rabbanite and Karaite disputes) is split between פולמוס and הלכה on thin evidence.
Prosody and poetics sit partly in חכמת הלשון and partly in שירת חול .
מעמד is classed as piyyut; prayer is defensible.Other works of Shmuel ben Hofni that are theological rather than legal vary between kalam and his halakha category.
There is no FGP slot for commentary on midrash; those entries are low confidence.