Oxford, Bodleian MS. Heb. f. 34/40

Bodleian Library (Oxford, United Kingdom)

(Other)

Fragments from a copy of a letter.

Paper

Black (carbon based)

Calamus

No ruling can be seen

20

11th Century CE

The surviving copy of the letter dates to the 11th century, while the original letter was written in March/April 953.

Pumbedita

al-Andalus, Jerusalem

Orient

Hebrew

Letter

Fragments from a copy of a letter. The writer is a person from Pumbedita (which belongs to a family of several Gaons) to a person in Spain, might be Hasdai b. Shaprut. The copy from the 11th century. Original letter from March/April 953. The letter contains important details about the connections with Spain (Sefarad/al-Andalus in l. 18), as well as about main figures in the Iraqi yeshiva. Mentions the exilarch – Shelomo b. Yishay.

No vowels or accents

990053470270205171

https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/manuscripts/hebrew-manuscripts/itempage?vid=KTIV&scope=KTIV&docId=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS990053470270205171&SearchTxt=heb.%20f%2034.40,AND (Date accessed: 2025-12-17)

Moshe Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael‎ (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv University, 1997), vol. 2.

Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/5626/ (accessed December 17, 2025).